on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Editors' Choice: Top Five 2015 Frankfurt Motor Show Debuts

Consider the 2015-16 auto show season officially kicked off. The Frankfurt Motor Show offered a great look at the newest crop of production cars and conceptual machines, and brought some old favorites back into the spotlight for a closer look. (The Alfa Romeo Giulia, for example, debuted in June, but this was the first time most of us saw it.) Now that the dust has settled and we're all on flights back to the US, our editors cast their votes for their personal favorites from the Frankfurt show. These are the cars we truly loved seeing the most. But unlike other shows, there was no one runaway winner – all of the Top Five received positive praise from our team. We won't spoil the results, though. Scroll down to see what we liked most from this year's Frankfurt expo. 5th Place – MERCEDES-BENZ IAA CONCEPT View 12 Photos MIKE AUSTIN: The clean lines on this concept have me excited for a more elegant beauty to future Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Next to the Concept IAA, the lovely S-Class Coupe looks like an overstyled barge. DAVID GLUCKMAN: Yeah, the extendable rear is neat and all, but I'm more interested in the front-end styling of this one. It looks like the Tron version of a 300SL, in a good way. I'm hopeful it portends the future of Mercedes design. STEVEN EWING: I was super impressed when Mercedes said that, with the rear end extended, this concept has a drag coefficient of just 0.19. That's crazy aerodynamic. I'm not head-over-heels about the styling, but I think the lessons learned from this concept are really important, and will play a huge role in the future of Mercedes' products. 4th Place – ALFA ROMEO GIULIA View 15 Photos SEYTH MIERSMA: I can hardly express how in love with this car I am. The styling feels creative, modern, and evocative, without going over the top. The proposed performance is spectacular. And the Alfa badge speaks to a legacy of romantic motoring. DAVID GLUCKMAN: Pretty Italian car makes big promises and will probably deliver on about three quarters of them. I think that will still be enough for me. JEREMY KORZENIEWSKI: I'm really intrigued by the Giulia. It looks great, sounds awesome, and I'm expecting it to have a load more character than its German rivals. I hope I'm not disappointed. 3rd Place – JAGUAR F-PACE View 15 Photos GREG MIGLIORE: It's the first SUV for Jaguar, and I think they nailed the design, capability, and electronics. It's the right car at the right time.

Jaguar I-Pace is the first electric Google Street View car

Google has built a data gathering vehicle for its Maps Street View app out of a Jaguar I-Pace. It's billed as the first electric Street View car and is currently on the prowl and mapping the city of Dublin, Ireland. The one-off vehicle will not only photograph the roads of Ireland's capital, but measure street-to-street air cleanliness and greenhouse gases as well. It's equipped with air quality sensors by Aclima that measure carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, nitric oxide, ozone, particulate matter and black carbon — all compounds that contribute to climate change when present in excess amounts. The partnership with Aclima is nothing new. Google has been equipping its more common Subaru Impreza Street View cars with the sensors since 2015. However, the Jaguar I-Pace will not contribute any emissions as it goes about its mission. The all-wheel-drive electric crossover can drive up to 246 miles (after a late 2019 software update) before a charge, and we'd wager Google won't be executing too many of Jaguar's claimed 4.5-second 0-60 sprints to cut down on that figure. Most of the Jag's 394 maximum horsepower and 512 pound-feet of torque will probably go unused. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Google & Dublin City Council Launch Innovative Partnership to Capture DublinÂ’s Air Pollution So why the I-Pace? Though the company has not said, Google's autonomous vehicle spinoff, Waymo, has used Jaguars in self-driving car research. However, Waymo was split off from the Mountain View mothership in 2016, so perhaps it's just a coincidence. For its part, Jaguar Land Rover has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2039. "We are delighted to support this project as it aligns with our own journey to becoming an electric-first business and achieving net zero carbon by 2039. Partnerships like this are one of the ways we can achieve our sustainability goals and make a positive impact on society," said Elena Allen, Project Manager for Business Development at JLR. Google and Aclima have collected over 100 million air quality data points since the project, called Google Project Air View, launched six years ago. Last year, Google made this data freely available to the scientific community. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. We answered your questions about the 2019 Jaguar I-Pace

2023 Jaguar F-Pace SVR Edition 1988 begins the brand's reset

At the end of last month, Jaguar hit the 'Delete' button on nearly ten years of Instagram posts, replacing them with three images of the Jaguar XJR-9 endurance racer that won the 1988 24 Hours of Le Mans. We made two conjectures as to what it could mean, the first being, "a limited-edition version of an existing car inspired by the XJR-9 could be around the corner." And here we have none other than a limited-edition version of an existing Jaguar, called the F-Pace SVR Edition 1988. Created by the SV Bespoke division with help from Special Vehicle Operations and the design team, this is the Jaguar's first limited edition F-Pace; the brand will make just 394 of them for global consumption, celebrating the number of laps the XJR-9 completed during its win at La Sarthe. The changes are cosmetic, sadly, which means no 7.0-liter V12 up front. The standard supercharged 5.0-liter serves here, making the standard 550 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. It looks more sinister than ever, though, hidden behind Midnight Amethyst paint and a set of 22-inch Champagne Gold forged alloy wheels. If that weren't enough to announce itself, there are also Sunset Gold Satin accents that contrast with the standard Black Package, such as the Edition 1988 badging on the fenders, leaper badge in back and tailgate script. A silver "SV Bespoke commissioning graphic" informs that each model is "One of 394." Inside, occupants find more Sunset Gold on the steering wheel, shift paddles, instrument panel and ventilated Performance Seats. They're offset by semi-aniline leather everywhere, and carbon fiber trim finishers. Jaguar mentions as well that it's incorporated what3words navigation into the Pivi Pro infotainment system. A combination of three terms identifies three-square-meter blocks (32.3 square feet) around the world, the phrase "echo.twin.papers" providing directions to the Empire State Building, for instance. The F-Pace SVR Edition 1988 starts at $111,150 after the $1,150 destination charge, a $23,400 surcharge over the base F-Pace SVR.  Now we wait to find out about our second surmise for the brand — a return to old-school competition with an endurance racing program. It's unlikely for tens of millions of reasons, but we'd love to see the cat back at that French country house with Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lamborghini and Porsche. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.