Free Republic

Over the automotive industry’s 100+ year history, companies such as Ford, Chevrolet, and Mercedes-Benz have produced some truly iconic cars.Whether they’re designed for excitement, luxury, or just simple transportation, Visual Capitalist's Marcus Lu notes that these vehicles offer a set of features that make them highly desirable to consumers. The most successful models will undergo numerous revisions over time, sometimes sticking around for many decades.To learn more, this graphic from Alan’s Factory Outlet lists the 35 vehicles with the longest production runs of all time. Here are the top 10 below.As we can see, successful models come in many shapes...

The German carmaker is replacing its Currywurst with vegetarian alternatives. After nearly 50 years, Volkswagen will no longer serve its famous made-in-house sausage at its Wolfsburg production plant. In 2019, the Volkswagen butcher’s shop still produced 7 million curry sausages. Volkswagen is cutting its meat production for the sake of sustainability, and it makes sense, but people are losing it over the announcement. As Politico put it, for some folks, this is just “the Wurst!” It flies in the face of decades of sausage-eating tradition. Currywurst production has been ongoing at VW since 1973 The sausage is such a VW...

Authorities on Thursday released a photo of the suspect vehicle involved in the road rage shooting death of 6-year-old Aiden Leos in Orange. The California Highway Patrol described the vehicle as a white Volkswagen Golf SportWagen with non-tinted windows, either a 2018 or 2019 model.

Democrat progressive and Bernie Sanders supporter John Brakey joined the Bannon War Room on Tuesday to discuss the ongoing forensic audit in Phoenix, Arisona. Brakey is the co-founder and director Audit USA. On Tuesday Brakey told The War Room the Arizona audit is the first genuine audit since the November election. Brakey added, “There really hasn’t been any audits. It’s no different than an emissions test by Volkswagen passing an emissions test on a diesel car.” Brakey also told the War Room the elites “built a computer that they knew would cheat.”

Shares of Contemporary Amperex Technology were up as much as 9% in Shenzhen overnight on news that it could be the company involved in supplying batteries for Apple's electric vehicle project.The jump in shares marks the best day for the company's stock in four months, Bloomberg reported Monday morning.The report, which appears to be unconfirmed for the time being, was published in Xuangubao.cn, a Chinese online stock news platform. That platform did not report a source for the information.A battery is "still being tested" for the project, according to Bloomberg, and the company did not respond for comment when asked...

Moreover, it is safer in terms of potential fire hazards and has a lower environmental impact. It is difficult to imagine our daily life without lithium-ion batteries. They dominate the small format battery market for portable electronic devices, and are also commonly used in electric vehicles. At the same time, lithium-ion batteries have a number of serious issues, including: a potential fire hazard and performance loss at cold temperatures; as well as a considerable environmental impact of spent battery disposal. According to the leader of the team of researchers, Professor in the Department of Electrochemistry at St Petersburg University Oleg...

After passing a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, Congress is far from being done spending money this year. Next on the agenda is an infrastructure package that will likely end up carrying a price tag in the neighborhood of $3 trillion. Despite its marketing, this package is not limited to bridges, roads or what one would normally think when they hear “infrastructure.” Just ask Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) who tweeted that many things, including childcare, should be considered as infrastructure. One of the more odious provisions being shepherded through as infrastructure is a $174 billion giveaway to the electric vehicle...

German carmaker Volkswagen is to rebrand itself as "Voltswagen" for the US market to mark its ongoing shift to electric vehicles. The change applies immediately and will be reflected across its cars, branding and website. VW, which has committed to sell one million electric vehicles worldwide by 2025, confirmed the plan after it was leaked to US media on Monday. Some initially thought it was an early April Fool's joke.

The IEA said daily gasoline demand dropped by a record 2.9 million barrels in 2020, down more than 10% from the previous year.The world's thirst for gasoline isn't likely to return to pre-pandemic levels, the International Energy Agency forecast, calling a peak for the fuel that has powered personal transportation for more than a century.The Paris-based energy watchdog, in its closely followed five-year forecast, said an accelerating global shift toward electric vehicles, along with increasing fuel efficiency among gasoline-powered fleets, will more than outweigh demand growth from countries in the developing world.The forecast comes as auto makers have pivoted recently...

What once seemed surely unthinkable has become, in just a few years, irrefutable. The evidence amassed by scholars, journalists and campaigners of grotesque human rights abuses in Xinjiang has begun to cut through to the wider public. On Thursday, the France and Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann cut his commercial ties to the Chinese tech giant Huawei, saying there were “strong suspicions” that it has contributed to the repression of Uighurs. His statement followed a report that Huawei tested a facial recognition system developed by artificial intelligence firm Megvii that could be used to identify Uighurs and trigger an alert to...

Electric vehicles are coming from Volkswagen.  Hate to disappoint, but if you love the environment, this is a step backward. Recently, an amendment to a green energy bill in the House was defeated.  It would have required the secretary of commerce to certify that federally funded buses and charging stations do not contain minerals mined or processed by children.  The Democrat majority said such an amendment was not necessary since the U.S. already has trade agreements prohibiting child labor.  Ah, but not with the Congo or Zimbabwe.  Clever. Why is this important?  The U.S. has produced zero cobalt in the past 40 years.  Without cobalt, there...

Something's stirring over at Tesla. The company's highly anticipated Battery Day is just on the horizon, and ahead of the event, CEO Elon Musk shared some insight into energy density via Twitter. Replying to a Twitter thread surrounding the possibility of an electric airplane, Musk said batteries with 400 watt hours per kilogram are highly likely in the next three to four years. And not just one-off units, either, but mass produced batteries with long lifecycles, too. This type of energy density could provide 50% more energy density compared to today's batteries, noting today's batteries used in the Tesla Model...

Elon Musk test-drove the ID.3 when he made a final stopover to meet with one of his biggest competitors, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess. Musk also inspected the ID.4 electric SUV that Volkswagen will launch later this month. Before Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk returned to the US after a three-day visit to Germany, he made a final stopover to meet with one of his biggest competitors - Volkswagen AG CEO Herbert Diess. The two auto executives met at a small airport in Braunschweig for about two hours on Thursday evening and Musk test-drove VW’s ID.3 electric-car, according to...

CarPervert Jonny Smith reminds us that the Volkswagen ID.3 is just the beginning of a brand-new era for Volkswagen... The ID.3 is arguably not incredible to look at, but neither is the Golf. These cars are designed for a global audience of mass-market buyers. It banks on compact, practical, and affordable, which are all keys to adoption. Smith wrote: "The exterior is pleasant, with its side profile being a grower. The space inside is phenomenal, given its dimensions. The layout of the interior is pleasing, however there are more hard plastic surfaces than the equivalent Golfs. An e-Golf probably feels...

Which pedal does what again? Driving off the dealer lot after all the papers are signed and the keys are handed over is a momentous occasion. This is it, you're key to independence (or monthly payments) and even more memories to be had. Just don't screw this up, okay? Don't be like this guy in the video. The story appeared on Motoroids, an Indian based automotive website, where some background is given on how easy it is to get a license thanks to what appears to be a total lack of proper training and actual enforcement. Basically the system sucks...

Karlsruhe (Germany) (AFP) - A top German court ruled Monday that Volkswagen must buy back a diesel car it modified to appear less polluting, a decision that could influence the outcome of tens of thousands of other "dieselgate" cases. Judges at the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Karlsruhe "effectively upheld" a lower court's ruling that plaintiff Herbert Gilbert can return his car to VW for reimbursement, but he must also accept a discount from the original purchase price for the time he used it. Almost five years after Volkswagen's admission to cheating on emissions tests involving millions of diesel...

Germany’s Volkswagen (VW) has pulled an Instagram ad that showed a giant white hand pushing around a black person, saying it was “surprised and shocked” that viewers decried it as racist. The 10-second clip appeared on the firm’s Instagram story on Tuesday to advertise the new Golf car. It has since been removed, but was still circulating on Twitter on Wednesday. The ad shows an oversized white woman’s hand picking up a black man in a suit and moving him around before flicking him into a building and away from the yellow Golf car parked nearby. Viewers were quick to...

German automaker Volkswagen restarted production on Thursday ZWICKAU, Germany—German automaker Volkswagen restarted production on Thursday at its plant in Zwickau, where its crucial mass-market electric vehicle is being made ahead of its launch later this year. The company said the plan was “health before production numbers” as the assembly line started up after a five-week closure under new health rules agreed with worker representatives that include... wearing face protection where a 6-foot distance can’t always be observed. Other measures include.. regular cleanings. Distancing is required in washrooms, changing rooms, and lunchrooms. At restart the plan was to make 50 cars...

Fiat Chrysler is in talks with the Chinese company Foxconn to develop and manufacture battery-powered vehicles, the U.S.-Italian automaker said Friday. Fiat Chrysler is in the process of merging with France’s PSA Peugeot, which is 12% owned by Chinese company Dongfeng Motor Co. Both Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot have lagged in developing electric powertrains and also have been struggling to increase sales in China, the world’s biggest auto market. It was unclear what impact Fiat Chrysler’s proposed joint venture with Foxconn, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd., would have on the wider merger, which is expected to...

Brussels is concerned by the constraints on freedom of expression and demonstration rights under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is despite the German carmaker arguing the country is a candidate for EU membership. German Green Party politician Reinhard Bütikofer, revealed the decision “caused dismay” within the European Parliament. He said: “In view of the increasingly deteriorating situation of the rule of law, media freedom and democracy under President Erdogan, the decision of the VW Group head is causing dismay.” The location decision is also said be a breach of EU competition rules. While Turkey has committed to complying with...