Volkswagen may enter Formula One racing if the International Automobile Federation (FIA) is successful in cutting costs in the world’s premiere auto racing series.

“Today, it costs well over a hundred million Euros to take part in F1,” Reinhold Carl, managing director of Audi Singapore, told Singapore paper The Straits Times. “If the cost is lower, it will be more manageable.

With ten brands under the company’s umbrella including Audi, Lamborghini and Bentley, Volkswagen’s entry could use any of those marques, (who wouldn’t love to see Lamborghini go head-to-head with Ferrari in F1?) but Carl says the newly acquired Porsche brand may be the most likely candidate.

“I think it would be [under the name of] Porsche, now that Porsche belongs to the group, or Audi – or even Volkswagen,” says Carl.

[Source: Crash]

Car Magazine is reporting BMW will use the third-generation MINI platform to build a new compact car.

The so-called “0 Series” (internally referred to as the “Untere Kompactklasse”, German for “Lower Compact Class”) will be slotted between the MINI and 1 Series to go up against Audi’s A1 and Mercedes’ A-Class.

Because it is based on the MINI platform, the 0 Series will be front wheel drive, a first for BMW.

Efficiency being its main selling point, the 0 Series will likely make use of BMW’s three or four cylinder engines and will help the company’s fleet meet CO2 and MPG requirements. A hybrid or electric version may also be a possibility.

Car Magazine reports the new car will come in two- and four-door hatchback versions as well as a two-door roadster.

[Source: MotoringFile]

Gallery: BMW 0 Series

If you polled the folks in Nissan’s design department to see what their favorite artist is, we have little doubt Picasso would be a popular choice. The cubist designs at Nissan have been popular as of late, but don’t expect to see the new Roox model heading to North America to join its big brother Cube any time soon.

The Roox is classified as a min-car, meaning that it slots in even below sub-compact models like Nissan’s Versa. The square design, however, makes it ideal for cargo. Nissan has also equiped the model with minivan-style sliding side doors, making it not only ideal for passengers in tight spaces, but also for use as an urban cargo vehicle.

More details about the Roox will be reveald when Nissan oficially unveils the new car at the Tokyo Auto Show on October 21st.

Most certainly one of the wildest concept cars set to debut at the Tokyo Auto Show (and that’s saying a lot) is the Nissan Land Glider Concept. The cockpit design is very much a cockpit, looking more like something you might fly off an aircraft carrier than drive around congested urban streets. There is room for both a passenger and a driver, with the two occupants sitting in front of and behind each other – much like on the Volkswagen L1 Concept that recently debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show.

The vehicle is a zero-emissions one and is powered by two electric motors and lithium-ion batteries.

As for the structure, it is designed to operate more like a motorcycle, but with wheels and tires that can lean up to 17 degrees. Thanks to an advanced gyroscopic computer system, however, the vehicle can stay mostly upright, while a leaning motion by the driver can shift the car’s center of gravity. This setup, combined with an advanced system that controls power output to the wheels allows the Land Glider to, “…turn sharply at nearly any speed.”

GALLERY: Nissan Land Glider Concept

While news and photos of the Nissan Leaf have been around for several months now, the electric car will get its official debut at the Tokyo Auto Show on October 21st. Nissan describes its functional five-door, five-seater compact hatchback as having a “high-performance, zero-emission” powertrain.

Output from the lithium-ion battery packs is rated at 80kW/280Nm, (107-hp and 207 ft-lbs of torque), which should make this sub-compact a sporty little car.

Nissan says it will be able to drive 100 miles on a single charge. The batteries will be able to be charged up to 80 percent in less than 30 minutes with a special quick charger, or in roughly eight hours through a standard 200V outlet. Nissan says that through extensive research the 100 mile range will be suitable for 70 percent of car buyers.

The fully-electric Leaf, which is set to go on sale in the U.S. next year, will be priced from $25,000 to $33,000.  Initially, 5,000 vehicles will be available in five U.S. markets: the Phoenix-Tucson region of Arizona, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle and Tennessee. Fleet sales will also be offered in 2010, while full retails sales are planned for 2012.

Ahead of its official debut, Nissan also released a full gallery of new photos of the Leaf (including numerous interior shots), so be sure to check them out below.

GALLERY: Nissan Leaf

Nissan has chosen the Tokyo Auto Show to debut the next generation of the company’s top-level Fuga luxury sedan. Sold in North America as the Infinti M, it’s not clear if Nissan plans to offer the same 3.7-liter V6 (M37) and 5.6-liter V8 (M56) engine choices. Nissan will, however, deliver a hybrid model, similar to the M35 Hybrid that the company announced yesterday. Engineered comletely in-house, this new hybrid model promises increased performance with increased fuel economy and will use a lithium-ion battery pack, combined with an electric motor and Nissans 3.5-liter V6 engine.

In a sign of what is to come with the new Infiniti M37/M56, Nissan has said the new Fuga will contain several “worlds first” technological innovations.

GALLERY: Nissan Fuga/Infiniti M

With rumored news that rival BMW is planning a long list of 1 Series-based vehicles, Audi is reportedly studying several premium small cars for introduction into the North American marketplace.

First on the list is a sedan version of the A3 hatchback. Much like BMW’s plans for the 1 Series, Audi is rumored to be working on several A3 based vehicles when the new platform debuts in 2012. This new A3 could also spawn a convertible model, while a Q3 crossover to slot in underneath the Q5 (and compete directly with the BMx X1) is almost certain.

The final product Audi is looking to bring to the U.S. and Canada is an electric city car based on the Europe-only A2 (pictured above). Currently Audi parent company Volkswagen is planning an electric car (based on the E-U! Concept which debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show). Audi has also announced plans to bring a high powered electric car based on the R8-based Audi E-Tron Concept, which debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show in September.

[Source: Automotive News via LeftLaneNews]

Lotus’s new CEO and Proton, the company in charge of British sports car maker, have announced their ambitions to increase the company’s profile and have it compete with exotic Italian automakers. In a recent interview Proton Holdings managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said that the launch of the new Evora model was the start of big things to come.

New Lotus CEO Dany Bahar highlighted the company’s branding potential, with its long history in motorsorts, of being an innovitve engineering company and of builing driver-oriented sorts cars. “Lotus was mentioned in the same sentence as Ferrari, Lamborghini and Maserati in the 1970s-1990s. Then, it got closed into a corner. We believe it’s the right time to bring Lotus back to where it was,” he said.

Bahar, recently joined Lotus after heading up the sales department at Ferrari, where he was also responsible for marketing and branding initiatives. Lotus is also making a big push to get back into motorsports with the recent announcement that it would return to Formula 1. At the Frankfurt Auto Show in September, Lotus also unveiled the new Evora Tye 124 endurance racer (pictured above), as well as plans to field a two-car team at the Nürburgring 24 hour race next year.

In the realm of production cars, Lotus has said it is working on a new flagship model along the lines of the Iconic Lotus Esprit, that would rival Italian exotics.

[Source: NST]

Several sketches showing what Subaru’s new compact sports car might look like have been leaked by the folks at AutoCar. The car has become known by the name Toyobaru because of the joint partnership between Toyota and Subaru that lead to the its creation.

Earlier this week Toyota unveiled its version of the affordable sports car, dubbed the FT-86 Concept.

Subaru is believed to be building its own version of the car, powered by the same Subaru-sourced 2.0-liter four-cylinder boxer engine as the Toyota model. While nothing has been confirmed it is widely believed that the Subaru version would (expectedly) be all-wheel drive, whereas the Toyota model is rear-drive only.

Toyota has high hopes for the Toyobaru and is marketing it as an affordable sports car, meaning that it is looking for high sales volumes. While Subaru has expanded its market share over the past few years, the company is still more of a niche market enthusiast brand, which raises the possibility that it may offer a more powerful turbocharged version of the car.

See the sketches here:

Subaru’s Toyobaru Design Sketches

GALLERY: Toyota FT-86 Concept

Get more FT-86 News Here

[Source: AutoCar]

Volkswagen has confirmed that the high-powered all-wheel drive Golf R, which debuted at the Frankfurt Auto Show last month, will be sold in North America. Powered by a 2.0-liter turbocharged 4-cylinder engine (the same powerplant found under the hood of the Audi TT-S) the Golf R makes 265hp and 258 ft-lbs of torque.

Volkswagen estimates the car’s 0-62 mph time is roughly 6.5 seconds with the six-seed manual transmission or 6.4 seconds with the DSG automatic.

Inside and out the Golf R has plenty of unique features including LED daytime running lights, new five-spoke wheels, a new grille, R side skirts and badging and dual exhaust pipes. Inside there are new sport seats, special aluminum pedals and a flat-bottom steering wheel.

When it does arrive here, most likely later in 2010 as a 2011 model (as as not to steal the GTI’s thunder), it will be badged as the GTI-R.

GALLERY: Volkswagen Golf GTI-R

[Source: LeftLaneNews]