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Hyundai keeps building mid-engine Velosters for some reason

Hyundai returned to the Busan Motor Show in South Korea this past weekend with the RM16 concept, a mid-engined prototype that takes the Veloster into even more radical territory. If the idea sounds familiar to you, that's because this is the concept's third iteration. Sadly, it doesn't seem any closer to reaching production. The project was first presented at the same show two years ago as the Veloster RM, packing a 2.0-liter turbo four behind the two-seat cockpit. The concept resurfaced last year in Seoul as the RM15 with even more extreme bodywork. And now it's back again. The engine stays right where it was, helping give the test bed 43/57 front-rear weight distribution. This time, however, the conventional turbocharger is replaced by an electric compressor, similar to the ones you might find in the Audi SQ7 TDI or Bugatti Chiron, and there's an electronic differential to channel its 296 horsepower to the road. The RM16 uses a six-speed manual transmission. The RM16 also features a new front end to put a fresh face on the carbon-fiber bodywork, an active rear wing, and an electronically variable exhaust. All of which is well and fine, but while the prototype is supposed to inform the forthcoming N-badged performance models, we wouldn't hold our collective breath waiting for a mid-engined hot hatch like this in Hyundai showrooms. Related Video: Hyundai Motor Demonstrates its Passion for High-Performance at the 2016 Busan International Motor Show • Hyundai Motor builds anticipation of high-performance 'N' models with RM16 concept • RM16 hints at future Hyundai 'N' model characteristics June 2, 2016 - Hyundai Motor today reinforced its high-performance aspirations with the world premiere of RM16, its latest 'N' model concept, at the 2016 Busan International Motor Show in South Korea. Hyundai Motor's performance-focused exhibits, which included the Hyundai N 2025 Vision Gran Turismo, hint at future N model characteristics. Hyundai Motor's high performance sub-brand 'N' was launched in September 2015, demonstrating the company's commitment to manufacture responsive, intuitive performance vehicles that bring 'Fun to Drive' to a broad range of customers.

Aurora's Chris Urmson on autonomy — that's one way to avoid speeding tickets

Although this year's CES was full of companies announcing and exhibiting their real and conceivable self-driving car technologies, while actual self-driving cars from Aptiv-Lyft were giving conventioneers 400 rides around town, the biggest news came when Volkswagen Group — and recognize this is the entire group, not just the brand — and Hyundai announced that they'd both partnered with Aurora Innovation. While the VW announcement was vague — "The collaboration brings the two companies together to realize self-driving electric vehicles in cities as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) fleets" — Hyundai provided a concrete goal: "a strategic partnership to bring self-driving Hyundai vehicles to market by 2021." You may not have heard of Aurora, which has been described in some news accounts as "mysterious." But Aurora Innovation has been in business since December 2016, and it is to autonomous technology what the 1927 Yankees are to baseball. The three leaders of the company are Chris Urmson, co-founder and CEO, who had previously been chief technology officer for Alphabet Self-Driving Cars; Sterling Anderson, co-founder and chief product officer, who had directed the development of Tesla Autopilot; and Drew Bagnell, co-founder and chief technical officer, who had been autonomy architect and perception lead at the Uber Advanced Technology Center. We had the chance to sit down with Chris Urmson after he appeared onstage at a Hyundai press conference. He shared his insights on Aurora's approach to automated driving. Initial deployment of self-driving cars? "We think the first place this technology comes to market in in the transportation services or ride-hailing applications, but that's for our partners to decide." (Ride-sharing is a strategy a lot of players in the field are shooting for, as round-the-clock use is one way for paying for what will initially be a technology too costly for private ownership.) Transporting goods or people? "I personally — and as a company — am more excited initially about moving people around. Urban mobility. That's where you see the largest social impact. And it provides better access to mobility for people." Can you create a car that doesn't crash? "It is a fundamentally hard problem because other operators on the road can behave erratically at any moment. For example, if you are in a two-lane, opposing-traffic road, if you want to be safe, you don't drive there, ever.

US Congress lets $8,000 hydrogen vehicle tax credit expire

When Toyota introduced the 2016 Mirai last month in preparation for a launch late next year, it said that the hydrogen car will have a $57,500 MSRP and that there will be a federal tax credit available worth up to $8,000. The problem, as we noted at the time, is that that federal credit was set to expire at the end of 2014. The technical language of the current rule says that someone who buys a fuel cell vehicle, "may claim a credit for the certified amount for a fuel cell vehicle if it is placed in service by the taxpayer after Dec. 31, 2005, and is purchased on or before Dec. 31, 2014." With the 113th Congress now finished up for the year and legislators headed home for the holidays, we know one thing for certain: the federal tax credit for hydrogen vehicles was not updated and will end as we're all singing Auld Lang Syne next week. All of this isn't to say that Mirai buyers won't be able to take $8,000 off the price of the car 12 months from now. For proof of that, we only need to look at other alternative fuel tax incentives and realize that this Congress simply isn't moving fast enough to deal with things that are expiring right now. One of the last things that the 113th Congress did in December was to take up the tax credits that expired at the end of 2013 and renew some of them. Jay Friedland, Plug In America's senior policy advisor, told AutoblogGreen that PIA and other likeminded organizations worked with Congress to extended the electronic vehicle charging station (technically: EVSE) tax credit that was part of the Alternative Refueling Tax Credit in IRS Section 30(C) through the end of 2014. "Individuals can deduct 30 percent of the cost of purchasing and installing an EVSE up to $1,000; businesses, 30 percent up to $30,000," he said. "This tax credit is applied to any system placed into service by 12/31/14 and is retroactive to the beginning of the year. So go out and buy your favorite EV driver an EVSE for the holidays," he said. An electric motorcycle credit was killed at the last minute as Congress was getting ready to leave, but H.R. 5771 did extend the Alternative Fuels Excise Tax Credits for liquefied hydrogen and other alternative fuels. These sorts of tax credit battles happen all year long. In July, Blumenthal introduced the Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Infrastructure Act of 2014, which never got out of the Finance Committee. Back to the hydrogen vehicle situation.