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BMW is reportedly making an all-electric four-door sedan
Like most car companies, BMW has been dabbling in electric vehicles lately, with models like the all-electric Mini and a longer-ranged version of its electric i3 model. The car company has to keep up with its competitors, like Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz and Tesla, so it's launching a low-slung, four-door sedan into to the BMW "i" series. According to Bloomberg, the four-door EV is planned for sale by 2021 and will take a spot in between the city-styled i3 and the i8 sports car. There are no details on a specific model name, as yet, however.
Mercedes-Benz is giving all its customers a year of Tidal HiFi
Tidal has had a rough few months, what with Kanye leaving in a huff, having to find a third CEO in two years and exclusives like Jay-Z's 4:44 being held back from new subscribers. The streaming service continues to stay relevant, though, perhaps through corporate partnerships like the one with Sprint, which can net you six months of free Tidal HiFi service (usually $20 per month). Now Mercedes-Benz has its own Tidal promotion. Beginning in 2018, if you're a member of Mercedes' Me in-car automation and entertainment service, you will get 12 months of Tidal HiFi for free, which will revert to a regular paid account after your year is up.
Mercedes teases hybrid supercar with Formula 1 tech
You've seen hybrid supercars before, but likely nothing quite so exotic as this. Mercedes-Benz is teasing the debut of the Mercedes-AMG Project One, a hybrid "supersports showcar," at the Frankfurt International Motor Show beginning September 14th. While the preview image doesn't show much besides a GT-style body (complete with an air scoop on the roof), Mercedes makes much ado of the car's Formula 1 underpinnings -- both powerplants amount to race car technology adapted to "day-to-day" use.
Mercedes uses art deco inspiration for electric car concept
Luxury vehicles from the 1930s were nearly aircraft carrier-long. It was the art deco era dominated by seemingly never ending clean lines. So it's no surprise that the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet is over six meters long (about 20 feet) and has a single line that runs the length of the vehicle. Hell, the back the car is inspired by yachts and called a "boat tail." In other words, it's going impossible to find parking for it.
Audi, BMW and Mercedes cars will share live traffic jam data
It's not too hard to find real-time traffic data, but it's usually specific to one car make. Wouldn't it be great if cars of all brands could regularly coordinate? They're not quite there yet, but they're getting closer. Here has unveiled a Real-Time Traffic service that has cars from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz (all co-owners of Here) sharing their live sensor data to provide more accurate traffic alerts than you'd get from external probes alone. It's particularly helpful on 'arterial' roads, Here says. And more than 30 of the 60-plus countries covered by the service can also take advantage of safety warnings based on sensor data you expect from incidents, such as hard braking to avoid a crash.
At the Mercedes museum, your rental car parks itself
The concept of a self-parking car certainly isn't new, but Daimler is about to take the next logical step on that front. It's partnering with Bosch to launch an Automated Valet Parking service at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. When it launches at the start of 2018, anyone (not just museum guests) can rent cars that will not only drive themselves out, but park themselves upon return. You just need a smartphone app to both make the reservation and the virtual handover when you're done.
Daimler is investing $735 million in China's EV infrastructure
German car manufacturer Daimler has announced a partnership with China's BAIC Motor Corporation, pledging to provide $735 million investment into electric vehicle infrastructure in the region. Daimler (the company behind brands like Mercedes-Benz) has revealed a large chunk of that hefty sum will be spent on building a new Chinese battery factory under the joint venture Beijing Benz Automotive Co., Ltd.
Daimler bets big on luxury EVs with new battery plant
Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler is incredibly bullish about electric vehicles. So much so that it's recently broken ground on another battery plant in Germany, a stone's throw from its existing facility. It'll begin operating around June next year and sounds positively massive. "The new plant will quadruple the production and logistics area in Kamenz to a total of around 80,000 square meters (around 262,000 feet)," a press release says. More than that, by 2020 the plant will have over 1,000 employees.
Mercedes-Benz is building cars that know the road better than you do
As we approach a blind corner on a twisty mountain road above Sunnyvale, there's a moment when I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a pre-production Mercedes-Benz S-Class and I'm not sure that the updated Intelligent Drive will really slow the car down in time for what's up ahead. It does and continues to do so for every corner it encounters. It's an impressive step in the automaker's march toward an autonomous vehicle.
Mercedes and Bosch want you in a self-driving taxi ASAP
Mercedes parent Daimler has put aside its own project to develop a self-driving car and will now collaborate with automotive supplier Bosch. The two companies plan to deliver fully autonomous "level 5" tech by the "beginning of the next decade," with a focus on city driving and autonomous car-sharing. "It will allow people to make the best possible use of their time in the vehicle and open up new mobility opportunities for people without a driver's licenses," Daimler said in a press release.
Mercedes steps up its electric car production plans
When Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler unveiled plans to have at least six electric cars on the market within a decade, it was clearly being conservative. The automaker has announced that it's accelerating those plans, with over 10 EVs on the road by 2022 -- 3 years ahead of the target it set half a year ago. Daimler will pour €10 billion (about $10.8 billion) into the initiative to make it a reality. The company wants to shape the car industry "from the forefront," according to the firm's Manfred Bischoff, and that means an aggressive strategy.
805HP GT Concept hints at the future of Mercedes hybrids
If you're Mercedes, how do you follow up the SLS AMG and AMG GT coupes? With this GT Concept, which, as exec Tobias Moers says, is Mercedes "giving a preview of our third completely independently developed sports car." Like so many other current high-performance vehicles, it combines a 4.0L twin-turbo V8 engine with an electric motor and battery to produce a max of 805HP. More importantly, it could signal a halo model pushing the company's hybrid aspirations in a manner similar to the BMW i8.
Daimler recalls one million Mercedes after dozens catch fire
German automaker Daimler AG announced a major worldwide auto recall today, encompassing one million recent models of Mercedes-Benz vehicles that are at risk of catching fire due to a potentially faulty fuse. So far, 51 vehicle fires have be reported, but there have been no reported injuries or deaths.
NVIDIA is helping Mercedes build artificially intelligent cars too
Audi's plans to build AI-powered autonomous vehicles may have taken center stage during NVIDIA's CES press conference, but it's not the only automaker working with the company. NVIDIA announced it's building smart vehicles with Mercedes-Benz too. "Mercedes-Benz and NVIDIA share a common vision of the AI car," NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang said in a statement. "At this point, it is clear AI will revolutionize the future of automobiles."
Inside Mercedes' Silicon Valley research center
A metal typewriter sits on a pedestal churning out the next sentence of a collaborative story. For every line I typed onto paper, the AI computer controlling the hunk of metal replies with what it thinks would be a good follow-up. The goal of the experiment is to see what happens when you feed an artificial intelligence only fairy tales. It's the kind of seemingly idiosyncratic thing you'd expect from IBM, Google or Apple. But I actually found it inside Mercedes-Benz's R&D North American headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Mercedes-Benz's Croove is like Airbnb but for cars
Ever since we've used automobiles to get around, the idea has been to buy or part-own a car until it's served its purpose and then look for a new one. These days, less and less people are choosing to own their own transportation, largely due to the improvement in public transport and rise in ride-hailing services like Uber, but automakers are also finding new ways to capitalize on this shift. German car giant Mercedes-Benz believes car-sharing continues to be the way to go, so it's launched Croove, a new service that lets any vehicle owner rent out their car when they're not using it.
Car makers plan grid of super-fast EV chargers in Europe
It's all well and good to create electric car charging networks to help you on long drives, but merely having stations isn't enough. What use are abundant chargers if you spend ages waiting for your battery to replenish? Thankfully, at least some big automakers are aware of this. BMW, Daimler, Ford and the Volkswagen Auto Group are forming a joint venture that will install a grid of super-fast EV chargers along major European highways. And we do mean fast -- they could supply up to 350kW of power, or nearly triple the 120kW that Tesla Superchargers offer. So long as your car supported that kind of input, you could be back on the road in several minutes.
The slow evolution of the tech-centric LA Auto Show
The LA Auto Show billed itself as the place where established automakers and enthusiastic startups would come together to show off the latest technological achievements in the world of cars. It even rebranded as "AutoMobility," combining the traditional show and connected car event into one.
The Mercedes-Maybach S650's top feature is exclusivity
It's nothing new for Mercedes to make a luxury car, but its new Maybach S650 cabriolet takes things up a notch (or three). Only 300 are being made, each individually numbered, and only 75 of those are headed to the US. With a pricetag likely in the region of $300,000 this isn't the most expensive vehicle you can buy, but the German car maker is adding in enough design spice and under-the-hood goodies to make it one of the most desirable. At least for those that don't flinch at the price.
Mercedes grabs a spot on the Formula E grid from 2018
Mercedes is set to become the latest in a long line of traditional car makers entering the world of Formula E. The company confirmed today that it's signed an agreement to reserve a spot on the grid of the electric racing championship from the 2018/19 season. With the all-electric series set to expand from 10 teams to 12 in season five, Mercedes can now decide whether it will take one of the two new available openings.
