The Citroën C3 Picasso. The Opel Meriva. The Fiat Idea. All those cars are unknown in the US, they belong to the growing segment, in Europe, of small MPVs. They’re about one foot shorter than a Ford Focus, all very innovative in terms of space efficiency, combining very compact exterior dimensions with an interior volume that could compare with models one size up.
» Read more: Hyundai ix20: the small MPV fight’s heating up in Europe
11 years ago, Toyota launched an innovative small MPV, the Yaris Verso (left picture). A real MPV, but less than 4 meters in length. It was cheap, fun, and with a huge interior relatively to its modest exterior dimensions. Still, the Yaris Verso was maybe ahead of its time, and it found few buyers in Europe. It was more successful in Japan, and a new generation was launched there in 2005, but it was no longer available in Europe, nor anywhere else to my knowledge. The Ractis, as the new model was named, became a Japan-only Toyota.
» Read more: Verso S: Toyota’s back to the small MPV party in Europe
Next Focus will be a true world car. But the current model is not. There are different Focus for each side of the Atlantic, and that is also true for the car above the Focus in Ford’s range. It’s the Fusion in the U.S. and the Mondeo in Europe. So things are changing for the Focus, and I’m confident they will change for the Fusion/Mondeo too. Because it’s just poor management to manufacture 2 different cars with so comparable specifications. You’d think the American car is larger than its European counterpart, and you would be wrong. Both cars have exactly the same length, and the European Mondeo is one inch larger than the Fusion.
» Read more: Could the Ford Mondeo be a better car than the Fusion?
Audi is luxury brand, everybody will agree. That makes the German manufacturer going the opposite way of Asian brands. Hyundai is trying to move upmarket (with this Genesis and Equus), and with this little A1, Audi’s trying to appeal to small car buyers. Of course not bargain hunters, but hip and trendy city dwellers. Young, well informed professionals, who will want all the luxury and equipment of a big car, in a small package for city use. To seduce them, Audi has just released this video.
This is no ordinary electric car. It has been officially clocked at 307.7 mph. That is the average two-way speed the Venturi Buckeye Bullet attained at Bonneville, with official certification from the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) pending. Actually, the Venturi Buckeye Bullet was clocked at 320 mph, but FIA regulations need average speeds to make a new speed record.
» Read more: Venturi introduces the 307-mph battery electric car
You heard it before. It’s about the electric or hybrid car that nobody hears coming. Representatives of blind people have complained several times that these new cars need to get noisier to alert cyclists and pedestrians about their proximity and movement. Toyota recognized the problem, and came up with an answer.
The Honda Insight is already the cheapest hybrid on the market. The new CR-Z is barely more expensive, but Honda has no intention of going upmarket so far: its next hybrid will be its smallest model, the Jazz. A great little car, the Jazz promises to be even greater with an hybrid powertrain, but certainly not original. The Jazz has been on the market for more than 2 years, its hybrid drivetrain will come straight from the Insight, unchanged. Performance and fuel economy should be equivalent, as the Jazz is lighter, to compensate for the Insight’s more streamlined design.
» Read more: The Honda Jazz hybrid will be unveiled in Paris
Have you ever seen a French hybrid? I did, on many, many, occasions, I even drove a couple in 2004 and 2006, and I think the first time I’ve seen a French hybrid was in 1991. It was a Peugeot 405 station-wagon. But all these cars were prototypes. This is the first French production hybrid. It’s also the first production diesel hybrid, which is much less newsworthy in my eyes. I know diesels are rare in the US, and that you feel special when you drive one. But in Europe, there are more diesels than gasoline cars, and few people make the difference anymore. They’re both internal combustion engines (ICE), and they both emit the same pollutants or greenhouse gases. So it’s ICE versus electric motors, the fight between gas and diesel is over.
Ford is working on several electric and plug-in hybrid models for the near future. For all these cars, batteries are the most coveted element. The most expensive single part, and also the most crucial. Every large car manufacturer now has battery engineers, working all day to understand and improve electricity storage and consumption. They need data, lots of it, and Ford has invented a smart and impressive way to provide it. It’s impressive because it’s real time. Ford has several dozens of prototypes on the road right now, and all these cars have been turned into mobile communication devices.
» Read more: Ford introduces real-time remote battery monitoring
When you think of Porsche, one thing comes to mind: racing. First! A Porsche is made for racing. Of course, I know Porsche is making the Cayenne, an SUV. And the Panamera, a sedan. But the heart and soul of Porsche belongs to sports cars racing. The 24 hours of Le Mans, the Nürburgring Nordschleife, and every racetrack all over the world, that’s where Porsches are raised. The 918?
» Read more: Is Porsche going soft with its future 918 hybrid?
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