Earlier this month we reported on Porsche (ETR: PAH3) delivering an impressive amount of vehicle in the first three months of this year a few days earlier.

Now, the German car maker is providing us with an insight into their record breaking year in terms of deliveries, revenue, and profit in the 2014 fiscal year. Porsche delivered 189,849 vehicles during the 2014 year advancing further than compared to their previous time frames, adding to the company’s success overall. The deliveries were up by 17% compared to previous year if we are exact, a rather impressive showcase for the car maker.

With the deliveries projecting record breaking numbers, revenue rose by one-fifth to $18.1 billion (€17.2 billion). The operating profit grew by just over 5% to $2.8 billion (€2.7 billion). Porsche currently hires 22,401 employees, yet another new peak for the car company as well. In the previous year, the figure was 19,456 employees, showing an annual increase of 15%.

At the annual press conference of Porsche in Stuttgart on Friday, Matthias Müller, Chairman of the Executive Board, stressed that the sports car manufacturer has reached essential objectives of the “Strategy 2018″ ahead of schedule.

“Porsche has developed very successfully and is now better positioned than ever”, said Müller. “A crucial cornerstone for this success is the Macan. By the end of the year, we had delivered our new five-door sports car nearly 45,000 times.”

With the Macan, Porsche has also won over many new customers: worldwide, three out of four Macan customers have opted for a vehicle of the Porsche brand for the first time.

The Porsche chairman took special pride in the success of the plug-in hybrid models. Müller referred not only to the 918 Spyder super sports car, but also to the fact that Porsche Porsche was the only brand in the world that could offer its customers three plug-in models in the premium segment. With that in mind, it’s rather important to emphasize that the Porsche 918 Spyder super sports car was sold out in 2014 and no more orders can be placed for that model. The three plug-in hybrid models are the 918 Spyder, Cayenne S E-Hybrid, and the Panamera S E-Hybrid.

Lutz Meschke, Member of the Executive Board Finance and IT at Porsche AG, emphasized in Stuttgart that the excellent performance of Porsche is also reflected in the financial situation of the company.

“In 2014, we were able to completely reduce our net debt while simultaneously financing our growth – two years before the originally envisaged target date,” he said.

In tangible terms, the net liquidity of the automotive business area – i.e. the gross liquidity less financial liabilities and excluding the financial services business in each case – improved from negative 899 million euros as of December 31, 2013 to positive 195 million euros as of December 31, 2014.

Müller and Meschke were optimistic in terms of the current fiscal year.

“We assume that sales and deliveries in the ongoing year will continue to rise”, stated the Chief Financial Officer.

The company also wants to safeguard the profitability through continuous productivity and process improvements as well as through stringent cost management. It remains to be seen how the market will react in 2015. as the other manufacturers are joining the plug-in hybrid premium model competition – this will be specially evident by the entry of some rather efficient, albeit performance oriented models from the other German car manufacturers as well.

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The well-known tire company Goodyear Tire (NASDAQ: GT) unveiled a very interesting prototype at the Geneva Motor Show.

The concept behind this prototype — which is far from going into production — could radically change the way we view car tires and car travel in the future. This concept, named “BHO3” – offers the possibility of charging the batteries of electric cars by transforming the heat generated by the rolling tire into electrical energy. This means, that under certain conditions, the car’s tires could actually charge the batteries of the vehicle. While the whole technology is rather new, the concept sounds profoundly promising all together.

The role of the car tires has always been to provide the safety and performance by adding better traction. Tires also allow for a smoother ride and take the hard hits of variable driving conditions the cars may encounter. In a nutshell they are the contact surface that the car has with the road. On the other hand, the technology of the tires remained stagnant in a lot of ways. Now, with Goodyear releasing its concept tires, dedicated to charging electric vehicles, we might see a big shift of focus for this often neglected part of the automotive culture entirely.

“These concept tires re-imagine the role that tires may play in the future,” said Joe Zekoski, Goodyear’s senior vice president and Chief Technical Officer, in a statement. “We envision a future in which our products become more integrated with the vehicle and the consumer, more environmentally friendly and more versatile.”

These tires would generate electricity through the action of materials in the tires themselves, reacting to the driving surfaces it encounters. The energy is created by heat when it flexes as it rolls during normal driving conditions, creating energy that can be transformed from one state to another, providing electricity. The materials used would optimize the tire’s electricity generation capabilities as well as its rolling resistance.

While Goodyear hasn’t released that much information about this potential groundbreaking technology, it is easy to see how such a solution would benefit would be range anxious drivers and help their electric vehicles achieve better range as well. Take a look at the video we’ve added below to find out more about this revolutionary tire concept. We’re sure some high-profile car manufacturers will take a rather compelling interest in this technology as well.

Now the question is, can Goodyear make this 3D rendering a reality? Only time will tell.

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Viewed by many as the most daunting racing event in the world now, the LeMans 24 Hour race has always brought the best in the automotive world.

The most impacting feature of the LeMans racing are the technological breakthroughs that empower car companies to produce some rather impressive racing solution with viable applications in day-to-day driving and street legal cars. For this years LeMans race, Audi (ETR:NSU) received ann approval from The Selection Committee of the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) which has accepted all nominations submitted by Audi for the 83rd running of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

As a result, three Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars will be competing in the world’s major endurance race on June 13 and 14, 2015, for which Tom Kristensen has been appointed as ‘Grand Marshal’ by the organizer. This will allow Audi to once again run their Quattro powered hybrids in a competition that’s more about endurance and fuel efficiency together with performance than anything else. Cutting fuel runs, allowing for more driving time and affording better range is key to success in this racing series.

The Audi R18 e-tron quattro is a hybrid version of the R18 ultra, with a 500 kJ flywheel accumulator system designed by Williams Hybrid Power. The R18 e-tron comes with two two 101 PS (74 kW; 100 hp) Bosch Motor Generator Units driving the front wheels with water-cooled integrated power electronics, powering all four wheels through the Quattro drive system. The car comes with a smaller fuel tank, affording just 58 litres. This, on the other hand, keeps the weight low. The hybrid system allows for better fuel utilization, more mileage and better performance overall. The quattro system, as per the regulations, is available only at speeds above 120 km/h (75 mph).

“We’re delighted that the ACO has accepted our three nominations,” said Head of Audi Motorsport Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, who attended the event in Paris together with Chris Reinke, Head of LMP. He also added: “Audi will be competing at Le Mans for the 17th consecutive time and has been unbeaten with its hybrid drive so far. This year, we’re welcoming a new competitor. This provides further proof of the positive development that prototype racing and the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) have seen since 2012.”

Last year’s winners Marcel Fässler/André Lotterer/Benoît Tréluyer (CH/D/F) are set on battling for their fourth victory this year in the number ‘7’ Audi R18 e-tron quattro. This will mark another chapter in the quest for the title at LeMans, one of the most highly prestigious racing events. Now, with the advent of hybrid and electrical power, this will give many car manufacturers the perfect testing atmosphere to run their newly invented and reinvented solutions in the car production, performance, fuel efficiency and other areas.

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Toyota has announced that they would be moving away from Tesla’s battery technology, which they were originally one of the first supporters in Tesla’s battery technology and took a 3% share (worth about $690 million) of the company in addition to adopting their battery technology. Keep in mind that currently, Tesla manufactures battery technology for Toyota and Mercedes and is in the process of building a $5 billion gigafab in order to increase their battery capacity. So, while Tesla is looking to expand their battery manufacturing capacity, one of their closest partners is moving away from Tesla’s tech.

Toyota is claiming that they are moving towards a new alternative energy standard which has long been considered to be less feasible than electric power, hydrogen fuel cell. Companies like Honda and Toyota have been toying with hydrogen fuel cell and electric car technology for the past few decades with a few prototypes here and there, but ultimately little to no commercial traction. However, it seems like Toyota isn’t particularly interested in the current model with electric cars where new charging stations need to be installed at users’ homes, work and places that they go. Toyota appears to be more interested in the ‘gas station’ model where people would simply refuel with hydrogen rather than waiting for a charge. So, Toyota recently created the FCV Concept which was announced at CES and ultimately showed where Toyota had been looking to move for 2014 and beyond.

Toyota FCV Concept

While I don’t think anyone can definitively say whether or not Toyota’s decision to move away from Tesla’s battery technology is necessarily a good one, Toyota is still the #1 seller of hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles and that’s still a whole lot of batteries that need installing. I personally understand why someone would look at electric cars as not-so-green technology considering the amount of energy necessary to create those batteries and the source of a lot of the power that charges them. However, I believe that we may ultimately see a combination of hydrogen fuel cell technologies alongside electric car technologies much like we have diesel and gasoline engines which ultimately are both combustion engines but they accomplish combustion via different types of fuel.

Hopefully this isn’t too much of a blow for Tesla, with Toyota moving away from their battery tech. Perhaps once Tesla launches a more affordable electric car and the Model X they will be able to spur enough battery demand on their own so that companies like Toyota aren’t as critical to them anymore.

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