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GM global sales off slightly this year

General Motors saw a slight dip in global sales through the first nine months of the year. In that time, the automaker moved 7.2 million vehicles – down 1.3 percent from 2014. For the third quarter alone, the numbers were down 3.1 percent with a worldwide volume of 2.3 million. The automaker had a better performance in North America, as Chevrolet is showing strength with some of its best crossover sales ever, and pickup trucks were up 16 percent for the year. Volume on the continent advanced 4.9 percent through September to nearly 2.7 million vehicles. The third quarter improved that figure even further with a 5.2-percent jump and deliveries of about 931,000. Elsewhere in the world, things were more mixed in the third quarter. European deliveries jumped 1.1 percent, but the company was still down 6.3 percent there for the year so far. Volume in China also fell 4.2 percent, but the country showed 1.6-percent growth through the first nine months. South America took the biggest, hit with Q3 numbers dropping 30.8 percent. While GM is seeing a small sales drop globally, the company could still climb up the ranking of the world's largest automakers by the end of the year. Volkswagen had the top spot in the first half of 2015, but since then, the German company has been rocked by an international emissions scandal. GM Sold 7.2 Million Vehicles in the First Nine Months of 2015 DETROIT – General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) sold 7.2 million vehicles globally in the first nine months of 2015. The company posted sales increases in four of its five largest markets, with record sales in China and strong retail sales gains in the United States. Total sales were down 1 percent, due primarily to the company's previously announced decisions to strategically reduce its presence in certain markets, as well as difficult market conditions in South America. "Our unwavering focus on the customer is paying off in our largest and most important markets as we execute one successful launch after another in the right segments," said GM President Dan Ammann. "At the same time, we have reacted quickly to challenging macroeconomic environments in other markets and have shown the discipline to exit situations where we see no long-term path to acceptable returns." Examples of GM's recent success include: GM truck sales in North America were up 16 percent in the first nine months of 2015, driven by a 17 percent increase in Chevrolet truck deliveries in the United States.

Electric Corvette sets mile record at 186.8 MPH

When we first saw the Genovation GXE all-electric Corvette on its stand at the Battery Show 2015, we were given some impressive specs – a three-second 0-to-60 run and a 200-mile-per-hour top speed – all made possible by over 700 electric horses spittin' out more than 600 pound-feet of torque. Turns out, it may just live up to that high-speed hype. With Bob Simpson – project manager (and EVDrive co-founder) – riding shotgun and multi-record holder Johnny Bohmer holding the wheel and applying a heavy right foot, the battery-powered C6 Z06 hit 186.8 mph on the tarmac of the NASA Shuttle Landing Facility at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. That run puts the GXE in the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA) record books under the heading of "Top Speed Street Legal Electric Car." According to the press release, which you can read below, the record was set on the car's first day of testing. Its builders have confidence it's good for even more. Though they haven't said if, or where, further speed runs would occur, we can't help but think a one-on-one match up would be interesting, say, against a certain Zombie 222. Similarly fast – it reached 177.8 mph from a dead stop at the Texas Mile – it would make for a classic confrontation. Genovation vresus Blood Shed Motors; vintage pony car versus modern sportscar; DC drivetrain versus AC, the possibilities are endless. Genovation offers its GXE for $330,000 (or $290,000, if your supply the Vette donor). It features a 6-speed manual transmission, a 44kWh battery pack and is said to be good for 150 miles on a full charge. Related Video: FLORIDA (2/29/2016) -- Genovation Cars is proud to announce a new top speed record achieved by its prototype high-performance all-electric Corvette, the Genovation eXtreme Electric or GXE. The vehicle was being tested at the Johnny Bohmer Proving Grounds/Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida, conducting research to improve vehicle performance. During the course of testing, the car broke the record for the Top Speed Street Legal Electric Car category with a speed of 186.8 mph on the date of February 23, 2016. The record was certified by the International Mile Racing Association (IMRA). The previous record was 177 mph, set by a Finnish prototype car. The GXE, based on a 2006 Z06 Corvette, includes a state-of-the-art battery management system, inverters, batteries and electric motors that produce in excess of 700-hp and 600 lb-ft of torque.

The cars and trucks of 'Transformers: Rise of the Beasts'

The latest spectacle in the Transformers franchise is about to hit the theaters. The final trailer was released, giving us peeks at what appears to be a pretty boilerplate story about the end of the world. There's some kind of ancient interplanetary war brewing and it's up to some teenagers to sort it out with the help of their robot buddies. But this is Autoblog, so we're not even going to try to suss out a plot so thin it won't hold a spittle globule's worth of water. We'll just go over the cars. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts | Official Final Trailer (2023 Movie) Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8: Mirage So far the star of the film, car-wise, looks to be a blue-on-silver 964 Porsche named Mirage that is voiced by Pete Davidson. It's been the most promoted of the movie cars, even more so than formerly central characters like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime. Except, this isn't just any ordinary 911; it's a Carrera RS 3.8, a European-exclusive model of which Porsche only built 55 units. As the name implies, it came with a bored-out M64 turbo flat-six as opposed to the 964 Turbo's 3.6. It wore the Turbo's wide-body badonk with a bi-level rear wing, but Porsche reportedly stripped out 570 pounds' worth of weight despite embiggening key performance parts like brakes and wheels. Fortunately, no actual RS 3.8s were used in the movie. Producers instead built five cars for different purposes — shooting closeups of actors, jumps, the obligatory driving backwards real fast — out of lesser 911s. However, the sound department did record the engine note of an actual RS 3.8 for accuracy, as the higher crank speeds of the 3.8 have a distinctive sound.  In the original 1984 Transformers lineup Mirage was a Ligier JS11 Formula 1 car, complete with faux Gitanes cigarette branding (on a children's toy!). An F1 racer would raise an eyebrow on the streets, so it made sense to update to a street-legal sports car. If you're wondering why this Porsche isn't the character Jazz, whose original vehicle mode was an ultra-cool Martini-liveried Porsche 935, well, he was remade into a Pontiac Solstice voiced by Darius McCrary during the GM product placement rewrite in 2007's Transformers reboot, then unceremoniously killed. 1977 Chevrolet Camaro: Bumblebee Formerly the franchise star, Bumblebee gets far less screen time in the trailers. He's still a Camaro, but because Transformers: Rise of the Beasts takes place in 1994 he's not a fith-gen.