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Tag: concept cars

  • The Concept C Is the All-Electric Sports Car Kickstarting Audi’s Design Future

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    Car companies love a mission statement. With the arrival of the Concept C, Audi’s new one is crystal clear: “radical simplicity”. An all-electric two-seater with a retractable folding hard-top, the Concept C is a “progressive interpretation” of the company’s legacy, says Audi—and it’s not hard to see the TT has factored pretty heavily in that.

    But as you pick your way through the messaging—key words here are precision and clarity, as well as a re-emphasis on our old friend, “Vorsprung durch Technik”—this feels like a substantial reset after a period of aesthetic drift. This isn’t just a piece of conceptual eye candy, then: it’s Audi engaging combat mode in an industry currently beset with challenges.

    “Our vision is a call to action for the whole company—and is essential for making our brand truly distinctive once again,” Audi’s Chief Creative Officer Massimo Frascella explains. “It is the philosophy behind every decision we make, and we aim to apply its principles across the entire organization. We call it ‘The Radical Next’.”

    Let’s start with the car itself. Although the e-tron GT set the bar high, Audi’s model range has been light on coherence and drama. The Concept C isn’t quite a first-principles machine, but it definitely strips things back and seeks to stoke some good old-fashioned flames of desire. It’s a terrific looking thing in the flesh: stocky, solid, and charismatic. Audi CEO Gernot Döllner, in charge for exactly two years, personally pushed for a new sports car; Frascella used it to push the boundaries in terms of design creativity and manufacturing technique.

    Courtesy of Audi

    It’s also one for marque historians: although there’s nothing explicitly retro here, the Thirties Auto Union Type C Grand Prix car, the early Noughties Rosemeyer concept and more pertinently the original TT are all in the mix, as is Bauhaus and German modernism.

    Frascella, it should be noted, is an Italian who rose to prominence as Head of Design at Jaguar Land Rover, and is credited with the current Range Rover, a universally admired vehicle (though he also worked on the rather more polarising Jaguar Type 00.) A lack of adornment and commitment to what car designers are wont to call “monolithic” surfaces are evidently two of his trademarks.

    That much is certainly apparent here. The Concept C’s taut, machined look suggests something carved from a giant billet of aluminium, and there’s a strong new vertical front grille shape with a slim but powerful light signature that echoes the four-ring logo. We reckon it’s best appreciated from an elevated position above the rear three-quarters, though. There’s no rear window, minimal decoration and slender LED tail-lights, with three slats in the rear deck to suggest a more emotionally charged, mid-engined configuration. We’re told the window-less, slatted look will make production, the new car slated to arrive in 2027.

    The Concept C Is the AllElectric Sports Car Kickstarting Audis Design Future

    Courtesy of Audi

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    Jason Barlow

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  • Nissan Future Concepts – Wicked Gadgetry

    Nissan Future Concepts – Wicked Gadgetry

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    Nissan has built a track record of pushing boundaries and pioneering new automotive concepts. The company has unveiled several visionary concepts that are planned to be produced over the next few years. Besides the Nissan Kicks, the GT-R special editions, and the Nissan Z heritage edition, which are already on the market, a host of new concept cars are taking shape, some of which have already been revealed.

    The Nissan Hyper Force is one concept designed for racers and gamers. The Hyper Urban is another concept geared toward urban dwellers conscious of the long-term value of everything they own. The Hyper Tourer is an all-electric minivan created for people who appreciate the finer things in life.

    The Nissan Hyper Punk, a compact EV crossover designed to meet the diverse needs of younger buyers and still many other future concepts that are in conceptual phase. For over seven decades, Nissan has continued to pioneer the potential of electrification and these new future EV concepts are a positive step in that direction.

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    Kyle

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  • Trump proposes building 10 ‘freedom cities’ and flying cars | CNN Politics

    Trump proposes building 10 ‘freedom cities’ and flying cars | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former President Donald Trump on Friday proposed building up to 10 futuristic “freedom cities” on federal land, part of a plan that the 2024 presidential contender said would “create a new American future” in a country that has “lost its boldness.”

    Commuters, meanwhile, could get around in flying cars, Trump said – an echo of “The Jetsons,” the classic cartoon about a family in a high-tech future society. Work to develop vertical takeoff and landing vehicles is already underway by major airlines, auto manufacturers and other companies, though widely seen as years away from reaching the market.

    “I want to ensure that America, not China, leads this revolution in air mobility,” Trump, who announced his third bid for the presidency in November, said in a four-minute video detailing his plan.

    He said he would launch a contest to charter up to 10 “freedom cities” roughly the size of Washington, DC, on undeveloped federal land.

    “We’ll actually build new cities in our country again,” Trump said in the video. “These freedom cities will reopen the frontier, reignite American imagination, and give hundreds of thousands of young people and other people, all hardworking families, a new shot at home ownership and in fact, the American dream.”

    Trump’s pitch comes the day before he is set to address the Conservative Political Action Conference in the Washington, DC, area, and as the 2024 Republican presidential field begins to take shape.

    The proposal is the latest in a series of early policy offerings from Trump, who in recent weeks has also said he would seek to ramp up domestic energy production, adopt a more isolationist foreign policy stance and purge the government and military of “warmongers and globalists,” and undo a Biden executive order that would require government agencies to submit annual public plans aimed at promoting equity.

    In December, the former president unveiled plans as part of his “free speech platform” that included vows to ban federal money from being used to label speech as misinformation or disinformation and to punish universities engaging in “censorship activities” with cuts to federal funding.

    Trump did not elaborate Friday on how he would pay for his latest proposal – leaving unanswered what could be the biggest question as Republicans in Washington seek to curb federal spending. He also did not explain how some elements of his proposal differ from similar Democratic plans.

    His plan, which was light on details, includes three additional planks: increasing tariffs on goods imported into the United States; providing families with “baby bonuses” that he said would “help launch a new baby boom”; and launching a beautification effort aimed at removing “ugly” buildings and revitalizing parks and public spaces.

    Trump did not explain what “baby bonuses” would amount to or who would qualify. It’s not clear how his proposal differs from the enhanced child tax credit, which wasn’t extended beyond 2021. A group of Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocates tried – but failed – to have it included in the $1.7 trillion spending measure in December. That proposal was blocked by Republicans.

    Trump on Friday also called for universal tariffs and imposing higher taxes on imported goods. He said he would escalate a trade battle with China, which he began during his four years in the White House. Doing so, he said, would jump-start American manufacturing.

    President Joe Biden has left tariffs in place on $350 billion of Chinese goods – nearly two-thirds of what the US imports from China – which were imposed by Trump.

    However, the costs of those tariffs are being passed on to American consumers, and contributing to inflation, experts say.

    Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last year that those tariffs on Chinese goods have “imposed more harm on consumers and businesses” than on China.

    Chris Rupkey, chief economist at markets research firm FwdBonds, said Trump’s proposed economic plan is reflective of the onetime real estate developer’s efforts before taking office.

    “Builders build and make dreams a reality, but this plan looks like a stretch because the country cannot afford to undertake massive new projects when the national debt is over $31 trillion,” Rupkey said in an email. “There are some interesting ideas here, but this is not the right time for bold plans that dream big. There’s no money left in Uncle Sam’s till to pay for big dreams and daring projects.”

    The nation is in the midst of a “cost-of-living crisis” that makes this too expensive of a proposition, Rupkey added.

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  • A flying car prototype just got an airworthiness certificate from the FAA | CNN Business

    A flying car prototype just got an airworthiness certificate from the FAA | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    The Federal Aviation Administration has certified for testing a vehicle that a California startup describes as a flying car — the first fully electric vehicle that can both fly and travel on roads to receive US government approval.

    Alef Automotive said that its vehicle/aircraft, dubbed the “Model A,” is the first flying vehicle that is drivable on public roads and able to park like a normal car. It also has vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. It apparently will be able to carry one or two occupants and will have a road-range of 200 miles and a flying range of 110 miles.

    The company expects to sell the vehicle for $300,000 each with the first delivery by projected for the end of 2025.

    The FAA confirmed that it has issued the company a special airworthiness certificate, allowing for limited purposes that include exhibition, research and development.

    Numerous companies are working on all-electric VTOLs, which stands for vehicle takeoff and landing aircraft. The FAA said that Alef is “not the first aircraft of its kind” to get a special airworthiness certificate. However, Alef noted that its vehicle is different because of its ability to function both on roads and in the air, to appear like a normal car and to park in a normal parking space.

    “We’re excited to receive this certification from the FAA. It allows us to move closer to bringing people an environmentally friendly and faster commute, saving individuals and companies hours each week. This is a one small step for planes, one giant step for cars,” said Jim Dukhovny, the CEO of Alef.

    The company’s website said the flying car will be a certified as a “low speed vehicle,” which means it won’t be able to go faster than about 25 miles per hour on a paved road. “The assumption is that, if a driver needs a faster route, a driver will use Alef’s flight capabilities,” the company posted on the site.

    Regardless, It also still needs approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to go on roads.

    Development has been underway on the vehicle since 2015. Four friends, Constantine Kisly, Pavel Markin, Oleg Petrov and Dukhovny, inspired by the “Back to the Future” movies (which foresaw flying cars being available in that year), decided to form a company to try to develop them.

    According to the company, an initial automated test flight of a skeleton version of the car was successfully conducted in 2018, and a full-size prototype was flown the following year. But Alef said that it needed the FAA’s special airworthiness certificate to continue conducting the necessary research and development.

    The company also said that earlier this year that it had taken refundable pre-orders for more than 400 of the vehicles, with the cost of $150 for to be in the general queue or $1,500 for the priority queue.

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