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In the history of data from The Fed, this has never happened before... Aggregate Auto Loan volume actually fell last week... And less loans means one simple thing... less sales (because prices have never been higher and no one is paying cash)... Which is a major problem since motor vehicle production continues to rise as management is blindly belieiving the Hillbama narrative that everything is (and will be) awesome. The problem is... inventories are already at near record highs relative to sales (which are anything but plateauing)... In fact, the last time inventories were this high relative to sales, GM...

A University of Texas at Dallas researcher has made a discovery that could open the door to cellphone and car batteries that last five times longer than current ones. Dr. Kyeongjae Cho, professor of materials science and engineering in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, has discovered new catalyst materials for lithium-air batteries that jumpstart efforts at expanding battery capacity. The research was published in Nature Energy. "There's huge promise in lithium-air batteries. However, despite the aggressive research being done by groups all over the world, those promises are not being delivered in real life," Cho said....

The race starts today 1-30-16 at 4 pm EST and ends tomorrow at the same time. Coverage at the web site or Fox Sports 1 Starting at 2 pm EST and switching to Fox Sports 2 at 4 pm EST. A very interesting race this year with the first race for the new Ford GT with two cars entered by Ford/Chip Gnassi Racing in the GTLM (GT Le Mans) class. In the Prototype class Scott Pruett is trying to break his tie with Hurley Haywood for most Daytona 24 overall wins where they each have 5 wins. A mix of...

Thanks to RobStark on the Tesla Motors Club forum, we've got news that the Tesla Model S was the #1 best-selling large luxury car (or "premium car," as some might prefer to call the class) in the United States in 2015. As we all know, Tesla doesn't report sales/deliveries by country. However, various outlets estimate Tesla sales using a variety of methods. EV Obsession estimated 26,566 Tesla Model S sales in the US in 2015. Rob notes that the lowest estimate was 24,200. In either case, the Model S outsold the Mercedes S-Class, the BMW 7-Series, the BMW 6-Series, the...

Bought a 2007 Subaru Forester 5K cash, 150K miles earlier this year against my better judgement--hubs was insistent it was reliable. They USED to be reliable. I had an 88 Justy that you couldn't kill. BTW I live in upstate NY with its harsh winters. Seems they now have major engine problems. Something I've found out the hard way. Any recommendations on a new car?

Within walking distance of Tesla Motors' Palo Alto headquarters and across the street from Hewlett-Packard, Ford Motor Co. has set up a new Silicon Valley outpost. With a team of 100 reporting to a former Apple engineer, the Detroit giant is researching how humans experience machines, running autonomous-vehicle driving simulations and testing software that examines how bicycles and cars interact. "For 100 years, automobiles have been a mechanical engineering industry," said the center's director, Dragos Maciuca, who on his morning commute drives past a nearby research center of German automotive electronics and parts supplier Bosch. "Now, there is the shift...

A Volkswagen Touareg diesel is tested in the Environmental Protection Agency's cold temperature test facility, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2015, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Volkswagen has disclosed to U.S. regulators that there's additional suspect software in its 2016 diesel models that would potentially help their exhaust systems run cleaner during government tests. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) **************************************************************************************************************************************** U.S. regulators say they have a lot more questions for Volkswagen, triggered by the company's recent disclosure of additional suspect software in 2016 diesel models that potentially would help exhaust systems run cleaner during government tests. That's more bad news for VW dealers looking for...

In the wake of the VW diesel scandal, German magazine Autobild found the Euro-market BMW X3 xDrive 20d also exceeds emissions limits by a significant amount. Volkswagen's unfolding diesel emissions crisis may prove to involve other automakers as well: German magazine Autobild reports that ​a German-market, diesel-powered BMW X3 xDrive 20d put out 11 times the legal limit of pollution in a test commissioned by the magazine. (Update below) Automotive News, which translated the Autobild report, explains that the BMW was tested by the International Council on Clean Transportation, the same group whose findings led U.S. regulators to investigate Volkswagen's...

<p>Ten automakers have committed to the government and a private safety group that they will include automatic emergency braking in all new cars, a step transportation officials say could significantly reduce traffic deaths and injuries.</p> <p>But safety advocates were swift to criticize the effort as a backroom deal that allows automakers to avoid the possibility that the Transportation Department will impose a legal requirement for inclusion of the braking systems in cars and set binding standards for the technology.</p>

Audi is to unveil an electric car to rival Tesla’s forthcoming Model X that the German marque says is capable of traveling at least 310 miles on battery power alone. The Volkswagen-owned carmaker will display the concept, a sport utility vehicle provisionally called the e-tron quattro, at next month’s Frankfurt motor show and plans to put it into production in 2018 as its first mainstream electric car. High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email...

Ohm is a 6-pound drop-in replacement for your car battery. What's not to like about what it claims to deliver. It never needs jump-starting. Works on the coldest days (in temperatures as low as -40C). Lasts more than twice than lead-acid batteries, which go for three years. Here, you are looking at a 7-year average lifetime. No lead, no acid. When Ohm says it is a drop-in replacement they mean that it is installed in the same way. The site says to "remove the positive and negative leads from your old battery, drop in Ohm, and reattach the lead to...

You may have a "green" car, but it could be causing black rain in China from the graphite mined and used in its lithium ion battery. Two academics at Toronto's York University, Carla Lipsig-Mumme and Caleb Goods, applaud many of the new advances in green technology in recent years, but at the same time warn that those very technologies may come with a host of environmental issues. The pair issue a caution about “superindustrialization” in which the answer to climate change is a matter of “technological adjustment.” In an article recently published in The Conversation and picked up by the...

Hackers took control of a car and crashed it into a ditch by remotely breaking into its systems from 10 miles away whilst sitting on their sofa. In the first such breach of its kind security experts cut out the engine and applied the brakes on the Jeep Cherokee, sending it into a spin. The US hackers said they used just a laptop and mobile phone to access the Jeep’s on-board systems via its wireless Internet connection. They claim that more than 470,000 cars made by Fiat Chrysler could be at risk of being attacked by similar means - including...

A team of researchers working at Argonne National Laboratory, in Illinois, has found a way to dramatically reduce friction between two macroscopic scale surfaces—to near zero. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes how they accidently discovered the method and why they believe it might be useful for real world applications. As most people are aware, friction causes energy loss and wear and tear on mechanical parts—lubricants such as oil are used to help reduce friction and to dissipate heat, but scientists would really like to find a way to prevent it from happening in the...

Scientists at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Utrecht University have identified key mechanisms of the aging process of catalyst particles that are used to refine crude oil into gasoline. This advance could lead to more efficient gasoline production. Their recent experiments studied so-called fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) particles that are used to break long-chain hydrocarbons in crude oil into smaller, more valuable hydrocarbons like gasoline. "A major problem is that these catalysts quickly age and lose their activity, so tons of fresh catalysts have to be added to a reactor system every day," said lead researcher...

Can cars run on formic acid? They just might one day, after what physical chemist Georgy Filonenko discovered in his dissertation. He developed a catalyst in which hydrogen and carbon dioxide (CO2) can form formic acid in no time, faster than had ever been measured before. And the reverse reaction is just as quick. It seems to be the start of a hydrogen battery for use in hydrogen cars of the future, for example. He received his PhD degree yesterday, cum laude. Hydrogen is one of the foremost candidates in the running towards becoming the energy carrier of the future....

Electric carmaker Tesla announced Friday it delivered a "record" number of vehicles in the first quarter, as it began more timely reporting of sales figures. The California firm started by tech entrepreneur Elon Musk said it sold 10,030 cars in the first three months of 2015. "This was a new company record for the most cars delivered in a quarter and represents a 55 percent increase over the first quarter last year," the company said in a statement. Going forward, Tesla said it would publish the number of new car deliveries within three days of quarter end. "We have decided...

In the past, six-year auto loans were few and far between. Today, more of those loans are being issued, with seven- and eight-year loans gaining popularity. NPR reports such loans are helping to fuel a boom in U.S. new-car sales, with one-third of the loans lasting 74 months and beyond. AutoPacific analyst Ed Kim says the cars are one of the reasons for the long loans: Consumers are demanding a lot more technology in their vehicles, infotainment technologies. There’s also a lot more safety features that are in vehicles right now. Emissions and efficiency technology that are in vehicles right...

Who says that you can’t make anything useful on a desktop 3D printer? Sure, there are plenty of designs that you can find on 3D printing repository websites which make you question the motive of the designers — but at the same time, there are engineers and designers creating things that make you just stop and say, “WOW!” One of these latter instances comes in the form of a 3D printed 5-speed transmission for a Toyota 22RE engine, created by a mechanical engineer named Eric Harrell of Santa Cruz, California. Not only does it look legitimate, but it also is...

The last time Ford made a GT, it built more than 4,000 of them and sold each one for around $150,000. Judging by the premiums at which they later traded, they were evidently worth a lot more than that. But this time, the new Ford GT will be far more expensive and far more scarce. Official performance, production and pricing figures have yet to be released, but upon the new American supercar's European debut in Geneva, Ford performance chief Dave Pericak indicated it would be priced competitively with the Lamborghini Aventador – which carries a base sticker price approaching $400,000,...