Another WEC (World Endurance Championship) season has ended and Toyota Gazoo Racing finished as champion, ahead of Porsche and Ferrari. It was the sixth consecutive championship title for this Japanese team.
The competition includes eight races across Europe, Asia, North America, South America and the Middle East, varying in distance from the shortest 6 Hours of Fuji to the longest 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s season record is five podiums, of which three wins and two pole positions, with 190 points won. With an incredible team effort and dominant driving, the drivers of the #8 GR010 Hybrid – Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi – were two points clear of the second-placed Porsche Penske Motorsport team and drivers Michael Christensen, Matt Campbell and Frederic Makowiecki.
The Michelin company is one of the most famous manufacturers of high-performance car tires, which in recent years has been struggling against cheap competition. This caused the shutdown of production in two factories in France from November 2024.
Increased competition on the European tire market, inflation and energy costs made the situation even more difficult, so some factories produced more tires than they sold. Despite the great commitment of the teams and the efforts of the Group, the viability of the two mentioned factories could not be preserved. Therefore, Michelin made the decision to stop production at both plants until November 11.
Michelin plans to completely close the factories in 2026, and until then the union and management will have time to propose collective and individual talks with employees. In these two factories, Cholet and Vannes, Michelin has 1,254 employees.
At the beginning of 2024, Xiaomi revealed its first car, the SU7, which has been recording outstanding results for months. In October, 20,000 units were produced, and almost 50,000 SU7s will be produced by the end of the year.
Since its arrival on the car market, Xiaomi has received a large number of orders for its first car, and in April the Chinese company announced that one SU7 leaves the production lines every 76 seconds. That was impressive, and the fact that buyers have to wait 21 weeks for their cars shows how much demand there is.
Xiaomi’s first-phase facility has a capacity of 12,000 units per month, meaning the utilization rate is close to 200 percent thanks to multi-shift operations. The second phase is currently under construction and should be operational in mid-2025. This would increase annual production to 300,000 units, which would reduce demand pressure.
Xiaomi SU7 comes in three versions: SU7, SU7 Pro and SU7 Max. The standard version is powered by an electric motor with 299 hp (220 kW) and 295 lb-ft (400 Nm) of torque, and will have RWD. It will accelerate from 0 – 100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.28 seconds with a top speed of 210 km/h (130 mph). It is equipped with a BYD Blade 73.6 kWh battery that provides a range of 700 kilometers.
The more powerful version of the SU7 Pro will be equipped with an 800V architecture, and a 94.3 kWh battery that provides a range of 830 km. However, the most powerful version, Xiaomi SU7 Max, is really impressive. It is powered by two electric motors with a total output of 673 hp (495 kW) and 618 lb-ft (838 Nm) of torque, and has AWD. It reaches 100 km/h (62 mph) in 2.78 seconds with a top speed of 265 km/h (165 mph). It is equipped with the Xiami Pilot Max ADAS system, 800V architecture, and a CATI Qilin 101 kWh battery that enables a range of 800 km, or 510 km after a 15-minute charge.
At the end of October, Xiaomi presented the racing version of this model, the SU7 Ultra. It is powered by three electric motors with a total output of 1,548 hp (1,154 kW), which is enough to push the 1,900 kg car from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in 1.97 seconds, 200 km/h in 5.97 seconds and 300 km/h in 15 seconds, with a top speed of 350 km/h (217 mph).
