2020 Kia Sorento 2.4l L on 2040-cars

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The 2021 Kia Seltos and Kia Sportage are nearly the same size inside

The 2021 Kia Seltos unveiled here at the L.A. Auto Show slots between the Soul and Sportage in Kia's crossover lineup, but it's much closer to the latter in terms of size. In fact, the interior dimensions of the two are awfully similar. Take a look at the chart below. Second-row legroom is basically the same, which I can confirm, having sat in both Seltos and Sportage back-to-back. Headroom, however, is indeed better in the Seltos. Shoulder room is even quite similar. Taking a look in the cargo area, the Sportage's advantage seems to come from being deeper. It makes up for the Seltos being boxier, which should explain why it actually has greater maximum capacity.  So, if the two crossovers provide similar interior space (even if the Sportage is bigger outside), what's the point between the two. Why pay the extra $2,000 for a Sportage? For starters, take a look at those engine specs. The base Sportage engine has more horsepower than the Seltos' turbocharged upgrade, while blowing away the base offering.  Moving away from specs, the Sportage (above right) has a higher-quality cabin. The door sills and much of the dash consist of soft, low-sheen rubbery materials. The Seltos has hard plastic in those spots with some rubbery stuff stitched and applied to the dash. And while both Kia interiors have plenty of hard plastic, the stuff in the Seltos has a higher sheen and seems more prone to scratching. It looks and feels cheaper.  Frankly, this pair is awfully reminiscent of the Jeep Compass and Cherokee. They too have similar interior space, but differ in terms of performance, capability and refinement. After the Cherokee's recent facelift, though, at least these two Kias offer more greatly differentiated styling.    Here are photos of both the Seltos and Sportage for further comparison. 2021 Seltos View 29 Photos 2020 Kia Sportage View 2 Photos

Recharge Wrap-up: unofficial Tesla ad, VW will produce Budd-e

An unofficial Tesla commercial pays homage to the automaker's namesake. The video, which shows the Model S driving through a dusty, petroleum-addicted landscape reminiscent of a Mad Max film, features words from a speech by electricity-obsessed inventor Nikola Tesla. While Tesla (the man) talks about advancing technology into the future through electricity, the cars surroundings switch from the barren oil village to a green countryside dotted with wind turbines. See the video above, and read more at Treehugger. Famous rapper Akon is a Tesla fan who wants to power Africa with solar energy. Akon, who once boasted a collection of 28 exotic cars, traded them in for four Teslas, including a Model X. Also, his organization Akon Lighting Africa provides free solar electricity and lighting to communities that need it. Clean Technica talked to Akon about solar power, Tesla and EVs in a video. See the video and read more at Clean Technica, and get more perspective from Teslarati. The Volkswagen BUDD-e EV may be moving to production. The electric vehicle, built on the MEB modular platform with looks borrowed from the Microbus, made its debut as a concept vehicle at CES this year. Volkwagen's Dr. Volkmar Tanneberger tells Car magazine, "You will see a car that looks a lot like this, on the MEB platform, reach production. I can't say exactly when, but 2020 or thereabouts." He also says that the California camper van and Transporter van will continue production with internal combustion engines. Read more from Car. The 2017 Kia Soul EV will have more range. While it is scheduled for some minor updates, upping the electric Soul's driving range from its current EPA rating of 93 miles will hopefully attract more customers than a simple facelift. Autocar spied the next Soul EV testing in some heavy camouflage, but it offered no other details about the range beyond its reported expansion. Read more from Plugin Cars.

2014 Kia Forte Koup SX

The Kia Forte and Hyundai Elantra have long followed similar paths, with each available in a four-door sedan, a five-door hatch and (most recently) a two-door coupe bodystyle. The recent death of the Hyundai Elantra Coupe in the US may be threatening to change the narrative on these two affordable compact lines, of course, but the Korean two-doors have a lot in common under their distinct skins. Their most recent iterations came to market under the power of the same 2.0-liter, 173-horsepower four-cylinder paired with six-speed automatic transmissions and riding atop MacPherson strut front suspensions and torsion-beam setups out back. Each arrived weighing between 2,800 and 3,000 pounds and could be had in base form for less than $20,000. Considering this, the empirical performance stats figured to be similar.
There's an important distinction to be made, however. Rather than offer a simple two-door version of a four-door car, like Hyundai did with its Elantra Coupe, Kia has gone to lengths to craft a vehicle with its own unique attitude and attributes. Kia has embraced a sportier stance with its two-door Forte Koup, offering up a standard six-speed manual and going further in an effort to craft a more unique, aggressive coupe design.
That drive to be different was further accentuated last year, when Kia raided Hyundai's parts bin and plucked out the 1.6-liter turbocharged four-cylinder from the Veloster Turbo. The resulting car is decidedly different than any other Forte we've tested, while also feeling like a better all-around product than the smaller hot hatch it stole its engine from. To see just how much better, we drove the Forte Koup SX for a week and set about seeing how this enhanced model stacks up as a performance offering.