2011 Bmw 128 I on 2040-cars

Auto blog

BMW rethinks all-wheel-drive M cars

BMW M hasn't been able to decide whether it wants to jump on the all-wheel-drive bandwagon or not (with the exceptions of the X5 M and the X6 M, which are based on AWD architecture). That might be changing though, since M's president Friedrich Nitschke recently realized that 70 to 80 percent of Mercedes-Benz E63 AMGs are ordered with all-wheel drive. Earlier this year, Nitschke said that there were no new AWD M models planned, so this comes as somewhat of a surprise.
"On our cars we are thinking of all-wheel drive, but it won't come before we get the successor of the M5 and M6," Nitschke said in a Motoring report. "That's the timing and it's not practical to react in the current life cycles."
"On our cars we are thinking of all-wheel drive." - Friedrich Nitschke, BMW

Recharge Wrap-up: BMW to test autonomous cars, Korea bans sales of BMW, Nissan, Porsche models

BMW will test autonomous cars on public roads by the second half of 2017. The German automaker, with partners Mobileye and Intel, will operate a fleet of 40 self-driving vehicles using a "scalable architecture" that will be made available to other automakers. The partners plan to offer products ranging from key components to "a complete end-to-end solution" for autonomous driving. Since parting ways with Tesla, Mobileye also recently announced it would provide its technology to Lucid Motors. For BMW, it all leads up to its fully autonomous iNext model slated for introduction in 2021. See the video above, and read more in the press release from Intel. South Korea has banned the sale of certain models from BMW, Nissan, and Porsche over emissions cheating. Following an investigation, regulators determined emissions testing documents to be falsified. The country's Ministry of Environment has fined the three automakers a total of $5.9 million, and revoked the certification of 4,523 vehicles across banned 10 models. Six of the models were still on sale, while the other four have been discontinued. Read more from Automotive News Europe. China's prices for the Cadillac CT6 Plug-in are significantly higher than those announced for the US. The plug-in hybrid version of the luxury sedan recently went on sale with the two variants priced at RMB 558,800 and RMB 658,800. At the time of this writing, that's $80,420 and $94,812. Cadillac announced it would bring the CT6 Plug-In Í– which is built in China – to the US in the spring of 2017, starting at $76,090 before federal and local tax incentives. Hybrid Cars points out that China's own generous incentives could help to make it more competitive. The offering of a charger with free installation as well as an eight-year warranty on the electric powertrain should help, too. Read more at Hybrid Cars. A Connecticut court has ruled in favor of Tesla's gallery showroom in Greenwich. Last May, the Connecticut Automotive Retailers Association brought the suit to block the showroom on Greenwich Avenue, which has now been dismissed by the Connecticut Superior Court. Tesla cannot offer test drives, sell cars, or operate a Supercharger at the location, but it can sell other branded items and educate the public about its vehicles. It's possible that the issue of Tesla's direct sales model could come up again this year in Connecticut state legislature. Read more at Teslarati .

Dashcam catches oblivious car thief in the act

A car thief from North London became an overnight internet sensation when he was recorded making a phone call by a car's dashcam. According to The Guardian, an unidentified car thief stole the BMW i3 in the early hours of February 7. As he drove through the nearly deserted streets of the London borough of Enfield, he made a phone call to someone who may have been a potential buyer for the car. Unbeknownst to the thief, the car's dashcam was recording the entire time. The thief describes the car to the person on the other end of the call and tells them where he planned to park it – at his flat near North Middlesex Hospital. "Listen, I ain't never been in a car like this," the thief told his customer. "This car, will leave, anything for dust! It is off! It can move!" he shouts off-camera. He's not wrong. The little BMW i3 packs a electric motor that generates 125 kilowatts, or 170 horsepower and 184 pound-feet of torque in internal-combustion terms. The thief never got the chance to unload the car, however. The next day the car's owner located it via GPS tracking data and recovered his vehicle without incident. Dinah Rose, a friend of the BMW's owner, uploaded the dashcam footage to YouTube and tweeted about it on May 15. The video immediately went viral, garnering nearly 50,000 views in twenty-four hours. Since the vehicle was recovered without incident, London Metropolitan Police have no plans for further action or to track down the thief's identity. According to the Metropolitan Police's London crime figures, more than 71,000 motor vehicle crimes were reported in the city between March 2015 and March 2016. Of those reported crimes, 2,753 were reported in the borough of Enfield, where this incident occurred. Motor vehicle crimes are defined by the Metropolitan Police as theft of and from vehicles. Related Video: