1956 Ford F-100 on 2040-cars

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Weekly Recap: Toyota propels hydrogen fuel cells

Toyota is serious about hydrogen fuel cells, and it wants the auto industry to follow suit. The Japanese automaker said this week it's releasing 5,680 fuel cell patents from around the world, including technologies used on its upcoming sedan, the 2016 Mirai. The move is unusual, but not unprecedented, as Tesla similarly released its electric vehicle patents last year. The idea for Tesla, and now for Toyota, is to spur development of alternative propulsion. "By eliminating traditional corporate boundaries, we can speed the development of new technologies and move into the future of mobility more quickly, effectively and economically," said Bob Carter, Toyota Motor Sales senior vice president of automotive operations, in a statement. Toyota's fuel cell patents will be free to use through 2020, though patents related to producing and selling hydrogen will remain open forever. Toyota said it would like companies that use its patents to share their own hydrogen patents, but won't require it. "What Toyota's doing is really a logical move, and really a good move for the industry," Devin Lindsay, principal powertrain analyst with IHS Automotive, told Autoblog. The announcement was made at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. It comes as Toyota prepares to launch the hydrogen-powered Mirai in a limited number late this year in California. The launch will be extended to the Northeastern United States next year. Toyota also has announced plans to support networks of fueling stations in each region to try to smooth consumer adoption. The Mirai has a 300-mile range on a tank of hydrogen, and it takes about five minutes to refill. Fuel cells have been receiving increased attention recently, and Audi and Volkswagen debuted hydrogen-powered cars at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show. Honda, another proponent of the technology, also showed its updated FCV concept in November in Japan. The company, however, has delayed its fuel cell sedan a year until 2016. Like Toyota, Honda says its hydrogen-powered car will have a range of 300 miles or more. Meanwhile, Hyundai currently offers leases for fuel-cell powered Tucsons, which have a 265-mile range, in Southern California. Despite the optimism some automakers have for fuel cells, the technology still faces barriers. A lack of filling stations has long held it back, and many consumers are not familiar with the potential benefits.

Everything new at the 2019 New York International Auto Show

Transcript: Welcome to the 2019 New York Auto Show. It's the last auto show, and so far it's my favorite of the year. We have a new buggy, compact pickup and trail ready SUV from Volkswagen. Ford brought the new Escape and a new Mustang performance variant, and we have a brand new Toyota Highlander and Subaru Outback. Let's go take a look around. We're here at the New York Auto Show with the Subaru stand. Normally the Subaru stand is just some white carpet and some show lighting. This year it's like we're in a national park. It's ... Frankly, I'm from Oregon. You're from Colorado. Yeah. It's making us feel at home. And in that way what better place and what better people to introduce this Subaru Outback which is pretty much the official car of Colorado and Oregon. Yeah. You actually have to buy a Subaru before they let you move to Colorado. Now instead of climbing up there and taking a look because we've been told we can't do that we're gonna go over there and check out another one. So the exterior, not that different. No. Looks exactly like an Outback. There's actually oddly a little more black plastic trim on the outside. A little too much for me. Right. It's interesting because it kind of slowly went away from that from the beginning because in the beginning the black plastic trim kind of made it an Outback, and now they're kind of bringing it back. I guess they needed to make it more macho. Right. Right. Now we're inside. Inside it looks pretty different. Swank. It's kind of swank for an Outback which has been pretty plain. Now this is the newly available vertically gigantic touch screen here. 11.6 inches. That is massive. This is how big it is when it's turned on ... just for the viewers. Now this is the onyx trim. So with that you get the black mirrors, the black wheels. This upholstery is special to the onyx, so it's gray and black and you also have this green stitching. Yeah, I like this accent stitching. It's kind of neat. Oh there's also a little tray there. Well this is a deep bin here. You can probably fit a phone. There we go. Almost. Yeah there are two USB ports. There's an additional two in the backseat. So this thing here you pop in the cup holder and it gives you a little more space or less space. These are really big, so if you have one of those Nalgene bottles I'm guessing it's going to fit in there. One of my complaints about my Subaru that I own now which is a naturally aspirated Crosstrek is that up in the mountains. It's slow?

An amazing Group B rally car collection heads to auction

Kicking off in 1982, the Group B era spawned some of the most fearsome rally cars of all time. The technologically advanced pioneers of all-wheel drive and turbocharging defined a time when automakers had carte blanche to build machines with unrestricted power, without the burden of homologating a large number of road cars to qualify. The results were sometimes deadly, leading the FIA to ban the class after 1986. Now, a collection of seven Group B monsters is headed across the block in Paris as part of the Artcurial auction, held in partnership with France's famed Retromobile show. The show has been delayed to June, however. There's a 1985 Peugeot 205 Turbo 16, one of 20 Evo II models that helped the company achieve two championships in Group B's short run. This particular example was driven by world champion Timo Salonen at the 1986 Swedish Rally, where it finished seventh due to an oil filter seal failure. Bruno Saby subsequently drove it at the 1986 Tour de Corse and Peugeot entered it at the 1986 Acropolis Rally as well. It's still registered to Peugeot Talbot Sport and represents a French technological achievement, according to Artcurial, comparable to the Concorde or TGV train. Representing Italy are a pair of Lancias in the iconic Martini livery. The Lancia 037 helped Bel Paese clinch its only Group B victory in 1983, after a hard-fought rivalry with Audi. It's one of the few Group B cars that weren't AWD, achieving its success the old-fashioned way, through lightness and superb handling. A second Lancia, a 1986 Delta S4, was the culmination of the Italian firm's later Group B efforts and one of Saby's favorites. While Group B was no more in 1987, the S4 was the predecessor to the Delta Integrale that would dominate WRC from 1987 through 1992. While the collection also includes greats like a Ford RS200, Renault 5 Maxi Turbo, and MG Metro 6R4, the centerpiece is the Audi Quattro Sport S1. The ultimate Group B machine, it introduced all-wheel-drive and turbocharging to the sport. It also employed the wildest use of wings and air dams to generate downforce. Tunable up to 590 horsepower, it could rocket to 60 mph in about three seconds. The car offered for sale came straight from Ingolstadt, a 1988 model built for the Race of Champions of ex-Group B cars. The collection was amassed in the late 80s and early 90s, not long after Group B's dissolution.