Sweden's Stealth Navy: Visby Corvettes and Gotland Submarines
The Visby-class corvette is one of the most radar-evading warships ever built. Its angular, carbon-fiber hull dramatically reduces its radar cross-section, while integrated weapons and sensors help it operate undetected in littoral zones. Despite its sleek profile, the Visby is packed with anti-submarine, anti-ship, and mine warfare capabilities—tailored for the Baltic's tight, shallow waters.
Beneath the surface, the Gotland-class submarine is a master of silent operations. It was the first operational sub to feature air-independent propulsion (AIP), allowing it to remain submerged for weeks without surfacing. Its quiet diesel-electric engines and stealthy profile once allowed it to 'sink' a U.S. aircraft carrier during a training exercise—without ever being detected.
Together, the Visby and Gotland represent a highly strategic blend of innovation and geography. They're not built to dominate oceans—they're built to disappear in narrow seas and reappear with deadly precision. Quiet, agile, and nearly invisible—this is Sweden's naval edge.
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Business Insider
a day ago
- Business Insider
I test drove XPeng's electric minivan. Its back seats are the business class of the road.
Last year, over 17 million EVs were produced globally, and China made most of them. Our reviewer drove the XPeng X9, a seven-seater EV minivan, around Singapore for three days. The back seats felt like business class, and it made him rethink what a people mover can be. Chinese EVs are coming in every shape and size — including luxury minivans. I spent three days driving the XPeng X9 around Singapore to find out what this futuristic people-mover is all about. I was seriously impressed. XPeng, founded in 2014 and based in Guangzhou, isn't just making EVs — it's also dabbling in flying cars and robotics, making it one of the more ambitious players among a cutthroat global battle for transportation dominance. "Competition in 2025 will be fiercer than ever," XPeng's CEO, He Xiaopeng, wrote in a letter to employees last year. He added that the next two years mark the "elimination round." In 2024, over 17 million EVs were produced globally, a 25% jump from 2023. Over 70% of them were made in China, per the International Energy Agency. As of March 2025, XPeng is selling cars across Asia and Europe, with plans to expand to the Middle East and Africa. The X9 was inspired by the CEO's experience balancing family life with his role as an entrepreneur and a "hands-on father," Alex Tang, the head of XPeng's international sales and service division, told Business Insider in a statement. "He envisioned a vehicle that drives with the agility of an SUV, carries the sleek silhouette of a coupe, and delivers the comfort and practicality of a premium MPV," Tang said. On the outside The seven-seater X9, first released in October 2023, is priced between 359,800 and 419,800 Chinese yuan, or $50,185 and $58,550. It grabbed my attention right away, mostly because of its shape. Instead of following the usual luxury minivan formula, XPeng gave it a bold, trapezoidal twist. It feels like the Tesla Cybertruck of the EV multipurpose vehicle world: sharply styled, tech-packed, and built to rethink what a people mover can be. The proportions and lines are spot-on, topped off with sleek 20-inch alloys. Getting behind the wheel The X9 is big — really big. At 208 inches long, 78 inches wide, and 70 inches tall, it's the longest of any Chinese electric minivan on the market. While it's not the slimmest in width, its overall dimensions still make it one of the most space-efficient in its class. For perspective, it's even longer than a Mercedes-Benz S-Class. But the real surprise was how easily it maneuvered into tight parking spots, even parallel ones. XPeng has equipped it with an easy-to-use park assist system. It can park itself if you want it to. But if you're like me and prefer doing it yourself, the network of cameras and sensors makes the job stress-free. The system is named XPilot Parking. While it's not a function that's unique to the XPeng, no BYD models — the world's largest electric vehicle maker — offer the same feature. Another neat party trick: rear-wheel steering. It gives the X9 an edge in maneuverability — a feature typically reserved for high-end luxury sedans like the BMW 7 Series. It really shines on winding roads or when a hot hatch is tailgating and you need to stay sharp. XPeng says the X9's WLTP range exceeds 350 miles on a single charge. I couldn't validate it, as I only covered 160 miles during the three-day drive. On the inside The X9 comes fitted with standard air suspension, which you can set to Comfort, Standard, or Sport for your different driving moods. I found that for a luxury minivan like this, Sport seemed unnecessary. The setting stiffens the suspension. While it reduces body roll and improves overall handling, it also transmits more bumps and road imperfections, compromising ride comfort for everyone on board. This suspension allows drivers to raise or lower the car at the touch of a button on the 17.3-inch touchscreen. Lift it when there's flooding, or drop it for easier access when passengers are getting in or out. No other EV minivan offers this feature. The Chinese have really nailed the art of crafting luxurious interiors, and the X9 is no exception. Many Chinese cars, including the X9, now come standard with massive screens, premium materials like leather and high-quality plastics, and even reclining rear seats with massage functions. Features that were once reserved for top-tier German brands are now common in the latest generation of Chinese vehicles. One of the coolest touches of XPeng's minivan: The rear air conditioning vents are seamlessly integrated into the ceiling, like something you'd see in a convention hall. Ride in the back A car like the X9 makes calling "shotgun" pointless — the best seats are in the back. A pair of captain's chairs offers plenty of controls to find your sweet spot, plus a third row that's honestly the most comfortable and well-cushioned I've seen in my 23 years of reviewing cars. Once again, XPeng shows serious attention to detail: The third row, usually where you stash someone you'd rather not hear yapping the whole ride, is not only easy to access but actually comfortable for adults. Since this is a luxury minivan, passengers in the back get pampered with perks like a built-in fridge to keep drinks chilled and a 21.4-inch entertainment screen. And if you've got teenagers, you can hook up an Xbox to keep them entertained instead of listening to them confuse you with their Gen Alpha slang.
Newsweek
a day ago
- Newsweek
Next Year's New Electric Cars Will Sound Like Classic V8s
Today's electric cars sound like vehicles from a sci-fi movie. They emit sounds ranging from ethereal to high-pitched whines to rocket-like noises and simulated flatulence. Those sounds pair with slow motion and simulated shifts to create a new-age ambiance that has many car enthusiasts longing for the sounds of engines past. As Mercedes-AMG works to create the electric performance cars of the future, the company isn't keen to fully let go of its gasoline-powered past. Its upcoming C590 battery-electric sedan, built on the new architecture, aims to blend old sounds with new powertrain performance. "We want to set the benchmark when it comes to electric high-performance driving... We use a speedboat to give a little hint how the electric future will look like when you talk about AMG electric cars," Michael Schiebe, chairman of the board of management of Mercedes‑AMG, the performance arm of the company, and head of Mercedes‑Benz G‑Class and Mercedes‑Maybach business units, told Newsweek. "We want to use the car to break some records. This is what it's all about. Because if you claim yourself to be a performance brand, then you need to beat your competitors on the track. It's not just the talking, you need to prove it," he continued. Front of the Mercedes-AMG C590 prototype. Front of the Mercedes-AMG C590 prototype. Mercedes-AMG AMG's performance history is storied. "AMG was born on the racetrack. From the beginning, performance has been in our DNA—whether on the track or the road. Every split second matters, and the relentless pursuit of more has fueled us since day one. It's what drives us to give everything, every single day," Schiebe said. The electric era is a new frontier for the company. Though it has been including hybrid technology in its most recent cars, including the C 63 S E Performance and CLE, C590 will be a first-of-its-kind AMG vehicle developed on a platform designed to meet key performance indicators (KPIs) earmarked by AMG rather than leaning on a Mercedes-Benz base then amplifying it, the formula for much of the recent lot of AMG offerings. "When we are talking about going into the electric era, we always say it's about continuous performance, because this is the real differentiator," Schiebe said. "Most of the electric cars will be able to accelerate very fast from zero to 100 or zero to 60 [mph]. It doesn't matter. This will not be the real differentiator in an electric era in the future. "When we started with the development of the we defined certain criteria... we know that we have a very strong heritage when it comes to combustion engines and V8s and so we have a very strong customer base. And customers just love that, especially in the U.S. So if we, as a brand, come up with an electric car, we need to jump even further, because otherwise customers will just say, 'Why don't you just stick to your V8s,' and that is why we put our targets so ambitiously high, and we said we really need to jump really, really far to convince our customers." Scheibe linked performance and design to emotion, citing a combination of KPIs that make a performance AMG car a must-buy for the company's customers. One of the aspects of emotion is sound, an emotional touchpoint that battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) have struggled to wrangle. For the C590, "we actually created the feeling that our customers are used to from our beloved V8s," he said. The formula for the C590 combines the sound of previously beloved AMG vehicles with a variety of driving triggers to deliver a fully engaged sensory experience to the driver. Schiebe pointed out: "If I talk to my engineers driving the car on the Nordschleife, for example, they are not driving the cars and looking to the RPM meter all the time. They are actually driving it by all their senses; they hear the sound of the engine and everything. You need to get feedback to make a fast lap on the racetrack." Rear of the Mercedes-AMG C590 prototype. Rear of the Mercedes-AMG C590 prototype. Mercedes-AMG C590 owners will be able to experience the sounds of V8 and V12 driving in the BEV thanks to technical experts who captured the sound of those engines after blind sound tests that Schiebe compared to wine tasting. "We were standing next to the track, and then some of our young engineers were just driving by back and forth and back and forth, and we were listening," he said. After narrowing down the possibilities, engineers went to a specially engineered sound room in Affalterbach, Germany, the home to the brand, and listened to the noise in isolation. "We invested a hell of a lot of hours just to optimize it, because we think it's of such high importance. It's not just something that you delegate to one of your engineers and say, 'Please come up [with this],' because it is part of our DNA." The sounds tested for transfer from the company's extensive engine portfolio include those from the first-generation Mercedes-AMG GT, Mercedes-AMG C63 and third-generation Mercedes-AMG C-Class (W204), among others. What Is It Like to Drive? With ample acceleration on rural roads around Affalterbach, a Mercedes-AMG engineer showcased the capabilities of the forthcoming car. While dressed in camouflage and switched into its Sport+ drive modes, the prototype C590 rode as aggressively as the driver wanted, delivering simulated shifts at what felt like the appropriate torque points, matched with sounds that echoed through the cabin as if there was a real engine under the hood. Although mostly authentic-sounding, the noise would occasionally sound electronic, particularly around the end notes of a downshift brap. The experience heightened the senses, much like riding in a gasoline-powered car, though it's still not a 1:1 match. Will it be enough to persuade drivers to switch from gas to electric? That's the question. "Buying an AMG is always an emotional decision. You can go from A to B in a much cheaper [car]. So if you decide for such a car from our brand, it's an emotional topic, and this is why we invested a lot of attention, resources and money to make those cars really emotional," Schiebe said. Mercedes-AMG intends to unveil the production version of the C590 soon.
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Miami Herald
Mercedes-Benz Launches Aggressive EQB Lease Offer for July
Mercedes-Benz isn't exactly known for its bargain pricing, especially when it comes to its electric lineup. But for July, the German luxury brand is bucking expectations with a surprisingly aggressive lease deal on its EQB compact SUV. It's a rare move for Mercedes, and one that might make the EV-curious stop and reconsider where luxury meets affordability. The EQB, which shares its underpinnings with the boxy and practical GLB-Class, stands out with its upright design, optional third-row seating, and premium cabin finish. Unlike many other electric SUVs in the $50,000 range, it delivers that experience with real Mercedes character-quiet, comfortable, and well-equipped out of the box. So, what's the offer? For July 2025, Mercedes-Benz is advertising a lease on the 2024 EQB 250+ for just $299 a month for 36 months, with $4,093 due at signing. That includes 30,000 miles over the lease term-more than enough for most urban and suburban drivers. It's one of the most aggressive lease offers we've seen from Mercedes in years, especially for an EV. If you're already driving a Mercedes on a lease or finance plan, there's more good news: returning customers can knock an additional $2,000 off the signing amount. Combined with dealer discounts, some of which are reportedly in the five-figure range, it's a rare window to grab a luxury EV for a price that rivals mainstream brands. Under the skin, the EQB isn't the flashiest EV on paper. The front-wheel-drive EQB 250+ that this lease offer applies to is rated for 188 horsepower and a 0–60 mph time in the eight-second range. It won't smoke tires, but that's not the point. This model is about smart electric commuting, elevated by premium materials and clever packaging. With a usable 251-mile range, it's ideal for daily drives, weekend errands, and short road trips, with the added peace of mind of Mercedes's dealer network and a top-notch interior. Where the EQB really shines is its shape. That tall, boxy profile translates into excellent headroom and visibility. Drivers who feel cramped in sleeker EVs-or who need to haul taller kids or larger gear-will find this design refreshingly practical. It's basically the luxury EV answer to a small minivan, and we mean that in the best way. The EQB might not be the flashiest EV in Mercedes-Benz's stable, but this lease deal makes it one of the smartest buys this summer. With a premium interior, useful range, and now a genuinely compelling monthly price, the EQB 250+ deserves a fresh look. If you're cross-shopping smaller electric SUVs like the Volvo XC40 Recharge or Audi Q4 E-Tron, it's hard to ignore just how much value Mercedes is packing into this boxy little hauler, especially when you consider the badge on the hood. This deal won't last forever, and with EQB inventory sitting at dealers across the country, now might be the right time to act before they're all gone. *Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. The information presented herein is based on manufacturer-provided lease offer information, which is subject to frequent change and may vary based on location, creditworthiness, and other factors. We are not a party to any lease agreements and assume no liability for the terms, conditions, availability, or accuracy of any lease offers mentioned. All terms, including but not limited to pricing, mileage allowances, and residual values, require direct verification with an authorized local OEM dealership. This article does not constitute financial advice or an endorsement of any particular lease or vehicle. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
