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Mercedes fights off late BMW surge to claim 2013 luxury sales crown

The king is dead - long live the king. Mercedes-Benz is now your new US sales champion in the fiercely competitive luxury market, deposing the champ BMW, which has enjoyed annual supremacy for the past two years.
Thanks in no small part to the dynamite launch of the new, affordable CLA-Class, not to mention a redesigned E-Class and hot-selling S-Class, Mercedes moved 33,007 units in December alone, while sales in 2013 were up 14 percent, to 312,534. BMW, meanwhile, managed to sell 309,280 units in 2013. It was far from a sure thing for the Stuttgart-based brand, though, as BMW managed to nearly halve its rival's sales lead heading into the last month of 2013.
"We saw record sales, flexed our muscles across the entire product line from top to bottom and brought the customer experience to an all-time high," said Steve Cannon, Mercedes USA's CEO. While we don't have individual figures, it seems at first blush that the CLA was really the car that pushed Mercedes over the top.

ROEV lets you use multiple charging networks with one account

It may be a textbook case of a first-world problem, but any EV driver who doesn't want to carry two or three plug-in vehicle charging station cards when one would do is about to get a little smile on their face. This morning at the LA Auto Show, the new ROEV Association was announced that will let EV drivers carry just the one card. While you would think the all-caps ROEV stands for something, none of the pre-announcement materials nor the website explain it that way. Instead, it seems to just be a play on rove, which makes a lot of sense. There are three charging networks involved in ROEV: Blink, ChargePoint, and EVgo. Conveniently, these are the three largest in the US and have a combined 17,500 public chargers across the country. If you've got an account with one of these three networks, once ROEV goes into effect (expected in the spring of 2016), you'll be able to use that card at any participating charger without signing up for another account. Your personal details are kept private, ROEV says, and the companies coordinate behind the scenes to make it work. Pricing details were not disclosed. Besides the three main charging networks, two automakers are also founding members of ROEV: BMW and Nissan. ROEV says that Audi and Honda have also have already joined the Association and the organization wants to pull in all EV stakeholders to make electric vehicle charging easy. Fans of EV technology will note that ROEV has nothing to do with promoting either the CHAdeMO or the SAE Combo (CCS) fast charging standard. The Leaf is a CHAdeMO car while the i3 uses CCS, for example. The charging networks, of course, provide both kinds of plugs and don't promote one over the other. Tesla and its Supercharger network are not involved in ROEV, but Tesla drivers can, of course, participate in ROEV.

BMW makes X7 in Spartanburg official

BMW has made it official - there will be a flagship crossover called X7, and it will be built right here in the US of A. The announcement was made today, confirming rumors of the new model at the Spartanburg, SC factory that broke earlier this week.
"Plant Spartanburg was built to enhance and expand the BMW lineup, underscoring the BMW Group commitment to the United States" said Dr. Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the BMW board of management in a statement. "In addition to the X3, X5, X6, and the new X4, we are today announcing another all-new, larger X model to be manufactured exclusively at this plant for our world markets: the X7."
BMW will spend $1 billion by 2016 upgrading its South Carolina factory, which already produces the X3, X5 and X6. The plant is currently capable of producing 300,000 units per year, but with the big investment from BMW, capacity will climb to 450,000 units. 800 jobs will be added as a result of the investment and new and upcoming models.