Diesel&EcoCar Magazine April 2020 Edizione posteriore

The Geneva motor show was one of the Coronavirus’ early victims, with the show cancelled at the eleventh hour. 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 new DS 9, the Skoda Octavia vRS iV plug-in hybrid, Cupra Formentor and Volkswagen Touareg R. We lift the lid on the cute new Citroën Ami, Suzuki has 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.

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. 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. 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, and we really like what Kia has done to its seven-seat SUV that goes on sale this summer.