Antique 1930's Montgomery Wards Sea King By Evinrude Lower Unit on 2040-parts.com

Electric car sales DOWN 20% in 2012 – time to scrap subsidies for EVs?

The SMMT are reporting that sales of electric cars in the UK have fallen by 20 per cent in the year to date (2012). Despite every green evangelist proclaiming that electric cars are the way to save the planet from imminent doom, UK car buyers obviously disagree. Despite a taxpayer bribe of £5000 to buy an over-priced electric car, car buyers have not exactly taken to the EV in droves.

Electric Kia Soul planned for 2014

Kia has revealed that they will offer a battery electric version of the next generation Kia Soul when it arrives in 2014. Hyundai may have seen the light and decided the future for cars lies with hydrogen fuel cell cars and not battery electric cars, but sister company Kia thinks differently. It seems an odd polarity for the Korean siblings to take different routes to the future of powertrains for cars, but perhaps it’s just a case of hedging bets rather than an inability by Kia to see how impractical the BEV is as a replacement for a normal ICE car?

2013 Ford Kuga goes in to production

The new (2013) Ford Kuga crossover – which debuted at Geneva in the Spring – has now gone in to production in Spain ahead of first customer car deliveries. Ford has announced it’s finally started to churn out the new Kuga at its plant in Valencia, and that the Kuga will be heading to Ford’s UK showrooms to get customer cars out in the new year. Despite starting production of the new Kuga, Ford still hasn’t come up with prices for its compact crossover, but says they will be available before the end of the year. On offer in the new Kuga is a range of new technology including the kick-to-open tailgate, Active Park Assist, Blind Spot Monitoring Torque Vectoring Control, SYNC and the first use of Ford’s EcoBoost engines in the Kuga (although no sign yet that the 1.0 litre EcoBoost will be added to the Kuga).