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Iran says its production of automobiles has already seen an increase of around 40 percent over a period of 11 months starting 21 March 2016 compared to the same period last year. Iran says its production of automobiles has already seen an increase of around 40 percent over a period of 11 months starting 21 March 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year.  The announcement was made by Mansour Moazzami, the board chairman of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) which is the operational arm of Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. Moazzami did not provide a figure on the number of automobiles that have been produced over the period. However, he said Iran’s total production of automobiles would reach to as high as 1.3 million by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (20 March 2017).  Iran is the Middle East’s largest auto market with a population of 80 million. The automobile industry is seen as Iran’s biggest non-oil sector, accounti

The  Bugatti   Chiron  is being readied for roll-out after a year spent showcasing the hypercar at events around the world, following its launch at the  Geneva motor show  last March. Customers will receive the first cars by next month. Around 70 examples are expected to be made in Bugatti’s so-called Atelier this year — 14% of the production run of 500 models overall. The French car maker, owned by the Volkswagen Group, says the process of making a Chiron to delivering it takes between six and nine months. Each €2.4 million (£2m) 1479bhp supercar, which can reach 62mph in less than 2.5sec and hit 261mph, is assembled by 20 employees by hand using more than 1800 parts. Bugatti claims its Molsheim facility has been “extensively modified” to take account of the car’s higher performance over the  Veyron  and the “generally more complex nature of the new product and its production process”. Here, in pictures, are the production process highlights. The Chiron is built in Bugatti’s ‘At

Long-range all-electric SUV will arrive in 2018 to spearhead Audi’s new EV offensive The 2015 Audi e-tron quattro concept previewed Audi's first dedicated EV model by  Mark Tisshaw Audi ’s first all-electric model, the e-tron SUV, will go on sale next year with a range of more than 310 miles.  A senior Audi executive claims this will be “the first real premium manufacturer doing a premium electric SUV”, even though  Jaguar’s I-Pace  is also due next year. Audi sales and marketing boss Dietmar Voggenreiter said at the recent Detroit motor show that the e-tron project is on track. He confirmed that the e-tron is an SUV sized between the  Q5  and  Q7 , but closer to the Q5, and it is closely related to the e-tron concept from the  2015 Frankfurt show . “That concept is quite close to the series production car,” he added.  Voggenreiter confirmed that the e-tron will be built on a development of the electrified platform Porsche is using for its  Mission E electric saloon .  V

by  Matt Prior Shall we talk about The Donald? We should, given that one of the first things he did as president of the United States was to order the deletion of the ‘climate’ section from the White House website. His vision of the US’s energy future is, to put it mildly, rather different from that of Barack Obama and could have far-reaching implications for the car industry. Could, but won’t. The Obama administration said its Climate Action Plan would “help prepare for the impacts of climate change and lead international efforts to address climate change”. But on the web page where those statements were published now sits the equivalent of a TV test card. President Trump is, the White House says, “committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies like the Climate Action Plan”. He is “committed to clean coal technology” and will “refocus the Environmental Protection Agency” away from climate and toward “its mission of protecting our air and water”. Trump’s energy polic

The two customized Dodge Challengers will be separated by color only: a combination of either Pitch Black/Contusion Blue or Pitch Black/Billet Silver. PHOTO GALLERY: 2017 Mopar Dodge Challenger       PHOTO GALLERY >> Fiat Chrysler’s Mopar parts and service brand, in celebration of its 80th anniversary this year, will offer a pair of 80-car limited edition, hand-painted, customized Dodge Challengers. Each of the customized Challengers will be equipped with 6.4-liter, V-8 engines and six-speed manual transmissions and outfitted with “shaker” hoods and air scoops. The cars also will feature the headlight-mounted cold air intake used in the supercharged Hellcat Challengers, providing a performance boost to 485 hp and 475 pounds-feet of torque. The two vehicles will be separated by color only: a combination of either Pitch Black/Contusion Blue or Pitch Black/Billet Silver. Each vehicle will carry serialized badges to identify its place within the 80-car run of each color.

Compact SUV confirmed as the first model in an all-new Volvo 40-series family by  Mark Tisshaw Volvo ’s crucial new  XC40 compact SUV  will be launched this autumn, R&D boss Henrik Green has confirmed. Speaking to Autocar at the  Detroit motor show , Green said the XC40 will be the first model to use Volvo’s CMA architecture and the base development work of the car has been completed. “There’s a big chance it’ll be one of the most successful cars in our line-up,” he said. The family of 40-series models, which is also set to be sold in the US, will represent “a significant part of growth in the next three to four years”, said Green. The XC40, which will rival the  BMW X1  and  Audi Q3  in the competitive and rapidly growing compact SUV segment, was previewed last year by the Concept 40.1, along with another potential 40-series model, the Concept 40.2 saloon. A V40 replacement will also be spun off the CMA platform, which Volvo has co-developed with Geely, its Chinese parent

SEMA concepts hit the streets in hopes of redlining sales Frank Markus   At the 2015 SEMA Show in Las Vegas,  Chevrolet dressed up five of its most popular vehicles in Red Line costumes —silver paint accented with various shades of black, charcoal, and graphite trim all set off with bright red details in the grille, wheels, brakes, and intakes. Some of the bits and pieces designed for the 2016 Camaro were made available as accessory parts upon launch of  Motor Trend ’s 2016 Car of the Year , but apparently the lineup so impressed the gathered aftermarketeers that  Chevy  will be moving the concept onto the factory order sheets for eight of its model lines between now and the end of 2017. The cars made their official debut at the 2017 Chicago Auto Show. For the production versions, all Red Line vehicles will come equipped with black wheels adorned with red hash marks, black nameplates with a red outline, blacked-out grilles, and the increasingly ubiquitous black  Chevrolet  Bow Tie

Over the past few years, a number of automakers have sought to create a mid-range offering that occupies a space between standard models and hardcore high performance counterparts – as evidenced by the BMW M Performance, Cadillac V-Sport, and Audi S lineups. These models seek to find a balance between civility, price and performance, delivering a driving experience that’s more performance-oriented than the garden-variety model, but not nearly as hard-edged as the full-bore performance variant. For Mercedes, that comes in the form of the Mercedes-AMG 43 lineup, which in turn results in the E43 for the E-Class sedan. It slots nicely between the E300 and the gorilla-in-a-suit that is the 603 horsepower E63, and while it might be a bit closer to the E300 than it is the E63 as a package overall, the combination does an excellent job of closing the rather sizable performance gap between those two. Although the stats sheet of the E43 certainly looks promising, numbers don’t always translate