AUDI AG, the BMW Group and Daimler AG have agreed with Nokia Corporation that they will acquire its mapping and location services business HERE. The acquisition is intended to secure the long term availability of HERE’s products and services as an open, independent and value creating platform for cloud-based maps and other mobility services accessible to all customers from the automotive industry and other sectors. The three partners will each hold an equal stake in HERE; none of them seeks to acquire a majority interest. Subject to the approval of the relevant antitrust authorities, the transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2016.

HERE is laying the foundations for the next generation of mobility and location based services. For the automotive industry this is the basis for new assistance systems and ultimately fully autonomous driving. Extremely precise digital maps will be used in combination with real-time vehicle data in order to increase road safety and to facilitate innovative new products and services. On the basis of the shared raw data, all automobile manufacturers can offer their customers differentiated and brand-specific services.

“Our environment is constantly changing. That’s why the information in digital maps has to be continually updated so that maximum utility can be offered,” stated Rupert Stadler, Chairman of the Board of Management of AUDI AG. The high-precision cameras and sensors installed in modern cars are the digital eyes for updating mobility data and maps; in this way, information such as speed limits or critical driving situations are already recognized today. All data gained will be processed in compliance with strict data-protection rules.

“HERE will play a key role in the digital revolution of mobility, combining high definition maps and data from vehicles to make travel safer and easier for everyone,” explained Harald Krüger, Chairman of the Board of Management of BMW AG.

This knowledge will be to the benefit of all carmakers and their customers. “High-precision digital maps are a crucial component of the mobility of the future. With the joint acquisition of HERE, we want to secure the independence of this central service for all vehicle manufacturers, suppliers and customers in other industries,” stated Dieter Zetsche, Chairman of the Board of Management of Daimler AG.

Swarm intelligence will create new information density for road maps

“HERE will be able to offer users a continuously improving product, bringing highly automated driving and location based services a step further. As the volume of anonymized data from the vehicles increases, services will become more convenient, more connected and further tailored to the users’ individual requirements,” said Ulrich Hackenberg, Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG for Technical Development, Klaus Fröhlich, Member of the Board of Management of BMW AG for Development, and Thomas Weber, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG for Group Research. It is the explicit intention that all HERE customers are to benefit from this continuous optimization.

The social benefits of swarm intelligence are enormous: They facilitate warnings of hazards in real time, of icy roads for example, based on calculations of individual data such as ABS activations and outside temperature. Upcoming traffic jams will be identified more precisely in the future, significantly reducing the risk of accidents. In this way, the vision of accident-free driving is gradually becoming reality. In a further stage, the data could be used to learn about critical bends on the road, in order to warn drivers in good time or to activate assistance systems. Anticipation of green phases of stoplights could navigate vehicles through an urban area on a “green wave” with the appropriate engine performance and minimized fuel consumption.

High-precision maps are important for autonomous driving and many other forms of assistance systems, as these technologies require an up-to-date plan of a vehicle’s surroundings exact to the nearest centimeter, in order to react in real time. While HERE already produces extremely precise static maps, they can be verified more exactly and continually updated with a constant flow of data from vehicles’ surroundings.

HERE will continue to offer its services and products across industries

HERE provides mapping and location intelligence for nearly 200 countries in more than 50 languages and is one of the main providers of mapping and location services. The company will continue to develop its position as a strong and independent provider of maps and location-based services, will expand its product offering and continue to make it available to all customers across industries.

The management of HERE will continue to be independent – with the goal of moving the HERE business case forward as a platform, open to all customers. The consortium will not interfere into operational business.

Just yesterday, we discussed with you how the S63 AMG put the Jaguar XJR to shame in a head-to-head matchup.  And now today, thanks to the guys over at MotorTrend, we have a battle between the Audi RS7 vs. Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG S vs. Porsche Panamera Turbo.  Three Luxury Super Sports Sedans all vying for the top position in the pack.  So which car claimed victory?  Read on for a few highlights from the battle or click here to skip to the gallery for the final results.

In there 0-60 mph test, the CLS63 and the Panamera Turbo both took 3.4 seconds to hit 60 mph while the RS7 hit 60 mph in 3.2 seconds. In the quarter-mile, the last place went to the Panamera, with a time of 11.8 seconds and a top speed of 116.4 mph. The Mercedes came in second with a speedy time of 11.7 seconds and a top speed of 122.7 mph. The RS7 again pulled out the win here with a time of 11.6 seconds to finish the quarter mile with a trap speed of 120.4 mph — lower than CLS63’s, but the Mercedes peaked to late for a win.

Audi RS7

On the figure-eight course, the RS7, having done amazing when going in a straight line, came in last with a time of 24.2 seconds while the Mercedes CLS AMG held its middle spot with a respectable time of 23.9 seconds (keep in mind a Ferrari 458 Italia takes 24.0 seconds to complete the same distance). The winner on the figure-eight was the Panamera Turbo, completing the course in only 23.7 seconds.  Additional turn testing was done on the streets of Willow by Randy Pobst with some shocking results. The CLS63 AMG took the longest to complete the 1.6-mile road course with a time of 1:24.71, followed by the Audi RS7 with a time of 1:24.30.  The winner hear was the Porsche with an impressive time of 1:22.68.

The downfall of of the Mercedes didn’t like in the engine however but rather in the poor quality tires. Fitted with Continental ContiSportContact 5Ps, the tires are fine on the street but nearly worthless on the track.  The Pirelli P Zeros on the RS7 faired slightly better with the Porsche’s Michelin Pilot Super Sports tires doing the best and showing little wear at the end.

Porsche Panamera Turbo

As for how the three luxury super sports cars stack up when it comes to your wallet, the Porsche is clearly the loser at $195,510 (as-tested), making the Audi RS7 look like a deal with an as-tested price of $125,595.  The Mercedes CLS63 AMG caused the least pain to your wallet with an as tested price of $116,985.

Mercedes CLS 63 AMG

You can read more of the in-depth matchup from Motortrend here or you can skip down to the gallery to see who the winner was.

After reporting news that MBUSA was ahead of BMW in U.S. Sales, recent reports from Bloomberg have emerged that Mercedes-Benz is not in the same position on the global market.  In global luxury sales, Mercedes-Benz is falling further behind rivals BMW and Audi because of a disjointed strategy in China, sluggish expansion of entry-level models and an aging S-class sedan, the once-dominant upscale nameplate remains firmly in third place.

The Mercedes sales gap with second-placed Audi has more than doubled within a year, hampering Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche’s pledge to retake the lead.

2012 Mercedes-Benz S350 BlueTEC 4MATIC

“Mercedes’s problems are home-made problems,” said Christian Ludwig, an analyst with Bankhaus Lampe in Dusseldorf. “It’s going to be extremely difficult for Mercedes to reach the No. 1 spot. The others are not sleeping.”

Mercedes delivered 964,900 cars and sport-utility vehicles worldwide through the first nine months of 2012. The 5 percent gain failed to keep pace with rivals, meaning it lagged Audi by 132,600 vehicles, up from 53,900 a year ago. The gap to No. 1 BMW widened 41 percent to 145,000 vehicles, according to data from the carmakers.

In September 2011, Zetsche sought to cap the celebrations for the automaker’s 125th anniversary by setting the goal for Mercedes to become the best-selling and most profitable luxury-car brand by 2020. At the time, he said it was “impossible” for the brand to accept being third.

Profit drop

One year on, Zetsche’s tone was less jubilant. He said on Sept. 20 that earnings before interest and taxes at the Mercedes car division would fall and not match last year’s figure. In response, the manufacturer is planning a savings drive dubbed “Fit for Leadership.” At the Paris auto show last month, Zetsche didn’t reaffirm a Mercedes’s target for 2013 operating profit of 10 percent of sales.

Mercedes has been trailing since losing the top spot in the luxury-car segment to BMW in 2005. The Daimler unit’s sales will have advanced 19 percent through this year, compared with a 31 percent jump by BMW and a 70 percent surge by Audi over the past seven years, according to IHS Automotive estimates.

The failure to keep pace is reflected in the stock. Daimler’s 12 percent increase over the past 12 months trails BMW’s 18 percent gain and Audi parent Volkswagen’s 44 percent surge. Daimler trades at 7.5 times estimated earnings versus 8 times for BMW.

Zetsche is seeking to reverse the trend by adding less-expensive compact models, including a four-door coupe and a sport-utility vehicle, to attract younger buyers and by expanding the range of variants of the S-class flagship, which is in the last year of the current generation.

2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS63 AMG

Dealer traffic

The new compact A-class hatchback lured 700,000 people to showrooms when it went on sale last month. The company has about 70,000 orders so far for the car, which starts at almost 24,000 euros ($31,000) compared with about 17,000 euros for the segment-leading VW Golf.

“Daimler is saying that the demand for its new A-Class is great, but these are mostly orders from dealers,” said Hans- Peter Wodniok, analyst at Fairesearch in Kronberg, Germany. “The price of the compact is quite high, and it remains to be seen if the market accepts it.”

Even with the premium price, Daimler is preparing for high demand, signing up Finland’s Valmet Automotive Inc. to produce more than 100,000 A-class cars. The external production is on top of 1.4 billion euros spent to upgrade a small-car factory in Germany and build a new one in Hungary. Daimler plans at least five compact models in the coming years including the newly introduced A- and B-class cars to take on models like the BMW 1-series coupe and the Audi Q3 SUV.

Filling gaps

“We have holes in our portfolio that we are closing successively,” Joachim Schmidt, Mercedes’s sales chief, said in an e-mail response to questions. “When I look into the future, I see that we have excellent prerequisites to be the leading premium manufacturer by the end of the decade.”

To reach that goal, Mercedes will need to boost growth in China, where deliveries edged up 6.7 percent this year, compared with gains of more than 30 percent for BMW and Audi.

“China is definitively a problem area,” said Marc-Rene Tonn, a Hamburg-based analyst with Warburg Research. “They have to take action.”

2013 Mercedes-Benz GLK350 4MATIC

For a start, Zetsche is combining two separate sales units — one for imported vehicles and other for locally made cars — into a single entity. Sales chief Schmidt said the goal of the restructuring is to grow “significantly” in China again. Mercedes’s efforts to expand its appeal with new models and re-spark growth in China are expected to bear fruit and offset plans by BMW to add a factory in Brazil and by Audi to expand in Mexico. IHS forecasts Mercedes increasing sales 34 percent between 2012 and 2015, compared with Audi’s 12 percent gain and BMW’s 26 percent rise.

“Globally, the relatively old product range weighs on sales,” said Frank Schwope, an analyst at Norddeutsche Landesbank in Hanover. “The current revamp of the A class and soon of the S class will have a positive effect.”