Car News

While the Mercedes-AMG A35 had its public debut at the 2018 Paris motor show, it's the upcoming 2019 Mercedes-AMG A45 that has tails wagging. Speaking with CarAdvice at the Paris motor show, Tobias Moers, the chairman of the management board of Mercedes-AMG said that it will be more powerful than ever with an all-new engine.

Mazda says it will launch two electric vehicles in 2020 – one a pure-electric model, and the other complemented by a rotary engine operating as a range extender. The Hiroshima-based automaker says rotary engines are perfect as range extenders due to their compact size, high power output and quiet operation. The next-generation rotary engine can run on both petrol and liquified petroleum gas (LPG).

Steep sourcing costs, long expected wait times and relatively modest sales projections combined to knock on the head any hope Kia Australia may sell the new ProCeed wagon. We expected as much, but this week the company’s local arm made the decision more official, claiming to us that by the time it had ticked all the requisite boxes getting the niche offer here, it would have commanded a price point well above $40,000 to be profitable.

It'll be many years before we'll know if newer badges like the Hyundai i30 – now 11 years young – will ever be able to lay claim to an almost ancient heritage, but the Corolla nameplate certainly can. (Indeed, Toyota Europe recently realised just how valuable that is.) Likewise the Volkswagen Golf, the Honda Civic, Jaguar's XJ… these are all badges with a lineage that reaches back decades. Not just a dozen car generations, but a couple of human generations, too.

Nissan has announced a new powertrain for the top-selling Qashqai in Europe, a 1.3-litre turbo petrol, which hits showrooms in the region from November. The new powertrain makes its debut in the Nissan line-up – already offered in the related Renault Kadjar – replacing the outgoing 1.2-litre and 1.6-litre turbo units.