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Hyundai Kona joins compact-crossover fray

This week in Seoul, South Korea, Hyundai finally pulled back the covers on the all-new Kona, the automaker's first compact crossover. The Kona enters one of the hottest segments on the market and will compete straight against Honda HR-V, Toyota C-HR, and Fiat 500X. The stylish Kona slots below the larger Santa Fe and Tucson, filling out the Hyundai's crossover offerings. The new model goes on sale in Korea later this month, hitting showrooms in Europe and the US later this year. Like others in this segment, the Kona sells itself on style as well as substance. The design is more aggressive than Hyundai's other crossover offerings, though the automaker says it hints at a new direction for other products. After a few years of conservative design throughout its lineup, Hyundai has returned to the bold direction that kicked off with the sleek 2010 Sonata. The Kona's large, shield-like grille is similar to that on the new Elantra GT and refreshed Sonata. There's a wide air scoop just above the new grille. There's a lot of outside influence on the design. The rest of the body has a taut, masculine look. Big fenders and sharp creases carry on the rugged look. Hyundai is calling the black cladding "armor," though we're not sure exactly how much it protects. It's going to be a divisive design choice for sure. Like the Toyota C-HR, the Kona can be had with a contrasting roof color. The Kona makes use of LED lighting both front and rear, though the low placed headlights remind us of the controversial ones on the Jeep Cherokee. The taillights are wide, slim units that aren't like anything else in Hyundai's lineup. Like so many compact crossovers, it looks more like a high-riding hatchback than a shrunken SUV. It's a handsome design though that's more tough than cute. The interior has been designed with efficiency first. Hyundai boasts that the Kona has the best-in-class interior space. The simple layout is far more conservative than the exterior, but it appears well designed and well arranged. Like the Elantra GT, the infotainment screen sits above the dash like a tablet. It's a common design feature, though not always a popular one. The Kona can be had with a 5, 7, or 8-inch infotainment display, though availability depends on the market. Higher-spec models come with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, HD and satellite radio, a rearview camera, and in the US, 4G telematics. The Kona will have wireless smartphone charging.

Hyundai RM16 N mid-engine hatchback might be real

So, remember the Hyundai RM16 Concept? The South Korean automaker showed the mid-engine concept at the Busan Motor Show earlier this year, giving the world a glimpse of the menacing and mean future of the N performance brand. While we liked the look, we also lamented that "it doesn't seem any closer to reaching production." Looking at our latest round of photos from the Nurburgring, we might have been a smidge wrong. This car looks exactly like the RM16. Same huge flared fenders, same deep front intake, same rear bumper, and same side scoops for feeding the mid-mounted, 300-horsepower, turbocharged engine. Yes, we said "mid-mounted." While it's easy to see a mid-engine concept and figure, "Meh, it's just an auto show car, the real one will be front-engine, front-drive," it certainly doesn't seem to be the case here, judging by the swollen rear aches, camouflaged rear windows, and enormous side scoops. Really, the similarities between the car shown above and Busan's RM16 is staggering. If we're seeing the production RM16, it's a huge deal. First, because mid-engine, rear-drive hatchbacks are one of the craziest and rarest automotive species - see the Renault 5 Turbo, Renault Clio V6 Renault Sport, and Lancia Delta S4 for examples. Second, and obviously, a mid-engine Hyundai would mark a dramatic departure from today's crop of all-wheel-drive hot hatchbacks, like the Volkswagen Golf R and Ford Focus RS. We're guessing Hyundai's car would enjoy both better handling and lighter weight, while asking drivers to sacrifice most of hatchback practicality. We also don't really know what to make of Hyundai's testing regime. According to our spies in Germany, Hyundai did a single lap of the Ring before heading out. Wet conditions could have called for a shortened day, but it seems odd to come out of the garage for a single lap, weather be damned. At this point, it's genuinely difficult to predict what Hyundai's up to. This car looks relatively finalized, right down to the tongue sticking out of the grille that could be a radar unit. We can't begin to predict when or where this car will debut, if at all. The Geneva Motor Show is a good bet, but that's a total shot in the dark on our part. All we know is that we would love it if this is Hyundai's first N Performance car.

Hyundai-Kia claims 'greenest' title from Honda, Big Three still big losers

Let's start with the good news. On average, any new car you buy in the US today will be 43 percent cleaner than any average new car in 1998. Here's some more good news, for Korea anyway, Hyundai-Kia has been named the cleanest automaker in the latest study by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), which looked at 2013 model year vehicles sold between October 2012 and September 2013 from the top eight automakers (by volume). The bad news? The big three Detroit automakers are, on average, still making the dirtiest cars in the showroom. The big three Detroit automakers are, on average, still making the dirtiest cars in the showroom. The problem for Ford, General Motors and Chrysler lies in their trucks, which sell well but tend to have pretty bad fuel economy (compared to sedans, at least). The UCS calculates its list by averaging "the per-mile emissions for each light-duty vehicle sold by each automaker" and then factors in "the fuel economy, fuel type, and sales volume of each type of vehicle sold by each automaker" and "the upstream global warming emissions from producing and distributing the fuel used by each vehicle, as well as emissions from the vehicles themselves." That all means that, the more trucks you sell, the worse you're gonna do. Then again, the more trucks you sell with 18 mpg, the more you're helping drivers put CO2 into the air, so the UCS is doing a fair comparison of the things that this study is trying to track. More details on the methodology are available on page six of the study PDF. In case you were wondering (we were), UCS did make sure to use the revised mpg numbers for Hyundai and Kia models that were originally overstated. Hyundai has apologized for and fixed those figures and even with the new, corrected numbers, Hyundai's total emissions are dropping at a rate of about three percent a year, enough for it to take the greenest company title for the first time. In fact, this is the first time that an automaker other than Honda has come out on top in the UCS ranking, which has been released six times now, including the first one in 2000 (which looked at 1998 model year data). In 2010, Honda was almost knocked off the winner's perch by both Hyundai and Toyota, but managed to hold on. Chrysler, on the other hand, came in dead last (again) in the ranking of the top eight automakers, snagging the "dirtiest tailpipe" award once (again). Read the UCS' press release below.