All posts by Francis Mitterrand

News

Porsche will receive an €85 billion investment

The global world crisis caused by the war and the constant political conflicts of the great powers also affected the automotive industry. Many car manufacturers are trying to find a way out of the current crisis in various ways, and one of them is Porsche, which decided to offer its shares to the market next month. Certainly, there will be no shortage of interested parties, and predictions are that Porsche will receive €85 billion ($85 billion) in investment.

According to Bloomberg, several major global investment groups and companies have shown interest in investing in the global brand. Some of them are T Rowe Price Group, Qatar Investment Authority and billionaire Dietrich Mateschitz (Red Bull). However, the largest shareholder will remain the VW Group. Plans for the Initial Public Offering (IPO) will be announced after the approval of the supervisory board.

Even before, there were interested investors, but doubts about the way the company is managed and the influence of the VW Group turned them away. This continued even more after Oliver Blume became VW Group boss.

Last year, Porsche achieved record sales growth worldwide with over 300,000 cars sold. The highest sales growth was achieved in the United States with 22 percent (70,025 cars), Germany with 9 percent (28,565 cars) and China with 8 percent (96,671 cars). The best-selling Porsche model in Europe was the Macan (88,262 units), and what is most surprising is that the Taycan surpassed the 911 model in sales, even though the popular “elf” achieved a historic result with 38,464 units sold.

In the first six months of 2022, Porsche delivered almost 150,000 cars, which is less than last year. The pandemic and the supply chain caused the most problems. Despite this, growth was achieved in some markets. For example, in Europe, compared to last year, sales increased by 7 percent (43,087 vehicles), and in Germany alone, 13,785 vehicles were sold. Despite the difficulties, Porsche managed to sell 62,245 cars in the Asia-Pacific region, Africa and the Middle East, while in the United States the number was 32,529. In the Chinese market, sales fell by 16 percent (40,681 vehicles).

Source: Bloomberg

News

Cars will reach 60 mph in less than a second

At the recent Auto Week in Monterey, Chief Program Engineer of Rimac Nevera, Matija Renić, made a statement that pushes the limits when it comes to electric hypercars accelerations. When asked how fast cars will reach 60 mph in the future he said “in less than a second.”

Rimac Nevera with 1914 hp

The development of electric cars was primarily aimed at endurance and range, but the development of technology allowed new companies, who saw their opportunity, to create new super fast electric cars. Currently, most cars reach 60 mph in 2.5 – 3 seconds, which is a big improvement from the not-so-distant past. But let’s talk about the fastest ones.

Let’s take Rimac Automobile for example. Their fastest car Nevera has 1,914 hp and 1,741 lb-ft of torque, which allows it to reach 60 mph in 1.85 seconds with a top speed of 258 mph (413 km / h). It is the result of long-term development, but also the pride of the Rimac company. “The car is very fast, really. The values ​​are like that, we are proud of them, but the car is more than that. The car is not a specialist for one thing, it is not a dragster with which you will go to the track and achieve a record time,” said Matija Renić . The company is aware that creating a car that will reach 60 mph in less than a second will be a very difficult task, but the current cars show what automotive technology will be able to do in the future. The goal of Rimac Automobili was not a racing car, but a driver’s car, something that is very attractive and will reward the driver as soon as he hits the road and starts enjoying the drive.

Engine development and horse power will not be a problem, but something else looms as a major obstacle for current road cars, and that is the effect of g-force on the driver’s body. What allows race car drivers to withstand high g-force, especially when entering corners, is a specially designed cockpit. This is currently not possible with road cars, and if they want to reach acceleration under one second, new innovative solutions will have to be found. As an example, an acceleration of one second means a g-force of about 2.8, and half a second of nearly 6, which is more than the g-force that affects a pilot when taking off from an aircraft carrier.

Enthusiasm and hope are what pull engineers towards their goal. But how far are we actually from those “less than a second”?

Source: The Drive

News

Smart #1 Brabus

The German tuner Brabus is a specialist for big brands such as Mercedes, BMW and Porsche, now the Smart model has come out of its workshop. It is the all-electric crossover Smart #1 Brabus presented at the recently held auto show in China.

As for all its models, Brabus equipped the Smart with a “wild” body kit. All copies will be in Matt gray, Silent black and Laser red colors. However, this time the engineers were more subtle by adding additional intakes under the front cover, front air curtains, a red roof with an integrated rear roof spoiler, red mirror housings, red brake calipers and new rims in a combination of silver and black.

Inside, the seats are upholstered in black leather and Alcantara with red stitching. The same combination can be seen on the dashboard and door panels, while the steering wheel is covered in black leather with red stitching. There’s also plenty of other accessories and the Brabus logo on the headrests.

When it comes to propulsion, Brabus has placed an electric motor up front with 154 hp (113 kW) and 148 lb-ft (200 Nm) of torque, while a second electric motor with 268 hp (197 kW) and 253 lb-ft (343 Nm) of torque placed on the rear axle. Thus, the total power of the crossover is raised to 422 hp (310 kW) and 400 lb-ft (543 Nm) of torque. It reaches 62 mph in 3.7 seconds, and thanks to the 66 kWh battery, it will have a range of less than 440 kilometers.

The Smart #1 Brabus costs $40,600 in China, and whether it will be available in other markets is unknown.

Source: Brabus