2006 Audi A4 Quattro Sedan 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Finalists for 2014 Green Car of the Year announced

The list of finalists for the 2014 Green Car of the Year has been announced, and in a genuinely bizarre twist, there's only one hybrid and no electric vehicles among the five contestants, despite the arrival of cars like the BMW i3 and Tesla Model S. Taking the place of the EVs are a pair of diesels, repping a technology that last won a Green Car of the Year award in 2009, when the Audi A3 TDI took the title. No diesel was in the running for last year's award.
Naturally, both of the diesel finalists are fielded by the Germans - with BMW's 328d and Audi's A6 TDI getting the nod. In the case of the 3 Series, BMW installed a 2.0-liter, turbodiesel, capable of delivering 180 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, while returning 45 miles per gallon on the highway. Audi and its larger, 3.0-liter, V6 turbodiesel produce quite a bit more grunt, with 240 hp and 428 lb-ft of grunt, but net a very impressive 38 mpg on the highway in the A6.
Finalists for this year's awards include two diesels, three gas-powered cars and a plug-in hybrid.

Audi stretches the A8L even more for one special European buyer

An anonymous European buyer decided that the standard Audi A8L just wasn't long enough, so this wealthy person ordered a one-off A8L Extended with six doors. It's capable of seating six people in luxury. The massive sedan now measures 20.9 feet versus 17.3 feet for the standard, already large A8L. The wheelbase also grows to 13.8 feet from 10.2 feet for the regular version. You might expect the A8L Extended to have facing seats inside like a limousine, but all the passengers actually look forward. The decision probably doesn't aid in having a conversation during the drive, but it's what the buyer wanted. The third row has an entertainment display and refrigerated storage box. The second and third rows also have power adjustable seats in beige Valcona leather. It took a year for Audi's engineers to figure out how to build this beast while retaining the A8's rigidity. The builders eventually settled on adding extruded aluminum sections to the side sills and center tunnel to get the extra length. They also included extra cross braces in the roof, and a 7.9-foot glass panel to lets more light into the cabin. The powertrain consists of Audi's 3.0 TFSI with 306 horsepower and 325 pound-feet of torque and an eight-speed automatic gearbox. The A8L Extended retains the company's Quattro all-wheel drive system and can reportedly accelerate to 62 miles per hour in 7.1 seconds. That's not lightning quick but still plenty for a vehicle that weighs 5,331 pounds. The A8L Extended likely won't remain a one-off for long. According to Audi, the customer response has been quite positive, and the company has already received requests to build more. Representative unique specimen: Audi A8 L extended Premium manufacturer develops and builds 6.36-meter (20.9 ft) sedan to special customer order One-off specimen meets same standards as production model Comfortable and spacious seating for six Audi puts the customer first, however out of the ordinary their requirements may be. An example of this is the Audi A8*: at the request of a European customer the premium brand has built a first one-off version of the sedan in king-size format. Measuring 6.36 meters (20.9 ft) in length and with a wheelbase of 4.22 meters (13.8 ft), the A8 L extended* affords top-class comfort for passengers occupying all of its six seats. A concept that generates customer: Audi has further requests for the custom product already.

Everybody's doing flying cars, so why aren't we soaring over traffic already?

"Where's my flying car?" has been the meme for impending technology that never materializes since before there were memes. And the trough of disillusionment for vehicles that can take to sky continues to nosedive, despite a nonstop fascination with flying cars and a recent rash of announcements about the technology, particularly from traditional automakers. Earlier this month, Toyota applied for an eye-popping patent for a flying car that has wheels with spring-loaded pop-out helicopter rotors. The patent filing says the wheels/rotors would be electrically powered, while in on-land mode the vehicle would have differential steering like tracked vehicles such as tanks and bulldozers. At an airshow in July, Aston Martin unveiled its Volante Vision Concept, an autonomous hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) vehicle it developed with Rolls-Royce. Aston says the Volante can fly at top speeds of around 200 mph and bills it as a luxury car for the skies. Audi used the Geneva Motor Show in March to unveil a flying car concept called the Pop.Up Next it developed with Airbus and Italdesign. If the Pop.Up Next, an electric and autonomous quadcopter/city car combo, gets stuck in traffic, an app can be used to summon an Airbus-developed drone to pick up the passenger compartment pod, leaving the chassis behind. Audi said that the Pop.Up Next is a "flexible on-demand concept that could open up mobility in the third dimension to people in cities." But Audi also acknowledged that at this point it has no plans to develop it. The cash-stoked, skies-the-limit Silicon Valley tech crowd is also bullish on flying cars. The startup Kitty Hawk that's backed by Google co-founder Larry Page announced in June that it's taking pre-orders for its single-seat electric Flyer that's powered by 10 propellers and is capable of vertical takeoffs and landings. The current version can only fly up to 20 mph and 10 feet in the air and has a flight time of just 12 to 20 minutes on a full charge. The Flyer is considered a recreational vehicle, so doesn't require a pilot's license. Uber says it plans to launch its more ambitious Elevate program and UberAIR service in 2023. "Uber customers will be able to push a button and get a flight on-demand with uberAIR in Dallas, Los Angeles and a third international market," Uber Elevate promises on its website.