Oct 20
By Giancarlo Perini. ©
We have driven, in a real environment, one of the some 1100 BMW ActiveE, that the German premium car maker will deliver as of December. This is the all-electric, plug-in, two-door, four-sweater, real-wheel drive sport car built from the first generation BMW 1 series coupé platform. Handling, acceleration, speed and comfort are on a pair, or better, than the BMW120i Coupé and our feeling was that, indeed, we could go on for all the 140 km range promised by the lithium-ion batteries charged at 92% at start point. Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 27
Car Design, Car Styling, Concept cars, Electric Cars, Geneva Motor Show, German Cars, Interiors, Motor Shows, Roadsters, Show cars, Sports Cars, smart
By Giancarlo Perini. ©
You can’t be mistaken: the show car that Smart is presenting in Geneva with the name of “forspeed” proves that the company’s designers have taken a ride on the roller-coaster and had a lot of fun in creating an EV Roadster so full of curvatures, shapes and colour that in its full-size dimension attract teen-agers with a driving license and, in a smaller scale, would be the dream of their younger brothers and sister under ten. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec 05
by Giancarlo Perini (c)
I have got to share with you my opinion of the vote in favour of the innovative Nissan Leaf by the 59 members of the European Car of the Year 2011. I have no doubt that among the seven finalists candidate the jury was called to choose their one and only COTY for the year 2011 there could be no contest. Read the rest of this entry »
Dec 04
By Giancarlo Perini ©
BMW, the world leader in premium cars will not be the first to join the EV mass market but it will certainly be among the best dressed when it joins the party late in 2013. The number plate of the first Megacity Vehicle to come off the new production lines – to be built in the meantime within the Leipzig (Saxony, Germany) plant – has already been announced at a ceremony attended by German Chancellor Mrs. Angela Merkel and other local authorities. The plate reads L MV 2013, L for Leipzig, MCV for Megacity Vehicle and 2013 for the year of the planned launch.
Read the rest of this entry »
Oct 28
Aerodynamics, Automotive Design, British Cars, Concept cars, Designers, Electric Cars, Experimental Vehicles, Hybrid Cars, Hybrids, Jaguar, Motor Shows, Supercars, Turbine cars
By Giancarlo Perini ©
There is more than just a beautiful body to make the Jaguar EX-75 concept car the “Star of the Show”. It comes with four 143 kW electric motors (one for each wheel) pumping out a total of 572 kW, which take the energy from a energy-intense pack of lithium-ion batteries to be recharged from a standard 220v outlet. Read the rest of this entry »
Oct 27
Alfa Romeo, BMW, Bentley, British Cars, Citroen, Electric Cars, French Cars, Hybrid Cars, Hybrids, Hyundai, Italian Cars, Lamborghini, Lotus, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Motor Shows, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Show cars, Sports Cars, Supercars, Toyota, Volkswagen
by Giancarlo Perini (c)
You can look back at the Paris Motor Show, the latest top-ranking of the season from many different perspectives: business as usual or new perspective, sexy style or strict functionality, economic status or talks between car-makers to discuss new alliance and even a show within the show. Indeed this is what tiny British carmaker Lotus has done in Paris. By presenting as many as 5 new concept-cars and mock-ups (Elise, Elan and Esprit, Elite and Eterne) the company has attracted a lot of attention from the media and caused a series of serious of questions now waiting for an answer.
Read the rest of this entry »
Feb 27
Automotive Design, Car Design, Car Styling, Concept cars, Crossover, Electric Cars, Hybrid Cars, Hybrids, Italdesign Giugiaro, Italian Cars, Italian Coachbuilders, Lotus, Motor Shows, Show cars
More news have come form Italdesign-Giugiaro on their presence at the Geneva Motor Show, with some detail concerning the powertrain developed with Proton and their own Lotus Engineering think thank in the U.K. Read the rest of this entry »
Nov 26
From Brazil, talented illustrator Flavio Adriani has sent me this set of images he has created for his own pleasure as homage to the Lamborghini Countach. “This Lamborghini designed by the great Marcello Gandini always fascinated me since I was a child”.
Flavio stresses that he “an architectural illustrator and am not car designer”.
This does not mean he Is not entitled to image how the Lamborghini could look like if it had to be designed today as an Electric Vehicle and share his works with out community.
Would his Countach 3D be labelled retro-design? May be. So what?
Aug 30
Aerodynamics, Audi, Automotive Design, BMW, Car Design, Car Styling, Citroen, Concept cars, Electric Cars, Ferrari, Hybrid Cars, Korean Cars, Mini, Motor Shows, Peugeot, Volkswagen
PEUGEOT RCZ
Back from holidays, I am facing great difficulties sitting back to my desk and go through the news to report, possibly in a sensible order. The sun is hot, the wind is fresh, the sky is blue, the air is clean. Outside. What am I doing in my hole with a keypad and a monitor challenging me?
In addition, there is too much to report but nothing new to make “the news”. It is business as usual. Read the rest of this entry »
Apr 29
Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Automotive Design, BMW, Bentley, Bertone, British Cars, Bugatti, Cabriolet, Car Design, Car Styling, Concept cars, Concourse D'Elegance, Corvette, Designers, Electric Cars, Ferrari, Fiat, Frua, Fuoriserie, Italian Cars, Italian Coachbuilders, Lamborghini, Lancia, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Mindset, Perana Performance, Pininfarina, Porsche, RACING CARS, Rinspeed, Rolls-Royce, Sports Cars, Stile Bertone, Touring, Tuned for the road, Villa d'Este, Zagato
The Concorso d’Eleganza di Villa d’Este this years has been as good as the weather. That is to say that half of it was very good, with peaks of excellence, and the remaining half was bad, raining and boring, with touches of ugliness.
By the end of the elegant week-end on the Lake of Como, one would say it was not one the best edition ever but still offered enough interesting cars to look at, people to greet and talk to, and subjects to discuss.
As such it was one not to be missed. Those who did not attend it missed the extremely rare chance of hearing the sibilo and smelling the pollution of its turbine engine, not to mention seeing this extraordinary visualisation of the dreams about the cars of the future they were dreaming in the fifties and sixties.
Read the rest of this entry »
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