Car Throttle

As part of the global expansion it is undertaking, Tesla Motors made an appearance at the Frankfurt Auto Show, and a big one at that! There has been a lot of introductions happening, but some big news happened on the business side of things there well. There's not a whole lot of information about the whole deal as of yet, but apparently equity investment company Fjord Capital Management has invested $82.5 million in Tesla. That's no small bit of cash, and it comes on the heels of a recent string of positive news for Tesla - DOE government loan approval for the Model S, worldwide real store openings and hitting the goal of profitability for the first time. If you remember, the outlook for Tesla last year

Well you can't say I didn't warn you! On April 17th I wrote about AutoExpress' Jaguar XJ renderings and speculated on continued information, leaks and renderings on the car before the car's launch date. It happened: Jaguar itself has released an official teaser of the super-XJ for the Shanghai Motor Show. Jaguar presents the XJ, a view from above. We know it has a huge panaromic sunroof, and it looks like a fairly large windshield/small trunk. That would give further evidence to a XF-like fastback style similar to the recent renderings. Another thing we can tell from it? Retro is so out. Like all recent reports, the new XJ will be ultra-modern. So what else can I say about the car that hasn't already been said except

Buick Business Concept. Bland name, amazing vehicle. Like most of the other vehicles introduced at the Shanghai Auto Show, no official images came out immediately. Official press photography and press information have now been released though and wow, I'm impressed! Routan? Pfft. The Business Concept truly would be the ultimate minivan/MPV if produced. From here on out though, I'm going to refer to it with the MPV moniker. That's what Buick calls it, and it sounds better too. Avoids the whole "minivan" name tag stigma thing the United States is currently going through. According to Buick, the concept was designed with "global input" at the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC), a joint venture between GM and it's Chinese partner Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation (SAIC). The Chinese seem to be best at designing Buicks; they just get it.

Baby Roller, RR4, 200EX; the upcoming smaller Rolls-Royce has been called by many different names in it's short lifetime. Rolls-Royce has put naming speculation to rest though at the Shanghai Auto Show by announcing the official name. Rolls-Royce Ghost. Well, there you have it, that's the name. Not Silver Ghost, just Ghost. Kind of a break from tradition from a company that usually refers to it's cars with longer, more illustrious names. Silver Ghost has a lot of history behind it and that probably played a big part in the name choice. Ghost sounds more modern then Silver Ghost though, and I think it fits in with what R0lls-Royce is trying to do with the new model. The announcement was made by Rolls-Royce CEO Tom Purves at the company press conference at the

The minivan is dead; long live the minivan. Or something like that.  While the Minivan market has pretty much cratered in the US, the possibility of a luxurious people carrier makes a lot more sense in China.  And Buicks apparently make a lot more sense in China.  Thus, this: the Buick MPV concept. It's a co-design between Buick and the Pan-Asia Technical Automotive Center, who was also partially responsible for the rather pretty Riviera concept from back in 2007.  For a minivan, it's quite well-styled: it's even got a hint of Citroen to me from the side. I'm not sure the extent to which there's really a market for a vehicle like this in the US, though.  I mean,  Buick's last minivan - the oddly named Terraza

Ever heard of Roewe? Well you might someday if you haven't already. Roewe has impressed me with it's new models, showing an high-level of sophistication and advancement in comparison to it's Chinese competitors. I don't know about the quality levels, but I know in design they've produced vehicles that stand on their own not as "me too" copies like so many Chinese manufacturers have made. See what I'm talking about?  That's a stylish, modern car. No, not just nice for a Chinese car, nice for any car. I particularly like the fastback-like roofline. This could be the much-vaunted Rover mid-size car that was under development at the company before things went south.  I really liked Rover's vehicles, they were unique and offered something different. I thought it as cool that there was