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EPA makes it official--greenhouse gases are pollutants

On the eve of an international climate summit, the EPA on Monday formally declared greenhouse gases to be dangerous pollutants, strengthening President Barack Obama's hand and laying the groundwork for a new 35.5 mpg standard for light vehicles. The finding is likely to have a greater impact on electric utilities, oil companies and manufacturers than on the auto industry. The EPA's scientific finding reported that these gases “are the primary driver of climate change,” which can intensify heat waves and increase ozone pollution linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Toyota gunning for Honda Insight

We brought you news yesterday of the new Honda Insight, which Honda is launching in to the European market. Honda has made big noises about the Insight being significantly cheaper than the Prius, which seems to have got Toyota thinking. The next generation Toyota Prius (unveiled recently at Detroit) is due out before too long, and is a bigger, better equipped car than the outgoing version, and therefore more expensive.

New Hyundai Test Centre at the Nurburgring revealed

Hyundai’s new test centre at the Nurburgring If anyone had said, just a few years ago, that Hyundai would develop a test centre at the Nurburgring to help shake-down their cars, they’d have been laughed at. But Hyundai – and Kia – have come so far in recent years that it makes absolute sense for them to develop a full-time testing facility at the Nurburgring to test their cars for the road, along with just about every other car maker of note. James May may object to the Nurburgring factor in the suspension set-ups of many road cars (and we do have some sympathy for his point of view), but the sometimes extreme nature of the Nurburgring’s surfaces – and its endless twists and turns, uphill and down – do offer car makers an easily accessible place to test cars in the (almost) real world.