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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.

New Land Rover Concept at Frankfurt – Project Icon lives?

New Land Rover Defender Concept expected at Frankfurt Last week AE ran a report that suggested Land Rover were considering dumping the iconic Defender from their range as it was perhaps too difficult to find a cost-effective way to update it. Which we didn’t buy for a minute. As far as we can see, the Land Rover Defender is so iconic that Tata would have to find a way to keep it viable and in production even if they lost money on every Defender they built.

Wild Peugeot 308 R Concept set for Frankfurt debut

Peugeot has spiced up the launch of the all-new Peugeot 308 by teasing us with photos of the 308 R Concept to be launched at the Frankfurt Motor Show. And while we could suggest Peugeot has got the Golf GTI and Focus ST in its sights, we like to think of the 308 R Concept more as a grown-up version of the Peugeot RCZ R. And although the 308 R Concept is unlikely to become anything other than a limited-run special, it certainly raises the prospect of a super-hot performance 308.