Ford and Toyota have entered into a "memorandum of understanding" to develop rear-wheel-drive hybrid systems for trucks and SUVs.
The "equal partners" agreement is expected to result in a petrol-electric hybrid system different from that used in the Prius or other current hybrid, front-wheel-drive cars. The point is to have a more fuel-efficient system for trucks while still keeping the same driving dynamics.
"The importance here is in reducing the cost of ownership ... without compromising the ability to deliver the towing capacity and durability customers have come to expect," Derrick Kuzak, head of Ford's global product development, told the Detroit Free Press.
The system is expected to be ready by the end of the decade, about when the higher North American Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards will be implemented for car makers.
The same hybrid powertrain is intended to be used by both companies in their vehicles, though no specific models were given by either company.
Ford and Toyota will also work on improving in-vehicle communications.
1934 Voisin C-25 wins prestigious Concours d'Elegance award
Each year about 200 of the finest cars in the world descend on the 18th hole at Pebble Beach Golf Links, California, one of the most famous courses in the world, to compete for the prestigious title of Concours d'Elegance.
Dating back more than 60 years, the event is hotly contested and this year's "Best in Show" has been named as a 1934 Voisin C-25 Aerodyne, owned by Peter Mullin, of Mullin Automotive Museum, California.
The C-25, created by French pioneer Gabriel Voisin, had a 3.0L inline-six engine producing just more than 100hp. There were three variants made - the Cimier, Clariere and the Aerodyne - and only 28 vehicles were produced in total so they are very rare and desirable cars.
Despite that, Mullin has 15 Voisin creations in his collection, in addition to Bugattis, Talbot Lagos and Delahayes.
"I'm a total French car nut," he said. "French cars are the ultimate in automotive design, technology and performance."
And it's clear from this year's result that the judges agree with Mullin's estimation.
Records fall at car auctions
A Ferrari race car has become the most expensive car ever sold at auction, while Hollywood legend Steve McQueen's Porsche 911S from the 1971 movie Le Mans has sold for more than US$1 million.
At the Gooding & Company auction in Monterey, California last week, a 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa sold for US$14.9 million (Dh54.7 million), or about $16.4 million including a buyer's premium.
The previous record holder was also a Testa Rossa, which sold for $12.4 million in 2009.
Meanwhile, the iconic sports car owned by McQueen went for US$1,375,000 (Dh5.05m) at RM Auctions in Monterey. It is the highest price for any Porsche 911 sold at auction.
In addition to its starring role in the film, the 1970 grey 911S was used as McQueen's personal transport during the movie's production, later joining his own stable of cars at his home in California.
The sale of the 911S was RM's 200th million-dollar-plus car sold at auction.
Other highlights of the sale were a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 Berlinetta, which sold for US$1.5m, and an 1899 Columbia Electric Landaulet, which sold for US$550,000 - the highest price ever for an electric car sold at auction.
Skoda beats speed record for production cars with 365kph run
You may have to do a double-take but it's official: Skoda's Octavia is the fastest 2.0L forced induction production car ever.
The modified Octavia vRS hatch hit 365kph on the salt flats at Bonneville Speed Week in Utah, US, this month, smashing the previous record of 347kph set in August 1998.
Skoda UK put together a team to challenge the record and came up with the 600hp "salt spec" racer, built to mark the 10th anniversary of the vRS performance badge.
The Octavia's outing consisted of two official runs of Bonneville's famous five-mile(8km) course, the first at 362kph and a return run at 367kph.
Robert Hazelwood, director of Skoda UK, said: "This is a truly stunning achievement.Our goal was to break 200mph [321kph] as a celebration of 10 years of vRS, and we have achieved that, and significantly more. The success is a tribute to everyone who has worked so tirelessly and with such passion for Skoda."
Bugatti lays plans for Dh9m follow-up to its plush Veyron
Bugatti chiefs are to decide within weeks whether to produce the Bugatti Galibier, the Dh9 million concept car, to supercede the now legendary Veyron.
Revealed at the Frankfurt Motor Show two years ago, the powerful four-door saloon concept is expected to succeed the Veyron, with the car hitting showrooms by as early as autumn 2013.
Wolfgang Dürheimer, Bugatti's chief executive, said engineers have been "deeply involved" for months in getting the vehicle fit for production at its plant in Molsheim, France.
Dürheimer also implied that the Galibier will have a sub-three second 0-100kph time and a top speed of more than 385kph.
Bugatti is thought to be planning production of between 500 and 1500 cars, in several models, over a period of five or six years.
Dürheimer would not be drawn on a price, only saying "it's the last thing we'll decide," but customers should expect to pay in the region of Dh9m.
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
A QUIET PLACE
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Rating: 4/5
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
THE BIO
Mr Al Qassimi is 37 and lives in Dubai
He is a keen drummer and loves gardening
His favourite way to unwind is spending time with his two children and cooking
The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
Power: 70bhp
Torque: 66Nm
Transmission: four-speed manual
Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
On sale: Models from 1966 to 1970
RESULT
Huddersfield Town 1 Manchester City 2
Huddersfield: Otamendi (45'+1 og), van La Parra (red card 90'+6)
Man City: Agüero (47' pen), Sterling (84')
Man of the match: Christopher Schindler (Huddersfield Town)
Pearls on a Branch: Oral Tales
Najlaa Khoury, Archipelago Books
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Vault
Started: June 2023
Co-founders: Bilal Abou-Diab and Sami Abdul Hadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Licensed by: Abu Dhabi Global Market
Industry: Investment and wealth advisory
Funding: $1 million
Investors: Outliers VC and angel investors
Number of employees: 14
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
Fixtures
Opening day Premier League fixtures for August 9-11
August 9
Liverpool v Norwich 11pm
August 10
West Ham v Man City 3.30pm
Bournemouth v Sheffield Utd 6pm
Burnley v Southampton 6pm
C Palace v Everton 6pm
Leicester v Wolves 6pm
Watford v Brighton 6pm
Tottenham v Aston Villa 8.30pm
August 11
Newcastle v Arsenal 5pm
Man United v Chelsea 7.30pm
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
How to help
Donate towards food and a flight by transferring money to this registered charity's account.
Account name: Dar Al Ber Society
Account Number: 11 530 734
IBAN: AE 9805 000 000 000 11 530 734
Bank Name: Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank
To ensure that your contribution reaches these people, please send the copy of deposit/transfer receipt to: juhi.khan@daralber.ae
57 Seconds
Director: Rusty Cundieff
Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Morgan Freeman, Greg Germann, Lovie Simone
Rating: 2/5
SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Directors: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson
Stars: Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Oscar Isaac
Rating: 4/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Almouneer
Started: 2017
Founders: Dr Noha Khater and Rania Kadry
Based: Egypt
Number of staff: 120
Investment: Bootstrapped, with support from Insead and Egyptian government, seed round of
$3.6 million led by Global Ventures
SPECS
Engine: 2-litre direct injection turbo
Transmission: 7-speed automatic
Power: 261hp
Torque: 400Nm
Price: From Dh134,999
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Growdash
Started: July 2022
Founders: Sean Trevaskis and Enver Sorkun
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Restaurant technology
Funding so far: $750,000
Investors: Flat6Labs, Plus VC, Judah VC, TPN Investments and angel investors, including former Talabat chief executive Abdulhamid Alomar, and entrepreneur Zeid Husban
More on animal trafficking
History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
More on animal trafficking
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
Pros and cons of BNPL
Pros
- Easy to use and require less rigorous credit checks than traditional credit options
- Offers the ability to spread the cost of purchases over time, often interest-free
- Convenient and can be integrated directly into the checkout process, useful for online shopping
- Helps facilitate cash flow planning when used wisely
Cons
- The ease of making purchases can lead to overspending and accumulation of debt
- Missing payments can result in hefty fees and, in some cases, high interest rates after an initial interest-free period
- Failure to make payments can impact credit score negatively
- Refunds can be complicated and delayed
Courtesy: Carol Glynn
Isle of Dogs
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Bryan Cranston, Liev Schreiber, Ed Norton, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Scarlett Johansson
Three stars
Company Profile
Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
Based: Dubai
Sector: Microfinance
Current number of staff: 16
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Family offices