2003 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder Gt Convertible 2-door 3.0l on 2040-cars

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Why Italians are no longer buying supercars

Italy is the wound that continues to drain blood from the body financial of Italian supercar and sports car makers. The wound was opened by the country's various financial police who decided to get serious about superyacht-owning and supercar-driving tax cheats a few years ago, by noting their registrations and checking their incomes. When it was found that a rather high percentage of exotic toy owners had claimed a rather low annual income - certain business owners were found to be declaring less income than their employees - the owners began dumping their cars and prospective buyers declined to buy.
Car and Driver has a piece on how the initiative is hitting the home market the hardest. Lamborghini sold 1,302 cars worldwide in 2010, 1,602 cars in 2011 and 2,083 cars in 2012 - an excellent surge in just two years. In Italy, however, it's all about the ebb: in 2010, the year that Italian police began scouring harbors, Lamborghini sold 96 cars in Italy, the next year it sold 72, last year it sold just 60. The declines for Maserati and Ferrari are even more pronounced.
Head over to CD for the full story and the numbers. What might be most incredible isn't the cause and effect, but where the blame is being placed. A year ago the chairman of Italy's Federauto accused the government of "terrorizing potential clients," this year Luca di Montezemolo says what's happening has created "a hostile environment for ­luxury goods." Life at the top, it ain't easy.

Stellantis and LG launch joint venture for North American battery plant

Stellantis has struck a preliminary deal with battery maker LG Energy Solution (LGES) to produce battery cells and modules for North America, as the world's No. 4 automaker rolls out its 30 billion euro ($35 billion) electrification plan. Global automakers are investing billions of euros to accelerate a transition to low-emission mobility and prepare for a progressive phase-out of internal combustion engines. Stellantis and LGES's joint venture will produce battery cells and modules at a new facility with an annual capacity of 40 gigawatt hours (GWh), the two firms said on Monday. No financial details of the deal were provided. The plant is scheduled to start production by the first quarter of 2024, with groundbreaking expected in the second quarter of 2022, the companies said in their statement. Its location is under review and will be announced later. Stellantis, formed in January from the merger of Italian-American automaker Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA, has said it wants to secure more than 130 GWh of global battery capacity by 2025 and more than 260 GWh by 2030. The batteries produced under the deal will supply Stellantis' U.S., Canadian and Mexican assembly plants for installation in hybrid and fully electric vehicles, supporting its goal of e-vehicles making up more than 40% of its U.S. sales by 2030. The company, whose brands include Peugeot, Fiat, Opel and U.S. best-sellers Jeep and Ram, earlier this year announced it would invest more than 30 billion euros through 2025 on electrifying its vehicle lineup. Stellantis has said it would build three battery plants in Europe and two in North America, including at least one in the United States. Intesa Sanpaolo analyst Monica Bosio said the deal was positive, and a further step ahead in Stellantis' electrification process. It comes weeks after Stellantis and its partner TotalEnergies agreed to open up their battery cell joint venture ACC to Daimler, to expand their European sourcing of battery cells. Stellantis is also targeting more than 70% of sales in Europe to be of low-emission vehicles by 2030, and aims to make the total cost of owning an EV equal to that of a gasoline-powered model by 2026. Related video: Green Plants/Manufacturing Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Ferrari Fiat Jeep Maserati RAM Citroen Lancia Opel Peugeot Vauxhall Electric Hybrid EV batteries LG

Maserati MC20 supercar will debut in May then hit the race track

In the mid-2000s, Maserati was at the top of its game and at the top of performance car mountain with the Ferrari Enzo-based MC12. Today, Maserati isn't even in the foothills, let alone at the summit. The company is hoping to regain its credibility and status this year when it releases a new "super sports car" that we now know will be named MC20. We first caught a glimpse of the MC20, which is the spiritual successor to the MC12, in late 2019 via four murky photos of a camouflaged test mule. Judging by those photos, it seems the car will not look like any previous concept or model we've seen, which should help establish Maserati's insistence that 2020 marks the start of a new era for the company. However, test mules often have bodies and shapes that do not represent what the eventual production car will look like (the mid-engine Corvette started as this crazy Holden ute). Although it's alphanumeric, the name MC20 has some depth to it. MC stands for Maserati Corse, and 20 indicates the year 2020. But the MC12 wasn't released in 2012, so what's up? Maserati did this as a nod to its first race car, the Tipo 26, which was produced in 1926. Again, new era, back to its roots, etc.  The MC20 will have an all-new powertrain that has been developed and built by and for Maserati. It is unclear what type of powertrain the vehicle will launch with, but Maserati has confirmed the car will eventually be available as an "electrified version," just like every other Trident from here on out. A Ghibli PHEV is expected to kick things off when it arrives this spring, and we've already heard the sound Maserati's electric vehicles will make. As the MC indicates, Maserati plans to return to racing with the MC20, just as it did with the MC12. Following development in the Innovation Lab we recently featured, the MC20 will be built at the Viale Ciro Menotti plant in Modena, Italy.  The MC20 will debut at the end of May in Modena. More details to come. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.