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Audi: record profit as 'biggest product initiative' in its history gets underway

Audi Group CEO Markus Duesmann   Even as the Audi Group (VOW.DE), VW’s luxury division, is in the midst of a huge EV transformation it still needs to perform where it counts — the bottom line. And so it is doing just that.  On Thursday the Audi Group - which is dominated volume-wise by Audi, but also includes Bentley, Lamborghini, and Ducati - posted record revenue and operating profit in 2022. That shouldnÂ’t be a surprise given what the industry has been seeing at the highest end of the market - record performances despite macroeconomic jitters across the globe. But that it's happening as the group is noteworthy.  “We are on the verge of the biggest product initiative in our history,” Audi Group CEO Markus Duesmann said at a news conference earlier on Thursday. “By 2025, we will have launched around 20 new models, more than 10 of which will be all-electric. We have set the course to go 100% electric. By 2027, we seek to offer an all-electric vehicle in each core segment.”   This is all part of Audi GroupÂ’s Vorsprung 2030 plan, which seeks to have all of the groupÂ’s new models be electric by 2026 — and to end traditional gas-powered engine production by 2033. To that end, the group saw EV deliveries jump 44% (in 2022) compared to 2021 to over 118,000 vehicles, with the share of EVs rising to 7.2% from 4.8% in the prior year. Audi is also launching its first EV using the PPE (premium platform electric), which was developed together with Porsche. That EV, the Audi Q6 e-tron, will be unveiled later this year. (Past Audi EVs shared corporate parent VWÂ’s electric platform.) “With the Audi Q6 e-tron, e-mobility is coming from Ingolstadt (Audi HQ) for the first time,” Duesmann said in a statement. “To this end, weÂ’re also building a dedicated battery assembly facility on site. This will enable us to retain important know-how here in Germany and train our employees in future fields.” AudiÂ’s German rivals of course are also leaning in hard on their EV transformations. That makes it all the more important that Audi get its EV strategy right—and launched in a timely manner.

Ford Mustang challenges Lamborghini in amazing drift battle

Engines scream and tires billow with smoke as Vaughn Gittin Jr. and Daigo Saito stage a drift battle through an abandoned Japanese resort that looks like a Russian village in this stunning clip. The high-performance ballet of these amazing machines sliding around makes this one of the best videos of the year. To fight this duel, Gittin straps into his 550-horsepower Ford Mustang, and Saito meets the pony car's challenge with a drift-prepped Lamborghini Murcielago. The drivers hit a curving road and show expert car control as the men slide these very different vehicles just inches from each other. Eventually, night descends, and they add some fire to the scene to give the stunts a more apocalyptic look. The production values for this short clip are phenomenal, and the editing makes the viewer feel right in the middle of the action. If you want to get behind the scenes of this impressive display of drifting, Speedhunters did a great job capturing the event in photos. Related Video:

Lamborghini Tecnomar 63 yacht: Raging boat

A year after being announced, the Tecnomar for Lamborghini 63 express cruiser is in the water with its first owner. The co-creation of Lamborghini Centro Stile and Italian boat maker Tecnomar, the water-borne speedster makes the most obvious nod toward the limited-edition Sian FKP 37 introduced in 2019, but gathers cues to the automaker's entire history. The Verde Gea paint matches the Sian's launch color. The helm seats come from the Huracan Evo and are fitted with Sparco seatbelts. The steering wheel, minus airbag and paddle shifters, migrated from an Aventador, the gauge cluster behind sparkling with graphics recognizable from current Lamborghinis. The throttle levers mimic the shift selector in the Urus, the same fighter-plane-style cover hovering over the engine start button. The windows, meanwhile, channel the hexagonal shapes that have ornamented vehicles from Sant'Agata Bolognese since 1963.   Oh, the irony that the heaviest and most powerful Lamborghini ever created fits into the ultra-lightweight class, a segment never graced by one of the automaker's cars. A weight-shaving carbon fiber superstructure slides into a glass-reinforced plastic (GRP) hull to keep weight down to about 53,000 pounds. Two MAN V12 diesel engines — MAN is another Volkswagen Group brand — work together to blow 4,000-hp bubbles into the water. They get the Tecnomar to a top speed of 60 knots (69 miles per hour). Burning about 100 gallons per hour at cruising speeds between 40 and 45 knots (46 and 52 mph), there's enough fuel to run for about 360 miles. That's long distance moving.   This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Occupant spaces include the galley and dinette behind the helm, and sunpads on the fore and aft decks, that latter one with a pop-out television. Accommodations below deck are dressed in leather, Alcantara, and carbon fiber, with Y-shaped motifs most familiar in Lamborghini lighting signatures. There's a master suite forward, its bed overlooked by a sunlight shaped like a Lamborghini badge, and a guest cabin with two twin berths.  There will be just 63 Tenomar for Lamborghini 63 cruisers built, and we know one of them has already been spoken for by UFC fighter Connor McGregor. Reps at Lamborghini and Tecnomar wouldn't say how many of the roughly $3.5 million craft have been sold, but they did admit that production through the end of 2022 is sold out.