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A few pre-race notes and a lot of photos from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on.
Audi has won 12 of the last 15 events, the scion of Auto Union is trying to make it 13 this year. To do so, it will have to overcome a situation faced only three other times during its dominance of La Sarthe: underdog status. Toyota has won the first two races of the year and claimed pole for this race, the rumor being that this year it's Toyota's race to lose.
And then there's Porsche. It's been 16 years since the Stuttgart brand raced on the top rung at Le Mans, three years years since it announced its return, just a year since it acquired Mark Webber in a signing that wasn't subtle and a few months since we got eyes on the 919 Hybrid.

Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 and our new long-term Acura TLX | Autoblog Podcast #661

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Senior Editor, Green, John Beltz Snyder. This week, they talk about the cars they've been driving, including the Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 and Audi A4, as well as the recently departed long-term Volvo S60 T8 and the new addition to the long-term fleet, an Acura TLX. In this week's news, they talk about the Stellantis merger completion, some more thoughts about GM at CES, BMW announcing an electric M car, an upcoming electric Lincoln Corsair and the possibility of an electric-only Ford Mustang in 2028. Autoblog Podcast #661 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown What we're driving:2021 Mercedes-Maybach GLS 600 2021 Audi A4 S Line 45 TFSI Quattro 2020 Volvo S60 T8 2021 Acura TLX A-Spec News:Stellantis is a thing now More thoughts on GM at CES BMW announces electric M car is coming this year Electric Lincoln Corsair-E coming in 2026, report says The next-gen Ford Mustang reportedly going all-electric, arriving in 2028 Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video:

Audi: record profit as 'biggest product initiative' in its history gets underway

Audi Group CEO Markus Duesmann   Even as the Audi Group (VOW.DE), VW’s luxury division, is in the midst of a huge EV transformation it still needs to perform where it counts — the bottom line. And so it is doing just that.  On Thursday the Audi Group - which is dominated volume-wise by Audi, but also includes Bentley, Lamborghini, and Ducati - posted record revenue and operating profit in 2022. That shouldnÂ’t be a surprise given what the industry has been seeing at the highest end of the market - record performances despite macroeconomic jitters across the globe. But that it's happening as the group is noteworthy.  “We are on the verge of the biggest product initiative in our history,” Audi Group CEO Markus Duesmann said at a news conference earlier on Thursday. “By 2025, we will have launched around 20 new models, more than 10 of which will be all-electric. We have set the course to go 100% electric. By 2027, we seek to offer an all-electric vehicle in each core segment.”   This is all part of Audi GroupÂ’s Vorsprung 2030 plan, which seeks to have all of the groupÂ’s new models be electric by 2026 — and to end traditional gas-powered engine production by 2033. To that end, the group saw EV deliveries jump 44% (in 2022) compared to 2021 to over 118,000 vehicles, with the share of EVs rising to 7.2% from 4.8% in the prior year. Audi is also launching its first EV using the PPE (premium platform electric), which was developed together with Porsche. That EV, the Audi Q6 e-tron, will be unveiled later this year. (Past Audi EVs shared corporate parent VWÂ’s electric platform.) “With the Audi Q6 e-tron, e-mobility is coming from Ingolstadt (Audi HQ) for the first time,” Duesmann said in a statement. “To this end, weÂ’re also building a dedicated battery assembly facility on site. This will enable us to retain important know-how here in Germany and train our employees in future fields.” AudiÂ’s German rivals of course are also leaning in hard on their EV transformations. That makes it all the more important that Audi get its EV strategy right—and launched in a timely manner.