Maserati Quattroporte 4.2l 2008 on 2040-cars

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Stellantis expects to hit emissions target without Tesla's help

Franco-Italian carmaker Stellantis expects to achieve its European carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions targets this year without environmental credits bought from Tesla, its CEO said in an interview published on Tuesday. Stellantis was formed through the merger of France's PSA and Italy's FCA, which spent about 2 billion euros ($2.40 billion) to buy European and U.S. CO2 credits from electric vehicle maker Tesla over the 2019-2021 period. "With the electrical technology that PSA brought to Stellantis, we will autonomously meet carbon dioxide emission regulations as early as this year," Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares said in the interview with French weekly Le Point. "Thus, we will not need to call on European CO2 credits and FCA will no longer have to pool with Tesla or anyone." California-based Tesla earns credits for exceeding emissions and fuel economy standards and sells them to other automakers that fall short. European regulations require all car manufacturers to reduce CO2 emissions for private vehicles to an average of 95 grams per kilometer this year. A Stellantis spokesman said the company is in discussions with Tesla about the financial implications of the decision to stop the pooling agreement. "As a result of the combination of Groupe PSA and FCA, Stellantis will be in a position to achieve CO2 targets in Europe for 2021 without open passenger car pooling arrangements with other automakers," he added. Tesla's sales of environmental credits to rival automakers helped it to announce slightly better than expected first-quarter revenue this week. The next tightening of European regulations will soon be the subject of proposals from the European Commission. The 2030 target could be lowered to less than 43 grams/km. Related Video: Government/Legal Green Alfa Romeo Chrysler Dodge Fiat Jeep Maserati RAM Tesla Citroen Peugeot Emissions Stellantis

Musing on Maserati's SUV chops | 2017 Levante S Quick Spin

Like a lot of you, I spent the weekend patrolling suburbia in a white SUV. Unlike a lot of you, mine had Ferrari-built engine. It went something like this: I'd innocuously pull up to a stoplight in the 2017 Maserati Levante S. Punch up sport mode. The bass comes on. Suddenly my white refrigerator of a retriever hauler sounds like something else. The light turns. I nail the gas maybe halfway. The low rumble turns to a growl. Like a real, legit growl. It sounds good. Not Camry V6 good, but menacing like an Italian sports car. Full-throated and angry. It gets louder. For a moment I think some dude on motorcycle is being obnoxious nearby. That's my car, I realize. Cover blown, I accelerate through the light, merging gracefully ahead of the slower vehicles dutifully cued up. Then I reach over and grab a warm bread stick that's resting on top of a pizza and blithely enjoy some open space on the road. That neatly sums up the dual personalities of the Levante. You can marshal all of the horsepower of 16 World Championships from the Prancing Horse. Or steer one-handed while you cruise suburbia. Your choice. NOTES So yeah, the Maserati-designed Ferrari-built twin-turbo V6 is pretty great. It makes the Levante feel special, more so than a BMW X5 or X6 or Mercedes GLE or GLE coupe. That's the essence of Italian cars: the engine. Blasting around metropolitan Detroit with this 424-horsepower arsenal under the hood is a riot. The downside: As expected, the Levante is thirsty, slurping a quarter of a tank during relatively shortly runs around town, inline with its 14-mpg rating in the city. The highway is marginally better, getting 19 mpg, though with the 21.1-gallon tank, the you could theoretically get 338 miles of range. The Levante looks the part. With portholes, a long, creased hood, bulging fenders, and attractive head-and taillights, it conveys the appearance of Italian sport and luxury. The chrome door handles and trim tastefully add some bling to the design. My favorite part? The shark-tooth grille. With tall vertical lines and a monstrous Maser crest, the Levante almost sneers at you. The idyllic cabin does a solid job of keeping the outside world at bay. The interior is quiet at cruising speeds, broken up only by the engine's bark. I'm quite comfortable. The rich brown leather was supple yet supportive, and I quickly find a commanding view of the road. It's cool how the door pulls are neatly blended into the trim.

Fiat Chrysler's next-generation Uconnect is faster, built on Android

If you're a regular reader of Autoblog, you know that for a long time we've liked Fiat Chrysler's Uconnect infotainment system for its bright, clear, responsive touchscreen interface. Now, according to the company, it will be better than ever with Uconnect 5, the latest iteration of the system. It has upgraded hardware and a revamped graphic user interface (the stuff on the screen). Looking at sample screens shown above, there are characteristics shared with the old system, such as the time, status and shortcuts at the top and the menu icons at the bottom. In the middle, the major change is the addition of home screens that can be customized with favorite menus and readouts that are always available. Each of these home screens can have up to four functions and you can have five pages to flip through. The graphics themselves feature more legible fonts and updated icons. Each car brand will get its own set of icons, colors and textures to help create unique experiences. And while each Fiat Chrysler product will be able to have Uconnect, including Alfa Romeo that has until now lacked Uconnect, each brand has the ability to make small tweaks including the screen orientation. The system will support displays in landscape, portrait or square, so different brands may choose different shapes. Powering Uconnect 5 is a processor Fiat Chrysler says is six times more powerful than what's in current systems. It features 6 gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of internal storage. The processor also supports screens as large as 12.3 inches with as many as 15 million pixels, or nearly twice that of a 4K resolution TV. The system can display information on up to four screens, too. Uconnect 5's firmware is built on Google's Android operating system, joining a few other automakers in using Android as a base for their infotainment systems. Uconnect 5 brings with it a number of new features. It brings full Alexa integration, so you can use it just like you do at home, provided you have a data plan for the car. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto continue to be standard, but now they can be used wirelessly. You can also now connect two phones via Bluetooth wirelessly so you can access content from both. Navigation gets real time information and updates from TomTom. Users can create five profiles with unique climate, radio and instrument settings, plus one for a valet.