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Get lost in Evo's sublime 2013 Car of the Year testing

Every year Evo stages its Car of the Year test, bringing the best performance cars in the world to one location for an epic shootout. This year the magazine pitted eight CotY finalists against each other on Route Napoleon in Southern France - Evo claims it's the "best road in the world" - and then proceeded to nitpick the smallest of faults on each car until the winner could be named. You see, this year's lineup of machines was just so good that only one car obviously wasn't CotY material from the get-go. Can you guess which one judging from the list below?
- Aston Martin V12 Vantage S
- Audi R8 V10 Plus

Audi, MIT, GE start cab ridesharing study in New York City

Audi, Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) and General Electric are getting together to study something that won't likely be thrilling for New York City cab drivers. But there are bigger fish to fry and keeping cabbies happy. The German automaker is working with MIT's Senseable City Lab and GE on a study designed to get a better handle on how ridesharing in the city's cabs could work and how such a practice could cut both emissions and traffic in the largest US city. The program, dubbed HubCab, will track more than 150 million taxi trips in a year. The broader idea is to figure out how ridesharing could cut trips by 40 percent. That's not likely to please the holders of those coveted NYC taxicab medallions but would certainly benefit the city in other ways. "The aim of HubCab is to spark thinking about ways of utilizing publicly available data as we explore new concepts for mobility, especially in crowded urban contexts," said Audi spokesman Brad Stertz. Stertz allowed that there remained many legal and "customer acceptance" issues to address with ridesharing and that there was no timeframe for concluding the study or when the findings would be put into effect via an actual ridesharing system. At least it's a start. Check out Audi's press release below. MIT, Audi launch HubCab project in New York City • HubCab will track more than 150 million taxi trips in NYC to gain insight on ride share scenarios • Insights will inform researchers on how car sharing systems can lower vehicle emissions, reduce congestion, and save money and time • Scientific study conducted at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Senseable City Lab with support of VW Group's ERL, Audi and GE MIT, in partnership with Audi and GE, launches HubCab – a transportation tracking tool aimed at reducing commuting congestion, decreasing vehicle emissions and dramatically lowering the cost of mobility infrastructure. HubCab tracks more than 150 million taxi rides in New York City over the course of a year. With this information, researchers can identify commuter travel patterns and work to develop a more efficient car share system. MIT researchers say HubCab technology could not only save people money and time, but allow users to better plan their taxi rides around the city, potentially reducing the number of trips by 40%.

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.