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Kia goes (dark) green

By Jesse Crosse Motor Industry 23 September 2008 11:00 Kia has unveiled a portfolio of new environmental technologies, including a 1.4-litre Ceed with stop-start (due in the UK in 2009), a Ceed hybrid and the latest version of its fuel cell-powered Sportage. The Korean manufacturer is investing heavily in research and development and will increase its spend on R&D from £2.2 billion this year to £2.6 billion by 2010, combined with a 40 percent increase in manpower at its research centres around the globe. The money is being spent on developing downsized, turbocharged engines, efficiency improvements to conventional engines such as friction reduction and the separation of accessories like water pumps from the engine.

Peugeot & Citroen cut Electric Car prices

Peugeot Citroen EV Price Cut The prices of both the Citroen C-Zero and the Peugeot iOn have been cut by £6,939 and new contract hire deals have been added. We know that sales of electric cars (EV) are woeful, and that nothing more than a handful of private buyers have actually bought in to the dream that is an electric car future. With that in mind it’s no surprise that the enormous list price of the Citroen C-Zero EV and Peugeot iOn EV have been slashed by £6,939, bringing the price down to a still silly £26,216, although, at least for now, you can still get the taxpayer bribe of £5,000 bringing the price you pay down to £21,216.

New Peugeot 208 production cut as sales disappoint

Peugeot is cutting back on production of the new 208 as its sales fail to reach expectations, just six months on from launch. It’s not enough when Europe is ion the midst of an economic crisis and car buyers are polarised between ‘budget’ cars that offer more for less than mainstream offerings and ‘Premium’ models that are bought on the back of a preconceived notion of more kudos. That leaves car makers like Peugeot (and Renault, Citroen, Vauxhall, Ford, Opel, Fiat…) between a rock and a hard place, unable – or unwilling – to compete with the offerings from Korea and saddled with a brand that doesn’t have the ‘class’ of an Audi or a BMW or a Mercedes or even a VW.