Renault has released details on its upcoming concept vehicle called DeZir.

The DeZir (which sounds like 'desire' as it is pronounced in French) is meant to convey the new design language of the brand, according to Renault. The Z also stands for zero emissions as the concept is a two-seat coupe with gullwing doors which, like many recent concept cars, is an all-electric vehicle.

The car is powered by an 110 kW (150 PS) and 226 Nm (167 lb-ft) of torque producing mid-mounted electric motor fed by a vertically-placed 24 kWh lithium-ion battery behind the bench seat. The car is said to [...]

If anything else, we have to hand it to Mercedes-Benz for its rigorous promotional efforts to hype its new SLS AMG Gullwing supercar and all its derivatives, including the all-electric E-Cell prototype - and we mean that in a positive way.

Among the many guests at the SLS AMG E-Cell presentation in Norway was retired Formula One driver, David Coulthard, who was given the chance to test drive the electric-powered Gullwing model.

The Scottish pilot tried out the SLS AMG E-Cell on an airstrip as well as on the road. View the video [in high-definition] after the break. [...]

Approximately a year ago, Mercedes-Benz officially revealed plans to develop a fully-electric version of its SLS AMG supercar. Now, the German automaker has unveiled a prototype model of the car named "SLS AMG E-Cell".

On the E-Cell prototype, Stuttgart's engineers replaced the standard SLS AMG's 571HP 6.3-liter V8 petrol engine with four electric motors placed near the wheels effectively making it a four-wheel drive model. Mercedes notes that this solution substantially reduces the unsprung masses compared to wheel-hub motors.

The electric motors produce a combined output of 392kW or the equivalent of 526HP and a maximum torque of 880 Nm / 649 [...]

This is the first 'real life' video of Citroën's latest concept car, the Metropolis, that gives certain German makers (see Porsche and BMW) a lesson or two on how to design an eye-candy luxury sports saloon.

The styling of the 5.3m long and 2m wide but only 1.4m high Metropolis has echoes of the French automaker's well received GT supercar concept of 2008. This one was developed by Citröen's Shanghai-based design team.

Under the subtle "Pearl Silk" colored bodywork there's a plug-in hybrid drivetrain that utilizes "an optimized" 2.0-liter V6 petrol engine, an electric motor and a 7-speed, dual-clutch electronic gearbox.

According to [...]

Friend and occasional WCF contributor Andrei Avarvarii has released a new video featuring his renderings for a potential electric-powered Lamborghini. The renderings were designed as part of Avarvarii's master's studies at the Scuola Politecnica di Design in Milan.

Working with Filippo Perini, Head of Lamborghini Design, Avarvarii worked under three different goals: to create a defining electric car, that features soft lines, and could be released by 2020. The result was the 500-horsepower (373-kW, 507-PS) Lamborghini Minotauro.

The Minotauro has two asynchronous 75-horsepower (56-kW, 76-PS) electric motors at the front that provide 30% of the car's power, and two 175-horsepower [...]

Turkish automotive designer Ugur Sahin has been hard at work in his office in the Netherlands. His latest creation is a rendered proposal called the Aston Martin Gauntlet.

Sahin's goal was to draw up a concept car that had its own design language, while matching the technical capablities of the current Aston Martin lineup. "This meant finding the coherent balance between past and the future without overlapping each other to fit the taste of today's design definitions," Sahin explains.

"Too much of the past would look 'Retro' while too much of the 'Future' would look unrealistic."

The car is somewhat akin [...]

The biggest news at Hyundai's Geneva Motor Show booth is the world premiere of the i-Flow concept study. The sporty-looking mid-size sedan with the 'Cab-Forward' design is said to give Europeans a first look at the Sonata replacement (apparently the latest generation model wasn't cut for Europe) that will get a new name following the brand's alphanumeric nomenclature.

Hyundai confirmed that a production model based on the styling of this concept study will hit European showrooms sometime in 2011 offering the South Korean brand a new fighter in the D-segment that includes models like the Ford Mondeo, VW Passat, Toyota Avensis [...]

Three prominent automakers teamed up to jointly develop the Proton Emas Hybrid. Employees at Italdesign Giugiaro co-created the car with one of Malaysia's largest automakers, Proton, and outsourced the hybrid drivetrain to Lotus.

Proton really needs an interesting new hit to win back market share they have lost over the last few years. Perhaps that is why they selected the name "Emas," which translates from Malay into English as "gold."

"We have created a family of models in different configurations but all offering the passenger room of a medium-category car while maintaining the exterior dimensions of a compact mini," said [...]

The ActiveHybrid 5 is (officially now) the newest concept from BMW's Efficient Dynamics division, and ED has shaken things up a bit in the power train department. Instead of going with a V8-based mild hybrid setup a la the 7-Series and X6 hybrids, BMW decided to try the system out with their award-winning TwinPower Turbo'd 6-cylinder with Start/Stop tech running the show.

The system is fairly straightforward: up front is the engine, followed by the electric motor which is connected via an automatic clutch, and the 8-speed automatic transmission is the caboose. BMW placed the battery pack somewhere around the [...]

Tesla Motors is known for its innovative work in the area of clean electric powertrains. The company recently commissioned a group of eleven L 'Istituto Europeo di Design (IED) of Turin students studying for their Master of Arts in Transportation Design to come up with a new Tesla concept that meets several criteria. These include being a 2+2 type everyday sports car with high levels of comfort, youthfulness and digital-age compliance. Supervising the young ones' work were designers such as Luca Borgogno from Pininfarina and Franz von Holzhausen Chief Designer of Tesla Motors. The final product is called the EYE [...]

 
The first official photos of Stile Bertone's Alfa Romeo Pandion were leaked on the internet today ahead of the concept sports car's world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in early March.

Named after a species of raptors which is more commonly referred to as the sea hawk, the Pandion was designed to celebrate Alfa Romeo's 100th anniversary.

Even though the designers of Stile Bertone would probably disagree, we can't help but note that we found a few styling similarities between the Pandion and last year's BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept model including the front fascia, the far-reaching [...]

Continuing its ‘Joy’ Campaign, BMW tonight will air a new commercial centered around the Vision EfficientDynamics Concept. Called the “BMW Joy is Futureproof,” the commercial shows how the company has integrated some part of the Vision EfficientDynamics Concept in its current lineup.

As reported this weekend, BMW’s ‘Ultimate Driving Machine’ campaign has taken a vacation while the German automaker focuses on “recent trends in consumer mindsets” of driving efficiently.

Refresher: Power for the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics comes from a 163-hp 1.5L 3-cylinder turbo-diesel engine and two electric-motors. That allows for a total of 356-hp and a peak torque of 590 lb-ft. 0-62 [...]

Citroen’s GT Concept will be on display at Italy’s famous Carnival of Venice this week. The international presentation of the GT Concept takes place from today, as part of its world tour after first being shown in London. The innovative Citroen supercar will be placed on a floating platform in the middle of the Grand Canal. It will navigate up and down the canal before stopping at the Palazzina Grassi - a new, exclusive hotel designed by Philippe Starck.

Source [...]

Toyota has revealed the GRMN (Gazoo Racing Master of Nurburgring) Sports Hybrid Concept at the Tokyo Auto Salon.

Based on the MR-2, the concept is a four-wheel drive hybrid which uses a mid-mounted 3.3-liter V6 and Toyota's THSII hybrid system. At slow speeds, the concept is powered exclusively by an electric motor that turns the front wheels. When more gusto is required, the V6 kicks in to motivate the rear wheels. With more than 392 bhp (total), the 1500kg concept can likely accelerate from 0-60 mph in less than 4.5 seconds.

While nothing is official, Autocar is reporting Toyota may be working [...]

To begin with, there's no official information about this short film, but unless someone managed to sneak into Aston Martin's headquarters in Gaydon, we have to assume that the British supercar maker and soon-to-become a re-badger of Japanese minis, created the viral video to ignite some online attention on its controversial Cygnet mini.

The Aston Martin-ized Toyota iQ is shown towards the end of the clip and after a minute or so of some guys practicing the French freestyle/urban sport of Parkour that involves negotiating obstacles using just the human body.

To gear heads like ourselves, this film makes as much sense [...]