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Formula E is on track financially, with NYC race coming up

LONDON - Formula E could be breaking even already were it not investing for the future, chief executive Alejandro Agag said on Monday after the electric motor racing series reported continuing losses in its latest annual accounts. Accounts filed at Companies House showed Formula E Operations Ltd reduced its operating loss to 33.7 million euros ($38.32 million) at end-July 2016, a period covering its second season, from a previous 62.7 million. Net liabilities rose to 107.2 million euros from 72.1 million, while total revenues reached 56.6 million from a previous 19.7 million. "Everything is going according to plan," Agag, whose city-based series will be racing in New York for the first time on July 15 and 16, told Reuters in an interview at his London offices. "Actually we are doing incredibly well financially according to our plan. "We could have broken even this year but we decided to invest more in marketing and promotion. We decided to add races like the one in New York, which is in year one a race which is costing, we have significant capital expenditure." "It's really up to us when we want to go to break even or not. We could be in break-even now, we could be in break-even next season but we may decide to invest more in marketing and promotion." Agag said the shareholders, including John Malone's Liberty Global and Discovery Communications, were supportive of the strategy and the series had attracted more investors, sponsors and car manufacturers. The New York races will be held in Brooklyn's Red hook neighborhood, with lower Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty as a backdrop with technology partner Qualcomm securing the naming rights. MANUFACTURER INTEREST Agag, whose series plays down competition with Liberty Media-owned Formula One, said more carmakers were set to join a series increasingly aligned with their commercial focus. "I think Formula E has become the preferred destination for manufacturers and there are a few reasons for that," said the Spaniard. "Obviously, one is that it is electric and manufacturers are more and more focusing on electric cars...and we are the only platform really to help them promote that technology and those types of cars. "And second, because of the cost. The cost of the team in Formula E is very moderate." Whereas top Formula One teams can burn through $300 million a year, as can the likes of Toyota in the World Endurance Championship, the budgets of successful Formula E teams are between 10 and 15 million.

Audi, Jag, Kia and Tesla top Strategic Vision 2014 Total Quality Index

A couple weeks ago, J.D. Power released its latest Initial Quality Study, which gave high marks to Porsche, Hyundai and General Motors, with the latter earning more individual IQS awards than any other manufacturer. Now, it's Strategic Vision's turn, and it's doling out its praise not to Porsche, but to Tesla, which wasn't even included in the JD Power IQS.
The Model S was named the best vehicle overall in total quality, while Porsche's corporate brother and endurance-racing rival, Audi, was named the best premium brand, alongside Jaguar. Strategic Vision cited the Q5 and the ancient Q7 for individual segment awards, as well as the A5, which was a mere point off the top of its segment. SV also handed out compliments for the Audi's interior work. The win for the German brand is a nice improvement over its IQS score, with which it landed above the industry average, but solidly mid-pack.
Jaguar was without a segment winner, although SV did say that the Indian-owned English brand had a number of vehicles very near the top of their segments. This is the second significant win for Jag in two weeks, after it finished second overall on the JD Power IQS a few weeks ago.

1956 DKW Audi electric van beautifully restored

These days, electric vehicles that make commercial deliveries aren't entirely rare. UPS has a small fleet in California, and at least 5,000 Renault Kangoo Z.E. models are in use by France's national postal service. But the history of this concept is much older. In fact, one of the companies represented by Audi's four rings had an example about 60 years ago. Audi Tradition just completed a full restoration of this blue 1956 DKW Elektro-Wagen to add to the company's collection of historic vehicles. It's quite a rare find because only two are still known to exist. Audi estimates that DKW built about 100 of these electric vans between 1955 and 1962, and they were primarily sold to energy companies, public utilities and battery makers. To create the EV model, DKW took its normal Schnellaster delivery van and replaced the model's two-stroke engine with an electric drivetrain. The vans weren't exactly speedy, though. The motor produced about 6.7 horsepower and lead-acid batteries offered 200 amp hours of power running at 80 volts. It gave the Elektro-Wagen a claimed range of about 50 miles and a 25 mile-per-hour top speed. Following the restoration, Audi took van to the island of Wangerooge in the North Sea to show it off. The location is perfect, too, because vehicles with internal combustion engines are banned on the island. If you can read German, feel free to find out more in the press release below. „DKW Elektro-Wagen" zu Audi heimgekehrt Einen von zwei verbliebenen DKW Elektro Schnellaster restauriert Klein-Bus einst auf der Nordseeinsel Wangerooge im Einsatz Audi Tradition prasentiert einen aussergewohnlichen Neuzugang in seiner historischen Sammlung: einen „DKW Elektro-Wagen" von 1956. Zwischen 1955 und 1962 produzierte die Auto Union GmbH in Ingolstadt DKW Schnellaster – etwa 100 davon als Elektro-Automobile, die das Unternehmen vor allem an Energieunternehmen, Stadtwerke oder Batteriehersteller verkaufte. Bei dem nun nach aufwandiger Restauration „heimgekehrten" Elektro-Schnellaster handelt es sich um ein besonderes Exponat: Der DKW fuhr auf der Nordseeinsel Wangerooge, wo Automobile mit Verbrennungsmotoren verboten sind. Normalerweise war der DKW Schnellaster mit einem Zweitaktmotor ausgestattet - der „Elektro-Wagen" hingegen mit einem funf Kilowatt (kw) leistenden Reihenschluss-Motor. Die seitlich in zwei Kasten gelagerten Bleibatterien hatten eine Nennspannung von 80 Volt und eine Kapazitat von 200 Amperestunden (AH).