AUTOMOBILE101 BLOG

Hyundai  Motor Group said Wednesday that future  Hyundai  and  Kia  models will be equipped with  solar  panels capable of generating electricity as a way to increase fuel-efficiency and range and lower CO2 emissions. Hyundai says the solar panels will feature in the rooftops or hoods of select vehicles "after 2019" and will supplement traditional internal combustion,  hybrid  and  battery-electric vehicles . The parent group said it's developing three different types of solar roof charging systems comprised of a solar panel, controller and battery. The first generation will be a silicon solar panel system mounted to the rooftops of  hybrid  models and capable of charging 30 to 60 percent of the battery per day, depending on weather conditions and other factors, starting as early as 2020. The second generation involves a semi-transparent solar roof system applied to a panoramic sunroof and capable of charging an  elec...

You won't need an iPhone for true mobile integration Toyota joined the modern era when it  started adding CarPlay  to its vehicles early in 2018, but that hasn't done you much good if you're an Android user. You might get some relief soon, though.  Bloomberg sources  said that Toyota has agreed to put direct Android Auto support in its cars, with an announcement as soon as October. You could use the feature through Ford's SmartDeviceLink before, but that limited both their appearance on the center screen and limited their data access. Toyota wouldn't confirm or deny the apparent leak in a comment, saying that it recognized the demand for Android Auto and was considering direct support. The company would be late to the party, to put it mildly. Most major car brands have at least some kind of Android Auto support, and you'll even find it in niche makes like Koenigsegg. While it's unclear whether the absence of support hurt sales in a tangible way,...

Fifty years after introducing a six-cylinder engine in its 164 sedan model,  Volvo  has halved the cylinder count for  a new entry-level engine in the XC40 compact SUV . The turbocharged T3 gasoline engine is the Swedish manufacturer's first triple, even if it is not the smallest engine ever offered in a Volvo. Announced back in February , the T3 is being offered for now to European  XC40  buyers, but Volvo has said the three-cylinder will be part of  Volvo's XC40 portfolio in the U.S. sometime in the future. The current specifications for the XC40 T3 are fitting for an entry-level model: 156 horsepower at 5,000 rpm and 195 pound-feet of torque from 1,850 to 3,850 rpm, and the sole transmission option is a six-speed manual gearbox. Later on, an eight-speed auto will join the manual, a must for United States sales. The 1.5-liter unit is actually largish for a triple, as three-cylinder units are usually closer to one liter of displacement or l...

More and more people are drawn into the big cities of the world. Consequently, all of these cities have one challenge to face: Not enough parking space and very congested traffic, especially during rushhours. This becomes even more problematic when big cars are just used by single individuals. Therefore, small, comfortable and safe cars are required and, in addition to that, the electric drive train provides possibilities to completely rethink what we know about individual transportation. EO smart connecting car 2 is the result of consequent and ongoing research, development, and optimization of the EO smart connecting car concept. Like its predecessor, it features normal driving driving diagonal turning on the spot even driving sideways and shrinking from ca. 2.6 m down to ca. 1.8 m while maintaining a comfortable seating position. Big windows guarantee a good perception of the surrounding environment while an intuitive user interface provides easy access to all drive ...

No one expected the SUV craze of the 1990s to be as big as it was, least of all Honda. To capture the rapidly expanding market, Honda, which had traditionally kept to best-selling sedans, superbly handling sports cars, and motorcycles, was forced to partner with Isuzu and rebadge its  Rodeo  as the  Passport . It was a smart move, because SUVs quickly supplanted sports cars as the cool cars to have for image-conscious drivers, putting models like the  Camaro  and Nissan Z on hiatus, and killing off models like the Mazda RX-7 altogether. Meanwhile, Honda quickly got to work developing an SUV of their own. Since Honda didn't have much experience building large vehicles, they went with a unibody and a drivetrain shared  with the Odyssey minivan . The  Pilot  debuted in 2003, and oh, how the makers of body-on-frame SUVs laughed.  It's not a real truck , they said.  It can't go off-road , they said. But as it turns out, a car-based SUV,...

Double world champion Fernando Alonso will retire from Formula One at the end of the season, his team McLaren said in a statement on Tuesday. The 37-year-old Spaniard is competing in his 17th Formula One season and his fifth with McLaren, and has been widely expected to race in the Indianapolis 500 next year as he attempts to win the Triple Crown of motorsport. Alonso, a double Monaco Grand Prix winner, won the Le Mans 24 Hours on his debut with Toyota in June this year and is ninth in the Formula One drivers' championship standings. "After 17 wonderful years in this amazing sport, it's time for me to make a change and move on," Alonso said. "There are still several grands prix to go this season, and I will take part in them with more commitment and passion than ever." McLaren worked with Andretti Autosport to field a car for Alonso for the 2017 Indy 500 where the Spaniard put himself in contention, leading for 27 laps before suffering an engi...

This amid signs self-driving Project Titan is huge in scope SAN FRANCISCO — Doug Field, who stepped down as the senior vice president of engineering at Telsa last month, is returning to Apple, the company said on Thursday. Field will be working with Apple executive Bob Mansfield, who has been heading up Apple's self-driving car program, Project Titan. Field and Mansfield previously worked together on engineering Apple's line of Mac computers. Field has spent the past five years at Tesla. In April, Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said in a tweet that he had asked Field to manage the company's engineering and production while Musk focused more time on Model 3 production. But in May, reports emerged that Field was leaving the carmaker, which has raced to meet production targets for the Model 3. At the time, Tesla said Field was "just taking some time off to recharge and spend time with his family. He has not left Tesla." In July, Tesla ...

Is the 2018 Honda HR-V safe? In its crash-test ratings, the  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  gives the 2018 HR-V an overall rating of five stars, the highest possible. The HR-V gets four stars for protecting passengers in frontal crashes, five stars in side crashes and four of five stars for rollover crashes. Over at the  Insurance Institute for Highway Safety , which puts cars through its own bevy of smash-'em-up tests, the 2018 HR-V earns only an "acceptable" rating on its small-overlap driver-side test (it wasn't rated for passenger-side protection, one of  IIHS ' newer tests). IIHS gives the compact crossover "good" ratings on most of the other  crash tests  — moderate front overlap, roof strength, etc. Headlights, a new area of scrutiny, earn a "poor" rating, while the child-seat LATCH anchor ease of use are rated "marginal." How reliable is the Honda HR-V? J.D. Power gives the 2018 Honda HR-V two o...