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Kia bringing a performance EV to Geneva that'll 'get your pulse racing'

Kia just keeps going with the electric flow. The South Korean carmaker has already introduced the e-Niro and Soul EV, and in Europe will put a plug-in hybrid version of the Ceed wagon on sale later this year. Next month, Kia will unveil a performance-minded electric vehicle at the Geneva Motor Show. The company had almost nothing to say about it beyond the philosophical: The concept will be "a visual embodiment of the company's desire to move forward in the exciting world of electrification." Moving forward appears to mean addressing all of the enduring issues consumers have with EVs, meaning looks, range, performance and recharging. The Audi E-Tron GT set at least two of those bars unexpectedly high, so we look forward to finding out what Kia's European design center in Frankfurt has come up with. That means looking in a different direction than the electric Kia's that have come so far. The Geneva concept is meant to "get your pulse racing," and to "signpost our holistic and emotional approach to electrification." The Soul EV and e-Niro both use a 64-kWh battery to power a motor with 201 horsepower on to 238 miles of range. Since neither the Soul EV nor e-Niro are expected to get our hairs up with their driving chops, it's possible the Geneva concept ups the power on the motor in return for less range. But that would be less impressive than the press release billing, wouldn't it? And it would be a shame to waste the concept's bulging fender fenders and beastly lines on something, well ... less than totally electrifying.

Salvage firm asks judge to halt rival's removal of capsized ship and its 4,200 cars

SAVANNAH, Ga. — A maritime salvage company is asking a federal judge to stop the Coast Guard and a rival firm from carrying out their plans to remove a cargo ship that overturned five months ago on the Georgia coast. The multiagency team overseeing removal of the South Korean freighter Golden Ray recently announced plans to carve the 656-foot-long ship into eight giant pieces that would be loaded onto barges using a towering crane in the waters of St. Simons Sound near tony St. Simons Island. Removal is to start soon after crews surround the wreck with a large mesh barrier to trap stray debris, expected to take about a month. The Golden Ray heeled over minutes after undocking in the Port of Brunswick on Sept. 8, 2019, and its crew of 23 was rescued. It has been shorted up with thousands of tons of rocks to prevent it from listing further, and its nearly full fuel tanks have been pumped out. A key part of the dispute involves the fate of its cargo of 4,200 cars. The salvage company Donjon-SMIT filed a complaint Thursday in U.S. District Court seeking a judge's injunction to stop any removal efforts. The company said the Coast Guard violated a 1990 federal law intended to improve oil spill responses by allowing the ship's owner to drop Donjon-SMIT as its pre-designated salvage responder. Donjon-SMIT said the ship's owner, identified in the court filing as GL NV24 Shipping Inc., had rejected its plan to remove the ship “in small sections weighing approximately 600 tons (544 metric tonnes)” so crews could systematically remove the thousands of cars still inside the ship's cargo decks. The ship is filled with new Kias and Hyundais built in Mexico, and some cars from other companies, that were bound for the Middle East. The company said the owner instead hired another firm, T&T Salvage, willing to remove the vessel in larger chunks of up to 4,100 tons (3,720 metric tonnes). The multiagency command team released some details of the plan Feb. 5, but has not said what it intends to do about the cars inside. “In short, the cars need to be safely removed to avoid environmental disaster,” Donjon-SMIT said in its legal filing. Campbell Houston, a spokesman for the multiagency command overseeing the salvage operation, had no immediate comment when reached by phone Friday. T&T Salvage did not immediately reply to an email message seeking comment.

2015 Kia K900 debuts as brand's RWD flagship model

Despite the fact that executives at both Hyundai and Kia alike have said on numerous occasions that the two companies are separate entities (and largely, they are), there's still a lot that's shared between the two brands. Common platforms and powertrains are found in a number of different Hyundai and Kia products, though the end results have typically been cars that, to the consumer's eye, are quite different. So when Hyundai got its first rear-wheel-drive sedan, the Genesis, a few years ago and followed it up with the larger, more luxury-oriented Equus, it was only a matter of time before sister company Kia got a slice of the RWD pie. And the first product to use this architecture is this, the new K900 sedan that makes its debut at the LA Auto Show.
Kia will offer the K900 with both V6 and V8 power.
Think of the K900 as something of a mix between the Genesis and Equus. All three share the same platform, but the K900 share the Equus' 119.9-inch wheelbase, as well as its front and rear tracks measured at 63.8 and 64.1 inches front and rear, respectively. But unlike the V8-only Equus, Kia will offer the K900 with both V6 and V8 power, like the Genesis. In fact, the K900 will offer the same two engines, although tuned slightly differently, as the Genesis: a 3.8-liter V6 producing 311 horsepower (no torque output is listed as of this writing) and the company's 5.0-liter Tau V8 producing 420 horsepower (oddly, Hyundai rates the Genesis and Equus at 429 hp with this same engine, though that's with premium fuel). Eight-speed automatic transmissions are standard with either powerplant, with Eco, Normal and Sport shift settings.