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Less than a week ago, Toyota appealed to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) to reserve the names Lexus LFR and LFR for “Automobiles and structural parts thereof,” CarBuzz discovered. Starting with the usual disclaimer, we can’t know what this will be applied to, nor if it will be applied to anything; automakers constantly reserve names that never find their way to production vehicles. Now for the fun part: The short money says this is for the production version of the Lexus Electrified Sport Concept shown in December of last year, successor to the LFA. Pulling back the nomenclature curtain, Lexus began its Lexus Future (LF) series with the LF-S sedan in 2003. The A in the LF-A concept that followed two years later was said to stand for Apex. Our guess is that what’s coming is the Lexus Future Revolution. This is, after all, the car that will “destroy the spindle grille.” 

On top of potentially evolving from the concept name to LFR, if that’s what it’s called, the vehicle itself still appears to be in flux. The Electrified Sport was touted with an electric powertrain run off solid-state batteries, as targeting a 435-mile range or more, and having 1,000-horsepower guts enabling a 60-mph sprint in just over two seconds. In March, reports out of Japan said a version powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 hybrid would launch first, the EV not arriving until the end of this decade — a timeline that makes sense considering solid-state batteries aren’t due in a Toyota until 2025, and only then in a hybrid. There’s no reason to believe Lexus would want to run high-tech, high-voltage, high-risk experiments in its halo car.

In July, another Japanese outlet refined the ICE rumor with gossip that what was then referred to as the LFA II would fit the 5.0-liter twin-turbo V8 from the Lexus LC 500 endurance racer and make around 700 horsepower. Supposedly, it would also become the “substitute for the GR010 Road Going version.” The Gazoo Racing GR010 is Toyota’s entry in the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship, powered by a 3.5-liter twin-turbo V6. We’re still not sure how these two vehicles could line up since the GR010 needs to be sold in at least 20 road-going versions within two years to satisfy class rules, each of which would need to use its V6 powertrain, not the 5.0-liter. 

And in August, Lexus boss Koji Sato told Top Gear he’s toying with a simulated manual transmission. Supposedly, software would reduce output from electric motors to mimic an approaching redline as happens in an ICE vehicle, the driver unlocking more power by “shifting,” which would really be pushing a pretend clutch pedal and moving a pretend shift lever. Toyota patented the tech in February of this year, but its application to any vehicle, including the LFR, is still conjecture. The must-have feature for Sato is driver engagement achieved through light weight, aerodynamics, and chassis control, the Lexus president explaining to TG, “We aren’t just making mobility. We are a car manufacturer. I’m crazy about cars.”

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A car and truck dealership in Missouri has been fined by the Environmental Protection Agency for installing “defeat devices.” These aftermarket parts bypass factory emissions controls in the name of added performance, but end up emitting more pollution that is legally allowed.

Midwest Motors of Eureka, Mo., will be fined $15,000 for what the EPA says are 21 defeat device installations. They appear to have been put on diesel pickups. The models weren’t specified, but the company appears to deal in both passenger cars and commercial work trucks. The inventory lists Ford Power Stroke and Ram Cummins trucks for sale.

According to the agency, the illegal modifications include replacement of exhaust system sections and handheld programmers that allow users to fine tune the truck’s onboard computer. The manufacturer of the handheld programmers says the device can be used to adjust settings for increased power, fuel economy or towing, and can be used on both gas and diesel Ford and GM trucks.

The EPA says the devices affected several emissions control systems, disabling or bypassing them to render them inoperable. The systems affected included the EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) system, diesel particulate filters, catalytic converter, and the SCR (selective catalytic reduction) system.

The fine is a civil penalty, but Midwest Motors also had to certify that it would not sell such devices in the future. Last month, the EPA fined shops in Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska for similar violations. The fines ranged from $46,316 to $95,371.

The EPA says that without properly functioning emissions control devices, the vehicles spew “significantly higher releases of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, both of which contribute to serious public health problems in the United States.”

October 10, 2022

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Elon Musk revived his bid for Twitter Inc. at the original offer price of $54.20 a share, potentially avoiding a courtroom fight over one of the most contentious acquisitions in recent history. 

Musk made the proposal in a letter to Twitter, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. Shares in Twitter climbed as much as 18% on the news, and trading has since been halted. Musk and representatives for San Francisco-based Twitter didn’t respond to requests for comment on the letter or whether the company would accept the proposal.

Musk’s proposal to match the original deal terms means Twitter is facing a future under the leadership of a mercurial billionaire who has spent months publicly criticizing its management, questioning its value and changing his mind. It also means that his contested claims — that Twitter was lying about which percentage of users were bots, for instance — are not likely to be scrutinized in a courtroom. 

Musk had been trying for months to back out of his contract to acquire Twitter, signed in April. The billionaire began showing signs of buyer’s remorse shortly after the deal was announced, alleging that Twitter had misled him about the size of its user base and the prevalence of automated accounts known as bots.

Musk formally quit the accord in July and Twitter sued him in Delaware Chancery Court to force him to go forward with the purchase. A trial is scheduled to begin Oct. 17. In the weeks-long run-up to that showdown, lawyers for both sides have fired cannonades of subpoenas at each other aimed at teasing out testimony and evidence. 

Musk’s side needed to demonstrate that Twitter violated the terms of the deal. Twitter alleged that Musk used the bots issue as a pretext for backing out a deal he no longer found economically sound. 

Musk’s legal team was getting the sense that the case was not going well, as Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick sided repeatedly with Twitter in pretrial rulings, according to one person familiar. Even with the late emergence of a Twitter whistleblower who alleged executives weren’t forthcoming on security and bot issues, there were concerns Musk’s side would not be able to prove a material adverse effect, the legal standard required to exit the contract.

Inside Twitter on Tuesday, many employees were sitting through 2023 planning presentations when the news first started to circulate, according to multiple sources. Presenters did not acknowledge the news, which staffers saw spreading on their own social network. Many employees have opposed the idea of working for Musk, who has been openly mocked and criticized on internal Slack channels since the deal was signed.

Twitter shareholders voted Sept. 13 to accept the buyout offer as Musk submitted it. The company said at the time that 98.6% of the votes cast were in favor of the deal. Musk, Twitter’s largest shareholder, didn’t vote at all, according to two people familiar with his decision. Musk owned almost 10% of Twitter — more than 73 million shares — when he agreed to acquire the company.

Musk was scheduled to answer questions about the deal in Austin, Texas, on Oct. 6-7, according to a court filing Tuesday. Twitter Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal was scheduled to sit down for his deposition Monday.  

The case is Twitter v. Musk, 22-0613, Delaware Chancery Court (Wilmington).

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Oil and gas companies regularly use flaring (that is, burning unwanted methane) to limit the amount of natural gas escaping into the atmosphere, but the practice might not be as kind to the planet as previously thought. Scientists at the University of Michigan, Stanford and elsewhere have discovered that flaring is much less effective than the industry assumes, and puts out five times more methane (a strong greenhouse gas) than predicted.

Companies and governments act on the belief flares are always lit and burn off 98 percent of methane. However, aerial surveys of three US basins (where 80 percent of American flaring takes place) have revealed that the flares aren’t lit up to 5 percent of the time, and operate inefficiently when they’re active. In practice, the flaring efficiency is just 91 percent. That may not sound like a big dip, but it signifies that there’s a large volume of unaccounted-for methane contributing to climate change.

There is an upside to the findings. Flaring’s problems are “quite addressable” with better management, lead researcher Genevieve Plant said, and a solution would offer an equivalent emissions reduction to removing 3 million cars. To put it another way, this could be one of the easiest ways to keep methane in check and limit global warming. The challenge is to have companies and governments work in harmony — that’s not guaranteed, even if the fix is relatively straightforward.

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The new Volkswagen GTI and Golf R may still feel like new cars here in the U.S., but VW is already prepping a refresh to the regular Golf over in Europe. We all know that what is applied to the Golf, we’ll see transferred over to the GTI and Golf R, making the interior spy shots of this test car mighty intriguing.

Volkswagen has heard the complaints about its newest infotainment system/center stack design a million times over from every corner of the internet at this point, and said infotainment system appears to be the big change shown in these spy photos. A new, much larger screen is perched atop the dash now, replacing the smaller screens available in today’s Golf variants. Below the screen are the touch sliders we already know of and despise on the GTI and Golf R. However, it’s unclear if VW has fixed the worst part of them in these spy photos: their lack of backlighting at night.

The volume control and temperature control touch sliders on today’s GTI and Golf R sit on a piano black panel, and against all common sense, they don’t light up at night. That makes it impossible to find the two most vital controls in a car’s user interface when driving at night, which is such a bizarre miss from Volkswagen. Since these spy photos are taken of a car during the day that is turned off, we don’t know if these touch sliders feature backlighting now or not, but we sure hope they do.

As for the rest of the interior, it’s business as usual. The same quick-access touch control buttons appear to lie under the larger touchscreen, and the beard trimmer shifter is unchanged. We can largely ignore the exterior since the U.S. won’t be getting the basic Golf pictured here.

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Nissan announced the 2023 Altima in June. Now that the family sedan has reached dealers, it’s time for pricing. There are small price bumps to go with the small changes to made to next year’s model. There’s the new Nissan logo all over, larger trim-specific V-motion grilles, and LED headlights for every trim. The Platinum trim that was AWD-only departs, leaving S, SV, SR, SL, and SR-VC Turbo; when powering both axles, the S drops away at the bottom, leaving SV, SR and SL. The SR now gets its own unique black chrome insert and SR badging. A couple of new colors and four new wheel designs join the menu.

Nissan raised the destination charge from $1,025 to $1,095. Prices for the 2023 Altima after destination, and their changes from 2022, are:

• S: $26,385 ($710)
• SV: $27,185 ($510)
• SR: $28,585 ($910)
• SL: $33,085 ($1,970)
• SR VC-Turbo: $36,085 ($4,060)

• SV AWD: $28,685 ($610)
• SR AWD: $30,085 ($2,035)
• SL AWD: $34,585 ($2,070)

Inside, select trims get an upgraded instrument cluster with a seven-inch information screen and a much bigger 12.3-inch touchscreen infotainment system. The latter replaces the eight-inch option on the previous model. The SR upgrades to dual-contrast stitching, while wireless Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, and wireless phone charging are standard on SL and SR VC-Turbo grades, optional on SV and SR grades.

Nissan Safety Shield 360 comes standard across the range, meaning front and rear automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, blind-spot warning, rear-cross traffic alert, and automatic high-beam headlights.

The engines carry over. That means the standard, naturally aspirated 2.5-liter four-cylinder making 188 horsepower and 180 pound-feet of torque on the front-drivers, 182 hp when optioned with AWD. Then there’s the turbocharged, variable compression 2.0-liter four-cylinder making 248 horsepower and 273 pound-feet of torque on 93 octane, 236 hp on regular gas, which can only be had with front-wheel drive. Both shift through CVTs.

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