Archive for International News

Mugen showcased this concept model called the Honda Civic 5D MUGEN at the 2008 Moscow International Automobile Salon. It’s based on the 5-door Civic hatchback sold in European markets. You can see the family resemblance to the Honda Civic Mugen RR concept shown back in 2007 thanks to the usage of triangular shapes in the various design details of the kit. The Civic Mugen RR went into a 300 unit limited production so we may see the Civic 5D MUGEN entering production as well.

Look after the jump for a few more shots.

Click here to read the rest of Honda Civic 5D MUGEN Concept

According to just-auto.com, Honda UK’s environmental manager John Kingston said Honda’s new “cheaper” family hybrid car will be announced tomorrow and will be unveiled to the public as a concept car at the 2008 Paris Motor Show. The car will then go into production in Spring 2009. The new affordable hybrid will be a 5-door hatchback and will carry styling cues from the Honda FCX Clarity (shown above).

The new hybrid car will feature a heavily revised hybrid powertrain with major components made lighter, more compact and placed under the cargo space instead of behind the rear seats like the current generation Civic Hybrid. Weight savings will be significant, further improving fuel economy.

“It is a very important car for Honda and our future direction. This is a car that will change customer perception of hybrids,” added John Kingston. He did not elaborate on how affordable would this new “more affordable” hybrid be, but he said it would be enough for people to choose such cars for economical reasons rather than just wanting to be “green”.

It was also revealed in the story that Honda will add another 3 more hybrids by 2010 - a sports car hybrid, a new hybrid Civic and a new hybrid Jazz.

Source

Honda Thailand has put up a teaser TV commercial for the new Honda City up on their website.

Nothing much is revealed except the new “Optimus Prime” front grille of the car, inspired by the Honda FCX Clarity.

Watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of 2009 Honda City Teaser Video from Thailand

Click for hi-res image

Would you be interested in a Proton Persona powered by 100% electric power for about RM80k? That could be a genuine question sometime in the future, thanks to Detroit Electric. The team from Detroit Electric is in KL this week with their fleet of prototype electric cars built on existing models. A few cars were available at the media event today including a Lotus Elise, a Proton Persona, and a Proton Savvy. All were powered by Detroit Electric’s electric powertrains with various power ratings.

We took the Lotus Elise for a spin around Proton’s oval test track at its Shah Alam plant. Read our experience as well as more on Dutch-based Detroit Electric after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of DRIVEN: Detroit Electric’s electric Lotus Elise

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The Toyota Avensis is a sedan built and sold in the UK since 1998. It is currently in its second generation and this teaser photo here shows a rear three quarter view of the third generation due to be unveiled soon at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

Other Toyota Sedans not found in our market:
Toyota Allion - for the Japanese market
Toyota Premio - for the Japanese market
Toyota Corolla Axio - for the Japanese market

Proton has launched a new duel-fuel version of the Proton GEN2 in the UK that can run on both petrol and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). It’s called the Proton GEN2 ecoLogic. A small meter near to the gear lever shows which fuel you are running on, and there are warning lights to tell you when you are going to run out of LPG.

According to Parker’s, a liter of LPG gets you about 80% of the mileage you can get out of a liter petrol, but LPG costs approximately 50% cheaper in the UK. There are currently about 1,400 LPG stations in the UK, and 140,000 LPG vehicles on UK roads. Autogas Ltd’s Chris Taylor says this could potentially halve a UK motorist’s bill by roughly 40%.

The car could also qualify for lower road tax because LPG combustion produces less exhaust pollutants, therefore lowering its impact on the environment. The car’s new CO2 figures have yet to be confirmed so the new road tax band is unknown but according to Proton, CO2 emissions are expected to be 15% lower.

The new GEN2 ecoLogic comes with the same 3 year or 60,000 mile (96,560km) warranty as the rest of the GEN2 range in the UK, so there’s no need to worry about your warranty unlike aftermarket conversions. Only 1.6 liter models are available and they cost exactly the same price as the petrol-only models. The only difference is there are cheaper petrol models available with 1.3 liter engines. Both the Persona and the GEN2 are called the GEN2 in the UK, so the UK-market Persona is available with this LPG conversion as well.

Don’t expect this to be coming to Malaysia anytime soon though, as our natural gas vehicles and refueling stations run on CNG (compressed natural gas) instead of LPG. Proton has mentioned before in the past that it would be introducing NGV cars soon and when that happens we will most likely get CNG models.

UPDATE: Proton has launched the Proton Persona CNG in Thailand.

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After getting some pretty good reviews for the new Hyundai Genesis, the Korean automobile manufacturer wants to take it a notch higher with a new rear wheel drive luxury sedan that will take the place of the current Hyundai Equus (a model shared with Mitsubishi, which called it the Mitsubishi Proudia).

The new flagship Hyundai will go against the likes of the Lexus LS, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class and the BMW 7-Series. It is said to be called the Hyundai VI.

Above is a recently released teaser image of the new car. Expect it to have Hyundai’s largest engines under its hood such as the Tau V8 or the Lambda V6.

Audi is really intruding into its owner Porsche’s territory now. Audi Sport is now offering a race-prepared Audi R8 that complies with GT3 race regulations. Because GT3 prohibits all-wheel drive, the Audi R8 GT3 drives the rear wheels only through a newly developed 6-speed sequential gearbox.

The suspension bits are almost a carryover from the available production line parts. The front end is modified for more downforce and on the rear you will find a huge rear wing.

First deliveries will begin in Autumn 2008. Look after the jump for 3 more photos.

Click here to read the rest of Audi Sport now offering Audi R8 GT3 race car

Official details of the facelifted Honda Civic range in America has surfaced, which should lead to an announcement pretty soon on an updated Civic for our market. Though essentially the same car under the sheet metal, our Civic and the American Civic has a few styling differences especially on the rear end where the Civic has a totally different rear lamp shape compared to ours.

In the US, the base non-Si Civic is only available with the 1.8 liter inline-4 SOHC i-VTEC engine, while we have both the 1.8 liter SOHC and the 2.0 liter DOHC i-VTEC. The only 2.0 liter Civic there is the Civic Si with a high-revving 197 horsepower DOHC i-VTEC engine. For the 2009 model year facelift, the power output for the 1.8 liter motor remains unchanged at 140hp, mated to a 5-speed manual or a 5-speed automatic with dual overdrive ratios.

There are also not much changes to the interior except that the integrated head unit now features USB input as well as a built-in Bluetooth hands-free system. As for the exterior, the front gets a new grille and bumper while the rear gets a new tail lamp lense design as well as a large chrome panel between the headlamps.

Look after the jump for videos and a hi-res gallery of the US-market Civic facelift.

Click here to read the rest of 2009 Honda Civic Facelift for US market

It looks like our regular contributor Theophilus Chin got it almost right with his previously published rendering of the SEAT Exeo, thanks to these recently registered designs with the European trademark office.

SEAT has admitted that the new Exeo will be largely based on the previous generation B7 Audi A4 with only changes to the front and rear.

The only differences between the real design and Theo’s rendering are the shape of the headlamps and the bumper grilles which are slightly different in shape. Theo’s is sleeker and curvier while the filed designs show a more upright and angled design.

Look after the jump for more designs or click the image on the left for a larger version.

Click here to read the rest of SEAT Exeo images exposed at trademark office