You haven’t forgotten about Spyker Cars, have you?
Well, you’d be forgiven for doing so so, because the sports car manufacturer has remained veiled in mystery for the past few years thanks to a convoluted series of financial woes and vaporware concept vehicles.
Spyker revealed the B6 Venator at the Geneva Motor Show in 2013. The concept vehicle was a drop-top with a 375-horsepower V6 and six-speed automatic transmission. That model never made it to production because the company went bust. After multiple rumored “savior” companies declined to pick up the Dutch automaker, finally a U.S. electric aircraft company, Volta Volare, came to Spyker’s rescue.
Since then, the brand has apparently been at work on what it will reveal at this year’s Geneva Motor Show, the C8 Preliator. Fans of the brand will recall that the C8 name has been used before on the C8 Spyder, Laviolette, Double, and Aileron. The latter was powered by an Audi-sourced V8 ponying up 400 hp and 354 pound-feet of torque.
Spyker’s claim to fame is its intricate, handmade interior designs and fanciful exterior styling. No doubt these elements will remain central to the new C8 Preliator, but don’t expect a naturally-aspirated V8 under the hood now that Volta Volare is in charge.
Much more likely is an all-electric powertrain with plenty of juice to maintain Spyker’s performance credentials but a much softer (read: silent) soundtrack. Considering prices for the last production Spyker crested the $200,000 mark, expect the Preliator, with its more-expensive-to-engineer EV powertrain, to meet or exceed that quote.
Spyker’s attention to lightweight construction may actually be one of the better construction philosophies for an electric setup, where heavy batteries tend to offset acceleration potential. Carbon fiber and aluminum were used generously on previous models, and with solid financial backing, will surely appear on the Preliator concept. We’ll learn all there is to know in just three weeks, so stay tuned.
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.