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Finalists for 2014 Green Car of the Year announced

The list of finalists for the 2014 Green Car of the Year has been announced, and in a genuinely bizarre twist, there's only one hybrid and no electric vehicles among the five contestants, despite the arrival of cars like the BMW i3 and Tesla Model S. Taking the place of the EVs are a pair of diesels, repping a technology that last won a Green Car of the Year award in 2009, when the Audi A3 TDI took the title. No diesel was in the running for last year's award.
Naturally, both of the diesel finalists are fielded by the Germans - with BMW's 328d and Audi's A6 TDI getting the nod. In the case of the 3 Series, BMW installed a 2.0-liter, turbodiesel, capable of delivering 180 horsepower and 280 pound-feet of torque, while returning 45 miles per gallon on the highway. Audi and its larger, 3.0-liter, V6 turbodiesel produce quite a bit more grunt, with 240 hp and 428 lb-ft of grunt, but net a very impressive 38 mpg on the highway in the A6.
Finalists for this year's awards include two diesels, three gas-powered cars and a plug-in hybrid.

2015 Honda Fit shapes up for America [w/video]

The Fit may be Honda's smallest (and, starting at $15k, most cost-effective) model, but it has never sold in quantities that even approach those of the brand's larger offerings - at least not in the United States. Where American Honda typically sells hundreds of thousands of Civic and Accord models - even CR-V crossovers and Odyssey minivans - annual sales for the Fit typically amount to tens of thousands. But the Japanese automaker hopes to expand its sales in the segment with the introduction of the new 2015 Honda Fit.
Having launched the all-new model several months ago in the Japanese Domestic Market, Honda is presenting the new Fit to the North American market here at the Detroit Auto Show. By and large, it's the same model that will be sold around the world, having been redesigned with more aggressive styling, a larger footprint on the road and more interior space. Only now it will be built for North American consumption at Honda's new plant in Celaya, Mexico, where the automaker plans to also build its new Vezel crossover (or whatever it'll be called here).
The North American Fit ditches the hybrid setup offered in the JDM model in favor of a new Earthdreams 1.5-liter four-cylinder engine with direction injection and i-VTEC valve timing to help it deliver 130 horsepower and 114 pound-feet of torque. That's 13 more horses and 8 more torques than the previous model, and the engine can be paired to either a six-speed manual or Honda's new continuously variable transmission. With the latter, Honda projects the Fit will get 33 miles per gallon in the city, 41 on the highway and 36 on the combined cycle. Lighter and more refined than the outgoing model's powertrain, the new engine sits in a lighter and more rigid frame as well, which Honda expects will earn it top ratings from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Honda planning sub-NSX S2000 successor

Nine years separated the arrival of the original Acura NSX and the Honda S2000. By that time, the NSX was closer to the end of its fifteen-year production cycle than it was to its beginning. The latest word has it that not only is Honda planning a successor to the S2000, but it's not about to wait that long after the new NSX arrives before it's rolled out.
While the S2000 was a front-mid-engined roadster, its successor will, according to the latest from Auto Express (which we are taking with a grain of salt), be a mid-engined coupe - closer, in other words, to the NSX than the S2000. Power would come from a more potent version of the 2.0-liter turbo four developed for the upcoming new Civic Type R, possibly as part of a hybrid system derived from Honda's upcoming Formula One powertain to develop over 400 horsepower.
Whether the new sports car would revive the S2000 nameplate, and whether it would wear the Honda or Acura badge in the United States, remain to be seen. As does its potential production site: while the previous S2000 was built at the same Takanezawa plant in Tochigi as the original NSX, the new NSX will be built at the new Performance Manufacturing Center in Marysville, Ohio. The new S660 roadster, meanwhile, is set to be assembled at the same Yachiyo plant in Yokkaichi as the original Honda Beat.