Manufacturing – I wish I had more to offer

August 20, 2019

UPDATE 1-PES layoffs accelerate as Philadelphia refinery closes

(Reuters) – Refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions PESC.N is laying off the majority of its unionized workforce on Tuesday and Wednesday, the union’s president said, ahead of an initial layoff deadline.

FILE PHOTO: The Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery is shown after a fire that caused significant damage to the complex, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., June 26, 2019. REUTERS/Laila Kearney/File Photo

PES began dismissing a small number of union workers last Thursday, before an earlier-stated Aug. 25 termination date, as the company idles its fire-damaged refinery after filing for bankruptcy.

Union employees are expected to be paid through Aug. 25, but the company has so far not offered severance pay or continued health benefits, sources have said.

“I’m concerned about the lack of benefits, and I’m concerned that a whole culture is being wiped out at this refinery,” said Ryan O’Callaghan, head of the refinery union. “It’s a 24-7 operation and people spend most of their lives working in the refinery.”

Roughly 280 of the facility’s 640 steelworkers were dismissed on Tuesday, said O’Callaghan, who works as an operator at the plant.

O’Callaghan and a team of negotiators are currently bargaining with PES to retain a crew of union workers trained to run the plant’s wastewater system and conduct other work to safeguard the site while it is closed.

An 80-member caretaker force at the PES refinery for up to 18 months was being considered, a source familiar with the company’s plans said. However, it was not clear whether they would be union members.

“The refining complex has completed the idling of a majority of the equipment. We are releasing employees this week in accordance with previous announcements,” the company said in a statement.

“PES will maintain a caretaker staff at the facility to complete a number of ongoing projects and ensure the safe and environmentally compliant operations at the refinery site.”

The company has said it hopes to sell the plant to a buyer that would restart it, but it has not said whether it is in talks with any prospective buyers.

PES entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 21, a month after a fire at the 335,000-barrel-per-day plant destroyed an alkylation unit used in the production of gasoline. The company had emerged from a previous bankruptcy last year.

PES initially said it would dismiss union and non-union employees by mid-July following the fire, but it later extended the employment of the plant’s union workers.

The refinery’s last crude unit was shut late last month.

Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Cynthia Osterman

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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August 20, 2019

Honda to end car production in Argentina in 2020 – The Japan Times

Honda Motor Co. said Wednesday it will stop making cars in Argentina next year as part of efforts to streamline its production allocation worldwide.

The automaker produced about 10,000 units of its HR-V sport utility vehicle and around 100,000 motorcycles at its plant in Campana, Buenos Aires, last year.

A company spokesman said that it has been difficult to maintain profitability in the country’s shrinking auto market and that the falling Argentina peso has pushed up the cost of imported auto parts.

Honda has already announced it will close an auto plant in Britain and terminate production of the Civic in Turkey, both in 2021, as part of its global restructuring of production.

In South America, Honda has two factories making four-wheel vehicles in Brazil that produce a combined 240,000 units a year.

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August 20, 2019

Meet Tesla’s self-driving car computer and its two AI brains – CNET

Two big, square AI processors power Tesla’s third-generation full self-driving car computer. Tesla showed the computer at the Hot Chips conference.

Stephen Shankland/CNET

Designing your own chips is hard. But Tesla, one of the most aggressive developers of autonomous vehicle technology, thinks it’s worth it. The company revealed details Tuesday about how it fine-tuned its AI chip design so two of them are smart enough to power its cars’ upcoming “full self-driving” abilities.

Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk and his colleagues revealed the company’s third-generation computing hardware in April. But at the Hot Chips conference today, chip designers showed how heavy optimizations in Tesla’s custom AI chips dramatically boosted performance — a factor of 21 compared to the earlier Nvidia chips. As an added bonus, they’re only 80% the cost, too.

The company needed better hardware to achieve its 2019 full self-driving goal, in which cars navigate not only freeways as today but also local streets with stop signs and traffic lights. “It was clear to us, in order to meet our performance levels at the power constraints and the form factor constraints we had, we had to design something of our own,” said Ganesh Venkataramanan, one of the chip designers and a former AMD processor engineer.

It’s a major effort to design a processor chip. The magnitude of the work is reflected in the gargantuan number of transistors — 6 billion — that make up the processing circuitry on each of Tesla’s chips. But Tesla’s in-house expertise, spanning everything from processors and software to battery manufacturing and charging stations, gives it a major advantage over conventional auto makers.

“Other car manufacturers can’t compete,” said New Street analyst Pierre Ferragu in an August report on Tesla. “Their business model doesn’t allow them to fit all cars with this expensive hardware, and they run vastly behind on technology, depending too much on their suppliers and unable to tightly integrate hardware, software, and operations. As a result, Tesla is setting the standard for mass-market autopilot.”

Two brains for self-driving safety

Each Tesla computer has two AI chips, a redundant design for better safety, Venkataramanan said. There’s also redundancy in the chips’ power supplies and data input feeds, too. Even the car’s cameras are on two separate power supplies to guard against failures.

“There are a lot of redundancy features, which makes sure … nothing untoward happens to the system” if a sensor, component, camera or power supply fails, Venkataramanan said.

Each chip makes its own assessment of what the car should do next. The computer compares the two assessments, and if the chips agree, the car takes the action. If the chips disagree, the car just throws away that frame of video data and tries again, Venkataramanan said. That’s one of the reasons Tesla wanted powerful AI chips that could handle such a high frame rate for video.

Highly optimized

Each Tesla AI chip runs at 2GHz and performs 36 trillion operations per second. That performance is possible because Tesla optimized the chips for self-driving cars and dropped anything more general purpose, said Debjit Das Sarma, another Tesla chip designer and former AMD engineer.

For example, the chip handles data recorded as 8-bit integers instead of the 16-bit floating-point numbers more common in AI tasks but that require more power to process. For another, it’s got an extremely limited set of instructions it can process. And it’s got a gargantuan 32 megabytes of high-speed SRAM memory on the chip, which means it doesn’t have to wait around while fetching data from much slower conventional DRAM memory.

“Rather than spending all the power on these profligate things, we wanted to spend most of the energy on what really matters for us,” Das Sarma said. Although Tesla designed the core AI elements of the processor, it relied on off-the-shelf elements for things like graphics processing.

The AI chip took 14 months to design, and now Samsung is manufacturing the processor. It’s shipping in newer Tesla cars now, and older models can be upgraded.

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August 20, 2019

Latest innovative report on Robo-Taxi Market by 2025 with top key players like Waymo LLC (US), Aptiv (Ireland), GM Cruise (US), Ridecell, Inc (US), Uber Technologies Inc. (US), NAVYA (France), and EasyMile (France) – Indian Columnist

A minimum human intervention or complete self-driving taxi is termed as a robo-taxi. Inclination toward autonomous vehicles is a major factor fueling the development of robo-taxi. Change in auto industry trends, such as autonomous driving, vehicle connectivity, powertrain electrification, and shared mobility, is likely to create significant impact on the robo-taxi market during the forecast period. Majority of robo-taxis are equipped with electric powertrains, which offers lower operating cost for fleet operators. Moreover, increasing opportunities in shared mobility for pooling rides is likely boost the robo-taxi market during the forecast period. Increasing adoption of technologies in vehicles, such as connected car features, is likely to boost the robo-taxi market during the forecast period. Furthermore, demand for fuel-efficient vehicles and emission-free vehicles, owing stringent emission norms, are estimated to prompt major fleet operators to adopt robo-taxis.

The global Robo-Taxi market is expected to expand at a CAGR of +112% over the forecast period 2019-2025.

The report, titled Global Robo-Taxi market defines and briefs readers about its products, applications, and specifications. The research lists key companies operating in the global market and also highlights the key changing trends adopted by the companies to maintain their dominance. By using SWOT analysis and Porter’s five force analysis tools, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of key companies are all mentioned in the report. All leading players in this global market are profiled with details such as product types, business overview, sales, manufacturing base, competitors, applications, and specifications.

Top Key Vendors in Market:

Waymo LLC (US), Aptiv (Ireland), GM Cruise (US), Ridecell, Inc (US), Uber Technologies Inc. (US), NAVYA (France), and EasyMile (France)

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Various factors are responsible behind the market’s growth trail, which are studied at length in the report. In addition, the report lists down the restraints that are posing threat to the Robo-Taxi market.

Different global regions such as North America, Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Europe, and India have been analyzed on the basis of the manufacturing base, productivity, and profit margin. This Robo-Taxi market research report has been scrutinized on the basis of different practical oriented case studies from various industry experts and policymakers. It uses numerous graphical presentation techniques such as tables, charts, graphs, pictures and flowchart for easy and better understanding to the readers.

Different internal and external factors such as, Robo-Taxi Market have been elaborated which are responsible for driving or restraining the progress of the companies. To discover the global opportunities different methodologies have been included to increase customers rapidly.

The report’s conclusion leads into the overall scope of the global market with respect to feasibility of investments in various segments of the market, along with a descriptive passage that outlines the feasibility of new projects that might succeed in the global Robo-Taxi market in the near future.

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Key questions answered in the report include:

What will be the market size and the growth rate by the end of the forecast period?
What are the key Robo-Taxi Market trends impacting the growth of the market?
What are the potential growth opportunities and threats faced by the leading competitors in the market?
What are the key outcomes of Porter’s five forces analysis and the SWOT analysis of the key players functioning in the global Robo-Taxi Market?
This report gives all the information regarding industry Overview, analysis and revenue of this market.
What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the vendors in the global Robo-Taxi market?

Table of Content:

Global Robo-Taxi Market Research Report 2019-2025

Chapter 1: Industry Overview

Chapter 2: Robo-Taxi Market International and China Market Analysis

Chapter 3: Analysis of Revenue by Classifications

Chapter 4: Analysis of Revenue by Regions and Applications

Chapter 5: Analysis of Robo-Taxi Market Revenue Market Status.

Chapter 6: Sales Price and Gross Margin Analysis

………Continue for TOC……..

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August 20, 2019

Waymo expands driverless car testing to Florida – VentureBeat

Google parent company Alphabet’s Waymo today announced that it will soon begin piloting autonomous cars in Florida, expanding from its initial test cities of Novi, Kirkland, Washington, San Francisco, and Phoenix. The company says in the coming weeks it will bring both its modified Chrysler Pacifica minivans and a Jaguar I-Pace to the Sunshine State to drive on a closed track in heavy rain, ahead of tests on public Miami roads later in the month.

“At Miami-Dade County, we are constantly exploring ways to improve and provide more mobility options for our community,” said Miami-Dade County department of transportation and public works director Alice N. Bravo. “I’m supportive of Waymo’s presence in the county as they continue to push technological boundaries and discover new ways to help us move.”

Waymo says its cars will be manually driven by trained operators, giving the team an opportunity to collect real-world driving data in heavy rain. When the cars venture beyond the closed track, they’ll mainly drive on highways between Orlando, Tampa, Fort Myers, and Miami.

Waymo points out that during the hurricane season in the summer months, Miami is one of the wettest cities in the U.S., averaging an annual 61.9 inches of rain. These conditions and the resulting slick roads create noise for its vehicles’ sensors, Waymo explains, and can also result in other drivers behaving differently. “Testing allows us to understand the unique driving conditions and get a better handle on how rain affects our own vehicle movements, too,” the company said in a blog post. “Both human-driven and self-driving cars need to drive in many different weather conditions.”

Waymo

It’s been over six months since Waymo launched Waymo One, its commercial driverless taxi fleet of over 600 cars with safety drivers behind the wheel, and the company says the fleet has grown to serve over 1,000 riders in that time. Separately, Waymo recently revealed that its cars have driven 10 billion autonomous miles in simulation and 10 million real-world autonomous miles in 25 cities.

Weeks after Waymo announced it would dedicate a factory in southeast Michigan to the production of level 4 autonomous cars — that is, cars capable of driving without human supervision in most conditions — the company said it had settled on a location in Detroit. Separately, Waymo partnered with Lyft to deploy 10 of its vehicles on the ride-hailing platform in Phoenix.

Waymo currently operates a roughly 20-person, 53,000-square-foot office in Novi, Michigan that opened in 2016, and in Detroit it tests driverless Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivans that are produced in Windsor, Canada and shipped to Novi, where they’re outfitted with hardware and software by Waymo and Chrysler engineers. In Chandler, Arizona, Waymo last year expanded its full service center — which houses operations and support teams, including fleet technicians, dispatch, response, and rider support — to 60,000 square feet. More recently, the company pledged to open an 85,000-square-foot technical service center in the city of Mesa, Arizona, near Phoenix’s East Valley, and it expects to “more than double” its capacity to maintain the fleet of cars in Waymo One.

Waymo also announced last year that it would add up to 62,000 minivans to its fleet and said it had signed a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to equip 20,000 of the automaker’s Jaguar I-Pace electric SUVs with its autonomous system by 2020.

Waymo has competition in Yandex, Tesla, Zoox, Aptiv, May Mobility, Pronto.ai, Aurora, Nuro, and GM’s Cruise Automation, to name just a few. Daimler last summer obtained a permit from the Chinese government that allows it to test autonomous cars powered by Baidu’s Apollo platform on public roads in China. Beijing-based Pony.ai, which has raised $214 million in venture capital, in early April launched a driverless taxi pilot in Guangzhou. And startup Optimus Ride this month built out a small autonomous shuttle fleet in New York City, becoming the first to do so.

According to marketing firm ABI, as many as 8 million driverless cars will be added to the road in 2025, and Research and Markets anticipates that there will be some 20 million autonomous cars in operation in the U.S. by 2030.

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August 20, 2019

12 of the most powerful fully electric cars money can buy – Business Insider

Though it gets a lot of attention, Tesla isn’t the only company creating electric cars.

Some traditional carmakers like Aston Martin and Porsche are exploring the rapidly-growing electric car field with super powerful new models which add their own flair for luxury and speed to the market.

Meanwhile, other much smaller companies are exploring the high-end electric sector, such as the relatively unknown Aspark — which hasn’t even released a production vehicle yet.

Horsepower is measured a little differently for electric cars, as an electric motors’ full torque is deployed as soon as the driver steps on the accelerator. That means an electric car can feel more powerful than an internal-combustion-engined (ICE) car with the same horsepower rating at the low end, but start to lose some of its gusto at sustained high speeds unlike a gas-powered car.

With that crucial difference in mind, here are 11 of the most powerful electric cars money can buy, including some that are setting world records.

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August 20, 2019

After 50 Years, This Would-Be ‘Ferrari Killer’ Is Back: Say Hello to the New ATS GT – Robb Report

True connoisseurs of automobiles take years or even decades to acquire their level of discernment, appreciate proper historical content and context, and use these factors as guides for what to purchase. Then they often keep their cars for a good portion of their lives. Their knowledge of a particular marque’s story, its place in the big picture of automotive history, the pecking order of greatness in a manufacturer’s or coachbuilder’s models, and what really makes for exquisite design or engineering goes far beyond performance stats. It’s nuanced and complex, like a sophisticated palate, not merely an “I only drink first-growth Bordeaux” mind-set.

Which is all to say, the ATS GT is a true connoisseur’s car. Its beauty and subtlety are obviously appealing, as is the nameplate’s intriguing backstory. Automobile Turismo e Sport’s impact on the automotive history behind in 1963, when the original ATS road car disrupted the sports and gran truism scene. To put its degree of innovation into perspective, the ATS 2500 GT was the world’s first mid-engine, road-going supercar, beating the Lamborghini Miura to the punch by three years.

The 2500 GT’s story began two years before its debut, when Ferrari was dominating the competition headlines, winning both the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the endurance racing crown with a front-engine TR61, and the Formula 1 Drivers and Constructors championships with the mid-engine 156 F1. One would think those titles would have brought joyful celebration to the hallways of Maranello in late fall 1961. Instead, there was a collective gasp of shock when eight of Ferrari’s top executives and engineers abruptly exited the company en masse. (Whether they were fired, quit or were fired before they could quit is a matter of some hairsplitting.)

This type of rare occurrence is what really has lasting historic impact, deeper than which of today’s numbers cars wins the 0–60 or quarter-mile battle, or which one most recently set the quickest Nürburgring lap. In 12 to 18 months, these “stats cars” are yesterday’s news, while repercussions from events such as Ferrari’s Palace Revolt in 1961 last a decade or more.

The first ATS 2500 GT, from 1963. Giorgio Nada Editore

ATS was one of that upheaval’s bigger outcomes. Four months after the walkout, exiled engineers Carlo Chiti and Giotto Bizzarrini, sales manager Girolamo Gardini and others rounded up three very wealthy backers (and Ferrari clients): industrialist Giorgio Billi, tin magnate Jaime Ortiz-Patiño and Scuderia Serenissima patron Count Giovanni Volpi. Together, they formed ATS on February 11, 1962. The company’s goal was to out-Ferrari Ferrari on the road and track. While the latter proved to be a pipe dream, the avant-garde 2500 GT was a true landmark machine.

Making its debut in March 1963, the supercar was the brainchild of Chiti and had a centrally mounted all-aluminum 2.5-liter V-8, 5-speed transmission, 150 mph top speed, disc brakes all around, rigid tubular chassis, independent suspension in the front and rear and so much more that it made Ferrari’s, Maserati’s and Aston’s road cars seem antiquated. The elegant coachwork was styled by Franco Scaglione and crafted by Carrozzeria Allemano, the former being as gifted and artistic as any designer. In addition to the 2500 GT, Scaglione’s résumé includes Alfa’s 33 Stradale, BAT (5, 7 and 9), two Sportivas and Sprint Speciale, plus Lamborghini’s 350 GTV and a number of others.

The idea was to promote ATS’s name through F1 and endurance racing, all while making the world’s most advanced road car. In September 1964, a 2500 GT was Road & Track’s cover story. Seasoned journalist Griff Borgeson summed up a spectacular drive and factory visit by observing, “I was haunted by the thought that what Bugatti was noted for in the past was here, brought fully up to date.” In an even more telling statement, he raved that the car’s “truly great performance” came from “brilliant design and not from brute strength.”

Emanuele Bomboi, left, and Daniele Maritan, the principals behind ATS’s revival

Emanuele Bomboi and Daniele Maritan, the principals behind ATS’s revival. Winston Goodfellow

But that article’s realistic, glowing appraisal and the handful of 2500 GTs produced that year were insufficient to keep ATS in the game. Unfortunately, there was friction between the shareholders early on—Billi was self-made, Count Volpi an aristocrat—and that discord all but doomed the effort. Count Volpi was the wealthiest and most experienced in the automotive arena, and the first to go; Ortiz-Patiño soon followed him. While Billi was very successful and quite enthusiastic, he did not have the pocketbook or skill set to handle the whole enterprise. Exacerbating matters was the F1 team’s bad luck (a transporter crash, constant failures to cross the finish line and more) that seemed to dog the effort through the 1963 season. Those F1-team maladies soaked up cash and slowed the development and production of the 2500 GT.

By the time deliveries started in the second half of 1964, it was too little too late, and ATS was forced to shut its doors around the turn of the year. The company and the cars became the perfect “what if” fodder of… well, car connoisseurs. Today, examples of the beauties are rare and coveted. Collector Bruce Milner’s 1964 ATS 2500 GTS took best in show at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, in 2017. Recently, it reportedly sold for $3 million to another collector.

The new ATS GT is a marvelous modern rendition of the landmark 2500 GT. Daniele Maritan and Emanuele Bomboi are the forces behind the marque’s resurrection. Maritan is an amateur racer and successful entrepreneur, while Bomboi has lengthy experience in the coachbuilding industry that includes stints at Carrozzeria Bertone and Centro Stile Fiat.

The new Automobili Turismo e Sport ATS GT

Winston Goodfellow

On a private visit to the partners at their villa headquarters in the small village of Pombia, not far from Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, I hear how they came to resurrect the storied marque. As design director at Carrozzeria Viotti, Bomboi created the Willys AW380, a marvelous mid-engine prototype that would become the new Alpine A110. The AW380 was unveiled at 2014’s Bologna Motor Show, which is where the first seeds of the ATS revival were sown.

The two men had already crossed paths, but that Bologna show was the first time they really connected. As their friendship blossomed, their mutual interest in ATS—and tantalizing speculation about what could have been—came to the fore, and the two decided to collaborate on reviving the nameplate. Both savvy in production and design, they took the basic ATS recipe of an elegant, high-performance, mid-engine, two-seat coupe and adapted it to the 21st century.

Parked in the villa’s courtyard is the result of their labors: a harmonious, fluid silhouette possessing graceful proportions and soft curves that were clearly inspired by the original Franco Scaglione design. The following day, I am the first journalist to drive it, and it’s everything a modern supercar should be: loaded with bespoke design and engineering touches, comfortable and refined at low speeds, and a rocket ship when you put your foot in it. The suspension is compliant and communicative and the steering nicely weighted. You could easily use it every day, or have the perfect weekend escape toy.

Winston Goodfellow

Bomboi and Maritan have an excellent eye for detail, and speak of “a love of art forms and elegance.” It shows on this car, as one of their goals is to “bring true Italian beauty in design back to the roads.”

And that’s what I see in the GT. This isn’t some flashing neon sign that punches you in the face for attention. Instead, this is a car with inherent, timeless beauty. You gaze at it like an artwork, and each time you do, you notice something new.

Production has begun in ATS’s new atelier on the outskirts of Turin. There, the company is committed to providing buyers with fully bespoke models. Each is to be individually colorized so no two are alike. The interior has the same level of thoughtful, customized design, engineering and craftsmanship as the exterior. McLaren 650S’s drivetrain and platform not only bring reliability and refinement to the car but also eliminate the need for costly and time-consuming homologation.

Winston Goodfellow

But ATS didn’t stop at adopting McLaren’s technology and say the job was done. Instead, the team applied their talents to the entire power train and developed two versions of the twin-turbo V-8 with substantially more horsepower than the 650 found in the already quick 650S. The standard ATS GT’s 3.8-liter V-8 produces 730 or 830 hp, while the crazy 4.1-liter Tipo 4100 V-8 makes 900, 1,012 or 1,200 hp. And, like the 3.8-liter, it comes with a proper warranty.

Despite all these details, some will undoubtedly deride this custom-made machine because of its McLaren underpinnings. Yet few think twice about spending around double the ATS’s $900,000 to $1 million price for a Porsche restored by Singer Vehicle Design that is based upon a considerably more antiquated platform. The latter is heavily modified, the naysayers will declare. So is the ATS.

Which brings us back to the role of connoisseurs on the automotive scene. The ATS GT is a car for them, something with exquisite execution, timeless lines, impressive performance and true handcraftsmanship—all designed, developed and made in a dedicated factory. What remains to be seen is whether there are enough potential clients out there who are focused on more than this week’s “flavor,” simple statistics and blatant, “yes, you will stare at me” design. Let’s hope so.

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August 20, 2019

Expensive sports cars 2019 – Legit.ng

Decades ago, it was hard to imagine that one day, cars would cost upwards of $10 million. Back then, automobiles were merely means of getting from one point to another. However, technological advancements, as well as an increase in the number of super-wealthy people, have led to the development of some pricey cars. The most expensive sports cars 2019 are a mix of street-legal and track-only sports cars that will set buyers back millions of dollars.

Image: pixabay.com
Source: UGC

Various well-known models make the most expensive sports cars 2019 list as well as some lesser-known brands. The likes of Lamborghini, Bugatti and Ferrari are familiar contestants while the likes of Zenvo and Lykan can be considered as relative newcomers.

What are the top 20 most expensive cars?

One common factor among most expensive car brands is not only the sky-high price but also the small number of production units available for purchase.

Most expensive car in the world of all time

Image: instagram.com, @supercar
Source: UGC

20. Lamborghini Centenario LP: $1.9 million

Lamborghini has always been among the most expensive cars brands in the motoring industry. The Lamborghini Centenario is an exquisite product of the company’s few-off manufacturing strategy. The Centenario was produced during Mr Ferruccio Lamborghini’s 100th anniversary. A total of 40 cars were manufactured (twenty coupes and twenty convertible models). The Centenario comes with a 770 CV aspirated V12 engine which catapults the vehicle from zero to a hundred kilometres per hour in a mind-blowing 2.8 seconds.

Image: instagram.com, @lamborghini_centenario
Source: UGC

With new cabin technology and a 6.5L V12 engine, the Centenario is any car aficionado’s dream. Various performance features come standard with the car. These include rear-wheel steering, wide-ranging connectivity and large brake pads. The Centenario is truly a breathtaking piece of engineering.

19. Zenvo TS1: $1.9 million

Zenvo is a Danish supercar manufacturer that you have probably not heard among names of expensive cars. The TS1 GT is a sleek sports car that was manufactured to mark the company’s tenth anniversary. It was preceded by the Zenvo ST1 which was priced at $1.2 million and only had fifteen units produced. Thanks to its 5.8-litre V8 flat-plane engine, the TS1 GT can move from 0-100 kilometres per hour in a mere 2.8 seconds. This puts its acceleration performance at par with more popular sports car models such as Lamborghinis and Ferraris.

Image: instagram.com, @1100_hp
Source: UGC

The TS1 makes use of LED technology on all its lights and features a fully enclosed underbody for maximum downforce. On the interior, Zenvo TS1 owners will get dual-zone climate control, wireless connectivity and a host of safety equipment. Motoring fans will agree that the TS1 looks fantastic, especially in the Fjord Blue colour. Typically, bright colours such as orange, red and in rare cases, pink, tend to look great on sports cars.

18. Koenigsegg Regera: $2 million

When it comes to the most beautiful cars ever designed, the Koenigsegg Regera frequently comes up. Koenigsegg is a foreign (Swedish) sports car manufacturer based in Angelholm. The Regera is hand-assembled as a pricier alternative to other Koenigsegg models. The company only manufactured 80 Koenigsegg Regera units making it quite rare as it is with expensive sports cars. The supercar is powered by a 5.0L dry-sump V8 engine which outputs 1500 horsepower.

Image: instagram.com, @koenigseggvehicles
Source: UGC

According to Koenigsegg, the Regera’s V8 engine is the most downsized homologated internal combustion engine in the world at 220hp per litre. Besides fuel combustion, the Regera is also equipped with three electric motors which combined, propel the Regera to a top speed of 400 kilometres per hour in less than twenty seconds. For added exclusivity, there is a special edition Regera that comes in what the company calls a 24-carat gold-leaf accent.

17. Lamborghini Sesto Elemento: $2.2 million

Sesto Elemento loosely translates to ‘sixth element’. The name is in reference to the atomic number of carbon due to the vast use of carbon fibre in its construction. The Lamborghini Sesto Elemento is an engineering masterpiece that boasts extremely low weight due to carbon fibre elements. The car weighs less than a thousand kilograms (curb weight).

Image: instagram.com, @supercar_spotter_25
Source: UGC

The Sesto Elemento is powered by the same V10 engine in the Lamborghini Gallardo that is capable of moving the car from 0-100km/h in 2.5 seconds via the permanent all-wheel-drive configuration. The car comes standard with a six-speed semi-automatic transmission gearbox and a top speed of 336km/h. Lamborghini only manufactured 20 units of this car. It is worth noting that owners are not allowed to drive this car on the streets.

16. Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta: $2.2 million

The LaFerrari Aperta is a higher-end version of the LaFerrari. Ferrari produced only 209 units of the LaFerrari Aperta, 200 of which were sold via invitation only. The nine extra units were intended for company use. The most significant difference between the LaFerrari and the LaFerrari Aperta is that the latter gets a removable carbon-fibre top.

Image: instagram.com, @andox0724
Source: UGC

In terms of powertrains, the Aperta uses a 6262 cc V12 engine combined with an electric motor for a combined output of 960 CV. The car is equipped with the company’s active aerodynamics hybrid system for unrivalled performance and engagement. The V12 engine makes the Aperta capable of accelerating from 0-100km/h in 2.4 seconds. Top speed is limited to 349km/h. The Aperta was manufactured in 2017 as the company celebrated seventy years of operation.

15. Pagani Huayra Roadster: $2.4 million

According to Horacio Pagani, everything had to come together ‘as if the entire car was carved out of a block of Carrara marble’. The Huayra is a model by the Italian company Pagani. Huayra comes from the name of the wind god ‘Huayra-Tata’. The vehicle was named the hypercar of the year by Top Gear in 2012.

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A Mercedes Benz AMG engines power the Huayra Roadster with a displacement of 5980 cubic centimetres. The engine outputs 760hp and 1000 pound-feet of torque at 5500 revolutions per minute. The engine is mated to a seven-speed gearbox manufactured by xTrac. Only a hundred units of the Huayra roadster were manufactured, and all have since been sold.

14. Ferrari F60 America: $2.5 million

The Ferrari F60 is among the rarest Ferrari models ever made. The F60 was manufactured in 2014 to commemorate the company’s 60th anniversary in America. Only ten of these vehicles were ever manufactured. All ten were delivered to America with the first one belonging to a buyer in Florida. The F60 is powered by a 6.3L V12 engine that can rev to 8700 rpm.

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According to Ferrari, the F60 can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 3.1 seconds and achieve a top speed of just over 320km/h. The F60 also features a removable soft-cloth top that can be used for speeds below 120km/h. Unlike most sports cars which are made out of carbon fibre, the F60 has an all-aluminium construction. Despite not being the fastest or the lightest Ferrari, the F60 received great reviews mainly for its striking looks and curvy design.

13. Bugatti Chiron – $ 2.7 million

The Chiron is one of the familiar faces in the sports car industry. The Bugatti Chiron is the fastest and most powerful sports car in Bugatti’s lineup. The car is the successor of the famous Bugatti Veyron. The Chiron was the vision of former Volkswagen mogul Ferdinand Piech who always demanded the fastest production cars from Bugatti.

Who owns the most expensive car in the world

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The car is powered by a fancy 8L W16 engine which is, in essence, a combination of two V8 engines. The engine feeds 1479 horsepower to the car’s drivetrain allowing it to reach 200km/h in less than seven seconds. The car can achieve a top speed of 420km/h. The distinctive quad LED lights also double up as air intakes for routing air to the front brakes. The Chiron has a combined fuel efficiency of 22.5 miles per gallon, but then again, sports cars are not exactly manufactured for fuel-efficiency. Five hundred units of the Chiron were manufactured and sold, a figure which is relatively high as compared to most rare supercars.

12. Ferrari FXX K: $2.7 million

The Ferrari FXX K is a production sports car designed by Marco Fainello and Evan Rodriguez. Similar to other sports cars, there were only forty units of the FXX K to be ever produced. A 1036hp V12 internal combustion engine powers the vehicle. The engine has been tuned for use on racing tracks through Ferrari’s HY-KERS system.

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The FXX K has four driving modes, namely fast charge, manual boost, qualify and long run. The car is also equipped with various formula one based technology such as an electronic differential, traction control and racing antilock systems. Car fans can collectively agree that the FXX K is among the best-looking sports cars out there. It is worth noting that the FXX K is a track day car and not a street-legal model such as its predecessor, the LaFerrari.

11. Pagani Huayra BC: $2.8 million

One of the most expensive Paganis ever designed is the Huayra BC. The vehicle has a striking design that is particularly appealing to the younger generation. The BC designation stands for Benny Caiola, the first Pagani customer as well as the founder’s friend. Horacio Pagani dedicated the Huayra BC to Caiola, stating that he did it from his heart.

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The BC is powered by a twin-turbo V12 engine that produces 790hp and 811-pound-feet of torque. The inbuilt hydraulic transmission combines perfectly with the electric motor for high-speed manoeuvres. The doors of the Huayra BC open sideways giving the car a luxurious feel. The extensive use of carbon fibre brings down the weight of the BC significantly as compared to similar aluminium-based sports cars.

10. Ferrari Pininfarina Sergio: $3 million

The top 10 Ferrari Sergio was introduced in 2013 as a concept car in memory of Pininfarina founder’s son. The Ferrari Sergio is among the rarest sports cars ever made. Ferrari only made six Ferrari Sergio cars making them some of the most coveted car models out there. The car’s design is based on the Ferrari 458 Spider, and at $3 million, it is one of the priciest production sports cars ever.

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The car is powered by a 4.5L V8 engine that outputs 562hp directed to the rear wheels. In a somewhat rare exclusivity decision, each of the six vehicles made was sold to a person chosen by the car manufacturer. In terms of design, the Pininfarina Sergio features a carbon fibre frame which gives drivers a feel of comfortable open-air driving.

9. Aston Martin Valkyrie: $3.2 million

Aston Martin uses the term otherworldly to describe the Valkyrie. It is easy to see why they would choose the word. Everything about the Valkyrie looks out of this world. The Valkyrie was built under the company’s president at the time, Andy Palmer. Under the hood, the car is powered by a naturally-aspirated 6.5L V12 engine. The extensive use of carbon fibre in the car’s construction allows the vehicle to have an excellent 1:1 power to weight ratio.

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The car’s engine outputs 1000hp and sprints from 0-100km/h in less than three seconds. The car achieves a top speed of 320km/h via seven-speed sequential transmission.

8. Bugatti Veyron by Mansory Vivere: $3.4 million

The Bugatti Veyron was the most potent production sports car when it was launched in 2005. Despite being later surpassed by the Bugatti Chiron, it is still among the most sought-after models by car collectors. The manufacturer only made 270 units of the original Veyron. For those looking for more exclusivity, the German firm, Mansory, was there to fine-tune a handful of them such as the rare Linea Vivere.

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There are only two Linea Vivere models in the world. The car features a quad-turbo 8.0L W16 engine that outputs 1200hp. The first car’s owner had it done in matte white with new carbon fibre rear and front bumpers. The customizing company also added daytime running lights, custom wheels and strikingly cool side skirts.

7. Lykan Hypersport: $3.4 million

The founder of W Motors, which manufactures the Lykan Hypersport describes the car as ‘a modern machine with a touch of humanity’. The car’s headlights feature 440 24-carat diamonds with specific light blades being made with 40-carat diamond varieties. The Hypersport cast the company into the limelight when it starred in the film Fast and Furious 7. W Motors only made seven units of this vehicle.

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The Hypersport is powered by a 3.8L twin-turbo six-cylinder engine that produces 780hp and 960 pound-feet of torque. The car can sprint from 0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds and is limited to a top speed of 395km/h. In a refreshing touch of exclusivity, the car’s carbon-fibre body is entirely hand-crafted. There are 440 diamonds in the car’s headlights.

6. Aston Martin Vulcan: $3.4 million

The Aston Martin Vulcan is a track-only car produced in 2015 and launched officially at the 2015 Geneva motor sow. The Vulcan is powered by a 7.0L naturally-aspirated V12 engine mounted on an aluminium chassis. The engine outputs 800hp. The Aston Martin Vulcan was designed by the company’s creative director, Marek Reichman.

Design-wise, the Vulcan features a two-seater 2 door configuration inspired by other models such as the DB-9, Vantage and the One 77. Aston Martin only manufactured 24 units of the Vulcan making it one of the rare sports cars out there.

5. McLaren P1 LM: $3.6 million

The top 5 section begins with the P1 LM which is the street-legal version of the track-only McLaren P1 GTR. British car firm Lanzante was responsible for converting the GTR into the street-legal version. It is not the first time that the after-market firm has converted track-only McLaren vehicles into street-legal models. The converted models are then sold to customers in Japan, the US, UK and the UAE.

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The car is powered by a 3.8L twin-turbo engine and is significantly lighter than the P1 GTR on which it is based. The P1 LM engine outputs 986bhp and 1000ps. There are only five units of the McLaren P1 LM in the world.

4. Lamborghini Veneno Roadster: $4.5 million

According to Lamborghini, driving the Veneno ‘will feel like flying on the road’. The car’s name is Spanish for venom and true to its name, the vehicle looks stunningly menacing. The Veneno was designed as a commemoration of Lamborghini’s fifty years in operation. Under the hood, there is a 6.5L V12 engine coupled to a seven-speed manual gearbox.

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The engine produces 740hp and propels the Veneno from 0-100km/h in 2.9 seconds. For exclusivity, the company manufactured only nine units of the model. The Veneno will almost always appear on most expensive car lists.

3. Koenigsegg CCXR Trevita: $4.8 million

Trevita is Swedish for ‘three whites’. The name comes from the nice carbon fibre weave pattern on the car’s bodywork. Using unique technology, Koenigsegg was able to achieve a diamond finish on the car’s carbon fibre surface. When sunshine hits the car’s surface, it seems like countless diamonds are embedded inside the car’s bodywork.

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The vehicle is powered by an aluminium 4.8L V8 engine which outputs 1018hp at 7000rpm. The car can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 2.9 seconds, placing it among the fastest accelerating production cars today. The Trevita’s top speed is capped at 410km/h. The manufacturer only made two units of this model, making it one of the rarest sports cars ever made.

2. Mercedes-Benz Maybach Exelero: $8 million

Which car is the most expensive in the world 2018? Short answer, the Maybach Exelero. The Exelero is the perfect blend of the most luxurious coupe and the sharpest sports car. The Maybach Exelero is powered by a 5.9L twin-turbo V12 engine that outputs 700hp at 5000rpm. Despite its age, the car still looks strikingly modern even today. According to Topspeed, rapper Birdman purchased the Exelero for $8 million. The Exelero was the most expensive car in the world 2018 before the introduction of the Bugatti La Voiture Noir.

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Now that we are done with the second most expensive model, which car is the most expensive in the world?

1. Bugatti La Voiture Noir: $12.5 million (before tax)

The La Voiture Noir tops the top 20 most expensive cars list. As one can tell from this top 20 list, Bugatti makes some quite costly sports cars. However, none of those models can come close to the price point of the Bugatti La Voiture Noir. It is the most expensive car in the world 2019 with an asking price of more than $18 million (after-tax). This also makes it the most expensive car in the world of all time (new vehicle).

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According to the company, only one of these will be made and sold. Who owns the most expensive car in the world? Well, Bugatti has not revealed the identity of the La Voiture Noir buyer, but as you can guess, it must be someone who is quite rich and perhaps a prior relationship with the brand. The car’s name loosely translates to ‘black car’.

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It is undeniable that the most expensive sports cars 2019 are also strikingly beautiful. While some people are lucky to come across some of them on the streets, fewer people have the luxury of owning these sports cars. The limited production quantities, as well as the substantial asking prices, have kept most people from owning these machines. Which of the vehicles fascinated you most?

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READ ALSO: Highest car in the world – Top 5

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August 20, 2019

EDAG presents modular fuel-cell robotic vehicle CityBot – www.electrive.com

Development service provider EDAG will be presenting a study of a swarm intelligent and multifunctional robotic vehicle with fuel cell drive for the IAA. The EDAG CityBot is to be operational around the clock and can be retrofitted as required using add-on modules.

The CityBot can be used as a passenger cell, a cargo carrier or a car for city cleaning. Due to the wide range of applications, the company confidently speaks of a “game-changer for the city of the future”.

EDAG is not reinventing the wheel with this futuristic-looking electric vehicle. Last year, for example, Daimler presented a similar modular mobility concept in the form of the Mercedes Vision Urbanetic. Depending on the body structure, the vehicle can transport up to twelve passengers or ten EPAL pallets – or, with a fully automated shelving system, become a mobile packing station. In addition, the Swiss think tank Rinspeed has founded a start-up called Snap Motion to further develop its electric concept vehicle Snap with ZF drive and prepare it for small series production. In January this year, we reported on a number of shuttle module platforms presented at the LA Motor Show.

The big difference between the EDAG concept and the two other autonomous multifunction transporters: While Daimler and Rinspeed rely on a battery-electric drive, the development service provider wants to use fuel cells. However, EDAG does not go into details about the drive in the communication, where the company has put the vehicle’s modularity as the main focus.

In conjunction with the platform technology for the Internet of Things and, for example, the digital micro-payment solutions of EDAG partner IOTA, CityBot will not only launch new, autonomous transport and work vehicles, but also possible new business models. “The city of the future must be clean, safe, worth living in, friendly, quiet and smart,” says Cosimo De Carlo, CEO of the EDAG Group. “For the CityBot, we have combined our development competencies from the Vehicle Engineering, Electrics/Electronics and Production Solutions divisions”. Thus the CityBot is “much more than a design study”.

At the IAA, the CityBot with the lounge-like module for passenger transport will be exhibited. Other possible modules, for example for city cleaning or green maintenance in parks, have been compiled in the picture gallery.

edag-engineering.de

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August 20, 2019

PES layoffs accelerate as Philadelphia refinery closes

PES began dismissing a small number of union workers last Thursday, before an earlier-stated Aug. 25 termination date, as the company idles its fire-damaged refinery after filing for bankruptcy.

Union employees are expected to be paid through Aug. 25, but the company has so far not offered severance pay or continued health benefits, sources have said.

Roughly 280 of the facility’s 640 steelworkers were dismissed on Tuesday, said O’Callaghan, who works as an operator at the plant.

An 80-member ‘caretaker force’ at the PES refinery for up to 18 months was being considered, a source familiar with the company’s plans said. However, it was not clear whether they would be union members.

PES was not immediately available for comment.

The company has said it hopes to sell the plant to a buyer that would restart it, but it has not said whether it is in talks with any prospective buyers.

PES initially said it would dismiss union and non-union employees by mid-July following the fire, but it later extended the employment of the plant’s union workers.

The refinery’s last crude unit was shut late last month.

Reporting by Laila Kearney in New York, Additional reporting by Erwin Seba in Houston, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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