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Recharge Wrap-up: Kia Soul EV wins Canadian Green Car of the Year, Proterra logs 1 million miles

The Kia Soul EV has been awarded the inaugural Canadian Green Car of the Year Award. It beat out three other finalists - the Honda Fit, Subaru Legacy and Toyota Camry Hybrid - to receive the honors at the Vancouver International Auto Show from the Automobile Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Before narrowing the field to the four finalists, seven eligible cars were chosen after back-to-back testing during the AJAC's "TestFest" last fall. "This acknowledgement is testimony to Kia's ongoing commitment to deliver environmentally friendly automotive solutions and diverse powertrains to consumers without compromising on design or comfort," says Kia Canada Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Maria Soklis. Read more in the press release from the AJAC. Proterra electric buses have logged a cumulative 1 million miles of revenue service. To celebrate, Proterra held a special event at its Greenville, SC plant, wherein it recognized each of its transit agency partners with an award commemorating the milestone. Proterra President and CEO Ryan Popple say Proterra and its partners "can offer the world a million proof points to bolster the fact that electric vehicles not only offer great performance, but represent the best total cost of ownership and environmental option for transit agencies." Proterra estimates its customers have saved 250,000 gallons of fuel and 3.5 million pounds of emissions over those million miles. Read more in the press release from Proterra below. EV Connect and GE are teaming up for a joint marketing and product agreement. The agreement makes GE the preferred provider of charging stations for EV Connect, giving them access to GE's WattStation and DuraStation chargers and WattStation Connect cloud-based operating platform. Of course, the agreement also makes EV Connect GE's preferred management company. "Together with EV Connect, we will be able to provide customers with an innovative, end-to-end solution capable of meeting customers' everyday EV charging station requirements," says GE's Seth Cutler. The agreement also expands the market of both companies worldwide. Read more in EV Connect's press release.

Good Samaritans rescue driver from sinking car in Florida

A pair of good Samaritans and three police detectives saved an elderly Florida man from drowning in his car after it crashed into a pond this week. According to Port Saint Lucie police, Hixford Banton was traveling westbound along Port Saint Lucie Boulevard in Port Saint Lucie when his Mercedes sedan was struck by another motorist attempting a turn on to the street from Arioso Boulevard. The collision caused Banton to lose control of his Mercedes. In his confusion, he ran off the road, drove across a lawn, and crashed into a pond in front of the town's City Hall. James "Randy" Brazier was across the street when he heard tires screeching, and turned to see Banton's Mercedes go into the pond. He rushed across the busy street, jumped into the pond, and swam to the rapidly sinking Mercedes to save the driver. Once Brazier reached the car and opened the door, it immediately capsized and sank to the bottom of the pond. "When I got to the guy, he was real scared, so I told him to calm down, " Brazier told the TCPalm newspaper. "I opened the door and got him out, he panicked, took us both under and then I hit the bottom, pushed ourselves back up." Brazier was assisted by another passerby named Charles Proulx, who waded into the pond to help the struggling men. Three Port Saint Lucie police detectives–Stephen Reuther, Peter Chunn, and Maiga Auguste–arrived soon after with a rescue ring and helped to pull the men out of the pond. Once everyone was ashore, salvage divers were brought in to locate the car and pull it out of the pond. Thanks to the murky water and the pond's surprising depth, roughly fifteen feet, it took divers nearly thirty minutes to locate the car. Later, at the police station, Banton said that he had yet to meet his rescuer. "Somebody I have yet to meet came in and helped me. He came to me and he said, 'I got you, I got you, are you ready?'" Banton said. "And he opened the door, and I just went out." Banton also stated that he could not swim, and that he would have died had Brazier not come to his aid. Soon after, the two were reintroduced under less stressful circumstances. News Source: TCPalm, Palm Beach Post, WPBF Government/Legal Weird Car News Kia Driving Safety Autoblog Minute accident

Hyundai shutters engine development in shift to electric and hydrogen vehicles

Hyundai is quickly pivoting into an era of electric vehicles. Shortly after announcing it would halve the number of internal combustion models, it launched its first EV on its dedicated Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP), the supremely enjoyable Ioniq 5. Now, as The Korea Economic Daily reports, Hyundai Motor Group, which includes sister brand Kia and luxury brand Genesis, has closed its engine development division at its research and development center in South Korea to put those resources into electric powertrain development. According to the report, researchers from engine design are moving to its electrification design center, but a few remain behind to continue to refine existing internal combustion engines. The powertrain system development center will become an electrification test center, and the performance division will focus on electric performance. The group has also established a battery development center, and the R&D Center will also focus on raw materials for batteries and semiconductors. In an email, R&D boss Park Chung-Kook told employees, “Now, it is inevitable to convert into electrification. Our own engine development is a great achievement, but we must change the system to create future innovation based on the great asset from the past.” Hyundai Motor Group is targeting one million EVs a year by 2025, and full electrification by the year 2040. In addition to the newly launched Ioniq 5, Hyundai is planning to launch the Ioniq 6 EV, based on the stunning Prophecy concept, in 2022, and weÂ’ve already seen spy shots of that prototype in testing. That will be followed by the full-size Ioniq 7 SUV in 2024, which was recently previewed by the Seven Concept at the 2021 L.A. Auto Show. Kia is set to launch the EV6 in 2022, and Genesis recently revealed the GV60 electric crossover, both of which will use HyundaiÂ’s E-GMP architecture. Genesis also recently revealed an electric version of the GV70 crossover in China. Of course, Hyundai is also invested in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, both commercial vehicles like its Xcient trucks, and passenger cars like the Nexo and the recently revealed Vision FK concept. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.