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Huet Brothers working on new Miata-based retro coupe

Does the name Huet ring a bell? The Dutch brothers started out doing classic car tours in Europe before they started designed and building their own retro sports cars. The first was called the Huet Brothers Special. It was based on an old Triumph TR6 and surfaced back in 2009. But a few years later they started showing designs for a new coupe that called for a straight-six engine under a long bonnet with a fastback roofline, and started taking orders. Over the past two and a half years we didn't see anything materialize out of the Huet Brothers' plans, but word out of the Netherlands has it that the design is back on the table.
According to the Autovisie section of Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, Tino and Paul Huet were planning on building their coupe on the base of the MX-5 Miata. But now that Mazda is preparing to launch an all-new model, the Huets have decided to wait until next year and build their dream car on the new Skyactiv roadster chassis.
Rather than trying to shoehorn in a bigger engine (or the subsequent diesel model that was set to follow), the Huets are reportedly prepared to stick with Mazda's four-pot, offering it in stock form and various states of upgraded tune.

Recharge Wrap-up: BlaBlaCar raises $100M, NASA launches CO2 satellite

BlaBlaCar, a ridesharing startup in Europe, has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Index Ventures. After recently growing to 12 countries and 8 million users, BlaBlaCar plans to us the funding for even more aggressive growth throughout Europe. The ridesharing service pairs drivers and passengers, allowing passengers to catch rides between cities while allowing drivers to save money on fuel on road trips. Drivers are not allowed to make a profit, and are only allowed to charge enough to break even after BlaBlaCar takes its percentage, to keep costs low for everyone involved. BlaBlaCar doesn't currently have plans to break into the US. Read more at The New York Times or at Gigaom. NASA has launched its Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 into space to keep track of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere. After being delayed on Tuesday, the Delta II rocket equipped with an instrument to measure CO2 launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 5:56 am on Wednesday. It is ultimately headed for a polar orbit to watch how CO2 levels rise and fall throughout the seasons, in part to try to figure out if the land and oceans will continue to be able to absorb half of carbon emissions. The mission will last two years, and should give further insight into climate change. Learn more in the video below, at NASA or at New York Times. Mazda is likely to release a plug-in version of its Mazda2 hatchback with a rotary range extender, reports Australian site Motoring. The electrified Mazda2, and any other future Mazda EVs and hybrids, will likely be limited to markets with government subsidies for such vehicles (which doesn't include Australia) says Mazda Australia Managing Director Martin Benders. "As the best possible fuel economy at an affordable price hybrid doesn't make sense, because the fuel economy gain isn't that great unless half of all sales are hybrid, which won't happen without big tax breaks like in the Netherlands," said Benders. That doesn't rule out the US, though. A prototype version of the range-extended Mazda2 featured a 0.33-liter rotary engine to provide power to the lithium-ion battery pack when depleted. A 2.6-gallon gas tank essentially doubled the electric Mazda2's driving range to 250 miles. Read more at Motoring. Zap plans on selling 1,000 Urbee EVs per month to SunRa for distribution in China.

Toyota Yaris iA, Mazda CX-3 sales show crossover formula isn't an automatic win

While 2017 was another watershed year for crossovers, in one interesting case, a crossover had its lunch eaten by its sedan counterpart. In the past year, Toyota sold nearly 36,000 Yaris iAs, a sedan that is identical to the foreign-market Mazda2 in everything but Toyota's ugly front bumper. In the same time frame, Mazda sold just over 16,000 CX-3s, a subcompact crossover based on the Mazda2. Not only that, but the Yaris iA saw an increase of around 8,000 units over 2016, and the CX-3 sold about 2,000 fewer units than in 2016. View 29 Photos There are a few reasons this is surprising. First of course is that the crossover market is surface-of-the-sun hot right now, so much so that primarily crossover-building brand Subaru saw its best sales year ever last year. Even Mazda's other crossovers, the CX-5 and CX-9 saw better sales in 2017 than in 2016. But on paper, the CX-3 has a number of advantages compared to the Yaris iA. The CX-3 has a larger 2.0-liter four-cylinder that makes about 40 more horsepower than the 1.5-liter engine in the Toyota. Also, while the cargo area behind the rear seats in the CX-3 is about one cubic foot smaller than the iA, it has the added flexibility of being a hatchback, and thus having more capability when it comes to large, bulky items. And of course, the CX-3 is quite a shapely machine compared with the awkward, angry-looking iA. That's not to say the iA doesn't have any of its own advantages. It gets 3 more mpg in the city and 6 more on the highway than the CX-3. It also costs roughly $3,000 to $4,000 less than a CX-3 and can be found at more dealers than the Mazda. But it's still surprising that a car, especially a sedan, can outsell a mechanically very similar crossover. Apparently the formula of adding more ground clearance and plastic fenders isn't foolproof. Then again, maybe it's not such a big deal to Mazda, since the CX-3's total sales were just over a tenth that of the Mazda CX-5. Related Video: