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Kia Soul EV with 200 km range to launch in 2014 [UPDATE]

An all-electric version of the Kia Soul is still on track to launch globally in early 2014. It will be Kia’s first electric car sold outside its home market of South Korea, following up on the domestic Ray EV.

The Soul will be equipped with a 27 kWh lithium-ion polymer battery making it capable of travelling up to a claimed 200 km on a single charge. Paired with that is an 81 kW / 285 Nm electric motor, propelling the Soul EV from 0-100 km/h in less than 12 seconds, and on to a top speed of 144 km/h.

Power is sent through the car’s front wheels via a single-speed constant ratio gear reduction unit. In a test drive Autocar.co.uk says there is and there’s surprisingly aggressive deceleration upon throttle lift off. Kia says the Soul EV’s battery can be fully charged in around five hours when using a standard 240-volt outlet, or in 25 minutes when using a fast-charge unit with a 100 kW output.

The Soul EV is expected to go on sale in the first half of 2014 and pricing is expected to start at 40 million KRW ($35,490 / €27,480).

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BMW and Toyota Working on i8/LFA Based Hybrid Sports Car

It's been nearly two years since Toyota and BMW announced an agreement to work together to develop sports cars using state-of-the-art hybrid technologies, and now a source close to the two companies says the pair has decided on its first joint-venture.

Motoring.com.au recently spotted a BMW i8 at Toyota’s proving ground near Mt. Fuji, reportedly undergoing emissions and durability testing. It claims this is a prelude to a joint supercar development program.

Such a program would give Toyota – the carmaker that popularized hybrids in the first place – a hybrid successor to the Lexus LFA. Toyota wouldn’t just have a new halo model, it would have one with hybrid technology that could be more easily connected to its mainstream models. The marketing department will be happy, at least.

BMW could potentially leverage the platform to build a car that slots above the i8 in its lineup, offering true supercar performance. While the i8 was designed to balance performance and economy, BMW has toyed with the idea of building a more performance-oriented car.

Supercar makers are more conscious of CO2 emissions than ever before while at the same time delivering more power and performance. Powertrain electrification is the key to meeting these goals in the same vehicle.

Take, for example, the electrically assisted Ferrari La Ferrari and McLaren P1, or the purely battery-powered Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Electric Drive – the most powerful AMG ever made.

Porsche has its Panamera plug-in hybrid too, as well as the million-dollar 918 Spyder super-hybrid that recently set a new production-car lap record of 6:57 at the Nurburgring.

Source: Motoring.com.au

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How Tesla designed the Model S from the ground up [VIDEO]

Katie Fehrenbacher recently interviewed Tesla’s Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen to discuss the process of how Tesla started with a clean sheet to design the Model S from the ground up as a dedicated electric car.

For established carmakers, car design is a very iterative process with decades of work to build from. Tesla Motors had no such history to work with, but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing according to Holzhausen.

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Next-generation Nissan GT-R will be a hybrid

The next-generation Nissan GT-R will feature a hybrid powertrain, using electrification to boost performance and lower emissions according to engineering, sales and marketing boss Andy Palmer.

“There is an inevitability about electrification of all cars in the future, and there is the very real prospect of enhancements coming from this and ending up on a sports car like the Nissan GT-R,” said Palmer. “The electric systems can fill in the gaps in the torque curve and offer genuine performance gains, as well as lowering emissions. It’s win-win, and I’d expect to see some form of hybridisation on the next generation of car.”

Source: Autocar

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Nissan to unveil electric sports car at Tokyo Motor Show [VIDEO]

Nissan said Friday it would unveil a sporty concept electric vehicle at the Tokyo Motor Show

The company, which has been selling its Leaf electric vehicle since late 2010, said it hoped its Nissan BladeGlider would help it reach a market of male drivers who still want performance and styling in an environmentally friendly car - a major hurdle to widespread commercial sales.

The car, to be unveiled at the biennial Tokyo exhibition later this month, features an aerodynamic design that widens from the front to back with space for a driver in the middle and two passengers in the rear.

The design -- one metre in the front (3.3 feet) and 1.89 metres at the back and made with lightweight carbon fibres -- puts the vehicle's centre of mass on the rear tires to allow for tighter turns, Nissan said.

"The driver's seat has been positioned in the middle of the vehicle to give a sense of a pilot in an airborne glider," Nissan said.

The concept vehicle is squarely aimed at moving into a higher-end electric vehicle market already tapped with some success by US-based Tesla.

The Japanese firm has invested about 4.0 billion euros ($5.4 billion) in electric car development in a partnership with French carmaker Renault, which owns more than 40 percent of Nissan.

This week, Renault-Nissan announced an electric car tie-up with Mitsubishi.

Nissan said it has sold more than 80,000 Leaf electric vehicles globally since its rollout three years ago.

The Japanese automaker will also be showing off its second commercial electric vehicle, the e-NV200 minivan, which it unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

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Mitsubishi to Increase EV and PHEV vehicles to 20% of Production by 2020

Mitsubishi Motors plan to refocus its lineup on Plug-In SUV's and electrified sedans under a new three-year business plan that aims to boost global sales 29%.

At this month's Tokyo Motor Show, it will unveil three electrified concepts: a plug-in hybrid SUV, a plug-in crossover and a microhybrid van with an engine start-stop system. The Outlander plug-in hybrid, already on sale in Japan and Europe, is due to be launched in the US but may not arrive in the United States until 2015.

The company will push electrified drivetrains in a bid to make 20 percent of its vehicle output either all-electric or plug-in hybrid by 2020. That will entail the development of a next-generation electric vehicle technology that gets a longer driving distance on each charge and a lower price point. Mitsubishi will downsize EV components and aims to introduce a wireless charging system.

Earlier this week on the eve of unveiling the mid-term plan, Mitsubishi announced it was furthering technology and vehicle development ties with the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Under that deal, Mitsubish plans to sell a Renault-based mid-sized car in the United States. The car will be the first of two Renault-based sedans sold by Mitsubishi under the product and technology exchange.

As part of the latest deal, the companies also aim to share technologies and "product assets" related to electric vehicles and recent product platforms.

Nissan is the global market leader in electric vehicles, with its Leaf EV, while Mitsubishi, which markets its own EV called the i, has made EVs and hybrids a central pillar of the company's mid-term business plan.

Mitsubishi and Nissan will further cooperate to develop a new small car to be sold globally. An electric version of the car is also planned. That car will be based on a jointly developed platform for Japan's minicar segment, a type of car restricted in overall dimensions and restricted to engines no bigger than 0.66-liters.

The company says they will boost R&D spending by 30% to an average of 80.0 billion yen ($812.7 million) a year over the next three years, compared with 63.0 billion yen ($640.0 million) a year over the outgoing three-year business plan.

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Ford outsells plug-in rivals for first time in October

Ford said Monday it sold 2,179 of its Fusion and C-Max plug-in hybrids last month, topping the totals of plug-in competitors Toyota Motor Corp. and General Motors Corp. for the first time.

Toyota sold 2,095 of its Prius plug-in cars and GM sold 2,022 of its Volt range-extended plug-in hybrid sedans.

Sales of plug-in vehicles — excluding full battery-electric cars — total 39,083 through October, up from the 29,075 sold during the same period in 2012, according to data from automakers and the Electric Drive Transportation Association.

But plug-in vehicles still represent less than 1 percent of new-vehicle sales.

Ford sales of the Fusion and C-Max Energi cars helped the Dearborn automaker to its best plug-in hybrid vehicle sales month ever.