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Jaguar C-X17 gets liquid metal finish for Dubai show [w/poll]

We thought the C-X17 concept looked pretty good when Jaguar unveiled it in Frankfurt a couple of months ago. But that shade of blue, while nice enough, made it look like it shared more than a similar name with the Mazda CX-7. No, what a Jaguar needs is a more luxurious paint job than electric blue. And that's just what the British automaker has given its crossover concept in time for the Dubai Motor Show this week.
What we have here is the same C-X17, but repainted in what Jaguar calls "a lustrous Liquid Aluminum liquid metal finish," and we have but to agree. What do you think? Scope it out in the fresh batch of high-res images above and cast your vote in the poll below.
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2021 Jaguar XF gets new interior, down to four-cylinder engines and sedan body style

Just like the F-Pace, the 2021 Jaguar XF luxury sedan is getting a light refresh for the new model year. Unlike the F-Pace, the XF's new features are mostly limited to interior and exterior design. And it also loses an engine and body style option. From the outside, not much has changed with the XF. It has a fresh grille, new LED headlights and taillights, and fender vents with the "Leaper" Jaguar logo. It's inside where things have really changed. A completely new dashboard design has been added, which looks a lot like the F-Pace's. It has a full-width air vent motif at the top, and below it are panels with nice stitching and either open-pore or aluminum trim. Whether all this also includes a much-needed improvement in materials quality won't be known until we test one.  The focal point is the new 11.4-inch infotainment system screen made of glass with a magnesium frame. Powering it is the latest Pivi operating system with the capability for over-the-air updates. Jaguar has also added a number of standard features including proximity entry, wireless phone charging, active noise cancellation, a surround-view camera system and a 12-speaker Meridian sound system. While some new features have been added, Jaguar has also removed some options. The XF is now only available with four-cylinder engines, as the supercharged V6 has been discontinued with no direct successor. The base engine is the turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 246 horsepower and 269 pound-feet of torque. It's available with either rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. A version of this engine making 296 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque is optional, and it comes only with all-wheel drive. The other deletion is that of the Jaguar XF Sportbrake wagon, news first reported by CNET Roadshow, and then confirmed by Jaguar. This comes just as two new luxury wagons of its size have been introduced to the market: the Audi A6 Allroad and Mercedes-Benz E-Class All-Terrain. However, like the Volvo V90 Cross Country, they're of the mildly lifted and body-cladded wagon sub-segment, which the XF Sportbrake most definitely was not. The surviving un-cladded, un-lifted wagons in this segment are now the regular E-Class and V90, but the latter can only be special ordered in the United States.  The XF will go on sale around January. It should also be priced similarly to the current XF, which starts at $52,250. Update: Jaguar confirmed that the XF Sportbrake has been discontinued for the U.S.

Child cobalt miners: Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for EVs

BERLIN - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production. Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion). Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal. More than half of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labor is used in mines. On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labor rights issues in raw materials sourcing. The partnership dubbed "Drive Sustainability" consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo. The alliance "will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector," said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network. "This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue" to address issues within the supply chain.Reporting by Andreas Cremer.Related Video: Image Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Green BMW Ford Honda Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Automakers Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Green Automakers Green Culture Electric Scania ethics mining