AUTOMOBILE101 BLOG

The GLS has two new (and rather complex) engines, a 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six making 362 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque and a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 making 483 horsepower and 518 pound-feet of torque. Both are paired with a 48-volt mild  hybrid  system Mercedes calls EQ Boost, increasing  fuel efficiency  and performance. Both systems work the same way. A small electric motor is placed between the engine and transmission and performs a variety of tasks, from smoothing out shifts to mitigating turbo lag by supplying a bit of low-end power while exhaust gasses spool the turbos. It even powers the accessories, meaning these engines are beltless. That makes them more compact, but it also means there's less parasitic loss from accessories such as the A/C compressor. This is the first time the system is available with a V8 engine, but expect the powertrain to expand to much of Mercedes' lineup over the next few years.  Like in those other cars, th...

Hyundai  Motor Group said Wednesday that future  Hyundai  and  Kia  models will be equipped with  solar  panels capable of generating electricity as a way to increase fuel-efficiency and range and lower CO2 emissions. Hyundai says the solar panels will feature in the rooftops or hoods of select vehicles "after 2019" and will supplement traditional internal combustion,  hybrid  and  battery-electric vehicles . The parent group said it's developing three different types of solar roof charging systems comprised of a solar panel, controller and battery. The first generation will be a silicon solar panel system mounted to the rooftops of  hybrid  models and capable of charging 30 to 60 percent of the battery per day, depending on weather conditions and other factors, starting as early as 2020. The second generation involves a semi-transparent solar roof system applied to a panoramic sunroof and capable of charging an  elec...

You won't need an iPhone for true mobile integration Toyota joined the modern era when it  started adding CarPlay  to its vehicles early in 2018, but that hasn't done you much good if you're an Android user. You might get some relief soon, though.  Bloomberg sources  said that Toyota has agreed to put direct Android Auto support in its cars, with an announcement as soon as October. You could use the feature through Ford's SmartDeviceLink before, but that limited both their appearance on the center screen and limited their data access. Toyota wouldn't confirm or deny the apparent leak in a comment, saying that it recognized the demand for Android Auto and was considering direct support. The company would be late to the party, to put it mildly. Most major car brands have at least some kind of Android Auto support, and you'll even find it in niche makes like Koenigsegg. While it's unclear whether the absence of support hurt sales in a tangible way,...

Fifty years after introducing a six-cylinder engine in its 164 sedan model,  Volvo  has halved the cylinder count for  a new entry-level engine in the XC40 compact SUV . The turbocharged T3 gasoline engine is the Swedish manufacturer's first triple, even if it is not the smallest engine ever offered in a Volvo. Announced back in February , the T3 is being offered for now to European  XC40  buyers, but Volvo has said the three-cylinder will be part of  Volvo's XC40 portfolio in the U.S. sometime in the future. The current specifications for the XC40 T3 are fitting for an entry-level model: 156 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 195 pound-feet of torque from 1,850 to 3,850 rpm, and the sole transmission option is a six-speed manual gearbox. Later on, an eight-speed auto will join the manual, a must for United States sales. The 1.5-liter unit is actually largish for a triple, as three-cylinder units are usually closer to one liter of displacement or l...

This amid signs self-driving Project Titan is huge in scope SAN FRANCISCO — Doug Field, who stepped down as the senior vice president of engineering at Telsa last month, is returning to Apple, the company said on Thursday. Field will be working with Apple executive Bob Mansfield, who has been heading up Apple's self-driving car program, Project Titan. Field and Mansfield previously worked together on engineering Apple's line of Mac computers. Field has spent the past five years at Tesla. In April, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a tweet that he had asked Field to manage the company's engineering and production while Musk focused more time on Model 3 production. But in May, reports emerged that Field was leaving the carmaker, which has raced to meet production targets for the Model 3. At the time, Tesla said Field was "just taking some time off to recharge and spend time with his family. He has not left Tesla." In July, Tesla ...

Honda's  CR-V  has been a top-seller for the Japanese automaker almost from the get-go when it was launched in the late 1990s, and it has benefited from Americans' seemingly unquenchable thirst for  crossovers , setting an all-time-high sales mark as  Honda's  best-selling model in 2017. Honda redesigned the CR-V for 2017, introducing an upgraded version of the 1.5-liter turbocharged engine also found in the  Civic , stretching the body to give it more interior space, and refining the driving experience. Nothing significant has changed for the 2018 model year. The CR-V is available in LX, EX, EX-L, and Touring trims. Is the 2018 Honda CR-V safe? The  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration gives the 2018 CR-V an overall five-star rating, the highest possible. The federal agency also gives the CR-V five stars for front- and side-crash protection and four out of five stars for protecting passengers in rollover crashes. The CR-V earns a cove...

The next Mercedes-Benz S-Class  has been spied once again. This time, though, we get to see the redesigned flagship luxury sedan from outside  and the inside. The car still looks very evolutionary from the outside, but the inside suggests more radical updates.  Starting from the outside, we can tell that the overall profile of the car won't radically change. It's still a long, rear-drive sedan with graceful curves. The nose looks slimmer and lower than  the current model , thanks to headlights that appear to be sit lower and have less vertical area. We can also spot a clear crease that runs the length of the body and follows the curve of the window sills that sit just above it.  Inside, the S-Class seems to ditch what's become a signature Mercedes design: the ultra-wide tablet-style instrument panel. Instead of having one large rectangle encompass a pair of screens that stretch over the center stack, this prototype has just one screen in front of the driver. It'...