- Featuring the most powerful V8 engine in Ferrari history, putting out 720bhp and 770Nm of torque - Aerodynamic efficiency improved by 20 per cent for the hard core Pista version - Engine upgraded with a lighter crankshaft, flywheel and titanium con-rods After its global debut at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, the new special series Ferrari 488 Pista Spider has made its European debut at the Paris Motor Show. The 50th drop-top model to be introduced by the Italian brand is also the most powerful series production spider in Ferrari’s history. The 488 Pista Spider sports the most powerful V8 engine in Maranello history, putting out 720bhp and 770Nm of torque. Its 0-100kmph sprint time of 2.85 seconds and a lap time at Fiorano of just 1 minute 21 seconds is equally impressive. Meanwhile, weight was reduced by adopting evolved components such as Inconel exhaust manifolds, a lighter crankshaft and flywheel, and titanium con-rods, all using F1-derived technologies. In total, 18kg was slashed off the weight of the engine alone. The already impressive aerodynamic efficiency of the 488 Spider has been improved by 20 per cent, with major benefits in terms of speed and lap times on medium-fast tracks as well as sheer fun behind the wheel. This improvement is due in great part to the radical choices made for the bodywork and underbody forms with the aim of increasing downforce without increasing the car’s drag coefficient. There’s not much difference between the hardtop models and this convertible in terms of overall design and feature. To aid in weight loss, Ferrari has gotten rid of the door handles and has fitted patterned aluminium plates in place of floor mats. Prices have not been revealed but we can be sure that it going to be higher than the hardtop model and it’s almost certain that the first batch of cars have already been booked out.<doc-sep>Hide press release Show press release Harnessing the Vietnamese spirit, and taking it to the world VinFast is the first volume automotive manufacturer from Vietnam, and the first ever to participate in a major international motor show. Harnessing Vietnamese spirit, VinFast is developing and manufacturing – in Vietnam – its own range of innovative, world-class vehicles, which will be sold worldwide. It is making its global public debut at the 2018 Mondial Paris Motor Show, with two world premieres – the LUX A2.0 sedan and the LUX SA2.0 SUV. These premium models epitomise the company’s philosophy of ‘Vietnamese – Style – Safety – Creativity – Pioneering’. The design direction of these first two cars was influenced by the Vietnamese people through a public vote. This has enhanced the sense of national pride in these products, which pay homage to the country’s natural beauty. The design development for the production cars was undertaken by legendary design house, Pininfarina, giving the cars Italian design flair and sophistication. VinFast is a proud Vietnamese business with a truly global outlook and ambition, and is working with leading design, engineering and supplier partners to ensure its cars exhibit strong Vietnamese character married with Italian design sophistication and European advanced technologies and quality. VinFast products will meet international standards and customer expectations in terms of premium design, dynamics, in-car features and ownership experience. The business has engaged specialist external expertise and recruited senior executives from some of the industry’s leading automotive companies to ensure it can build a highly successful automotive business from scratch within a remarkably short timescale. The VinFast business is led by senior executives including Chairwoman, Le Thi Thu Thuy, who is also the Vice Chairwoman of Vingroup and has over 22 years of experience in the financial services and real estate industry. She is joined by James DeLuca, CEO of VinFast Trading and Production, who is an experienced automotive leader. He spent 37 years with General Motors, where he was responsible for 171 production facilities in 31 countries. The Vice President of Sales is Ms. Lê Thanh Hải, who has nearly 20 years of experience in the automotive industry and was formerly General Sales and Marketing Director at General Motors Vietnam. David Lyon is VinFast’s Director of Design. He has 28 years of automotive design experience in various roles at General Motors, culminating with a role as Executive Director of Asia-Pacific Design. Shaun Calvert, former General Motors Director of Manufacturing Systems and Support in Germany, is VinFast's Vice President of Manufacturing. Kevin Fisher, Vice President of Engineering at VinFast, has previously held senior technical and innovation roles at General Motors, Tata Technologies and Magna Steyr. Roy Flecknell, Vice President of Planning & Program Management, has over 40 years’ experience in with GM in the UK, Germany, Russia and Asia. VinFast is an exceptional example of the pride, spirit and tenacity of the Vietnamese people. Many countries in South East Asia have prioritised a domestic car industry as a source of great pride, and it has led their elevation to a position of respect for their technical and industrial capabilities on the global stage. VinFast is now pioneering the rapid development of Vietnam’s automotive industry. Until now, Vietnam has not had its own car brand for its people: the industry is made up of imports and local assembly with a low localisation rate; as a result, supporting industries are underdeveloped. VinFast will foster the creation of a new local supply chain and give the Vietnamese people a domestic car brand of which they can be proud. All VinFast cars will be manufactured at an all-new, purpose-built, state-of-the-art 335-hectare plant in Hai Phong, northern Vietnam. It is one of Vietnam’s biggest industrial projects ever, delivering a facility that is among the most advanced automotive production complexes in the world. Deliveries of the LUX A2.0 and LUX SA2.0 will commence in Vietnam from June 2019. These will be followed by further vehicles, including a city car, a battery electric car, and an electric bus – all of which are already in development. Shipments to export markets are planned to begin in 2020, less than a year after domestic sales. As a subsidiary of Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest privately-held business, VinFast has the resources and scalability to fulfil its ambition to become South East Asia’s leading vehicle manufacturer, and a significant new player in the global automotive industry. Vingroup’s brands were founded with a mission to strive ‘for a better life for the Vietnamese people’, and Vingroup wanted to build a proud car brand for the country that was stylish, premium and embodied the Vietnamese spirit, that would appeal beyond its domestic market, to the world. Its vision was to create cars with a strong Vietnamese identity that would represent the country – and be competitive – on the global automotive stage. Vingroup had annual revenues in 2017 of 3.9 billion USD. The group, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, is a leader in the Vietnamese construction and real estate sectors, and also has major interests in the country’s education, healthcare, agriculture, tourism and consumer retail sectors. Vietnam’s economy is growing rapidly. Annual GDP per capita has accelerated in recent years to over 6.8% and is forecast to continue at 6.5% p.a. in the coming years. This positive economic outlook creates significantly higher potential for growth in passenger car ownership. Currently, it stands at around 23 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, but estimates suggest that ownership in Vietnam will soon rise to 50 cars per 1,000 inhabitants. For comparison, in Thailand and the US, these numbers stand at 204 per 1,000 and 790 per 1,000, respectively. The current car sales volume in Vietnam is 300,000 units per annum. That is forecast to triple to 900,000 units by 2025. In parallel with the boom in car sales, Vietnam is also investing in significant roadbuilding programmes. Major development works are currently underway, many due for completion by 2020, by which time 21 highways are expected to have been built with a total length of nearly 6,500 km. World-class Italian design flair, influenced by the Vietnamese people Debut models feature perfectly balanced proportions with a contemporary, timeless design language that exhibits Italian design flair and sophistication Design direction was heavily influenced by Vietnamese people through innovative vote Distinctive front grille incorporates asymmetric ‘VF’ motif LUX A2.0 and LUX SA2.0 represent the powerful, progressive spirit of a new, energetic and developing Vietnam The proud and energetic styling of VinFast’s first two models were heavily influenced by the new company’s progressive approach to design, and display a world-class design language developed in close partnership with the world-renowned Pininfarina design team in Italy. In order to find a style that reflected the desires of the Vietnamese driver, VinFast did something no car brand has ever done before. First, it commissioned design sketches for a sedan and a SUV from four of the world’s best car design studios – Italdesign Giugiaro, Pininfarina, Torino Design and Zagato. Then in October 2017, it put all 20 designs on its website and asked Vietnamese consumers to vote on which models they liked the most. These Vietnamese consumers were excited to help determine the look of the first cars made expressly for them. With over 60,000 people voting for their favorite designs, the decision was clear; they chose designs for an SUV and a sedan both penned by celebrated Italian design house Italdesign Giugiaro. Since then, VinFast has worked hard with Pininfarina to further develop the cars and deliver the winning designs – designs which are distinctively Vietnamese in character and style and exciting for an international audience, too. One specific highlight of the debutant’s design language is prominent at the front of both its new cars. The chrome ‘V’ emblem at the centre of the grille is confident and distinctive. To the right is a horizontal chrome element that combines with the LED daytime running lights to create an italicised F-motif, representing the second syllable of VinFast, and a unique asymmetric flourish. From the central ‘V’ emblem radiates the bold crease lines that run over the bonnet.<doc-sep>Vinfast, a subsidiary of multi-trillion-dong Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup, unveiled its first two passenger vehicles to large crowds of curious journalists at the Paris Motor Show on Tuesday. Alongside the obvious no-shows at this year's Mondial de l'Automobile, this relatively new entrant to the world of car manufacturing revealed an SUV and a saloon in what is thought to be a long line of planned machines including a range of electric cars, buses and scooters. The LUX A2.0 Sedan and the LUX SA2.0 SUV are described Italian-designed, with European technology and "Vietnamese spirit". They are understood to have been developed following an unusual nationwide poll of 62,000 people in Vietnam, in which participants chose their favourite design from a range of sketches. The results are sleek, modern, and clearly people-pleasers. Le Thi Thu Thuy, the chairwoman of VinFast, stated that these cars "represent our intention for VinFast to be a successful automotive brand both in Vietnam and internationally. "With our ambitious plans to bring these two vehicles to market in such a short time, it was crucial for us to make a big entrance and an immediate impact, and we certainly did that today,” she added.<doc-sep>
(Pocket-lint) - The Paris Motor Show, or Mondial De L'Auto Paris, alternates its place on the circuit with Frankfurt, in Germany. In 2018 it's the turn of the city of light to host the show, and under the shadow of the Eiffel Tower, visitors will be able to check out hundreds of new car debuts and refreshed models. The Paris show isn't the size it once was, and there are fewer exhibitors than ever in 2018 - brands such as Volkswagen, Ford, Volvo, Fiat, Alfa and Mitsubishi have all taken a pass. However, those that have turned up appear to have taken it upon themselves to make up for their missing competitors: Audi are showing three new production models and two concepts. At most shows you'd expect to see one of each, at best, and Paris is dominated by electric and hybrid models. We've rounded up all the big models and all the major news coming to a road near you over the next months (or years and years). In concept car land, Peugeot shows the ultra-pretty little coupe inspired by its historic 504. Except this one is electric, and can drive autonomously. Peugeot says its all about showing people that an electric, autonomous future needn't be boring and devoid of emotion. Amen to that, if it looks like this. The EZ-Ultimo is Renault's future vision not constrained by practical limitations. Instead it presents an autonomous luxury lounge, so you can slip in, relax, take a guided tour of a new city at your leisure and in perfect comfort. Renault suggest premium materials like marble, wood and leather can create a bespoke interior. Is it a little far-fetched, or a real vision for the future of cars? Shown in the summer, the PB 18 is a concept car which takes Audi's new electric e-tron technology, and imagines it in the context of a future sports car. Driver-focused, and thus doing away with any autonomous driving functionality, instead the PB 18 is a shooting break, which features the high-tech cockpit you'd expect on an Audi. Will this be the foundation of a new R8? Audi has been pretty good at turning concepts into real cars recently. Autonomous cars might be one of the big industry buzz-trends right now, but it's actually in the world of delivery, where we might first see driverless vehicles. Renault has a big van business, and its EZ-Pro concept is a vision of what a vehicle which delivers autonomously could be like. Vehicles like this could be taking on "the last mile" to deliver your Amazon order to your doorstep. The Vision RS is a concept, but it actually previews the style of the new generation of the Skoda Rapid - Skoda's car that costs little more than a Fabia, but has more space than a Golf. The RS branding shows Skoda's commitments to its go-faster vRS sub-brand performance models. This electric Mercedes - which is roughly the same size as the brand's GLC SUV - will go on sale early in 2019. Distinguished by little more than a bit of blue lighting and a rather questionable grille, the EQC's price has yet to be announced, but its 80kWh battery, means range will be less than an Audi e-tron, Jaguar i-Pace and pricier versions of the Tesla Model X. The electric SUV wars have started in earnest. We've already seen Audi's first electric SUV at a special VIP event in San Francisco, but this is the first time the public can take a look at the all-electric model which Audi says will cover 310km on a full charge. Typical Audi angular-aggressive design cues feature, as does a hi-tech theme which extends to an option to bin the door mirrors for cameras, and an all-touch interface inside. The odd "55" on the number plate is part of Audi's new naming scheme which will broadly let you compare the power of this as an EV to traditional combustion engine. We had a sneak peak of the new DS3 Crossback at an event in Paris a couple of weeks ago, which you can read about here. The replacement for the Mini-rivalling DS3 is now an SUV, but the big news is its electric powertrain in the E-Tense model - along with some typically wild design cues, especially inside. It will be hitting the roads in 2019, pop-out door handles and all, to rival cars like the Hyundai Kona Electric.