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After 13 years and about 450 cars, Singer Vehicle Design has closed the door on the Classic 911 restomod that built the Singer brand. Founder Rob Dickinson told Top Gear that the company has stopped taking orders for the Classic reimagined lineup of coupes and Targas. The justification: Maturity, it seems. The company signed a deal with Porsche to have the automaker build Singer engines, Singer moved into a brand new facility not far from Porsche in Southern California, and it has a growing customer base to think of. Dickinson said, “We’re just trying to be respectful to the guys that are buying the cars. We want to maintain the values of the cars if they change hands afterwards, of course, which I think has more to do with the perception of Singer as a ‘brand’ over and above the quality of the cars.”

With all 75 examples of the Dynamics and Lightweight Study (DLS) sold, the Singer All-Terrain Competition Study rally commissions in limbo, and Dickinson saying of the naturally aspirated flat-six engine, “I think we’ve taken it as far as we can go,” that leaves the Turbo Study as the focus of Singer’s attention. When the Porsche tie-up hit the headlines early this year, the announcement made clear the collaboration was only for atmospheric engines. With nothing left on Singer’s menu now but the Turbo Study, and more than 70 reservations on the books already, it’s possible Porsche decided to open up more access. We’ve written to Porsche to inquire about it building Turbo engines; we’ll update this post if we get a response.    

Dickinson did appear to leave himself an out, should he want to get into the Classic business again. “I don’t know whether 450 is the right number,” he said. “We’ve just moved into this mega new building in Torrance, California. Everything is under one roof for the first time, and we’re getting a sense of putting some proper process into the building of the cars, and then we’ll see.” He also noted that there is no shortage of base cars out there. “There are tens of thousands of 964s! And there’s plenty of ratty ones which we don’t feel too bad about reimagining.”

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Lithium producer Livent Corp’s processing plant in Belmont, North Carolina. GM signed a multiyear deal with Livent as a supplier. (Reuters)

Undeterred by the slowing global economy, buyers of key components in the powering of electric vehicles are stepping up efforts to lock in supplies, with two of the world’s biggest automakers signing direct deals with producers of so-called battery metals.

General Motors Co. announced three deals Tuesday for supplies of raw materials needed for its EV fleet. Less than a week ago, Ford Motor Co. revealed a list of suppliers of inputs ranging from Argentine lithium to Indonesian nickel — enough to build 600,000 EVs a year.

The world’s shift into electric vehicles means demand growth for lithium, nickel, cobalt and other key ingredients in EV batteries is outpacing supply that’s been hampered by Covid-related logistical woes and a general lack of investment, pushing up prices. There are also growing concerns over China’s dominance of refining and manufacturing capacity of the materials. Reliance on the Asian nation is now seen as a vulnerability amid trade and political tensions that are spurring a rethink of global supply lines.

“These deals underscore the importance of locking in long-term and diverse sources of raw materials,” said Chris Berry, president of House Mountain Partners, an industry consultancy. “Access to the raw materials is going to be very interesting to watch in the back half of this decade.”

Automakers are facing delayed deliveries across the EV space, exacerbating supply-surety concerns. That’s propelling them to demonstrate supply chain management. “Announcing agreements with materials producers can be a differentiating factor for the progression of EV manufacturers,” said David Deckelbaum, an analyst at Cowen and Co.

The first of GM’s new arrangements for its next-generation EVs is with LG Chem Ltd. to supply 968,000 metric tons of cathode material through 2030. The second is a multi-year agreement with Livent Corp. to secure lithium. The third is a venture with Posco Chemical Co. to supply cathode materials from 2023 to 2025.

Ford said it secured enough battery supply to build more than half a million electric vehicles annually by late next year, a quantum leap above the 27,140 battery-powered cars it sold in the US last year. It has signed contracts with suppliers representing 60 gigawatt hours of annual battery capacity.  The two carmakers’ suppliers mostly have or will have regional facilities to provide materials, highlighting efforts to rely less on Chinese refining and manufacturing. 

“Regionalized supply chains are becoming a reality,” Berry said. “All of the talk about strategic vulnerability is slowly being turned into action and this is perhaps the most encouraging aspect of these off-take deals.” 

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Gasoline prices may be easing but they’re not falling fast enough for President Joe Biden. 

“It’s happening. But it’s not happening fast enough,” the president said Friday during a virtual meeting with his economic team. “We’ve made progress, but prices are still too high.”

US average gasoline prices have declined for 38 days in a row this summer amid weaker demand during a summertime slowdown. A gallon of regular gasoline averaged $4.41 as of Thursday, according to auto club AAA. 

• Autoblog’s Cheap Gas Prices Near Me finder tool

That’s a far cry from prices that topped $5 earlier this summer, but they still remain exceptionally high by historical standards and represent a very visible sign of inflation that could hurt Biden’s re-election bid in November, along with Democrat’s control of Congress. 

Biden, in remarks that were delivered virtually, repeated his call for oil companies to take advantage of unused permits to drill on federal lands — “or lose them” — and also said oil companies making record profits should use that money to increase the production of gasoline instead of stock buybacks. 

“The real answer is to get to a clean energy economy as soon as possible, turn this into something positive,” Biden said.

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Tesla on Wednesday reported a rise in quarterly profit, as a string of price increases on its best-selling vehicles helped offset production challenges, sending its shares up 4% in extended trading.

“With each of the Fremont and Shanghai factories achieving their highest-ever production months and new factory growth, we are focused on a record-breaking second half of 2022,” Tesla said in a statement.

Tesla said it has converted approximately 75% of its bitcoin purchases into fiat currency, which added $936 million of cash to its balance sheet.

The company has raised prices of its cars several times this year to cope with higher costs of lithium used in batteries and aluminum used for the body, along with other raw materials.

Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has, however, said Tesla would drop prices when inflation cools.

Total revenue fell to $16.93 billion in the second quarter from $18.76 billion a year earlier, ending its streak of posting record revenue in recent quarters, as it struggled to meet demand for its electric cars due to a shutdown of its Shanghai factory and production challenges at new plants.

Analysts were expecting revenue of $17.10 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Net income was $2.26 billion for the latest quarter, or $1.95 per share, compared with $1.14 billion, or $1.02 per share, a year earlier.

Tesla is bracing for a potential recession and mounting competition from rivals. It also faces challenges of significantly boosting production in the second half, after China’s lockdowns hit production of the company and its suppliers.

Musk also has said Tesla’s new factories in Texas and Berlin were struggling to boost production, calling them “gigantic money furnaces” which are losing billions of dollars.

Musk said he had “a super bad feeling about the economy” in June and began layoffs.

(Reporting by Hyunioo Jin in San Francisco and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru Editing by Anil D’Silva, Peter Henderson and Matthew Lewis)

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The supercar formula has been to preen a retiring model with runout trim boasting more power and handling, then have the next-gen model pick up where that special edition left off. So it will be with the 2023 Honda Civic Type R. The automaker has finally divulged that the rorty coupe will be revealed on July 20 at 10 p.m. for the East Coasters, 7 pm. for the West Coasters. Until then, we’ll have to nibble on this tease of the frontal aspect that is merely the potatoes hiding the meat. What we’ll be chewing on until the 20th is Honda’s line that we’re about to get “the most powerful Honda-branded production vehicle ever offered in the U.S.”

The baseline was established by the 2021 Civic Type R Limited we called “an instant classic.” It made 306 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque. Yes, that’s the same output as the standard Civic Type R. The Limited got more out of its 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder output by losing around 50 pounds, employing revised software for the adaptive dampers, and getting shoed in Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 rubber. The diet and recode helped, to be sure, but Bibendum’s extra grip over the Continental SportContact 6 tires on the standard Type R made the real difference that shrank lap times. After losing the front-wheel-drive production car record at the Nürburgring to the Renault Megane, Honda wasn’t afraid to share how much testing the Type R Limited went through at the ‘Ring. But for reasons known only to Honda, the carmaker never announced a lap time. 

The 2023 Type R isn’t out yet, and Honda’s already talking about breaking the previous-gen lap record at Suzuka by 0.873 second. The questions now are how much extra horsepower and what kind of tires made it happen. Of course, we’ll also be wondering whether the new Type R comes in closer to the last Type R’s $39,500 MSRP or the Type R Limited’s $46,000 price. Let the guessing begin.

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The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) recently recognized the all-new 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5, an electric small SUV, with its highest safety accolade — bringing the automaker to a total of nine coveted safety awards from IIHS for 2022 models.

In the case of the Ioniq 5, the award applies to vehicles built after December 2021. The electric vehicle charged through a series of crashworthiness evaluations, acing each with good scores. These included the driver-side small overlap front, passenger-side small overlap front, moderate overlap front, original side, roof strength, and head restraint tests. 

But to earn Top Safety Pick+ status, vehicles must also be available with a front crash prevention system that scores advanced or superior ratings in both the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations. Moreover, good or acceptable headlights must be standard across all trims.

The Ioniq 5 meets all the requirements for the highest-tier award. Its standard front crash prevention system garnered superior ratings in the vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations. The SEL and Limited trims come equipped with good-rated LED projector headlights, while the SE trim comes with LED reflectors that earn an acceptable rating.

The Ioniq 5 joins four other models from the automaker that captured Top Safety Pick+ status in recent months. These include the Hyundai Palisade, Hyundai Nexo, Hyundai Santa Fe (built after July 2021), and Hyundai Tucson.

In addition, Hyundai boasts four more vehicles that captured the second–tier award — Top Safety Pick — in recent months. These include the Hyundai Elantra, Hyundai Sonata, Hyundai Santa Cruz, and Hyundai Venue.

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Malia Obama was spotted enjoying a meal at Chick-fil-A on Thursday, despite the fast food chain – which is run by a conservative and devout Christian who has publicly bashed same sex marriage – donating millions of dollars to anti-gay groups in the past.

The eldest daughter of Former President Barack Obama, 24, hit up one of the chicken restaurant’s drive-throughs in Los Angeles, California, before dropping off her younger sister, Sasha’s boyfriend, Clifton Powell Jr., at the airport.

And while her father has helped bring LGTBQ+ rights to the forefront, Malia didn’t seem to mind that Chick-fil-A’s right-wing owner has spoken out against the community numerous times in the past.

We’re also kind of surprised she’s not driving a Tesla….Didn’t see her as a VW girl.

Also, cool she does what she wants and isn’t worried about the repercussions from the Woke mob. But we’re sure she’ll take heat for this visit. Get the popcorn…

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