Honda took the wraps off its hydrogen-powered FCV sedan Wednesday. It that will pick up from where the FCX Clarity left off last year.

The FCV will be shown Oct. 28 at the Tokyo Motor Show this year, alongside the automaker’s NSX and Civic Type R. (Any bets on what goes on sale first?) However, it probably won’t be called the FCV when it goes on sale next March in Japan in sometime after in the U.S. Like the FCX Clarity, the FCV may not have much of a life outside California — that’s really the only state with a semblance of hydrogen fuel infrastructure.

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Mazda on Wednesday released a teaser image for a sports car it will show off at the Tokyo Motor Show on Oct. 28.

The automaker divulged few details about the car, other than to say it would “almost condense Mazda’s entire history of sports car development into a single model,” which means nothing in itself. What may be more significant is that the car will be shown alongside a 1967 Cosmo Sport, which was rotary powered. Or maybe that doesn’t matter at all.

We’ve all but given up on rotary powered engines being fuel-efficient and commercially viable so calling this an RX concept would be a long throw.

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Porsche’s next-generation Panamera (likely 2017) was spotted going through its paces in Colorado this week. The new car will be the first MSB platformed car for Porsche, which is expected to underpin more Stuttgart models — and perhaps the Bentley Flying Spur.

Two models were visible in Colorado, including what could have been a Panamera S with a large rear spoiler. (Pictures after the jump.)

The stopover in Colorado is usually one of the last powertrain tests a car will undergo before its final announcement.  Read More >

This is the nose of the next Avenir-inspired Buick LaCrosse.

Now back to Volkswagen…

Apple will formalize what kind of car it may produce (or have already produced) by 2019, the Wall Street Journal reported.

According to the report, the Cupertino, California-based company has labeled the car a “committed project” but stopped short of saying that the car would be delivered to consumers by 2019. The report only indicates that the car could be ready for consumers, finalized or conceptualized by engineers by 2019.

If all this seems vague, consider that most of the project’s executives have essentially vanished into witness relocation after joining Apple to work on the car.

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French automaker PSA may be preparing to bring its luxury arm Citroen DS, to the United States within the next few years, Car and Driver reported.

Citing a source within the company, a U.S. market launch would be “necessary” for the brand’s viability and a decision on whether to bring the French luxury cars would be coming within the next few years.

Any return for the French automaker would be fraught with difficulty: no dealer network, no service and their cars are decidedly less-than-American sized. The automaker currently offers a DS3 premium minicar, a DS4 premium subcompact and a DS5 family wagon.  Read More >

Daimler announced Friday that it would spend $1.3 billion in its Tuscaloosa, Alabama factory to upgrade its equipment and technology, and to also add a 1.3 million square-foot body shop.

The investment will also add 300 jobs to the plant, which produces the C-Class and GL-class — and perhaps GLT? — and work is reportedly already underway. The plant has been open since 1997 and has predominantly produced SUVs, although its future products are less clear.

Mercedes is reportedly preparing to make a truck, based on the Nissan Navara, to release in global markets. In Frankfurt, the updated Nissan Navara and related Renault Alaskan made their debuts, although only the Navara will have a life in the U.S. — probably as the next Frontier. Mercedes would need to produce its pickups in the NAFTA zone to avoid a Chicken Tax if they were to sell one here. (Sprinter doesn’t care.)

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This one we should have seen in the cards already: Last month, Volvo announced that it purchased Volvo tuner Polestar to bring in-house and churning out more models for eager hands.

Last year, Volvo announced it had developed a triple-turbo, 2-liter four that could produce 450 horsepower.

It’s entirely likely, TTAC has learned, that the two will meet in a Polestar-branded XC90.

Details about the car were few and far between, but the engine combination and newly branded vehicle would up the ante on what Volvo powertrain chief told Auto Express earlier this year.

Instead of slotting between the 316-horsepower XC90 T6 and the 400-horsepower hybrid T8, the Polestar version would offer the 450-horsepower variant, with a 48-volt supercharger boosting twin turbochargers on the craziest family crossover.

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Speaking to journalists in Frankfurt, Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn told journalists that he’d be open to any alliance with an automaker if the opportunity presented itself.

“Any single opportunity we have in front of us … we will entertain,” Ghosn said, according to The Detroit Bureau.

Nissan and Daimler together released Wednesday an update on its joint projects including its factory in Aguascalientes, Mexico that’ll produce both the Infiniti Q30 and Mercedes-Benz GLA.

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Mini unveiled its newest Clubman this week and the car, which is one foot longer and nearly 5 inches wider than the outgoing model, is now longer than a Jeep Wrangler.

The 14-foot-long four door will be four-inches shorter than a Mazda CX-3 and will sport the Hardtop’s duo of engines for Clubman and Clubman S models. The turbocharged I-3 will produce 134 horsepower in the Clubman, while the turbo four will bump up to 189 horsepower for the Clubman S. According to Mini, the Clubman S will sprint up to 60 mph in 7 seconds.

The Clubman is 10.9 inches longer than the 5-door Hardtop, with a 4-inch longer wheelbase and is nearly 3 inches wider. Rear passengers in the Clubman will get 2 more inches of legroom over the five-door Mini (34.3 vs. 32.3).

(And the five-door Hardtop exists, why?)

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Ford released Wednesday specifications for its newest hatchback and god is in the details.

The 2016 Ford Focus RS, which will be delivered to European customers in early 2016, will have 345 horsepower (we already knew that), 324 pound-feet of torque (we knew that, too), 347 pound-feet of torque during 15 seconds of overboost (oh?); a top speed of 165 mph and a manufacturer-quoted 0-62 mph time of 4.7 seconds.

The Focus RS will sport “Launch Control” and “Drift Mode” buttons because you’ve earned that right, America. The Focus RS will go on sale in the U.S. in Spring 2016.

Ford in Europe announced that the Focus RS would start at €39,000 ($43,910), or roughly €10,000 ($11,250) more than its Focus RS. If the Focus RS in the States is $11,000 more dear than our Focus ST, initial prices for the uber hatch should start around $35,500.

(Thanks to bball40dtw for pointing out the Focus RS is on the configurator now with a price of $35,730 + destination).

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Raphael Orlove over at Jalopnik has fine, fine reporting that the next-generation Audi S4 will sport a conventional 8-speed torque converter automatic instead of the company’s 7-speed dual-clutch unit.

The reason? The S4’s new turbocharged, 3-liter V-6 that produces 354 horsepower creates just enough torque (368.8 pounds-feet of torque, to be exact) to disqualify the automated manual. According to Orlove, the automaker didn’t rule out a DSG in the S4’s future, but said it just won’t be available at launch next year. Read More >

While it may or may not be the next-generation Mercedes-Benz CLS-class (note: probably not), the automaker took the wraps off a transforming concept car that grows in length significantly at highway speeds to better cut through air.

The Mercedes-Benz IAA concept (Intelligent Aerodynamic Automobile) was shown off Tuesday in Frankfurt and, according to the automaker, can grow by 390 millimeters to achieve a drag coefficient world record of 0.19. (The current generation Prius is around 0.25, for reference.)

The whole thing is powered by a hybrid powertrain that’ll never see the light of day and sports an interior array of electronics that’s probably something out of “Minority Report.” It’s the moveable aerodynamic elements on the IAA that could see production, and there are a lot of them.

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Toyota’s compact crossover C-HR will be making another auto show appearance before its production version is unveiled next year at the Geneva Auto Show, and its quite possible that the model could make or break Scion’s future in the U.S.

Toyota hasn’t released many details about the C-HR, other than to say that it’ll be built on the same, global TGNA structure that the next-generation Prius is built on and would have a similar hybrid powertrain.

The small crossover would fit entirely within Scion’s wheelhouse of younger buyers who apparently can’t get enough of crossovers, and would help make relevant a brand that is, um, struggling with sales. Read More >

Mazda is on fire with its designs as of late, and the newest entry to their concept stable is this — the Koeru — and it’s likely not the next CX-5 or CX-9.

Welcome back, CX-7.

The Ford Edge and Nissan Murano have proven once again that third-row seating isn’t needed in order to sell a midsize SUV, but you better have the style and substance to make up the deficit. The Koeru, for all intents and purposes, looks like it will do just that.

And while I am not sure what Koeru means exactly, I’m guessing it definitely doesn’t mean “killing off our sports car so we can build a crossover” in Japanese.

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