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Kai Grünitz, Volkswagen's board member for technical development, says German customers consider the ID. Polo GTI's 175 km/h top speed too low, and that the brand is looking at raising it. The limit is the single-speed transmission rather than the 226 hp. The 1976 Golf GTI reached 182 km/h on 110 hp, and the petrol Polo GTI still on sale does 240 km/h.

Nissan and Honda have signed a joint development agreement covering the main and zone electronic control units in their next-generation cars, plus the operating system, key middleware and vehicle control software that run on them. The first cars carrying the shared stack arrive in fiscal 2029. The two started researching it in August 2024, four months before announcing a merger that fell apart in February 2025.

BYD plans to build small electric cars around X-PACK, the battery pack it developed for its Japan-only Racco kei car, with Europe among the target markets, Nikkei reports. The timing lands on the EU's proposed M1E class, which would count every EU-built electric car under 4.2 metres as 1.3 cars towards a maker's CO2 target. BYD's Hungarian plant makes that qualification realistic.

Fiat now sells two Pandas side by side, and the 2012 car is still the bigger seller: 81,638 European registrations to the end of July against the Grande Panda's 46,687. Almost all of that gap is Italian. Remove Italy from both totals and the newer, Serbian-built Grande Panda outsells the Pandina by two to one across the rest of Europe.

China's industry ministry published the results of its 2025 production conformity inspection and named seven models. One is the Geely Xingyuan, the country's best-selling car of 2025, whose sampled wheelbase fell outside the permitted 1 percent margin. Another is BYD's Qin L DM-i, which used more fuel than BYD declared. Europe starts taking delivery of the Xingyuan in September, badged E2.

The 1968 Porsche 909 Bergspyder is still the lightest racing car Porsche has ever built, at around 400 kilograms, and its spherical titanium fuel tank shows how far the obsession with weight went. The 0.8 mm titanium sphere used nitrogen pressure to feed the engine and delete the fuel lift pump, saving up to seven kilograms. Powered by a 275 hp flat-eight, the hillclimb special was a rolling laboratory whose lessons fed the 908/3 that won the 1970 World Sportscar Championship.

J.D. Power's 2026 Tech Experience Index asked 68,084 owners of new cars what they actually use. Passenger displays logged 21.3 problems per 100 vehicles, 35 percent of owners who had one had never switched it on, and just 6 percent use it every drive. Audi engineers its screen to hide from the driver. BMW left it out.

BYD opened its 10,000th flash charging station in Shenzhen on 28 August, doubling the network in under five months. Nearly a third of the 1.83 million drivers who have used it plug in a car from another brand. Europe is next, with 3,000 stations promised by 2027 and 300 UK chargers inside a year, though almost nothing BYD sells there can use the full speed.

The 48th 24 Hours of Zolder was stopped early on Sunday after a heavy crash at the Lucien Bianchi corner brought out the red flag with about 30 minutes remaining. A driver and a track marshal were injured and taken to be treated, but reports say neither was in life-threatening danger. With the race unable to restart, NGT Racing took its fourth win in the Belgian classic, ahead of ART Racing and Belgium Racing.