(June 18, 2018) SHANGHAI — BMW opened the Group Shanghai R&D Centre as part of BMW’s Innovation Day China last week. The event showcased BMW’s latest developments in the areas of innovation, digital services, autonomous driving and automotive design.

Following the opening of the Beijing R&D Centre and the laying of the foundation stone for phase II of the Shenyang High-Voltage Battery Centre in May, the new R&D Centre in Shanghai marks another milestone for BMW’s “In China, for China” R&D strategy, illustrating how the BMW Group has further enhanced the R&D network in China.

By Christopher A. Sawyer
The Virtual Driver

(June 17, 2018) The 2013 unveiling of the Ford Atlas concept in Detroit sent shivers down the spine of the competition. It meant that, two years later, a 700-pound lighter, aluminum-bodied F-150 would be hitting the market. Early planning for the next generation Silverado and Ram was just starting, and Ford had thrown the competition’s engineering teams an unexpected curve. Lightweighting was already part of the agenda, but the coming F-150 made it the main focus.

By Jim Prueter
MotorwayAmerica.com

(June 16, 2018) Last year, Audi updated its fifth-generation A4 sedan. Audi didn’t do anything radical, with the basic dimensions staying the same, but Audi aficionados certainly recognized some significant changes. So, understandably, for 2018 the A4 is almost exclusively a carryover from last year, and a much stronger performance-oriented S4 has joined the lineup.

(June 15, 2018) Volvo Cars, the premium car maker, is launching a new upgraded electrified performance offer called Polestar Engineered, specifically developed for its new 60 Series T8 Twin Engine plug-in hybrid cars. The announcement comes one week before the company will reveal its new S60 premium sports sedan at the inauguration of its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Charleston, S.C.

The plant is the sole production site for the new S60, which is the first Volvo car made in the US.