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If you're a Daimler exec, you'll soon have to drive an EV

Luckily, for Daimler's "senior level" managers, the company has a lot of plug-in vehicle options. Lucky because "in the future," these managers will have to drive the company's electrified vehicles. This most likely means a plug-in hybrid – something like the C 350 e or the GLE 500 e 4MATIC – but it could also be the all-electric and peppy Smart ED or the B-Class EV. Board member Ola Kallenius said in a statement (available below) that this new policy, "We are continuing on the path of zero-emission driving with consistency. This is why we are making electric mobility an integral part of the everyday lives of our top management to set an example and to provide a clear role model." It's a big change from five years ago, when Daimler's director of fuel cell and battery drive development, Christian Mohrdieck, was willing to talk up the drawbacks EVs face. Even a year ago, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche explained the financial hardships involved in making EVs. But, EV technology continues to change, and so, perhaps, do the attitudes inside Daimler. As EV advocate Chelsea Sexton said on Facebook regarding this new policy, "This should be standard procedure in any automaker seeking a leadership role in the plug-in vehicle movement. Commitment starts at the top." Related Video: Electric Mobility: Daimler Management leads by example Daimler is once again setting a new milestone on the road to zero-emission driving: In the future managers will drive electrified company cars. Furthermore, Daimler is this year set to invest a further 30 million euros into extending the company's own charging infrastructure across many of its sites. This will also benefit employees, who have access to a growing range of vehicles with alternative drive systems. Stuttgart. It represents a further commitment from Daimler to an electric future for mobility: "We are continuing on the path of zero-emission driving with consistency", states Ola Kallenius, member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG responsible for Mercedes-Benz Cars Sales and Marketing, about the importance of the current initiative. "This is why we are making electric mobility an integral part of the everyday lives of our top management to set an example and to provide a clear role model." The agreement applies to the company's senior levels of management and focuses on plug-in hybrids.

Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 teases gullwing doors in video

Because these are the times we live in, automakers tease their biggest and best debuts mercilessly before finally dropping the curtain. That's why we're writing about the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Concept again. Here's a new video, posted on Mercedes' Instagram page, showing even more of the hulking two-door coupe. For one, it looks like Mercedes is revisiting gullwing doors. There's a brief snippet of the doors in the open position with a red light – possibly a brake light – bisecting the roof. The video also gives us a couple of good looks at the taillights, which are super-model skinny, just like the lamps up front. Look close at the rear three-quarter cut, and you'll spot a strong chrome strip that accentuates and breaks up those beefy rear haunches. It's hard to tell where they fit in with the chrome strips on the front fenders and hood, so we'll probably need to wait until the big debut to see how it all works out. As we've said twice already, the Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 debuts on August 18. Stay tuned. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Dysfunctional dashboards: Auto suppliers competing to clean up the cockpit

SAN FRANCISCO - Peer at the instrument panel on your new car and you see sleek digital gauges and multicolored screens. But behind the dashboard, here's what US auto supplier Visteon Corp found: a mess. As automotive cockpits become crammed with ever more digital features such as navigation and entertainment systems, the electronics holding it all together have become a rat's nest of components made by different parts makers. Now the race is on to clean up the clutter. Visteon is among a slew of suppliers aiming to make dashboard innards simpler, cheaper and lighter as the industry accelerates toward a so-called virtual cockpit - an all-digital dashboard that will help usher in the era of self-driving cars. What's at stake is a piece of the $37 billion cockpit electronics market, estimated by research firm IHS Market to nearly double to $62 billion by 2022. Accounting firm PwC estimates that electronics could account for up to 20 percent of a car's value in the next two years, up from 13 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, the number of suppliers for those components is likely to dwindle as automakers look to work with fewer companies capable of doing more, according to Mark Boyadjis, principal automotive analyst at IHS Markit. "The complexity of engineering 10 different systems from 10 different suppliers is no longer something an automaker wants to do," Boyadjis said. He estimates manufacturers eventually will work with two to three cockpit suppliers for each model, down from six to 10 today. DIGITAL MAKEOVER One of Visteon's solutions is a computer module dubbed "SmartCore." This cockpit domain controller operates a vehicle's instrument cluster, infotainment system and other features, all on the same tiny piece of silicon. So far this year, the Detroit-based company has landed two big contracts for undisclosed sums. One, announced in April, is with China's second-largest automaker, Dongfeng Motor Corp. The other is with Mercedes-Benz, Reuters has learned. Mercedes did not respond to requests for comment. Another unnamed European automaker plans to use the system in 2018, according to Visteon. Visteon is going all-in on cockpit electronics, having shed its remaining automotive climate and interiors businesses in 2016. The bet so far is paying off. The company secured $1.5 billion in new business in the first quarter, helped by growth in China. Visteon's stock price is up more than 50 percent over the past year.