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Two Ferrari LaFerraris are for sale in Dubai

You can rest assured that a disproportionate share LaFerrari production run headed to the United Arab Emirates. Of those, two examples of which are now listed for sale in Dubai alone on Dubicars.com. Both of them are red, which is no surprise. The first, pictured in the image gallery above, is a brand-new 2014 model for sale at the emirate's famed dealership Al Ain Class Motors. The 2014 model is listed with zero miles on the odometer, though we'd be surprised if it hadn't racked up at least a few delivery and test miles. All it will cost you is a small matter of 11,000 Emirati Dirham, which works out to a hair under $3 million at current exchange rates. GTR Motors hasn't listed how much it wants for this second example depicted in the video below. But you can bet that – even with 398 kilometers (or 247 miles) on the clock – this 2015 example will still command a significant premium over the $1.35 million the factory charged for these hybrid hypercars when they were new. If you can scrape together the cash for either, you'll be getting arguably the ultimate Ferrari road car to date, packing a 6.3-liter V12 hybrid powertrain good for 950 horsepower and a 2.5-second 0-60 time. The factory in Maranello only built 499 of them, so finding one – let alone two – up for grabs is a bit of a rarity. Of course if this particular Prancing Horse isn't your cup of tea, there's plenty of other enticing machinery on offer, including a McLaren P1, Koenigsegg CCX, three Porsche 918 Spyders, and a handful of Bugatti Veyrons. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Featured Gallery 2014 Ferrari LaFerrari for sale in Dubai View 14 Photos News Source: Al Ain Class Motors, GTR Motors via Dubicars.com Auto News Green Ferrari Coupe Hybrid Supercars dubai ferrari laferrari laferrari

EV cost burden pushing automakers to their limits, says Stellantis' CEO Tavares

DETROIT — Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said external pressure on automakers to quickly shift to electric vehicles potentially threatens jobs and vehicle quality as producers struggle with EVs' higher costs. Governments and investors want car manufacturers to speed up the transition to electric vehicles, but the costs are "beyond the limits" of what the auto industry can sustain, Tavares said in an interview at the Reuters Next conference released Wednesday. "What has been decided is to impose on the automotive industry electrification that brings 50% additional costs against a conventional vehicle," he said. "There is no way we can transfer 50% of additional costs to the final consumer because most parts of the middle class will not be able to pay." Automakers could charge higher prices and sell fewer cars, or accept lower profit margins, Tavares said. Those paths both lead to cutbacks. Union leaders in Europe and North America have warned tens of thousands of jobs could be lost. Automakers need time for testing and ensuring that new technology will work, Tavares said. Pushing to speed that process up "is just going to be counter productive. It will lead to quality problems. It will lead to all sorts of problems," he said. Tavares said Stellantis is aiming to avoid cuts by boosting productivity at a pace far faster than industry norm. "Over the next five years we have to digest 10% productivity a year ... in an industry which is used to delivering 2 to 3% productivity" improvement, he said. "The future will tell us who is going to be able to digest this, and who will fail," Tavares said. "We are putting the industry on the limits." Electric vehicle costs are expected to fall, and analysts project that battery electric vehicles and combustion vehicles could reach cost parity during the second half of this decade. Like other automakers that earn profits from combustion vehicles, Stellantis is under pressure from both establishment automakers such as GM, Ford, VW and Hyundai, as well as start-ups such as Tesla and Rivian. The latter electric vehicle companies are far smaller in terms of vehicle sales and employment. But investors have given Tesla and Rivian higher market valuations than the owner of the highly profitable Jeep and Ram brands. That investor pressure is compounded by government policies aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The European Union, California and other jurisdictions have set goals to end sales of combustion vehicles by 2035.

Ferrari steering wheel may hold key to rocket F1 starts

Ferrari's brilliant getaways at the Australian Grand Prix were key to its early victory challenge – and could well be the result of a unique approach to new start restrictions that Giorgio Piola has uncovered. Although Mercedes locked out the front row of the grid in Melbourne, it was a sensational getaway from Sebastian Vettel that helped the German swoop into the lead by the first corner. As team boss Maurizio Arrivabene said: "The start was super. I have to say both of the drivers, they start like two rockets. After that they were able to take an advantage, and that was good for us." Such great starts from Ferrari are nothing new – just look at Hungary last year – but as Piola's exclusive drawing reveals, the team may well have taken things to an all-new level in ensuring it does not miss any detail in this area. In-built advantage As early as pre-season testing, rivals had been alerted about what Ferrari was capable of by monitoring data from Barcelona. Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: "We saw that in pre-season testing their starts have been really strong." Even ahead of the race, there were rumours that Ferrari knew it would excel in this area. Its decision to not do a second run in Melbourne's Q3 was mainly fuelled by its desire to save a set of super soft tyres for the race. But another suggestion also emerged – that the team knew just how good its starts were so securing the second row of the grid was good enough for it to believe it had a shout of the lead on the first lap. A single paddle As Piola's comparison of Ferrari's 2015 and 2016 steering wheel arrangement shows, the team has been the most aggressive in changing its clutch configuration for this year. New rules mean that drivers can only use a single hand on a single clutch paddle for the race start – even if teams choose to keep a double-paddle arrangement for emergencies. Ferrari has opted for something totally different to its main rivals by abandoning a double paddle arrangement (see red arrows on above left image). Instead, it has a single 'rocker' paddle that stretches all the way across the back of the wheel. Investing in such a dramatic design change clearly points to it having unlocked a decent performance advantage. The exact reasons for this configuration are unclear, but it may be that it allows the driver a greater feel for the clutch bite point – and means he is better able to judge how to deliver the perfect getaway.