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VW joins Daimler's protest of new A/C refrigerant as EU deadline for compliance passes

The case of Dupont and Honeywell's refrigerant R-1234yf is doing the exact opposite of keeping things cool. The two chemical companies have spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars developing R-1234yf to replace R-134a, the new refrigerant shown to be 99.7-percent kinder to the environment than the one it is meant to succeed. Part of that development has been years of testing by governments, outside safety agencies and automakers to approve the chemical for use in cars. It passed the protocols necessary for the European Union to declare that new and significantly revised cars from 2013 onward needed to use R-1234yf, and mandated that every car as of 2017 must use it.
Enter Daimler AG. The automaker created a head-on collision test with a B-Class at their Sindelfingen test track that would lead to the pressurized refrigerant being sprayed on the engine. The result in 20 out of 20 test was that the refrigerant burst into flames as soon as it hit the hot engine, while Daimler says that R-134a does not catch fire in the same test. Another unexpected result of the R-1234yf test was the release of hydrogen flouride, a chemical far more deadly to humans than hydrogen cyanide, emitted in such amounts that it that turned the windshield white as it began to eat into the glass.
Said a Daimler engineer in a Reuters piece, "It was scarcely believable. The most complicated lab tests conducted using the most sensitive measuring instruments around found nothing and all we do is drive a car around a couple of times, open a tiny hole in the refrigerant line and the next thing you know the car is on fire." So Daimler said it wouldn't use the refrigerant, and it recalled the cars it had already shipped with R-1234yf.

2018 Range Rover Sport Coupe spied in Scotland

Sport utility vehicles are the rage. SUVs with coupe styling are pretty popular, too, as BMW and Mercedes have demonstrated. Now it's Land Rover's turn. Believed to be the upcoming Range Rover Sport Coupe, this ute was spied this week during top secret testing at a remote location in Scotland. The vehicle would slot between the Range Rover Sport and Evoque, giving Land Rover an answer to the Mercedes GLE and BMW X6. These shots show what appears to be a chopped roofline, giving the new model a sportier profile than the traditional upright silhouette of Rovers. We expect it will use a version of the aluminum Jaguar F-Pace platform and offer V6 and V8 engines. It could also offer a hybrid or full electric version. The new crossover might also be lower set in a bid to differentiate it from traditional Rovers and give it a performance vibe. The Range Rover Sport Coupe – or whatever it is ultimately called – would enter a strong segment that's found favor in the United States. Once derided for potentially offering less function than traditional utes, these lifestyle vehicles have developed a strong following for their style and capability. The X6 was so successful, BMW added the smaller X4, and this forced Mercedes to follow suit with the GLE and GLC coupe variants. In this context, it's about time for Land Rover to join the fray. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Land Rover Range Rover Sport Coupe View 12 Photos Image Credit: KGP Photography Design/Style Spy Photos BMW Land Rover Mercedes-Benz

Mercedes to roll out S65 AMG Coupe in July

We're still a couple of weeks away from the public debut of the new Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe at the fast-approaching New York Auto Show, but already we're receiving word of an even more powerful version in the works. That, of course, would be the S65 AMG Coupe - the twelve-cylinder version of the latest S-Class Coupe, two-door counterpart to the S65 AMG sedan and replacement for the outgoing CL65 AMG.
Like the four-door version rolled out back in November, the S65 AMG Coupe would be distinguished from less powerful vehicles (which, lets face it, is just about everything) principally by its engine: a massive, 6.0-liter twin-turbo V12 that produces 621 horsepower, 738 pound-feet of torque and cares as much about global warming as an oil-shipping mega-tanker.
Because Merc's 4Matic all-wheel drive system can't handle that much torque, the ne plus ultra coupe would (like the S65 sedan but unlike the S63 coupe) be offered only in rear-drive form. That means it will have that much more trouble getting the power down to the road, but since the Magic Body Control suspension is similarly incompatible with 4Matic, the flagship coupe will get that trick suspension.