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Genesis cars win accolades, offer value — so why are sales so bad?

My high-school buddy Brent Cormier was so smitten with the Genesis G80 when he saw it at an event I hosted at SXSW in 2016 he bought a used 2013 Hyundai Genesis a short time later and fell in love with the car. "It surpasses my every expectation," said Cormier, a self-described "renaissance man" who owns and runs a real estate agency with his wife Laura, is a food service executive chef and part owner of Austin-based Thin the Herd Guitars. "I was locked into Mercedes and Audi for 10 years," he added. "And felt trapped in an endless pit of maintenance costs." After owning the Genesis over the past two years — including using it as an Uber and Lyft driver to earn extra cash — Cormier learned what some frugal luxury sedan buyers and a handful of car reviewers have discovered: Genesis offers great bang for the buck compared to other premium brands and can compete with the best in terms of performance, features and comfort. Hyundai's luxury brand also earned a prominent third-party endorsement last week when for the first time Genesis topped J.D. Power's 2018 APEAL study, surpassing German luxury-performance icon Porsche. The APEAL study (which stands for Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout) "measures owners' emotional attachment and level of excitement across 77 attributes," ranging from performance to comfort, and asks nearly 68,000 owners of new 2018 models to score vehicles on a 1,000-point scale. In its second year ranked as a stand-alone brand, Genesis earned an APEAL score that bumped it up 15 points to 884 and helped push it past Porsche — and past BMW, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Volvo, Cadillac, Land Rover and Lexus, in order of ranking. Last month, Genesis also topped J.D. Power's Initial Quality Survey (IQS) for the first time this year. And both its models were awarded Top Safety Pick Plus ratings by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, among 11 Plus ratings in all for Korean vehicles. Despite high J.D. Power rankings and great reviews, Genesis U.S. sales were off 50 percent for the first six months of 2018 compared to 2017, and in June Genesis sold only 796 vehicles — the first time U.S. numbers dropped below 1,000 in a month. Part of Genesis's APEAL and IQS success can be attributed to its small product lineup: just two models, the G80 and G90 sedans, with a third, the 2019 G70, launching later this year. And while those numbers may help in J.D.

Jaguar Land Rover partners with Nvidia for vehicle electronics and software

DETROIT — Luxury automaker Jaguar Land Rover and Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia said Wednesday they will collaborate to develop the computer brains and nervous systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers launching in 2025 and beyond. The companies did not disclose financial terms of their multiyear agreement. The collaboration is a high-profile win for Nvidia Corp's effort to expand its reach in the auto industry, building on its base in gaming, artificial intelligence and high-powered chips and software used in servers. For Jaguar Land Rover Automotive, the partnership with Nvidia gives it a well-funded ally as it tries to catch up with Tesla and other luxury vehicle rivals in a digital technology arms race. "We can now accelerate our in-vehicle software," Francois Dossa, JLR's executive director for strategy, said during a conference call. Working with Nvidia engineers, Jaguar Land Rover plans to develop vehicles that can drive themselves under certain conditions, park autonomously and provide more information and software-powered features to drivers, the companies said. The new Jaguars will be upgradable — as Tesla vehicles are today. The automaker said it will use Nvidia technology to power simulations used to train autonomous vehicles. Jaguar Land Rover has a previous deal with Alphabet Inc's Waymo unit to deploy autonomous driving technology. Dossa said the Waymo collaboration was limited to the Jaguar I-PACE electric SUV. The Nvidia alliance covers all Jaguar and Land Rover models to be launched from 2025. Nvidia technology will act as the brains and the nervous system of Jaguar Land Rover vehicles starting in 2025, said Nvidia's vice president of automotive, Danny Shapiro. Nvidia last month announced deals with several Chinese electric vehicle brands. The company has said it has $8 billion in automotive business booked over the next six years. Shapiro said the company will update the figure during an investor day scheduled for March 22. Jaguar Land Rover, a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors Ltd has been struggling with rising costs and semiconductor shortages. Jaguar Land Rover reported a narrow pretax profit for the quarter ended Dec. 31, but Tata Motors reported a larger quarterly loss than expected. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Jaguar Land Rover Technology Autonomous Vehicles nvidia

Kahn and Evanta team up for hot-rod Defender, custom Barchetta

If you're familiar with the work of Afzal Kahn, it's probably for his tuned Range Rovers. And if you live in London, you may have seen his Bugatti Veyron with the F1 license plate. But the British tuner and self-styled "automotive fashion designer" is now embarking on a far more ambitious project. Kahn is teaming up with Ant Anstead of Evanta fame – responsible for rebodying Aston Martin DB7s to look like DB4 GTs and that full-scale DBR1/2 model kit – on a new outfit called Ant-Kahn. Far more than a tuning endeavor, Ant-Kahm is setting about creating truly unique (and uniquely British) automobiles. Their first project is called the Flying Huntsman, a long-nose Land Rover Defender that we imagine will emerge as something like a British take on the 1998 Jeepster concept crossed with something Icon might concoct. It'll pack a 6.2-liter GM LS3 V8 producing 550 horsepower, mated to a push-button six-speed automatic transmission, mounted close to the bulkhead with over 15 inches of extra bodywork and set to be unveiled within the coming months. Their second collaboration is set to yield the Evanta Barchetta previewed by rendering above. "Inspired by the design language of 1950s motorsport," the Barchetta pays homage to classic British and Italian roadsters. It's being built around a tubular frame with handcrafted composite Kevlar bodywork and powered by that same LS3 tuned to 450 hp but in a much lighter form than the Flying Hunstman. Only 20 examples will be made after its debut at the Goodwood Revival come September. An Aston Martin project codenamed WB12 is also in the works, painting a picture of an ambitious startup backed by two experienced operators whose projects we're looking forward to seeing come to fruition. Ant-Kahn – The birth of a groundbreaking collaboration between two leading figures in the UK automotive industry. Ant-Kahn is a collaborative partnership between Afzal Kahn - innovative automotive fashion designer and founder of the Kahn group of companies, and Ant Anstead, founder of expert vehicle manufacturer Evanta, and star of Channel 4's "For The Love of Cars". Working together under the Ant-Kahn banner, they will lead a resurgence in British specialist vehicle manufacture, with a number of projects already underway. Their focus is on luxury and quality, using modern prototyping and manufacturing technology, while maintaining the attention to details associated with traditional coach building.