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Toyota Prius remains best-selling vehicle in California, wireless charging tests underway

About one in every nine new cars in the US are sold in the California. If we're just looking at the four Toyota Prius hybrid variants, then the number becomes closer to one in three. Tesla Model S battery-electric vehicle sales? Try one in 2.7. For the second straight year, the Prius was the best-selling car in the Golden State. Toyota sold 69,728 Priuses there, almost a third of the more than 234,000 sold in the US in 2013. Prius sales in California alone were up almost 13 percent. And Toyota's ready to build upon that momentum with a new version of the Prius Plug-in Hybrid, saying that it's testing a wireless recharging system in Japan's Aichi Prefecture and will start similar tirals stateside later this year. We'll make the wild prediction that some of those tests, which involves magnetic resonance, will be in California. Meanwhile, Tesla's numbers were, in their own way, were more impressive. The California-based automaker sold 8,347 of its Model S units in the Golden State out of about 22,300 nationwide in 2012, Bloomberg News reports. In all, advanced-powertrain vehicles accounted for 9.3 percent of California new-vehicle sales, compared to 3.8 percent for the country, Bloomberg says, citing Hybrid Cars and Baum & Associates. Check out Toyota's press release on its California sales below. Prius Medals In The Golden State Toyota Prius is best-selling vehicle line in California Wireless charging testing for Prius Plug-in TORRANCE, Calif., Feb. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Prius took home the gold in 2013 as the most popular vehicle-line in California for the second year in a row. The Prius Family (Prius Liftback, Prius v, Prius c and Prius Plug-in) took the podium in both 2012 and 2013 as the best-selling California vehicle name plate. 69,728 drivers hit the road in 2013, according to the California Auto Outlook Report, while 61,893 Californians joined the family in 2012. In the Golden State, the Prius Family outsells all other hybrid competitors combined. California drivers lead the country in adoption of vehicles powered, either wholly or partially, by electricity. 9.3% of vehicles sold in the state run on some form of electricity, according to the report. But despite the growing number of hybrid competitors, Toyota's hybrid leadership remains unmatched. In fact, one out of every two hybrids in California carries the Prius name plate.

The 11 best scenes from the 2015 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Over the last three days, the Goodwood Estate has played home to the eponymous Festival of Speed. Thrown by the biggest gearhead in the British aristocracy – Charles Gordon-Lennox, the Earl of March and Kinrara – the Festival of Speed is essentially a tremendous, gasoline-fuelled party, complete with a very large lawn sculpture, that features the world's hottest, weirdest, fastest, and loudest race, production, and historic models. While there are quite literally dozens and dozens of videos from the event – not to mention the full-day replays (of which only day one is available, at present) – we've sifted through them to pluck away the very best. There's stuff from the official Goodwood YouTube channel, as well as several videos from automakers and other third-party channels, and it's all available below. 2015 Ford Mustang GT350R Looks Barely Controllable If you thought the highest-performance Ford Mustang would somehow get more tractable or civilized once it moved to an independent rear suspension, this video shows you have nothing to worry about. Watch as an unnamed driver wrestles the new Shelby GT350R and its flat-plane, 5.2-liter V8 up the hillclimb circuit. Even with the new suspension and sticky tires, this Mustang wants to go any direction but straight, especially following its launch. 2016 Ford Focus RS, Is Very Loud, Blue Ken Block makes his first appearance on our list. Before he steps into his Hoonicorn Mustang, though, the Gymkhana expert tackled the hill in the all-new Focus RS. The vicious bellow of the 2.3-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder is the star of this commentary-free video, although the gorgeous Nitrous Blue paint job is a nice accompaniment, as well. 1965 Ford Mustang Hoonicorn Runs Hill, Nearly Kills Lord March Mr. Block's two runs behind the wheel of the Hoonicorn were, unsurprisingly, very eventful. While one attempt goes off without a hitch, seeing the American rally driver slip and slide his way to the top of the hill while taking a short break for a donut, the other is slightly more dramatic. Block, along with Lord March in the passenger seat, carries a bit too aggressive an angle into a turn and nearly puts the NASCAR-powered Mustang into the hay bales. Check out the first video above, and the second one below. Kimi Raikkonen Makes Us Miss F1's V8 Era The latest Formula One cars have been maligned for the lackluster noise produced by the new 1.6-liter, turbocharged V6.

BMW, Toyota warn about Chinese market slowing down

BMW and Toyota are the latest automakers to become concerned about the closing throttle on the once rapidly accelerating vehicle market in China. There might be drastic effects on their ledgers at the end of the year. With the Chinese stock market no longer looking so healthy, the people just aren't buying as many new cars as in the past. Things got really bad in June after the first drop in deliveries in two years. BMW has already reduced Chinese production by 16,000 units so far this year. Despite the slowdown, the company has kept a brave face. "We experience that volatility in all emerging markets," BMW CEO Harald Krueger said in a conference call, according to Automotive News. The problem for Toyota is a bit stranger. Through July, the automaker's Chinese deliveries were actually up 12 percent. However, the gain was offset by falling sales prices. "This is making our business in China quite difficult. The business environment is getting tougher," Toyota Managing Officer Tetsuya Otake said, Automotive News reported. Much of the weakness in China has come in the middle part of the year, and from January through June deliveries were still up 8.4 percent. This means the effects haven't hit the financial results of some automakers too hard quite yet. In the second quarter, General Motors referenced the "challenging conditions" there but still posted a growing net income of $1.1 billion. Despite falling global sales, Toyota managed record income for the quarter, too.