JustBritish

Aston-Martin and Maybach are discussing building a concept car together, possibly for the Frankfurt show in September — and the move could signal an impending partnership between Aston 
and Mercedes-Benz.

Little is known about the concept, except that it is likely to be a luxury car, with a high-quality interior finished to the hand-crafted standards of a British luxury saloon.

Aston is understood to have approached Mercedes with an idea for at least one concept, although a source suggests that two projects are the subject of discussions. Neither Aston Martin nor Mercedes would comment. But Mercedes is understood to be close to selecting a partner to co-develop future Maybach models.

In an interview in Germany, Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche recently put a date of “the end of June” for a decision, which is pressing because Maybach needs to finalise replacements for its ageing 57 and 62 saloons.

The Mercedes design studio has been working on designs for these replacements for some time, which leaves Aston’s role in the project unclear.

For the full story, check out the article in AutoCar.

Lotus is doing a bit of rearranging in their kitchen now that plans for the Elan sports car have been placed on the backburner. Apparently, the British manufacturer is using the money that had been set aside for the Elan to develop their very own lineup of V6 and V8 engines.

During an interview, Project Boss Dany Bahar said: “This is a big [financial] hit because it’s expensive to do 
an engine,” says Bahar. “But 
because the Elan is not happening now we have got capital expenditure headroom 
for engine development.”

The first engine cooking is a V8 that will set up the competition for Ferrari’s V8 engine as seen in the 458 Italia. The new Lotus V8 will deliver between 550 – 570 HP and will undergo testing in July 2011. It will be dropped in the new Esprit model. After that, Lotus will go forth with a new V6 engine that will be used for a production version of the Eterne. Both of the new engines will be combined with an all-new aluminum platform that will be spectacularly light.

As for the Elan, Lotus says that the vehicle’s design was just too close to the Esprit so it would not be making its appearance on the lineup until the closer to the end of the company’s five year plan.

Longbridge’s first all-new MG for 16 years has drummed up over £3 million of business in just two weeks – with 180 cars sold. The MG6 has got off to a flying start since the official VIP launch in April, with buyers facing a waiting list of up to six weeks as dealers cope with a flood of orders for new MG model.

Sales of the new MG6 follow the relaunch of volume car-making at the Birmingham car factory six years on from the collapse of MG Rover in April 2005, when 6,500 jobs were lost.

MG Motor UK PR and Events Manager Doug Wallace said the Chinese-backed company was delighted with the response to the MG6, which sells for between £15,495 and £18,995.

“The value of MG6 GT fastbacks sold or ordered is just over £3 million – we have 180 orders in the pipeline. We are very pleased indeed with the response to the car, considering that it has only been on sale for a couple of weeks. These are people who have been to dealerships and had the opportunity to drive the car. We have got 32 dealers at the moment and we are actively recruiting more; there will be another 10 appointed in the next few weeks.

“The majority of people will order their model to certain specifications, and the average waiting period is five to six weeks.

“It’s taken off in a big way – people have seen the television adverts and we have got about 5,500 people on Facebook, which is growing all the time.”

The MG6, which is 80 per cent built in China and shipped to Birmingham for final assembly, will take annual car production at Longbridge into the thousands rather than the previous total of hundreds.

The car will also be on show at the Goodwood Festival of Speed from June 30 to July 3, one of the largest motoring events of its type in the world. This is expected to increase even more the orders for new MG model.

Meanwhile, the MG6’s saloon counterpart is set to go on sale in the UK next month, while a new hatchback model, the MG3, is also planned as part of the long-awaited rebirth of the motoring marque.

Read more at the Birmingham Mail

The electric version of a Rolls Royce Phantom presented by the British luxury car maker at this year’s 2011 Geneva Auto Show will not spawn any production version, at least not yet, according to the company’s CEO, Torsten Mueller-Oetvoe.

In March, when the model was presented, Rolls said it was trying to probe the public’s reaction to an electric luxury car, and only after having enough data would decide whether to build it or not. Now, some three months later, the model has been given the temporary axe, not because people showed little interest, but because the model, at least for now, would make no sense.

According to the CEO, since most of the people buying Rolls Royce cars live some great miles away from cities, the limited range current batteries can provide will not help them very much. Meaning their interest in the model is low.

The electric Rolls Royce 102EX is powered by two motors and a single-speed transmission (combined to create 389 hp and 590 lb-ft / 800 Nm of torque). It reaches 0-60 mph in less than 8 seconds and has a top speed of 99 mph (159 km/h). The nickel cobalt manganese battery (one of the largest ever installed in a car), gives the model a range of 125 miles (201 km).

Even if for now the idea of driving an electric Rolls Royce has been left aside, the manufacturer’s officials do admit that a hybrid model would make a better choice than an EV for the moment, both for the company and for the clients.

SAIC Motor Corporation, the owner of MG Motors, plans to develop several new models for the British brand in order to boost sales outside its home market in China. The Chinese owner of MG Motors has already spent £1 billion ($1.64 billion) to re-launch the MG and Roewe brands (former Rover) and intends to invest another £2.2 billion ($3.6 billion) to achieve annual sales of 700,000 by 2015.

In 2010, the two brands sold 160,397 cars, most of which were delivered in China, with only 2,000 units exported to other markets. This past April, MG launched its new mid-size MG6 in the UK, the first new car to be assembled at the British firm’s Longbridge plant in 16 years. The company said that when it completes the development of a diesel version, it will offer the car to rest of Europe. “We will not go into mainland Europe without a diesel,” UK managing director, William Wong, told Autonews.

The five-door MG6 is currently available with a 1.8-liter turbocharged gasoline engine and is priced from £15,500 (€17,650). Aside from the MG6, the British automaker is preparing a range of six new models: the MG3, MG5, MG7, an SUV-style crossover, a replacement for the TF roadster and a small electric car.

The MG3 is a small hatchback that has already been launched in China and is destined to go on sale in the UK at the end of 2012. Next up is the MG5, a compact model designed to compete in the C-segment against the Volkswagen Golf and Opel Astra, which was shown as a concept the Shanghai auto show this past April and is set to arrive in Europe in 2013.

The following year the company will launch the MG7 large sedan that is said to share GM’s Epsilon 2 platform with the Opel/Vauxhall Insignia as part of a partnership between GM and SAIC in China. That same year, MG is planning to unveil a small crossover model to rival the Nissan Qashqai.

Finally, the TF roadster will get a replacement in 2016 in the UK, while a small EV based on the Roewe E1 concept is also planned for launch.

Source: Autonews

MG has shown the new MG3 supermini to UK influencers for the first time – in preparation for a possible 2012 launch of the new British-designed Ford Fiesta rival.

Key UK customers, designers, suppliers and industry analysts were invited to a secret design forum at Prodrive’s Warwickshire test facility, to help MG generate initial opinions on how the new five-door supermini will be received.

While not yet confirmed for UK sale, MG Motors is very hopeful the supermini will soon get the green light (with assembly over here a strong hope, too). Because of this, the firm has started gathering data, from as broad a cross section as possible.

Furthermore, although the basic design of the car is fixed, MG is also seeking comments from UK motorists on what they would like changed. The Chinese-spec left-hand drive show car is representative of Eastern tastes, but these might not necessarily match European ones.

MG thus quizzed everyone at the Prodrive event on the bits they don’t like, as well as the ones they do. The foks over at MSN Cars was amongst those invited, and filled in the same questionnaire that all invitees did. MG Motor will be keen to hear what you’ve got to say: so, for the chance to influence what could potentially be your next supermini, make sure your voice is heard.