Hyundai Kona Inverter 36601-0e271 Electricity 150kw 2020 25712059 on 2040-parts.com

Carmel kicks off concours craziness

Consider the Monterey car week begun! The Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours-on-the-Avenue launched with its best-ever crowd and what many were calling the best-ever show for the free-to-the-public event held every Tuesday before the Pebble Beach Concours on Ocean Avenue in Carmel. Eighteen blocks total were shut to traffic and jammed with collector cars, everything from classic 911s celebrating that car's 50th anniversary to Ferraris, Trans Am racers and a whole block of Shelby Cobras.

Hyundai Veloster Turbo Confirmed

Hyundai Veloster to get new 204bhp Turbo When Hyundai revealed details of the Veloster Coupe – the successor to the successful Hyundai Coupe – we found lots we liked and, really, just on thing we didn’t – its paucity of power. All the new Veloster had to offer was the 138bhp 1.6 litre GDI petrol which, although quite frugal, didn’t exactly light a fire of desire for the Veloster in the way we would have liked. So when we reported a couple of weeks ago that Hyundai had revealed a couple of new engines in Korea – a 204bhp turbo and a 150bhp diesel – we rather hoped that Hyundai would see fit to bolt both in to the Veloster sooner rather than later.

New Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive goes in to production

The first Mercedes B-Class ED (pictured) rolls off the production line in Rastatt With the BMW i3 grabbing headlines – and flying out of showrooms – as BMW’s first electric car, Mercedes need to play catch-up with a convincing EV of their own, and that’s the new B-Class Electric Drive – an EV version of the regular B-Class – which has now gone in to production in Germany. Built alongside regular ICE versions of the B-Class at Mercedes’ Rastatt Plant, the B-Class ED (Electric Drive) looks practically the same as its more conventionally powered siblings – although the front bumper does look a bit different – and has an electric motor good for 177 bhp and 250 lb/ft of torque, can manage a scoot to 62 mph in 7.9 seconds and has a range of up to 124 miles. The range – at least the quoted range – is a chunk better than the BMW i3′s and on a par with the latest Nissan LEAF, thanks to EV technology provided by Tesla, and the wrapping of an EV drivetrain in a conventional series production car could appeal to more buyers than the ‘statement’ design of the BMW i3.