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Recharge Wrap-up: Cezeta electric scooter, BMW's new Efficient Dynamics engines

The revived Czech motor scooter company Cezeta has revealed its retro-styled electric scooter. The Cezeta 506, which borrows its looks from the brand's scooters from the 1950s and 1960s, uses an 11-kW (about 15 hp) electric motor to propel itself and its rider to speeds of up to 68 miles per hour, making it suitable for highway use. A smartphone app allows the owner to reprogram top speed and acceleration, find charging stations, and take advantage of the bike's built-in Bluetooth speakers. See the video above, read more at Technologic Vehicles, or learn more at the Cezeta website. BMW has unveiled its newest Efficient Dynamics engines. In three- and four-cylinder, gasoline- and diesel-burning versions, the new modular powerplants share architecture and componentry. Featuring an aluminum crankcase and displacing about 0.5 liters per cylinder, the new engines are also aided by BMW's TwinPower turbocharging technology. Both the gasoline and diesel variants offer a savings of about five percent in fuel and emissions while improving performance. Learn more, including the many technical details, at Green Car Congress. Tesla is set to open its largest Supercharger stations to date, at 20 stalls apiece. In anticipation of a growing demand for charging infrastructure with the launch of the Model 3, Tesla will open one of the 20-stall stations in its hometown of Fremont, California, with the other opening in Nebbenes, Norway, not far from the EV-loving country's capital of Oslo. It's not clear when the Fremont location will open, but the Norwegian station should be up and running in August. Read more at Electrek. A new study confirms that automotive aluminum is recycled at a rate of 91 percent. According to research from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute's (WPI) Center for Resource Recovery and Recycling (funded, we should note, by the Aluminum Association), provides evidence of aluminum's sustainability in the manufacturing process. "With an eye toward reducing the nation's energy consumption, lowering carbon emissions, and increasing fuel economy," says Professor Diran Apelian of WPI's Metal Processing Institute, "this study confirms that as aluminum use continues to grow in the automotive sector it also enhances energy security and environmental protections." Read more in the press release below.

BMW is the US auto industry's leading exporter

Which automaker do you think ships the most cars out of North America, one of the Detroit Three or perhaps one of the Japanese automakers? Nope. It turns out the BMW's Spartanburg, SC, factory is the biggest automotive exporter from the continent in the United States. According to a recent profile by Bloomberg looking at the plant's 20th anniversary, Bimmer's southern ops sends out more vehicles than all of Michigan combined.
When the Spartanburg factory opened up in 1994, its success was hardly assured, largely because of South Carolina's relatively small economy at the time. However, BMW picked the site because of its proximity to East Coast shipping that made it easier to move engines and transmission in from Germany and export vehicles back to Europe, according to Bloomberg. The Bavarians clearly made the right choice.
Today, the plant has developed into an absolute powerhouse. The factory currently assembles the X3, X4, X5 and X6 and exports about 70 percent of the vehicles built there. Things are only getting better. BMW is investing $1 billion through 2016 to boost annual production from the current 300,000 units up to 450,000 and to build a new flagship crossover called X7. The expansion also adds a further 800 jobs there to take total employment up to about 8,800. Including the latest financing, BMW has put over $7.3 billion into the factory since it opened, notes Bloomberg.

AC Schnitzer's hotrod BMW 318ti remembered by MotorWeek

There are plenty of compact luxury cars available in the US today, including the Audi A3, BMW 2 Series, and Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class. In the '90s, the BMW 318ti tried to offer a similar mix of luxury at a reasonable price, but it never quite found much success in America. The 318ti looked like an E36-generation 3 Series in front but featured a stumpy liftback at the rear. The only engine available in the US was a four-cylinder. If you had the money, though, the aftermarket was ready to give you more power and more aggressive looks. AC Schnitzer dropped a bored and stroked 3.0-liter inline-six under the hood to create a pocket-sized hot rod, and MotorWeek took it for a drive. The model in this video was the promo car for AC Schnitzer's US importer, and it had every upgrade possible to show off what the German tuner's produced. Under the hood, the company installed an upgraded engine with 241 horsepower and 228 pound-feet of torque. For comparison, a US-spec M3 of the era had 240 horsepower and either 225 or 236 lb-ft, depending on the model year. AC Schnitzer also sharpened the 318ti with a suspension overhaul and short shifter. According to MotorWeek's tests, the mods got the hatchback to 60 miles per hour in 6 seconds and gave 318ti laudable handling. So much performance wasn't cheap, though. The upgrades on the promo car cost more than twice as much as the 318ti's base price. Watch this Retro Review to find out the massive amount you needed to pay to get M3 performance in a tiny package. Related Video: