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A Bus Toy I Designed Is Now Actually A Real Thing You Could Buy

In that video, as a way to better understand Candylab’s design and production process, I had an idea to propose a new car for them to build: a toy based on mid-century old buses like the Volkswagen Type 2 bus, or, really, any number of other similar mid-century one-box buses of that era, like the Palten or buses made by Mercedes-Benz or DKW, or Fiat or any number of others.

Of course, the VW is the one you’re most likely to think of, but just in case VW’s lawyers are reading this, it really could be any of those buses and trucks, you know?

Now, I didn’t want just any toy bus, I wanted it to have a bit more going on, a little something surprising to make it more fun. That’s why I thought it would be cool to make it a sort of three-in-one design: the basic toy would be a single-cab pickup, but you could pop on a little magnetic module to transform it into a bus or van, and another little magnetic bit could pop on to make it a camper, with a pop-top.

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Image for article titled A Bus Toy I Designed Is Now Actually A Real Thing You Could Buy — Screenshot: Candylab

I drew it on the whiteboard, and the Candylab team got it immediately; they’ve been using magnets for little stick-on surfboards to go on station wagons, so the process was well understood.

From there, Candylab’s talented designers began to make the idea real, modeling it in a 3D program and then making some quick 3D prints to test the concept, which is what’s happening in the machine behind me as I seemingly pet a phantom hamster, delightedly:

After some discussion of details of how to do lighting and wheels, and then passing things off to the pros to figure out all the complexities of manufacturing and all that, we can fast forward to now because the damn thing is real.

It’s real, and it’s just as I imagined it, even better, if I’m honest. A bus, single-cab pickup, and camper, all in one box! It’s just what I was imagining!

I’ve had lots of ideas over the years on this site, and some of them have even ended up in reality, even if I never benefited from that in any way, beyond being referenced in a lawsuit. This time, though, an idea has become reality, and I’m actually involved, and I’m pretty thrilled.

What former kid hasn’t wanted to be a maker of toys? I know I had all sorts of ideas about it as a kid, and I’ve made weird little toys for my kid over the years. But this is, of course, a lot bigger.

So, yes, this post is self-serving, but I’m excited. I’m pleased a silly idea I had that I scrawled on a whiteboard came all this way to become a physical object in our reality—a physical object that can, I hope, bring some manner of happiness to car-obsessed kids wherever they are, and, sure, those car-obsessed former kids as well.

If you want to buy one, you can, right here! If not, I’ll still think you’re great, no worries.

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The Volkswagen ID.6 Is VW’s Bigger, Uglier EV SUV

The latest MEB-based EV from Volkswagen has leaked, and oh boy, this thing is ugly in all the right ways.

This is the new Volkswagen ID.6, and photographs of it have been released in Chinese regulatory filings, Electrek reports. The photos also leaked on Twitter and Reddit, and the EV they reveal looks so uncool it loops back around and is cool again.

If the ID.3 is a compact and the ID.4 is a crossover, then the ID.6 is a full-fledged SUV, at least in the common 2020 usage of the term. For the past few years, SUVs have been little more than bigger crossovers. That’s been unfortunate for body-on-frame fans, but when it comes to EVs, I think it’s a viable shift in the segment.

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The ID.6 has plenty of room as a seven-seater, and not just as a nod to the VW Roomzz, which was unveiled in Shanghai in 2019. The ID.6 is based on that design, and the lineage is clear. But it kind of sucks to see a cool design diluted for the sake of mass production.

If the ID.6 follows the dimensions of the design it’s based on, it should be at the top of the current range (as its name would suggest) for passenger volume. And VW has landed on a sensible naming scheme, which is a lot better than the what the concepts were given.

Illustration for article titled The Volkswagen ID.6 Is VWs Bigger, Uglier EV SUV — Photo: Volkswagen

The current production design looks interesting, however, and it strays slightly from the design of the other ID family members while keeping some resemblance. The headlights have certain angles going for them; the ID.6 is most handsome when seen head-on.

The ID.6 base model will be outfitted with a 75 kW (100 horsepower) RWD drivetrain. The upgraded model, the ID.6 X, will double that with an AWD drivetrain producing 150 kW (201 HP). The new EV will reportedly carry the same 82 kilowatt-hour battery slated for the Roomzz, which VW stated had a range of 450 kilometers (WLTP) or about 280 miles.

Not only is that a pretty wide disparity between the ID.6 models, but it’s also a low number for what is supposed to be the largest of the new MEB-based cars. As a reference, the ID.3 produces roughly 200 HP but it’s a much smaller car. There has to be some interplay here with the size of the ID.6 and its range and motor output. It’s very possible VW is prioritizing range over output.

But the only thing truly wrong with the ID.6 is the color. A car like this needs a color that can live up to its awesome premise. EVs have finally stopped being awkward but quirky little cars, so why are we still painting them in bland tones? It’s more baffling that this is a Volkswagen finish, too, given its surprising recent EV colors and past practices.

Much of the time I’m drawn to practical small cars, but when I need room to carry passengers, a larger car is a good luxury. In some ironic way, I think this new ID.6 makes the ID.4 redundant. In a line-up with all three IDs, I would be between the 3 and 6, but such a comparison is only possible in a market where all three would be sold simultaneously. The U.S. is unlikely to be such a market.

I Would Not Want To Be Running Chrysler Right Now

The Morning ShiftAll your daily car news in one convenient place. Isn’t your time more important?

VW lost half its profits last year, Nissan is trying to dodge tariffs, and flying cars. All that and more in The Morning Shift for January 22, 2021.

1st Gear: Stellantis CEO Now Faced With 38 Daily Reports Running FCA-PSA Megamerger

I don’t know what’s more surprising from this report in Automotive News: that Carlos Tavares will be receiving 38 daily reports while running Stellantis (double what he got running the already chimera-like Peugeot-Citroën mass of PSA), or that FCA’s CEO Mike Manley was already fielding 22 daily reports himself. From AN:

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares will have 38 top executives reporting directly to him at the new automotive group – more than twice as many than at PSA Group, and considerably more than the last two CEOs at Fiat Chrysler.

[…]

That number of direct reports is one of the highest in the automotive industry. When Sergio Marchionne merged Chrysler into Fiat to create FCA, he had a total of 28 direct reports. Marchionne’s successor at the helm of FCA, Mike Manley, had 22 functions reporting directly to him. At PSA, Tavares had 18 direct reports.

There are also six deputies, AN notes, meaning that Stellantis will have 44 top executives overseeing nine committees: Business Review, Strategy Council, Global Program Committee, Industrial Committee, Allocations Committee, Region Committee, Brand Review, Brand Committee, Styling Review.

I would not want to be in charge of ensuring the success of any one individual cog in that machine. Maybe I would feel a little relaxation that anything I do is only ever going to be 1/38th of the responsibilities of my ultimate superior.

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2nd Gear: VW Lost Half Its Profits In 2020

This is a fun one, as news stories are popping up both that VW lost half its operating profits last year, and also that VW somehow still turned out a profit at all. I guess it’s a glass half full/half empty sort of news item.

Here’s the glass half empty side, coming from Bloomberg and Reuters wire reports in Automotive News:

Volkswagen Group’s 2020 adjusted operating profit nearly halved but the automaker said its vehicle deliveries continued to recover strongly in the fourth quarter.

Operating profit before special items related to the diesel-emissions scandal was about 10 billion euros ($12.2 billion), VW said in a statement on Friday.

The automaker, whose brands include Porsche, Audi and Bentley, had reported an operating profit of 19.3 billion euros in 2019.

And here is the glass half full side, coming from the Financial Times:

While the VW marque stuttered in 2020, with delayed launches of its Golf 8 model and its flagship electric car, the ID. 3, the group’s premium brands enjoyed an extraordinary rebound, particularly in China.

Audi recorded its best-ever quarter in the last three months of 2020, selling more than half a million cars in the period for the first time.

Porsche sales dropped just 3 per cent over the course of the year, and deliveries in China were up by more than 2,000 units on 2019, despite widespread lockdowns and dealership closures.

In the midst of all of VW’s big EV push, the company still failed to hit its EU emissions targets and got more than €100m in fines. Making cars is hard!

3rd Gear: Nissan To Make More Batteries In UK To Dodge Brexit Tariffs

Nissan runs the UK’s biggest car plant in large part because of import restrictions put on Japanese cars in the 1980s. Now Nissan will be making more batteries in the UK because of Brexit, as Reuters reports:

Following Britain’s departure from the European Union, London and Brussels struck a trade deal on Dec. 24 that avoided major disruption as well as a 10% levy on cars, provided they meet local content rules.

Nissan makes about 30,000 Leaf electric cars at its Sunderland factory, most with a locally sourced 40 kilowatt-hour battery. They remain tariff-free.

But more powerful versions use an imported system, which will now be bought in Britain, creating jobs.

“It will take a few months,” Gupta said. “Brexit, which we thought is a risk … has become an opportunity for Nissan.”

I don’t think the book is at all closed on Brexit and the car world. We’ve seen a lot of increased homogeneity in the global car market over the past few decades (hell, Australia doesn’t even make its own cars anymore) and I wonder if at some point the pendulum will swing back to more local regulation, protection, and production.

4th Gear: Terrafugia Still At It

Geely, a Chinese car company not owned by the government but hell-bent on owning everything else, controls Terrafugia. Apparently, the lights are still on over there:

I’m glad that everyone at Terrafugia is collecting a paycheck, though god knows I don’t think much will come of it. I grew up on the other side of town from the Moller Skycar guy.

5th Gear: Balloon Business Struggled To Reach Profitability In Silicon Valley

I feel like my youth in Northern California was a real heyday for whacko high/low tech schemes. I don’t know how many times I heard about a space elevator, and I think I was reminded of hot air balloons on a daily basis.

It is with that in mind that I enjoyed this New York Times story on some Silicon Valley brainiacs finding a hard time making their scheme to disseminate cell service from the stratosphere using balloons:

Google’s parent company Alphabet is shutting down Loon, a high-profile subsidiary spun out from its research labs that used high-altitude helium balloons to deliver cellular connectivity from the stratosphere.

Nearly a decade after it began the project, Alphabet said on Thursday that it pulled the plug on Loon because it did not see a way to reduce costs to create a sustainable business. Along with the self-driving car unit Waymo, Loon was one of the most hyped “moonshot” technology projects to emerge from Alphabet’s research lab, X.

“The road to commercial viability has proven much longer and riskier than hoped. So we’ve made the difficult decision to close down Loon,” Astro Teller, who heads X, wrote in a blog post. Alphabet said it expected to wind down operations in “the coming months” with the hope of finding other positions for Loon employees at Alphabet.

Honestly, I don’t think the problem here is with the balloons, it’s with the social structure that requires them to somehow make money for somebody. You just wait until I’m typing the same thing for autonomous vehicles.

Reverse: Endless Horrible Car Ads To Follow

Neutral: What Car Brand Would You Like To Run?

Let me at Opel. Just for a minute. Please. it’ll be fun, I swear.

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We Will Not Be Receiving The 2021 Volkswagen Arteon R

The Volkswagen Arteon, which landed on American shores for the first time for the 2019 model year, is getting a refresh. for 2021. Part of that refresh is a 315-horsepower R trim that you’ll be able to get in either fastback or wagon guise. If you live outside of America, that is.

According to Autoblog, the new model is 20 mm lower than the standard car and a system called R-Performance Torque Vectoring allows the car to take all 315 horsepower from its turbocharged four-cylinder engine and dump them all out onto the road through either of the rear wheels when you need it under cornering stress. Add that to new brakes and the adaptive suspension that all Arteons sit on and it’s clear that this new car is a force to be reckoned with.

Volkswagen says that all that will allow the car to hit 60 miles-per-hour in under five seconds and that the car’s top speed is limited to 155. That’s no joke, especially when the standard car’s 268 horsepower felt a little slower than expected when Andrew tested the American-market car last year.

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No manual transmission will be on offer. You’ll have to make do with the standard dual-clutch box that you’ll find in all Arteons. What is unique on this car, though, are the blue brake calipers framed by bigger wheels, more aggressive front air intakes, and exclusive sports seats and interior trim. The standard car’s interior impressed Andrew about a year ago, and these updates do make it look a bit more special.

Both the fastback and wagon should hit the European market within months but don’t expect to see it over here any time soon. If you really want one, start planning to ship one over in late 2045 at the earliest if import laws don’t change. If you want a fast VW before then, the next R model we might expect to see will be the eighth-generation Golf. Whenever Volkswagen decides we’re ready for it, of course.

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