Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Cadillac may get future rear-drive hybrids

General Motors' two mode hybrid powertrain, used only in trucks, will migrate to rear-drive cars in the next generation, said Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman of global product operations. Two likely candidates: Cadillacs, says consultant Jim Hall of 2953 Analytics in suburban Detroit. Last month, GM said it is developing an electric motor that is 25 percent smaller and 20 percent more powerful than the motor used in today's two mode hybrid full-sized trucks.

Peugeot 2008 Crossover already selling well in UK – and half are White

More than half of UK sales of the new Peugeot 2008 (pictured) are white cars The Peugeot 2008 – the crossover/SUV take on the new 208 – arrived in production guise at the Geneva Motor Show in March and looked a properly credible effort from the beleaguered French car maker. In fact, when Peugeot announced prices for the 2008 and their UK target sales of 8,000 a year, we thought they were being conservative with their projections, especially as the 2008 starts at a very reasonable £13k. That soon proved to be right when Peugeot announced it was having to double production of the 2008 as sales were much stronger across Europe than they’d anticipated, and it seems the same is happening in the UK.

Peter Schreyer introduces Kia's new Sportage

It's a sign of just how significant the new Sportage is for Kia that rather than flying UK journalists to an international launch location the company instead rented a boutique hotel in London's Notting Hill, created a sketch gallery in the basement and flew in key members of the car's development team to meet the press — who were then lent some the first new Sportage's in the UK to test for a month. One executive present at the event was Kia's Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Design Officer, Peter Schreyer. Car Design News was invited to meet with Peter to talk about his role at Kia and for him to talk us through a vehicle Kia is billing as the first to be designed entirely under his tenure.