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Kia Soul (2013) first official pictures

This is the new Kia Soul. For its second generation, Kia's quirky supermini crossover has adopted design cues from the 2012 Trackster concept, and sits on a wider, stiffer chassis. The boxy Soul has been a huge hit with young drivers in America, but can this second-gen version also woo British buyers?

MG3 Trophy Championship Concept previews MG Hot Hatch

MG3 Trophy Championship Concept (pictured) previews a future MG Hot Hatch The revival of MG so far has been about delivering rather prosaic Chinese cars given a gloss of credibility with and MG badge. But if MG are to succeed they really need to use some of the heritage of MG to grab buyers attention. That probably means a credible hot hatch rather than a traditional MG Roadster, so the arrival of the MG3 Trophy Championship Concept at MG’s 90th birthday celebrations at the weekend is perhaps a good pointer of the sort of direction we could see from MG in the coming years.

MIT researchers rethink electric-car batteries

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say a new battery design for electric vehicles could be a lightweight and inexpensive alternative. The goal for the team's three-year project, launched in September 2010, is to have a functioning prototype ready to be engineered as a replacement for existing electric-car batteries. At this point in the project, the prototype uses a “semi-solid flow” to separate the two functions of a battery--storing energy and discharging it when needed--into separate physical structures.