Industry News

Add Lamborghini to the growing list of automakers that have stepped up to help medical frontliners in their fight against the COVID-19 virus. The Italian automaker has started production of face masks and protective shields for health workers at Sant’Orsola-Malpighi Hospital in Bologna, Italy.

Lamborghini is targeting a production rate of 1,000 face masks and 200 face shields per day. The supercar brand is the latest automaker to lend a helping hand to the medical frontliners who have had to fight a staggering number of recorded cases in Italy. As of April 1, 2020, Italy has recorded 110,574 cases of those affected by the virus. Of that figure, a total of 13,155 people have died while 16,874 have recovered from the deadly virus.

The COVID-19 pandemic is in full blast and many countries have closed borders and asked citizens to stay home to help contain the spread. All sorts of companies around the world are joining these efforts with new logos that promote social distancing. Mercedes-Benz, Audi, and Volkswagen are among them, having launched redesigned logos on social media platforms.

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 pandemic, several automakers have made updates to their logos to promote social distancing, regarded by doctors and health experts as one of the key ways in preventing the spread of the virus.

Volkswagen, Audi, and most recently, Mercedes-Benz, have taken to social media to promote social distancing. To slam the point home, all three German brands unveiled modifications to their logos to reflect the social adjustments we all have to make as a society to stop the virus in its tracks. Across the board, the message is clear: if you don’t want to spread the virus, keep your distance from everyone else.

Aston Martin has been an independent company for the majority of its time on the market. But surviving as an independent brand is tough, so it’s not surprising that the British company has gone bankrupt seven times in its history. Although it’s somewhat stable nowadays, Aston Martin only recently became profitable and went public in 2018.

With a new recession looming in, the company’s shareholders have approved a financial rescue package from Yew Tree, a Canadian consortium led by Lawrence Stroll. The £536 million ($659 million) investment from the Yew Tree consortium led by Stroll will help Aston Martin put the DBX into production.

If you’re one of those people that believe there’s a little too much hype and fear-mongering surrounding the Coronavirus, then I’m right there with you. Personally, I think there’s a lot more to the story, and it’s being blown WAY out of proportion. But that’s a conversation for another time. Today, we’re here to talk about auto shows and the impact the “outbreak” of the virus, as it’s called, is affecting them. The 2020 Geneva Motor Show was canceled altogether, and now the New York Auto Show has been rescheduled until late August. So, is the Detroit Auto Show the next auto show to close its doors this year or, at the very least, be postponed?

Update 3/30/2020: The 2020 Detroit Auto Show has officially been canceled. Check out our updated section below to learn all about it and what’s happening next.

The coronavirus pandemic is keeping most of us indoors. Several countries have established total lockdown in an attempt to limit the spread of the various and for our lives to get back on track as soon as possible.

Celebrities all over the world have joined the effort to encourage people to stay safe, including Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May. The broadcasters who became famous for running the Top Gear show posted a video message through Drivetribe, their up and coming automotive platform.

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a damper on a lot of things, including new car deliveries. While some of them are grounded at home following a lockdown and some of them are just postponing it, there are, however, a few people who are ready to take deliveries of their cars.

To follow all social distancing protocols and avoid human contact as much as possible, Tesla is doing “Touchless Deliveries” wherein people can pick up their new cars without coming in touch with any other human being.

In this video, you can see a new Model 3 owner take delivery of his latest possession without physically interacting with any Tesla employee. It’s a good move on Tesla’s part to curb the outbreak wherever and however possible.

New York City, the epicenter for the novel coronavirus in the United States, is in lockdown and citizens are asked to practice social distancing and stay indoors. As this video from Shifting Lanes shows, the streets of "The City That Never Sleeps" are now almost empty.

As a new global recession is looming in due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the U.S. government is working on a new bill that will freeze your car payments. A new $2.5 trillion proposal, the third of a bill originally introduced by the Republicans and rejected by the Democrats, includes revised economic relief for the working class, as well as a temporary halt on car payments. Mortgage payments will also be delayed.

As the COVID-19 crisis deepens in Europe and the U.S., automakers join global effort to build ventilators and masks. Carmakers shift to production of medical equipment and supplies following shutdown of vehicle assembly in numerous factories across Europe and North America.

With EVs and Hybrids slowly starting to take over, the manual transmission that once widely served as the standard for entry-level models has now become an expensive option and sought-after commodity for sports cars and hot hatches. We’ve explained why the manual transmission is living on borrowed time and even gone into depth on how BMW is slowly moving away from the manual transmission too. Meanwhile, other automakers like Porsche are trying to remain true to their manual roots. The continuity of the manual transmission is a mixed bag, no doubt, but as it turns out, Volkswagen is going to go the route of Porsche, which is now even offering certain trims of the 911 with a manual, by keeping the manual transmission on the cars as long as there is a demand for it.

New York’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center should have been preparing to host the 2020 New York Auto Show this time of the year, but instead it will be turned into a field hospital for COVID-19 patients.

Local authorities announced that the center will be ready to receive patients in seven to 10 days. The 2020 New York Auto Show was originally scheduled to open on April 10, but it was postponed to late August due to the coronavirus outbreak.

BMW recently revived the iconic 8 Series and turned it into its halo model, but the nameplate is struggling in the U.S., where more than 2,000 units are sitting on U.S. dealership lots. Dealers blame it on poor marketing support from BMW, but could this be a result of the COVID-19 pandemic?

The bottom line is that if everyone with COVID-19 symptoms ran to their local hospital, the medical system would be quickly overwhelmed, and it could, honestly, lead to even more spreading of the Coronavirus. That’s why a bunch of new drive-through testing locations are starting to pop up. It’s a good thing, too, because COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire with more than 390,000 people globally (as of the time of this writing) being documented as infected. This is what you need to know about drive-up Coronavirus testing, how to get tested, and where you can go to get tested without even leaving your car.

After the U.S. administration appealed for donations to make respiratory masks to fight out the shortage, Elon musk offered to do his bit and make ventilators for the Covid-19 infected people. Musk replied to a Twitter user who asked him to focus on making ventilators at his facility, which is the need of the hour. The reply grabbed a lot of attention and people couldn’t stop asking him to start working on it soon to help counter the shortage.

As the novel coronavirus - known as COVID-19 - continues to spread across the world, governments are taking extreme measures. Several countries have declared a state of emergency, companies are sending their employees to work from home, while some businesses are shutting down over the pandemic. The outbreak and the panic have also taken a toll on the auto industry, with at least seven major carmakers having decided to halt production in Europe.

With close to 200,000 cases confirmed as of March 17, the COVID-19 outbreak is now a serious pandemic that’s causing people to panic and storm supermarkets for supplies.

The situation is Europe is equally dramatic with Italy, Spain, Germany, and France having reported around 55,000 cases and close to 3,000 deaths over a couple of weeks. The outbreak has also prompted several automakers to close plants in Europe. Things look rather bleak for the auto industry, but Hyundai claims that car sales could hike as consumers will seek an isolated mode of transportation. But are new cars produced in Europe safe to buy?

With the coronavirus rapidly spreading around, it’s time to remember that health is more important than anything and that it doesn’t hurt to stay inside to limit the spread. Some of us still get the luxury of going out (although WHO recommendations are saying otherwise), while some countries are in a state-imposed quarantine.

Long story short, we’ve come up with a list of car-centric YouTube channels you can browse and watch if you’re forced to stay inside over the next days or weeks. Obviously, don’t be shy and let us know if you know other watch-worthy content on YouTube using the comments section below.

OMG! (read: Oh My GretaThunberg) This was bound to happen. At a time when the world is moving towards creating a cleaner and greener environment, Diesel Brothers were breaking rules left and right by tampering with the emission equipment on a trucks without giving a damn about the repercussions. Wait, you know who Diesel Brothers are, right?

For the uninitiated, there’s a reality show on Discovery Channel that goes by the name “Diesel Brothers” wherein a trio of mechanics build and sell diesel trucks. While building them, however, the ‘brothers’ were removing the pollution control equipment from the trucks to bypass emission controls. As it turns out, a lawsuit was filed against them to tune of over two million dollars, and now, they are in deep, deep sh*t.

The Cybertruck created a lot of buzz when it was launched. We got to know the prices and tentative launch dates, but no one knew where it would be built; until now. We still don’t know the exact location, but it’s been narrowed down the Central U.S.

Elon Musk tweeted that Tesla is on the hunt for a location in the Central U.S. to build the Cybertruck. This news falls in line with Musk’s earlier idea of setting up a factory in Texas, but we didn’t know it would be for Tesla’s pickup truck.

There was a time when large, overly luxurious sedans were the cream of the crop for Bentley. Back when the Arnage was a thing, for example, Bentley was able to move 1,200 examples per year. It doesn’t sound like a lot when compared to mainstream vehicles, but for a company like Bentley that does so much by hand, that’s a lot. The Mulsanne was once a big deal too, but it has officially been canceled indefinitely with the Mulsanne 6.75 Edition – limited to just 30 examples – being the final Mulsanne to ever be produced. So, were sales of the Mulsanne really so bad Bentley had to cancel it altogether? Well, here’s the full story behind the demise of the Bentley Mulsanne.

We’re back with extra info on the topic of Cadillac’s Blackwing V-8 engine. The 4.2-liter double-overhead cam mill had a short life inside the now-dead CT6-V and by the looks of it, Cadillac won’t drop it inside the new Escalade or the souped-up CT5.

Therefore, one must ask: is it ever going to be used inside another car? Believe it or not, the V-8 might live on but not inside a Caddy, according to a recent report.

For those of you living under a rock for the last decade, Aston Martin has long borrowed Mercedes-AMG’s V-8 for its sports cars. That very engine powers the Vantage, DB11, and even the new DBX, but that’s also a big problem because Mercedes-AMG is working on slowly phasing out its V-8 engine. That leaves Aston Martin to either suck it up and transition to four-cylinders – something that won’t happen for a long time to come, if ever – or come up with its own new powertrain. Well, as you probably already guessed, Aston is taking the better route and is now preparing to develop an electrified V-6 engine for use in most of its future cars.