Apple’s Market Cap Eclipses Automakers

Apple’s Market Cap Eclipses Automakers
Mercedes-AMG GT3 Images Leak
NHTSA Orders Takata to Preserve Airbag Inflators
2016 Audi R8 Revealed With 610-HP
Lotus Targets Nurburgring Record With 2-Eleven Successor
Mercedes GLC Exposed in Latest Spy Photos

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Apple is a giant among monsters. This California-based tech firm sells millions upon millions of iDevices and Macintosh computers every year, products that have made them prosperous beyond belief. But could the company have its eye on the automotive industry?

Reports from multiple sources indicate that Apple is indeed hard at work on a car, possibly one to rival the Tesla Model S. It's rumored the company has assigned hundreds of employees to this super-secret project, which could hit the road by 2020.

Depending on your perspective this news is either riveting or terrifying. For executives in places like Detroit, Stuttgart and Tokyo the revelation that Apple is considering a push into automotive has got to be chilling. The company has an almost-unfathomable pool of resources at its disposal and a reputation for doing things properly.

For a little perspective iPhone sales in Apple's fiscal first quarter of 2015, which due to accounting practices ended on December 27, clocked in at nearly 75 million units. That's the equivalent of every single person in Canada purchasing an iPhone … TWICE.

Given its perpetually strong sales the company's revenue for this quarter hit nearly $75 billion, enough for it to earn a net profit of $18 billion. And even more impressive than these jaw-dropping figures is the fact that Apple has nearly $180 billion in the bank. That's probably enough cash to buy Denmark and still have a few billion left to blow on daiquiri machines for every American.

But even more impressive than its quarterly profits and corporate war-chest is the company's market capitalization. At the time this article was written Apple's stock price was hovering right around $132 on the NASDAQ, a healthy sum to be sure but a good bit less than the numbers posted by some other fortune 500 companies. At the same time Costco was trading at approximately $148 per share and Google was north of $533.

But Apple's market cap absolutely annihilates these firms and even crushes the automotive business. According to the website Investopedia.com this term measures the total value of a company's outstanding shares. It's another way of determining how big a firm is without looking at its sales or assets. Basically market cap is a sum that's calculated by multiplying the number of shares in circulation by the current stock price.

Thrashing corporations like ExxonMobil, Microsoft and even Warren Buffet's profit-generating engine Berkshire Hathaway, Apple's market cap currently tops $754 billion. Yes, that's billion with a capital, emboldened, underlined B.

Compared to the automotive industry this fruit-themed tech company is positively gigantic. In fact if you take the five largest car companies (based total sales last year) and add their market caps together Apple still trounces them. Combining GM, Ford, Toyota, Fiat-Chrysler and Honda totals just $420.14 billion, a little more than 50 percent of Apple's total value. That's nuts … no, it's absolutely insane.

Tesla is an establishment-challenging upstart that's trying to blur the lines between cars and computers. Elon Musk's brainchild builds electric vehicles with a slew high-tech features, but that's still not enough to challenge Apple. Throwing this Silicon Valley outfit into the equation doesn't do much to improve things for the automotive industry. The firm's $27.22 billion market cap is peanuts compared to the Cupertino juggernaut. Curiously Tesla sold fewer than 27,000 vehicles last year yet they exceed Fiat Chrysler's $18.93 billion market cap despite the fact that this Italian-American firm delivered more than 2.1 million cars and trucks in 2014. Figure that one out.

Of course comparing market caps is like relating asparagus production in Eritrea to the average lifespan of purebred Dalmatians. It's an interesting thing to ponder, if not entirely earth-shattering. But perhaps what's more intriguing is how stagnant things in the automotive business seem to be, especially when you consider the power and influence it historically commanded.

If Apple were around in the 1940s would they have been able to produce enough weapons and munitions to help the Allies win World War II? Most likely not since Japan conquered large portions of China in the '30s and we all know where iDevices are built. Oh how times have changed.

Despite its rust-belt image automotive is still a remarkable industry, a business that literally moves people and things all across the world. As reported by Automotive News, total car and light-truck deliveries exceeded 16.5 million units in North America last year, a figure that proves the Great Recession is finally behind us, even if various companies' market capitalization figures don't necessarily look as rosy. And if Apple decides to join the fray with an iCar it's a good bet that figure will grow.

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Mercedes-AMG GT3 Images Leak

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Pictures of the upcoming Mercedes-AMG GT3 race car leaked today ahead of a planned release by the company.

The new hardcore race car will make its official debut next week during the Geneva Motor Show before being released to owners who will participate in the company's gentleman racing series. The car will be available to customers in the U.S., but sales will take place through AMG Customer Sports in Affalterbach, Germany.

Mercedes hasn't released very much information about the track-specific model, but rumors of a street-legal version to follow the car shown here are currently circulating. AMG boss Tobias Moers said such a project would be a good idea, but there hasn't been any official announcement by the company that it will actually take place.

2015 Geneva Motor Show Preview

Despite that, the company confirmed when it first unveiled the GT in Paris that it does plan to offer more potent versions in the future.

[Source: Le Point]

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NHTSA Orders Takata to Preserve Airbag Inflators

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The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is ordering Takata to preserve all air bag inflators as part of the ongoing federal investigation.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx is requiring Takata to keep all the air bag inflators that are removed through the recall process as evidence for both NHTSA's investigation and private litigation cases.

"This department is focused on protecting the American public from these defective air bags and at getting to the bottom of how they came to be included in millions of vehicles on U.S. roads," Foxx said. "This preservation order will help us get the answers we need to accomplish those goals."

The order also ensures NHTSA's access to all data from the testing of those removed inflators. Foxx said NHTSA is upgrading the Takata investigation to an engineering analysis, a crucial step in determining the actual cause of the air bag failures.

Also part of the order issued, Takata will be required to set aside 10 percent of recalled inflators and will have to make them available to private plaintiffs for testing. The company will also be required to submit for NHTSA's approval plans for gathering, storing and preserving inflators already removed through the recall process and inflators removed in the future, as well as written procedures for making inflators available to plaintiffs and automakers who request access.

About 17 million vehicles equipped with Takata air bags have been recalled since 2008 for air bags that can rupture when they deploy, producing shrapnel that can kill or seriously injure occupants.

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2016 Audi R8 Revealed With 610-HP

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It changed the way people think about the brand and now Audi is stepping up its game once again with a second generation of its R8 sports car.

Using a light weight aluminum and carbon fiber structure, a new all-wheel drive system and impressive V10 power the new R8 is a true exotic.

At launch two 5.2-liter V10 engines will be available, the first making 540 hp while the second will up the performance significantly to 610 hp. Audi says that model will hit 62 mph in just 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 205 mph!

Paired with a new Quattro AWD system and the brand's 7-speed dual-clutch transmission Audi claims 100 percent of the engine's torque can be sent to either the front or rear axle.

Using a new chassis shared with the Lamborghini Huracan the R8 has a dry weight of just 3,205.5 lbs, a total of 110.2 lbs less than its predecessor.

Inside the R8 gets a simple and clean new look with digital gauges while the most important controls can be operated by the driver on the steering wheel. Another notable change is the addition of a push-button ignition, absent on the previous generation car.

In a release Audi claims that additional versions of the R8 are in the works and even hints that a second-generation E-tron electric model could be a part of the plan with a range of almost 600 miles!

Sales of the new R8 will begin in Europe this summer, though no details on North American availability have been announced.

Full details on the car will be released at the car's world premiere next week at the Geneva Motor Show.

Discuss this story at our Audi R8 forum

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Lotus Targets Nurburgring Record With 2-Eleven Successor

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Lotus wants to have the fastest road car around the Nürburgring.

The British automaker's new head, Jean-Marc Gales, made the claim recently during an interview with Top Gear, saying that a successor to the 2-Eleven is less than two years away sporting around 400 hp while weighing just under 2,000 lbs.

Based off the new Evora chassis, the original 2-Eleven was built from an Elise/Exige base weighing just 1,643 lbs and making 250 hp from a supercharged 1.8-liter 4-cylinder.

The new 2-Eleven will also be the most expensive Lotus available, but Gales sounds confident that it'll set a record at the 'Ring.

SEE ALSO: Lotus 2-Eleven Review

Lotus is recovering from a disruptive last few years, during which its former CEO made ambitious claims that never came to fruition. Now Gales looks to refine what works and promises that any vehicle the company launches in the next two years will be "lighter and faster than its predecessor." That means lighter and faster Elise, Exige and Evora models are on the way, though we've already been introduced to the Evora 400.

As for building its own powerplants, Gales admits that Lotus has no need to. He feels comfortable purchasing an engine, tuning it and calibrating it to the company's desires. And in talking about the move to carbon fiber, don't expect it to come anytime soon. The current Evora aluminum tub meets regulations until 2020 and Lotus plans on keeping with aluminum beyond that.

In fact, according to Gales it weighs just 5 lbs more than the carbon fiber tub used in the new Alfa Romeo 4C.

The company is aiming to sell 3,000 cars a year once the Evora 400's production is ramped up.

[Source: Top Gear]

Discuss this story at our Lotus forum

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Mercedes GLC Exposed in Latest Spy Photos

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The Mercedes-Benz GLK replacement has been caught on camera sporting minimal camouflage.

The latest spy photos offer the best look yet at the upcoming GLC crossover, which has shed all of the boxy design cues of its predecessor.

Gone are the sharp edges that we see today on the GLK, replaced by a more sweeping, stylish design.

The new GLC is based on the C-Class platform and previous spy photos revealed that a plug-in hybrid variant is also in the works. This is also the first time spy photographers have caught a photo of the interior, revealing the prototype's center console and infotainment screen.

Discuss this story at our Mercedes-Benz forum

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Car Reviews

Thursday, 26 February 2015

Apple’s Market Cap Eclipses Automakers

Apple’s Market Cap Eclipses Automakers

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