2000 Mercedes-benz Ml320 Base Sport Utility 4-door 3.2l Great Condition!! on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The hottest modern sports cars rendered as rally racers

The modern-day World Rally Championship a monumental amount of fun to watch – I should know, as I recently was lucky enough to head to the UK to watch WRC Wales Rally GB – but even the most monstrous of the current WRC cars are based on fairly pedestrian European hatchbacks. Back in the heyday of rally, the Group B era in the 1980s, much hotter cars were the basis of even more incredible competition machines, for the most part. Take the exotic Ford RS200, or the Lancia Delta S4 with its twin-charged engine. And the hatchback-based Group B cars were bonkers, too. So what would some of our favorite modern cars look like if Group B had never ended? A British site named CarWow hired an artist to reimagine everything from the Rolls-Royce Wraith to the Porsche 911 as a retro-inspired rally car, and they were kind enough to let us share the results in the gallery above. The gallery features an Alfa Romeo Giulia in Martini livery, an Audi TT in classic Ur-Quattro colors, a Fiat 500 Abarth sporting massive flares and a hood blister full of auxiliary lights, a new Ford Mustang in RS200 livery, a Lancia Delta in Alitalia colors, a Porsche 911 in Rothmans livery, a Renault-Alpine in classic blue, a Rolls-Royce Wraith tribute to the Jules cologne Corniche Coupe, and a relatively modern-looking VW Touran. So far, the favorite around the office is the incredible Mercedes-Benz S-Class that is an homage to the wonderful 300 SEL 6.8 AMG "Red Pig" that essentially put AMG on the map. Check out the gallery above and see which one you like the best. Related Video:

Volvo, Daimler, Traton join forces to build electric truck charging network

Volvo Group, Daimler Truck and Volkswagen's AG heavy-truck business the Traton Group announced on Monday a non-binding agreement to build a network of high-performance public charging stations for electric heavy-duty long-haul trucks and buses around Europe. The news was first reported by Reuters. The three major European automakers will invest ˆ500 million (~$593 million USD) to install and operate 1,700 charging points in strategic locations and close to highways. They intend to finalize the agreement by the end of this year and start operations next year, with the hopes of increasing the number of charge points significantly as the companies seek additional partners for the future joint venture. The venture is meant to be a catalyst to prepare for the European Union's goals of carbon-neutral freight transportation by 2050. One of the main deterrents for both individuals and freight companies for switching to EVs has historically been a lack of charging infrastructure. By building that infrastructure, Volvo, Daimler and Traton can also expect to boost their own sales of electric trucks and buses. “It is the joint aim of EuropeÂ’s truck manufacturers to achieve climate neutrality by 2050," Martin Daum, CEO Daimler Truck, said in a statement.  "However, it is vital that building up the right infrastructure goes hand in hand with putting CO2-neutral trucks on the road. Together with Volvo Group and the Traton Group, we are therefore very excited to take this pioneering step to establish a high-performance charging network across Europe.” The partnership between Volvo and Daimler isn't unprecedented. In May, the two competitors teamed up to produce hydrogen fuel cells for long-haul trucks to lower development costs and boost production volumes. This latest venture is another signal that major companies are banding together to solve climate-related issues in the industry. European car industry association ACEA has called for up to 50,000 high-performance charging points by 2030. Traton CEO Matthias Gruendler told Reuters that roughly 10 billion euros would be needed to build out Europe's infrastructure to be fully electrified by 2050. According to a statement released by Volvo, this venture is also a call to action for others with a stake in the industry, like automakers or governments, to work together to ensure the rapid expansion needed to reach climate goals.

Mercedes-Benz engines with 48-volt systems coming in 2017

As part of a big green push announced yesterday, Mercedes-Benz is jumping into the world of 48-volt power. The company will launch a new family of efficient gasoline engines next year and will begin rolling out 48-volt systems with it, likely in its more expensive cars first. Mercedes will use the 48-volt systems to power mild-hybrid functions like energy recuperation (commonly called brake regeneration), engine stop-start, electric boost, and even moving a car from a stop on electric power alone. These features will be enabled through either an integrated starter-generator (Mercedes abbreviates it ISG) or a belt-driven generator (RSG). (RSG is from the German word for belt-driven generator, Riemenstartergeneratoren. That's your language lesson for the day.) Mercedes didn't offer many other details on the new family of engines. There are 48-volt systems already in production; Audi's three-compressor SQ7 engine uses an electric supercharger run by a 48-volt system, and there's a new SQ5 diesel on the horizon that will use a similar setup with the medium-voltage system. Electric superchargers require a lot of juice, which can be fed by either a supercapacitor or batteries in a 48-volt system. Why 48-volt Matters: Current hybrid and battery-electric vehicles make use of very high voltages in their batteries, motors, and the wiring that connects them, usually around 200 to 600 volts. The high voltage gives them enough power to move a big vehicle, but it also creates safety issues. The way to mitigate those safety issues is with added equipment, and that increases both cost and weight. You can see where this is going. By switching to a 48-volt system, the high-voltage issues go away and the electrical architecture benefits from four times the voltage of a normal vehicle system and uses the same current, providing four times the power. The electrical architecture will cost more than a 12-volt system but less than the complex and more dangerous systems in current electrified vehicles. The added cost makes sense now because automakers are running out of ways to wisely spend money for efficiency gains. Cars can retain a cheaper 12-volt battery for lower-power accessories and run the high-draw systems on the 48-volt circuit. The industry is moving toward 48-volt power, with the SAE working on a standard for the systems and Delphi claiming a 10-percent increase in fuel economy for cars that make the switch.