As much as we get excited about all cars big and small, we’re particularly giddy when an automaker rolls out a vehicle from its performance division. That car will be the one built to its fullest performance potential, straight from the source. The only thing more thrilling, though, is when they’re allowed to cut loose and build their own stand-alone vehicle from the ground up, and it’s something Jaguar is considering for its Special Vehicle Operations unit.
In a conversation with Bloomberg, John Edwards, head of the performance unit that they’re “certainly looking in to that.”
It would be a step in line with Mercedes-Benz’s production of cars like the AMG GT and the SLS before it.
“We’ve got the capability to do that,” He continues. “Is there an opportunity for us to do a completely stand-alone car? Maybe.”
It’s a coy answer to something that could have a lot of potential. While it wouldn’t be a huge boost in sales, it would be an opportunity to “stretch the Jaguar Land Rover brand” with a halo car not derived from an existing vehicle.
A vision of this would be the cancelled C-X75 concept vehicle, a high powered hybrid that would’ve rivaled the likes of the Porsche 918. There’s been a recent resurgence of the car’s profile as it is a featured vehicle in the upcoming new installment of the James Bond film series, SPECTRE.
Perhaps this is what spurred Jaguar to consider its own standalone car. Maybe seeing its former owner Ford unify all its performance cars under one brand and produce the new GT played a part in the decision. There’s no way to know for sure, but we’d love to see what a bad kitty Jaguar’s SVO could put together if given the chance.
BYD has launched the third-generation Qin Plus DM-i in China, and the first thing that caught my eye is its price. According to CarNewsChina, the plug-in hybrid sedan starts at 79,900 yuan, which is about $11,980. That’s an incredibly low price for a brand-new car, especially by US standards.
What’s even more impressive is the range. The Qin Plus DM-i can drive up to 137 miles on electricity alone, which should cover most people’s daily commutes without using a drop of gas. Once the battery runs out, the 1.5-liter engine takes over. Thanks to its 17-gallon tank and roughly 91 mpg with a drained battery, the combined range reaches up to 1,423 miles.
Apple won the PC market’s worst quarter, but that’s not the entire story. It won the race by stumbling less than everyone else.
PC makers shipped just 57 million computers worldwide in Q3, which might look good, but it’s a 21% year-over-year plunge (via Counterpoint Research). And despite Apple’s Mac shipments falling by 11%, to 5.6 million, its market share rose from 8.7% to 9.8%. How did that happen?
Update (October 22 23:54 PT): In response to our query, GM clarified that offline recording support is already available on eligible vehicles. Like Tesla's Sentry Mode, it requires owners to connect a USB drive to save incident recordings, which can be viewed on the vehicle's infotainment screen. The upcoming Connected Cameras feature will build on this by giving owners remote access to these recordings via the revamped OnStar app, allowing them to check footage without walking out to their car.
General Motors has announced plans to add a new Connected Cameras feature to its OnStar service starting next year, giving drivers a way to monitor parked vehicles remotely and capture footage of certain incidents.