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Mercedes shows off more of the S-Class Cabriolet

Mercedes has been very much into teasing lately, providing various kinds of peeks at the recently revealed Mercedes-AMG C63, the coming 2017 E-Class sedan, and the S-Class Cabriolet. We've seen the least of that latter car but it could be the one we know the most about. The sixth member of the S-Class family after the standard sedan, the long-wheelbase sedan, the Maybach models, the Pullman, and the coupes, this one puts a fabric top on that two-door model and then lets owners take it off. After the sketched rendering from two weeks ago, this latest photo from Mercedes shows us pretty much what we're going to get, and since we're huge fans of the coupe it looks like we'll be huge fans of this, too. It will certainly come heaped with techno gizmos like heated armrests, and a set of Burmester speakers in the tonneau cover. In case you're wondering, those screen-looking things behind the front seat headrests are fans for the Airscarf neck warming system. The press release below has a bit on the history and demise of four-seater Mercedes droptops, which helps remind us why we should care about the trim being resurrected 45 years later. Related Video: The new S-Class Cabriolet: A star returns Stuttgart, Aug 25, 2015 - Coveted dream car of the 1960s meets star of the 2015 International Motor Show in Frankfurt: the new Mercedes-Benz S-Class Cabriolet is following in the tradition of the open-top S-Class (model series 111 and 112) from the period 1961 to 1971. Unmistakeable, exclusive design, fine materials with maximum high-class appeal in the interior and state-of-the-art technology in the S-Class characterise the concept behind both cabriolets. "After 44 years we can again offer friends of our company an open variant of the S-Class. The new S-Class Cabriolet symbolises our passion for individual and timelessly exclusive mobility, which we share with our customers", remarks Ola Kallenius, Board Member of Daimler AG, Mercedes-Benz Cars Sales. With the new S-Class Cabriolet Mercedes-Benz is setting itself the standard of building the most comfortable cabriolet in the world. When it comes to climate comfort the enhanced automatic wind protection system AIRCAP, the AIRSCARF neck-level heating system, the heated armrests, the seat heating also in the rear plus the intelligent fully automatic climate control ensure that this is indeed the case.

Recharge Wrap-up: Daimler spending big for fuel cells, Ford Go!Drive experiment advances

Ford's Go!Drive experiment is entering its beta phase in London. The project, which is one of the automaker's global smart mobility experiments, uses a mobile app for on-demand carsharing of Ford Focus Electric and Ford Fiesta vehicles. The beta phase involves increasing the number of available vehicles from 20 to 50, and collecting new data from users. The program offers one-way rentals and guaranteed parking, with no membership fees and a cost of 26 cents per minute. Ford hopes to get 2,000 drivers involved in the program. Read more at Green Car Congress. Daimler will invest billions of dollars to upgrade the Mercedes-Benz Unterturkheim plant over the next few years. This year alone, it plans to spend $1.06 billion. The company expects cost savings "in the range of hundreds of millions of euros until 2020," while maintaining its workforce of 18,700 employees and adding 150 vocational training positions. The upgrades will allow the plant to become a center for building more efficient engines, hybrid powertrains and fuel cell systems. "Alternative drive systems are an important element of our future mobility," says Mercedes-Benz's Markus Schafer. "Their share of automotive production is set to steadily rise over the next few years, complementing our highly efficient engines within the portfolio. This is what we have laid the groundwork for today." Read more at Reuters, or in the press release below. The Department of Energy is providing $20 million in funding for the development of more efficient high speed industrial motors and drives. Ditching old motors and gearboxes for ones that use integrated power electronics could help decrease the energy consumption of the industrial sector, which currently uses more than 25 percent of the electricity generated in the US. The projects being funded will reduce losses and decrease the size of drive systems used in industries like petroleum refining and natural gas, which could affect the lifecycle efficiency of transportation fuels. Read more at Energy.gov.

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.