future

8 Predictions About the Future of the Auto Industry

By Betty C. Morrow 4 weeks ago

In his new book A Brief History of Motion, author Tom Standage writes an engaging and informative overview of how we got from the invention of the wheel to modern cars.

Standage, who is also a deputy editor at The Economist, draws parallels between the past and the present. In doing so, he’s able to paint a picture of what’s in store for the automotive industry in the next 50 years.

As the saying goes, history repeats itself. He saw that numerous times over the course of writing the book.

“It’s uncovering the things that people in the past have done or felt or said that shows how similar they are to us today,” Standage told Newsweek in an interview.

Even something that seems as modern as car culture has origins in the first instances of private coach ownership in the 17th century, where wealthy European aristocrats would

… Read More

The Porsche Mission R Concept Might Be the All-Electric Future of Racing

By Betty C. Morrow 4 months ago
Photo credit: S_BOGNER_

Photo credit: S_BOGNER_

  • Porsche revealed the Mission R Concept electric race car at IAA, which could replace the current 911 GT3 Cup car.

  • The Mission R produces a constant power output of 671 hp in race mode, and can go 0-60 mph in less than 2.5 seconds.

  • The concept may also preview the next 718.

The automotive world is going electric, and that looks like it will include race cars.

The IAA Mobility auto show was once known simply as the Frankfurt Auto Show and featured grand reveals on expensive show stands where the industry’s great leaders spoke at length about the present and future of the automobile. But that was in the past, as soon may be internal combustion itself. As the world and the car industry go green, what was once known as Frankfurt Auto Show has been drastically scaled down. It moved from Frankfurt to Munich

… Read More

What electric vehicles mean for the future of the auto industry

By Betty C. Morrow 5 months ago

If cars are becoming computers, and computers are essentially appliances, what does that portend for the future of the automotive industry?

Vehicles powered by internal combustion engines (ICEs) are gradually being displaced by electric vehicles (EVs) that are basically computers mated to battery-powered drivetrains.

The technology at work is of course not as simple as that statement implies.

Ask General Motors, whose Chevrolet Bolt EVs are apparently at such risk of randomly bursting into flames that they’ve instructed owners not to park them indoors. And with 11 crashes since early 2018 involving its autonomous driving tech, federal regulators are now questioning whether Tesla is misleading consumers by calling its driver-assistance system “Autopilot.” Obviously, if building the perfect EV was elementary, Bolts wouldn’t be randomly combusting and Teslas would be better at driving in the dark.

Steven Grey
Steven Grey [ Provided ]

But the complexities are being conquered, and much of the

… Read More

Can the Automotive Industry Adapt Fast Enough for an Electric Future?

By Betty C. Morrow 5 months ago

By Sarah Watts

Twenty years ago, you had a better chance of seeing an electric car on an episode of The Jetsons than you did in real life.

Today, however, electric cars are inching closer to the mainstream, with 5.4 million hybrid vehicles sold since the Honda Insight debuted in 1999 and over 1.4 million plug-in electric cars sold since 2010. Electric vehicles are poised to explode in the next several years: General Motors, Mercedes, Mazda, Nissan, BMW, Ford, and several other carmakers have pledged to either invest billions in manufacturing electric vehicles (EV) or to roll out multiple all-electric models of their own. And in response to the burgeoning climate change crisis, California Governor Gavin Newsom recently issued an executive order to phase out gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

“The transition to electric has already started, and it will accelerate in the next fifteen years due to a number of

… Read More