Diesel&EcoCar Magazine

20 March 2020

The Geneva motor show was one of the Coronavirus’ early victims, with the Swiss show cancelled at the eleventh hour. With less than 96 hours to go before the doors opened to the press at the Palexpo showground, plans were thrown into turmoil, with new car debuts becoming digital reveals. And even though our news team weren’t able to get the stories live from the show halls, they’ve done a fantastic job of getting the news on the debuts that didn’t quite happen in Geneva. The big news came from Audi with the new A3, Kia unveiled its stunning Sorento and both Volvo and Mercedes-Benz facelifted the S90/V90 and E-Class, respectively. Volkswagen took the wraps off the Golf sporty GTD and GTE, while Hyundai showed the updated i30. In EcoCar, we have news of the fabulous new DS 9, the Skoda Octavia vRS iV plug-in hybrid, Cupra Formentor and Volkswagen Touareg R plug-in hybrid. We lift the lid on the cute new Citroën Ami, that sadly won’t be coming to the UK just yet, but we might be able to coax the second-generation version out of the French firm, if it gets made in right-hand-drive. Suzuki revealed a facelifted Ignis, Fiat took the wraps off the 500 Electric, Hyundai exhibited the new i20 and Cupra showed off the new Leon plug-in hybrid. That’s quite apart from a huge number of concept cars. There’s so much packed into the news pages this month, that you’ll be mad to miss out. This month’s twin test sees a pair of Korean SUVs go head-to-head, with the Kia Sportage facing the SsangYong Korando. We’ve got first tests on UK roads of the Renault Koleos and tested the Dacia Duster 4x4. In EcoCar, we’ve got behind the wheel of the Nissan Juke on British tarmac, driven the plug-in Skoda Superb iV Estate, and tested Ford’s Puma with the rather special CAR 1 as its number plate. Completing the repertoire this month are the Vauxhall Grandland X Hybrid4 and Kia’s zero-emissions Soul EV. Because it’s the 400th issue, we’ve introduced a number of new features and columns and welcome the additions to both DieselCar and EcoCar. We’re really excited about them, and it coincides with a modest brush up and lick of paint to other areas within the magazine. This month’s Reader’s Drives is a rather special Volvo Amazon fitted with a Perkins Prima diesel engine, and we took a trip to Kia’s European headquarters in Frankfurt to talk about Kia’s new Plan S and what it means for the electrification of the Korean brand. Whilst we were there, we snooped under the covers of a new Sorento that was still shrouded in secrecy, and we really like what Kia has done to its seven-seat SUV that goes on sale this summer.