08 Beluga 6l W12 Convertible *mulliner Specification *piano Black Veneer *low Mi on 2040-cars

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Audi's Project Artemis woes could delay range of VW Group EVs

Two years ago, Audi's then new CEO Markus Duesmann announced his first big initiative called Project Artemis. The plan's marquee component is "to implement a new lighthouse project for Audi in record time," being "a highly efficient electric car scheduled to be on the road as early as 2024" on a brand new platform that would be shared with Porsche and Bentley. An ex-VW and -Porsche man named Alex Hitzinger, who'd also spent time at Apple working on the tech company's electric car, was brought on board to lead Project Artemis and come up with new ideas. Parent Volkswagen Group said it wanted to become "as agile as in a racing team," removing the bureaucratic molasses and bottlenecks interfering with getting the best product on the road in the best time. However, in any grand venture, failure comes before success. Automobilwoche reports that Artemis is struggling through issues large enough to push the product plans back by years. The issue, as it was with the ID.3 lineup on the eve of that car's launch, is software. Well, that's the latest, largest problem; Artemis has already been through copious struggles before getting to the software bit. Two months after Hitzinger came on, in December 2020, VW raised its EV volume target from 50% to 70% by 2030. That necessitated a rethink of the VW Group's entire platform strategy considering the far greater production scale. Hitzinger only lasted six months in the job, ousted in May 2021, supposedly because Audi believed his ideas were "not suitable for profitable series production" among other reasons. By that time, the pace of software development was already said to be six months behind schedule, with the Car.Software division working on VW.OS 2.0 "not yet running at the speed hoped for." Internal frictions were noteworthy and costly as well. VW's commercial division plant in Hanover was meant to build Artemis vehicles for Audi, Porsche and Bentley, but Automobilwoche reported in January of this year that Porsche paid a ""small three-digit million amount" — like $100 million or so — to get out of the deal mandating its vehicles come from the Hanover facility.    So Audi effectively brought Artemis in-house to lead vehicle development, and Car.Software turned into Cariad to get VW.OS and VW.AC, which stands for Automotive Cloud, to market.  The first Audi vehicle under Project Artemis was planned to arrive by the end of 2024, a production version of the Grandsphere concept.

Watch 14 hot rides take over concept car lawn at Pebble Beach

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an annual celebration of the beautiful, old cars that grace Monterey Car Week. But Monterey – and Pebble – features lots of newer metal, too, and that includes the concept lawn at Pebble Beach. Now, "concept lawn" isn't a totally accurate name anymore, and you'll see why in the list below. This year especially, plenty of production cars can be found in the area once reserved for the conceptual. Still, we're happy to see them. Here's what's featured this year: Alfa Romeo 4C Spider Audi R8 BAC Mono Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 BMW 3.0 CSL Hommage R Buick Avenir Galpin-Fisker Rocket Speedster Hyundai HCD-16 Vision G Coupe Icona Volcano Infiniti Q60 Lamborghini Asterion LPI 910-4 Maserati Ghibli McLaren 570S Rolls-Royce Wraith By our count, that's seven concepts out of fourteen cars. But it still makes for one hot group of metal. Check 'em out in the gallery above. Related Video: Related Gallery 2015 Pebble Beach Concept Car Lawn View 38 Photos Image Credit: Copyright 2015 Drew Phillips / AOL Design/Style Alfa Romeo Audi Bentley Buick Infiniti Lamborghini Lincoln McLaren Porsche Concept Cars Videos Original Video Pebble Beach

Bentley previews another limited-edition W12-powered model

Bentley's Mulliner division renewed ties with its coachbuilding past when it unveiled a limited-edition roadster named Bacalar in 2020. The entire production run was quickly spoken for, showing that there's a demand for small-batch models, and the next car is around the corner. The preview images released by the British brand intentionally make it difficult to tell precisely what we're looking at. One shows what we think is a tonneau cover, which all but confirms the next low-volume Bentley is a convertible, and the other shows a back end with a ducktail-like spoiler and horizontal lights. The company also released a short preview video which suggests that there's some degree of resemblance linking the upcoming car to the Batur, which was unveiled in 2022 to preview a new design language. The front end features a similar look. Bentley's next limited-edition model View 3 Photos Are we looking at a topless Batur? It's not unfathomable, but nothing is official at this stage. If we are, designers seemingly gave the roadster a specific rear-end design. What's certain is that Mulliner again prepared a two-door sports car; this isn't an SUV or a sedan. Bentley's twin-turbocharged W12 engine hasn't reached the end of the line yet. Whatever we're looking at, it's powered by what the firm calls the most powerful version of the 12-cylinder. The last car to make this claim is the Batur, whose W12 developed 730 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. It's unclear whether the Batur and the new car will share bragging rights or if the upcoming model will be even more powerful. Regardless, it'll be one of the last cars powered by the W12, according to Bentley. It's not the last, however; there's more coming. Production will be limited to 16 units globally, and each one will presumably come with a base price pegged above the seven-digit threshold before customization options enter the equation. Bentley will unveil the mysterious model on May 7, so more details should emerge soon. Related video: Our Bentley Continental GT First Edition is here | Behind the Wheel S01 // E05