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U.S. issues new tariff threat, this time against British-built cars

WASHINGTON — Britain is the United States' closest ally but their long friendship may be sorely tested as the two countries try to forge a new trade agreement after Britain's exit from the European Union. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Saturday in London that he was optimistic that a bilateral deal with Britain could be reached as soon as this year. But Mnuchin gave up no ground after a second meeting with his UK counterpart, Sajid Javid. Javid has insisted that Britain will proceed with a unilateral digital services tax, despite a U.S. threat to levy retaliatory tariffs on British-made autos. Mnuchin told reporters after Saturday's meeting that such taxes would discriminate against big U.S. tech companies like Alphabet Inc's Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. The UK Treasury declined to comment on the private meeting. The divide highlights the challenges ahead as the Trump administration seeks a new bilateral agreement with Britain, part of a broader push to rebalance relations with nearly all its major trading partners. The stakes are high — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pegged the trade deal with United States as a way to ease the pain of breaking with Europe, Britain's largest trade partner. U.S. President Donald Trump, has promised a "massive" trade deal to support Brexit, the product of a populist movement similar to his "America First" agenda. The goodwill and special relationship the two countries have enjoyed for decades may not count for much, experts say. "Trump is not going to be doing Johnson any favors," said Amanda Sloat, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution in Washington. "He's not going to give him a trade deal without major concessions." Even before the digital tax issue arose, the Trump administration threatened to tax foreign car imports, which could hit British-made Jaguar, Land Rover, Mini, and Honda Civic hatchback cars. Stiff U.S. trade demands include increased access for U.S. farm goods, concessions that will be difficult for Britain's entrenched natural food culture to swallow. The United States also wants Britain to change the way its National Health Service prices drugs and allow in more U.S. pharmaceuticals, which could prove politically unpopular for Johnson's government. Washington's demand that London block Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies Co Ltd for national security reasons could also cloud talks.

First Ride: 2014 Jaguar F-Type [w/video]

Shotgun In Coventry's First Sports Car In Decades
For every car, there is a passionate group of fans who love it, and the F-Type already has a few million rabid followers. These are fabulous things, sports cars, and we're very happy that Jaguar is making one again. Finally. (Before you start relishing the prospect of correcting us, the XK is really a grand tourer, not a sports car.)
The main question, however, will be whether someone in a position to buy a lifestyle-enhancing yet impractical F-Type will do so in the face of more established competitors from Porsche, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW. The last time Jaguar built a true two-seater sports car (1974 E-Type; the last of the XJ220 limited run in 1994 doesn't count in this league), most of today's new buyers were too young or may not yet have been born. At any rate, the F-Type has a lot of work to do for the brand beyond just selling itself.

Jaguar I-Pace EV has a new pedestrian warning sound: Listen to it here

Jaguar's production of its first electric car means it also has to deal with a problem everybody else has been trying to solve: noise, or rather, the lack thereof. People can hear an engine at low speeds when they're walking along a sidewalk. The same can't be said for silent-operating electric cars. We wrote about Chevrolet's latest solution to the noise problem a few weeks back, and now Jaguar is sharing what it came up with for the I-Pace. The noise it didn't use is almost more interesting than the one it did, though. Jag says its first iteration was meant to be spacecraft/UFO inspired, but apparently it was so convincing that people tended to look up at the sky instead of at the road. Engineers switched it to what seems like a pretty general hum sound for production. Take a listen yourself in the video above — you'll hear the noise at the 40-second mark, and a few other spots after that. The sound is emitted from a speaker behind the grille at speeds up to about 12 mph. It'll change in pitch and volume to correspond to the increasing or decreasing speed of the vehicle — it even changes tone when you shift into reverse to signal a change in direction. Jaguar says the noise is no longer needed at speeds above 12 mph because tire and wind noise become sufficient enough at that speed. Chevy turns the noise off on the Volt at about 20 mph, however, showing that manufacturers haven't really come to a consensus on what should be happening. A U.S. law that hasn't gone into effect yet will ask manufacturers to keep the noise at up to 18.6 mph, though. We happen to be partial to the jaguar growl heard right at the end of the video as a warning sound. That's how you make an entrance with a Jaguar. These kinds of systems are necessary to warn those who might be blind or visually impaired, but distracted walkers are a huge demographic of people needing a warning too. Everybody walks around with their head buried in a phone nowadays, making silent vehicles a hazard of our own habits. Jaguar says it specifically engineered the noise so that it doesn't intrude upon the cabin, so only pedestrians are bothered by the hum when slowly plodding through cities. Jaguar I-Pace pedestrian warning sound View 10 Photos Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Green Jaguar Green Driving Technology Crossover SUV Electric Luxury pedestrian safety jaguar i-pace