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Porsche offering 250-hp 718 Cayman, Boxster in China

Porsche is studying a new approach in the lucrative Chinese market – less power. Automotive News Europe reports that the famed German manufacturer will sell less powerful versions of the 718 Cayman and Boxster in the People's Republic. In fact, the new cars are already on Porsche's Chinese consumer page. The hope, 718 chief Jan Roth told Automotive News Europe, is to replicate the success Porsche's sister company Audi has had with the TT. "A lot of the TTs that Audi sells in China, the smaller displacement 1.8-liter versions with rear-wheel instead of all-wheel-drive, are priced below that, Mercedes too," Roth said. We're guessing the comments about rear-wheel drive and a 1.8-liter engine are either typos or something was lost in translation, because Audi's Chinese website only lists a 2.0-liter engine, and most gearheads know the TT rides on a front-drive platform. Audi's success is largely down to price – 542,800 yuan ($81,549, at today's rates) for a base TT. Roth called 600,000 yuan "a magical threshold for customers in China." To hit that price point, Porsche is dropping the 718's 2.0-liter, turbocharged four-cylinder – offered North America and Europe with 300 horsepower in base form – to 250 ponies. The Cayman starts at 588,000 yuan ($88,340) while the Boxster is 598,000 yuan ($89,842). The 350-hp Cayman S will carry on unchanged. According to ANE, Roth said Porsche's Chinese strategy could drive 718 sales up to 4,500 units a year by 2017, nearly double the 2,500 Boxsters and Caymans sold in 2015. Could a similar lower-tiered strategy work in the US? We'll need to put on our speculation hats. In the US, the base car is about 81 percent of the price of the 350-horsepower S model. If Porsche were to offer the same discount for the hypothetical, 250-hp 718s, it could set the starting prices at $43,659 for the Cayman and $45,360 for the Boxster. That lines up neatly with the $43,500 TT Coupe, but this theoretical 250-hp Boxster would fall about $1,640 less than Audi's soft top. We shouldn't forget Porsche's expansive options catalog – we doubt there'd be a lot of sub-$50,000 718s on dealer lots. But still, slashing over $10,000 off the price of a $54,000 car is a big ask – Porsche would almost have to de-content such a lower-tier model. But – and this is a Kim K-sized but – moving the 718 downmarket would open the brand to a new range of consumers. Not only would these new cars be the cheapest sportscars from Porsche money could buy.

A few pre-race notes and a lot of photos from the 24 Hours of Le Mans

The 82nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans is on.
Audi has won 12 of the last 15 events, the scion of Auto Union is trying to make it 13 this year. To do so, it will have to overcome a situation faced only three other times during its dominance of La Sarthe: underdog status. Toyota has won the first two races of the year and claimed pole for this race, the rumor being that this year it's Toyota's race to lose.
And then there's Porsche. It's been 16 years since the Stuttgart brand raced on the top rung at Le Mans, three years years since it announced its return, just a year since it acquired Mark Webber in a signing that wasn't subtle and a few months since we got eyes on the 919 Hybrid.

2015 will be the biggest year ever for cars at CES

Like the SEMA Show, major automakers are paying increasing attention to the CES, with 2015 expected to be one of the most auto focused yet. Ford, Volkswagen, Toyota, General Motors, Hyundai, Mazda, Audi, BMW and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will all be in attendance when CES 2015 kicks off next week, taking up a record-breaking 165,000 square feet of space at the Las Vegas Convention Center. "We've come a long way from a single car on a carpet," Ford's Alan Hall told Bloomberg. Unlike SEMA, or a more traditional auto show, like the upcoming festivities in Detroit, CES doesn't necessarily focus on entire cars or the way they perform, but on the way our technology will interact with vehicles, and in how those vehicles will deliver information to drivers. "CES has become a major launch point for a lot of the big automakers," IHS tech analyst Mark Boyadjis told Bloomberg. "CES is a way for them to get on a global stage for technology." As for what kind of wares automakers will trot out in Las Vegas, we already know that BMW will show off an autonomous i3 electric car that can navigate its way through a multistory car park and can be hailed via a smartwatch app. According to Bloomberg, Hyundai will show off its own smartwatch app for the Genesis sedan, while Audi and Mercedes-Benz will show off autonomous vehicles next week. Automakers won't be the only companies looking to capitalize on CES. Tech firms, like chipmaker Nvidia, are becoming increasingly involved in the automotive game and will be in town showing their wares off to OEMs. "Two years ago, our booth would have been filled with PCs and people playing video games," Danny Shapiro, Nvidia's senior director for automotive business, told Bloomberg. "This year we made a strategic decision to shift the focus of the booth on automotive and de-prioritize some of the other things." Needless to say, you can expect to see a lot of news out of Las Vegas come next week. Stay tuned. News Source: BloombergImage Credit: Julie Jacobson / AP CES Audi BMW Chrysler Fiat Ford GM Hyundai Mazda Toyota Volkswagen Technology CES 2015