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Hyundai increasing European production to 500,000 a year

Hyundai are upping production in Europe to 500,000 per annum There’s an awful lot of sense in car makers designing and building cars for the markets they serve locally, and it’s a route Hyundai has followed in Europe, where the majority of their sales are of European built models, not imports. With Hyundai sales still growing despite the European car market meltdown, Hyundai are increasing capacity in Europe to keep up with demand with further investment in their plant in Ízmit, Turkey. Originally, the Ízmit plant produced just 60,000 cars a year, but in 2007 that was increased to 125,000 and now it is being increased to 200,000 so the new i10 can be built there as well as the latest i20.

Toyota FT-EV concept unveiled at Detroit auto show 2009

By Ben Pulman Motor Shows 10 January 2009 20:00 This is Toyota’s new FT-EV concept, the first of three eco-friendly cars being unveiled at the Detroit motor show over the next few days, the other two being the all-new third-generation Prius and the hybrid-only Lexus HS250h. The FT-EV is Toyota’s way of confirming that it will build a battery-electric vehicle (BEV) in 2012, but it’s also using the concept to promote its other environmentally friendly vehicles. The FT-EV concept is built on the iQ’s platform, and designed for commuters with daily journeys of less than 50 miles.

Volvo S80 Executive & V70 R-Design launched

The Volvo V70 gets a bit of added butch with the launch of the V70 R-Design The last news we had from Volvo was that the S60 & XC60 R-Design were going to get more get up and go. Sadly, the extra oomph was reserved for the US. Today’s news, however, applies to Volvos on both sides of the Pond, with a new top-end S80 being revealed – the Volvo S80 Executive – and a butch take on the V70 – the Volvo V70 R-Design.