2022 Land Rover Range Rover P250 R-dynamic S on 2040-cars

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Here's today's round of auto plant closures in response to coronavirus

More automakers have shuttered factories, as businesses everywhere work to slow the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus — and as the pandemic slows sales and disrupts parts supply chains. On Friday, the following closures were announced: • Volvo will close its factories in Sweden and the United States from March 26 to April 14. Volvo's U.S. facility, in Charleston, South Carolina, makes the S60 sedan. Its assembly plant in Torslanda, Sweden, turns out the XC90, SC60, and V90. Other Swedish facilities make engines and component parts. A Volvo factory in Ghent, Belgium, that builds the XC40 and V60 closed earlier this week and is expected to remain offline until April 6. Volvo's four factories in China have been reopened after a shutdown earlier this year. • Jaguar Land Rover announced that it will suspend production at its assembly plants in the UK over the coming week. The shutdown is expected to last until April 20. Elsewhere, production continues at the company's factories in India and Brazil, and JLR's joint-venture plant in China reopened at the end of February. • Bentley is closing its factory in Crewe, England, for four weeks, effective today. • Bugatti has put its atelier in Molsheim, France, on hiatus. No date was given for when assembly of its supercars might resume. • Mercedes-Benz on Monday will shut down its SUV factory in Alabama and its van assembly plant in South Carolina. Both will remain closed for a minimum of two weeks. Tesla yesterday revealed that it will suspend operations at its Fremont, California, vehicle assembly plant next week, on order from local officials there. Yesterday's factory closure announcements also included the U.S. assembly plants for Toyota (until April 6), Volkswagen (through March 29), Subaru (through March 29), and Hyundai (no time period specified). They join GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, and Harley-Davidson, which earlier this week announced the suspension of production at their facilities. Plants/Manufacturing Bentley Bugatti Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Volvo coronavirus

Watch a Cayenne Turbo S, Range Rover SVR, and Cherokee SRT drag race

We live in a weird world where high-performance SUVs could win a 60-mile-per-hour sprint against sports cars from just a few years ago. Here, Top Gear sets up a three-way drag race against the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S, Land Rover Range Rover Sport SVR, and Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT, and the results show just how quickly these high-riding models can cross the quarter mile. The Cherokee SRT is the patriotic choice among the three, but it's down on power in this fight. Meanwhile, the Range Rover's menacing growl sounds the best, and the Cayenne Turbo S has the most horsepower. You'll have to watch the video to see which SUV will win this battle. Related Video:

Jaguar Land Rover gives Lyft $25M and a fleet of cars

Lyft recently raised $600 million in a massive funding round, and now we know that $25 million of that came from Jaguar Land Rover, via its mobility services subsidiary InMotion. The car maker's investment in Lyft goes beyond just funds, however; it's providing Lyft drivers with a fleet of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles as part of the tie-up, and it's also going to work with the ride-hailing tech company on autonomous vehicle testing. This is yet another high-profile partner for Lyft after a spate of recent new collaborators, including Waymo and, just last week, Nutonomy. Now, Jaguar Land Rover is also joining the company's Open Platform for autonomous cars: The collaboration with InMotion will see the Jaguar Land Rover-owned company "develop and test its mobility services, including autonomous vehicles" using Lyft's platform. Lyft's ability to rapidly bring on a lot of partners in the car maker space, specifically around autonomy, may have a lot to do with rival Uber's ongoing problems, which now also include mounting calls for CEO Travis Kalanick to step back, at least temporarily, from his leadership role. Lyft has also been pretty clear about seeking to partner on autonomy, rather than pursue its own tech, which is likewise different from Uber's current approach. Uber, too, has brought automakers to the table around self-driving services and making use of its ride hailing platform for mobility service offerings. Both Uber and Lyft seem interested in being the layer that connects riders and these future services, and for automakers, it means leaving a complex and challenging part of the picture to partners with experience and expertise, rather than having to spin up that part of the tech business themselves. The fleet provision in the deal is also interesting, and suggests the partnership between the two could involve more strategic cooperative service offerings ahead of the advent of commercial self-driving tech. Lyft gaining more ground among automakers beyond longtime partner GM also explains why it was reported that the ride hailing company turned down overtures regarding a potential acquisition by the Detroit-based automaker.Written by Darrell Etherington for TechCrunch.Related Video: