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Euro NCAP latest results

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 19 December 2007 11:36 The latest round of Euro NCAP results are announced today, with another round of high scores from a range of superminis and family cars. But none of the cars tested could manage more than three stars for pedestrian protection. Daihatsu's Materia supermini and, surprisingly, the Honda Civic trailed the pack with only four stars for occupant safety, but the Merc C-class, Renault Laguna, Volvo V70 and – impressively – the tiny Mazda 2 all came out with the top score.

Kia Soul EV revealed at the Chicago Motor Show

The new Kia Soul EV (pictured) has been revealed in Chicago The Kia Soul EV is Kia’s first effort at a proper mass production EV, and if you’re looking for an electric car it does look promising. Due to go on sale later in 2014 in the US – initially in California, New York and Oregan because of their charging infrastructure – and, Kia promised, the UK and Europe later in 2014 or early 2015, the Soul EV offers a real world driving range of 80-100 miles from a recharge taking half an hour for 80 per cent on a rapid 50kW charger or up to 5 hours for a full recharge from a UK 240 volt supply. The range is helped by Kia’s third-generation regenerative braking system which manages to capture 12 per cent of the car’s kinetic energy, feeding it back in to the battery as electricity during braking and coasting, with four different regeneration modes.

Suzuki G70, Swift Range Extender at 2012 Geneva motor show

You will not find too many detractors when it comes to the Swift, particularly in its Sport guise, but its clean-living brother was one of the two highlights on the Suzuki stand. The rather convolutedly-named Range Extender was actually first shown at Geneva in 2010, but has since undergone further development. More interesting is the G70.