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Porsche's Tesla-fighter could have 600 hp and 300-mile range

Will this be the Ragin' Pajun? Some details on the all-electric "Tesla fighter" from Porsche have been revealed by UK's Car magazine, and, to put it bluntly, the model that has preliminarily been dubbed the 717 will be an absolute beast when it hits the road as early as 2019. With some technological help from parent company Volkswagen, Porsche is planning a model that will have about a 300-mile single-charge range, and a version that may deliver as much as 600 horsepower. The four-door will also be four-wheel-drive, with one electric motor per axle, and four-wheel steering, all for the sake of consistency, Car says. Additionally, unlike the Tesla Model S, with its battery packs running flat along the floor of the vehicle, the 717's battery layout will be far more complex, complete with bulkhead walls and 108 separate battery pouches. Last month, German publication Auto Motor und Sport reported that the Panamera's junior variant, aka the Pajun, was indeed going to be an all-electric affair. Still, beyond a few digital renderings and an estimated single-charge range of 250 miles, few details were revealed.

J.D. Power: Vehicle dependability at all-time high, Lexus and Porsche lead

Each year, J.D. Power and Associates surveys original owners of three-year-old vehicles to find out what kinds of problems they have had experienced over the last 12 months, and then it uses this data to create its annual Vehicle Dependability Study. This means that the models in the 2013 study are 2010 model year vehicles, and J.D. Power rates each make as well as the top individual models based on how many problems were experienced per 100 vehicles (PP100).
Debunking the idea that carryover models are more dependable than new or updated models, the 2013 study found that the average carryover model experienced 133 PP100, while all-new or redesigned vehicles for the 2010 model year had 116 PP100; vehicles that received minor changes fared the best with just 111 PP100. The overall average for all makes was 126 PP100, which is the lowest figure since the findings were first issued in 1989.

The Volkswagen Group switches official language to English

The Volkswagen Group can't be fairly thought of as entirely German anymore, so the news that the company is switching its official language to English to help attract managers and executives is a rational, if surprising, decision. While many VW Group companies are still staidly German in character and culture, consider the other companies that it controls: Bentley (British), Bugatti (French), Ducati and Lamborghini (Italian), Skoda (Czech), Scania trucks (Swedish), and SEAT (Spanish). Not to mention the large Volkswagen Group of America operation, which constructs cars in Chattanooga, TN. Volkswagen's explicit motivation is to improve management recruitment – making sure the company isn't losing out on candidates for important positions because they can't speak German – and that's inherently sensible in a globalized economy. Particularly considering, like it or lump it, that English is the lingua franca of said global economy. It also should make it inherently easier to communicate between its world-wide subsidiaries and coordinate operations. It's hard to say for sure if this will have any impact on the consumer, although it's easy to see the benefits if, say, VW Group hires some American product planners or engineers and they push for features and designs that more closely suit American needs. After all, the US is a hugely important market for any manufacturer, and so the switch to English almost certainly has something to do with the outsized influence of the US in the global economy. And there doesn't seem to be a downside from a purely rational perspective, although it could mean that the Group's corporate culture becomes less German. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on your perspective. Related Video: Image Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Audi Bentley Bugatti Porsche Volkswagen SEAT Skoda