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Autoblog Podcast #344

Doug DeMuro from Plays With Cars, Infiniti Q50, Subaru BRZ STI, Porsche Macan
Episode #344 of the Autoblog podcast is here, and this week, Dan Roth and Executive Editor Chris Paukert are joined by Doug DeMuro, author of Plays With Cars and prolific internet autowriting presence. Topics include the latest spy shots of the Porsche Macan, the 2014 Infiniti Q50, and the teaser images we've recently seen of a Subaru BRZ wearing STI badges. As always, we start with what's in the garage and finish up with some of your questions. For those of you who hung with us live on our UStream channel, thanks for taking the time. You can follow along after the jump with our Q&A. Thanks for listening!
Autoblog Podcast #344:

James May's 1984 Porsche 911 is priced to sell at Goodwood

James May needs money. He's out of work, has payments to make on his Ferrari, and has resorted to doing less than stellar work to make ends meet. He and his colleague Richard Hammond sold their motorcycles to raise some extra scratch, and now Captain Slow is selling his Porsche, too. Of course, with years of paychecks form Top Gear and other TV appearances, several books, and a weekly column in The Daily Telegraph, it's unlikely that May is worried about debtor's prison. Mostly because that doesn't exist in the UK anymore, but also because he's probably loaded. The vehicle in question is a 1984 Porsche 911 Carrera, complete with air-cooled 3.2-liter flat-six. He became acquainted with the car in 2007 when he borrowed it from specialist Paul Devyea to record a Radio 4 documentary, and evidently fell in love, so he bought it. He even had it on air for a couple of specials for Top Gear and James May's Toy Stories. He loaned it to his dad for a while, but with his time on Top Gear now at an end, he's consigned it to Bonhams (the same house that handled his bike sale) to auction off at the upcoming Goodwood Festival of Speed. Its pre-sale estimate is quoted at GBP28,000-34,000 ($44-53k), which would seem a bit low – especially considering its celebrity provenance and low 55,000 miles on the odometer. Bonhams specialist Sholto Gilbertson tells Autoblog that "the estimate placed on the car has been designed to attract interest and ultimately achieve a stronger price for Mr. May."

Porsche says half of its sales will be electric by 2023

Porsche, whose presence in the plug-in vehicle market has been pretty minimal, now plans to substantially boost its commitment to electric vehicles in the next few years. The German luxury automaker intends to dedicate up to half its annual production to electric vehicles by 2023, Electrek reported, citing comments CEO Oliver Blume made to German publication Manager Magazin. Specifically, the company says it will be able to produce as many as 60,000 EVs annually from its Zuffenhausen factory in Germany. First and foremost will be Porsche's Mission E, which is slated to debut in 2019. That model will be able to go about 310 miles on a full charge (via the more generous New European Driving Cycle, or NEDC). Porsche first showed off a concept version of that 590-horsepower beast at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2015. The company hasn't hinted at pricing for the car, which will have a 90-kilowatt battery and will jet from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a tidy 3.5 seconds, but expect it to be well into six figures. Porsche also plans an all-electric version of the Macan, its biggest seller. But Porsche's math indicates bigger plans than that. Porsche delivered nearly 238,000 vehicles last year, so an output of 60,000 EVs at Zuffenhausen is only a quarter of the total, not half. You can assume then that Porsche has plans to electrify other models that it hasn't announced yet, built at other factories. It might also be counting hybrids in its "half" projection. Last month, Porsche decided to discontinue its plans for a plug-in hybrid variant of its iconic 911 model, suggesting a temporary pullback of sorts. Then again, in April, reports surfaced that Porsche and Audi, both owned by Volkswagen, were collaborating on vehicle-electrification technology as well as autonomous driving advancement. Porsche's green-car sales have been so thin that Autoblog last year officially pulled the German automaker off of its monthly green-car sales tally. For 2015, the most recent year we tracked, Porsche sold 1,738 plug-in vehicles, about the same as 2014. Related Video: Featured Gallery Porsche Mission E Concept: Frankfurt 2015 View 37 Photos News Source: Electrek, Manager MagazinImage Credit: Drew Phillips Green Audi Porsche Volkswagen Electric mission