Car News

Cadillac’s global marketing boss has shed more light on his aspirations to sell cars in Australia. Following his admission in January that General Motors’ luxury division was once again eyeing our market, Cadillac chief marketing officer Uwe Ellinghaus told CarAdvice at the Geneva motor show a local introduction remains some years off, but believes the iconic American brand could “easily flourish” in our crowded market in the future.

The first new-generation Alpine sports car due in 2016 will be to the reborn French performance brand what the 911 is to Porsche, according to its designer. The man responsible for developing Alpine’s 21 century design language, Renault corporate design senior vice president Laurens van den Acker, said he has looked to the past for inspiration for its cars of the future.

We hope it won't be called the STD, but reports claim there will soon be a Ford Focus ST diesel. Said to be powered by a 2.0-litre TDCi turbo diesel four-cylinder engine, the Focus ST diesel will give Ford a competitor to the Volkswagen Golf GTD. Several reports out of Europe claim the announcement was made by Ford chief operating officer Mark Fields at a dinner function following the Geneva motor show last week.

Kia's next generation of mainstream passenger vehicles will feature turbocharged engines and dual-clutch transmissions similar to those offered by its European rivals. Hyundai Motor Europe Technical Centre powertrain manager Michael Winkler confirmed downsized turbo petrol engines were a major focus of the work currently being conducted by his team, which develops powertrains for both Kia and Hyundai.

A new Renault Twingo RS has been ruled out despite the designer of the third-gen city car admitting he’s itching to pen a new pocket rocket. Renault corporate design senior vice president Laurens van den Acker said the new Twingo embodied a number of traditional sports car qualities that made an RS version a tantalising prospect, but acknowledged limitations in its packaging may have the final say.