Toyota returned to the World Endurance Championship in 2012, bringing its hybrid technology with it to the track. By last year, they made themselves the reigning WEC champions. Its plan for defending the title is simple: keep the formula that brought them the win, just refine it a little.
Toyota will again field two TS040 Hybrid LMP1 racers, with just a few modifications. It will still be powered by the same 3.7-liter V8 it used previously, coupled to front and rear-mounted electric generators to power all four wheels. This adds 473 horsepower to the V8’s 513, giving the racer a total output of 986 hp.
Behind the wheel, Toyota will keep on all the same drivers as last year, save one, as Mike Conway will replace Nicolas Lapierre as part of the #2 car team. The only other changes in regards to drivers has been to mix the teams up, seating Sebastien Buemi and Alexander Wurz in the #1 car with Kazuki “Kaz” Nakajima.
“Based on our experiences in 2014, we have decided to modify the line-ups for each car and we believe this will give us the optimum overall performance as the individual driving styles are now well matched. All our drivers are WEC race winners and we are confident they will add to their tally this season and in the future,” said team president Yoshiaki Kinoshita.
This info was confirmed the same day as Toyota announced its planned return to the World Rally Championship in 2017, fielding a new Yaris-based race car. With Toyota Motorsport now doubling its global motorsport effort, there is concern that this will put a strain on both, but Kinoshita remains confident. “[running two programs] simultaneously is of course a challenge but we believe we have the expertise and determination to succeed.”
We’ll have a chance to see if Toyota can earn a consecutive win when the WEC season starts on April 12th at the 6 hours of Silverstone.
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.