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Lexus NX, BMW i3 to get Super Bowl commercials

At this point last year, we'd been getting news on automotive-focused Super Bowl commercials for more than two months. The teasers hadn't come out yet, but manufacturers lined up for the super-expensive spots were making their intentions known. This year? Almost nada, until this week. BMW has said it will air a 60-second spot promoting the i3 during the first quarter of the game, the Munich firm returning to The Big Game after a four-year absence. BMW says, "Big ideas like the BMW i3 take a little getting used to, and the creative idea surrounding our spot will play on this analogy." We say that pitching a tiny range-extended hatchback during the beer-iest American sports orgy of the year should make for some neat commentary afterward. Lexus is putting its new NX crossover in the second Super Bowl commercial it's ever aired, eschewing the glitter of celebrities and glamor for a straight-shooting spot and the tagline, "Be seen, be heard, make some noise." Joining those two are Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan and Toyota. The six confirmed carmakers are down from eleven last year, when car spots made up a quarter of the total ad time. The price to do business for 30 seconds this year: reportedly around $4.5 million, up a stacks from last year's $4 million. You can watch the Lexus commercial in the video above, and beneath that, the BMW press release below has a bit more information on its effort. BMW to Advertise All-Electric BMW i3 during Super Bowl XLIX. The all-electric BMW i3 is featured in a 60-second spot during Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, February 1, 2015. Woodcliff Lake, NJ – January 15, 2015... Today, BMW announced plans to feature the all-electric BMW i3 in a 60-second spot during Super Bowl XLIX on Sunday, February 1, 2015. After a 4-year hiatus, BMW will be returning to the big game with a commercial during the first quarter. "As one in three Americans will tune in to watch the Super Bowl, we are thrilled to use this platform to educate viewers on the importance of electric mobility," said Trudy Hardy, Vice President of Marketing, BMW of North America. "Big ideas like the BMW i3 take a little getting used to, and the creative idea surrounding our spot will play on this analogy." BMW i is BMW's forward-looking and sustainable brand dedicated to solving many of the mobility challenges faced by the world's most densely populated cities. The BMW i3 is the first of the BMW i vehicles constructed from the ground up primarily of carbon fiber.

TMG Lexus LS Sports 650 destined for production after 2015?

There's little question that Lexus has succeeded in challenging its German rivals in the luxury marketplace. And with the LFA, it has proven that Japan can build a world-class supercar. What's left blank is the space in between.
Toyota Motorsport GmbH came up with a compelling answer in the form of the Sports 650 prototype, a Lexus LS with a 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 producing 641 horsepower and other go-fast components to challenge the likes of the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG and Audi S8. Toyota boss Akio Toyoda was reportedly so impressed with the project that he initially ordered TMG to build ten examples - one for him and each of his nine best friends. But since the model on which the project was based has since been replaced, questions remain over the project's fate.
Georg Kacher - European correspondent for Automobile and Car magazines - recently drove the prototype and reports that "the project will now likely be transferred to the new model out in 2015." That could come down purely to speculation, but Kacher tends to get the inside line on industry news, so this particular bowl of gossip soup might not requite the usual grain of salt we otherwise might add.

Toyota fills in details about its future design direction and global platform

"In the future, out of 100 customers, we want to excite ten of them instead of not offending all 100."
Almost all of the details about the Toyota New Group Architecture (TNGA) strategy have come out since the initiative was first reported on in March of this year, but Autoblog did learn a few new things about it on a recent trip to Japan. Probably the second-most important detail is that each new segment platform will be based around a common hip point to create an "optimal driving position architecture."