Hello, my name is Daniel Susco, your bespectacled curator of the museum of the past week’sautomotive news, and this is our weekly gallery, In the Rearview. First up, I was struck by one headline this past week: “Is Hyundai Done Making ElectricVehicles?”The answer, of course, is no. In fact, surprisingly, Hyundai is doing the absolute opposite of that—it’s designinga new platform on which to build a whole line of electric vehicles. This is a surprise because Hyundai has been one of the several automakers who has investedheavily in hydrogen vehicles. This concession to hydrogen’s main competitor in the alternative-power game is a big pointin the battery-electric vehicle column. Anyway, speaking of things going away, here’s a good question: Whatever happened to theElio. The Elio was a tiny, inexpensive three-wheeled car-like-thing that Paul Elio promised tosell at $6,800 and get up to 84 mpg on the highway. However, that was back in 2009; since then, the Elio company has amassed a deficit ofover $123 million, over 65,000 reservations, about $100,000 in the bank, a long list ofdelayed production dates, and precisely zero cars delivered. At least it seems that if you make an adequate reservation deposit, you get a t-shirt. So hey, even you never get the car for the money, at least you get a t-shirt. Then, following that hopeful note, I just found out that for a while, there, since Ilive in Ohio, I was technically allowed to run a red light if the signal isn’t working,like how a motorcycle can run a red if the sensor won’t turn the light to green. It is now gone for those on four wheels—now only the bike riders. In sales news, one automaker that is delivering cars, surprisingly, is Mitsubishi. The Japanese automaker has seen steadily dropping sales for years, not helped by a shoddy reputationand a hefty emissions cheating scandal. However, now that it is under the steading guiding hand of Nissan and God Emperor CarlosGhosn, Mitsubishi’s sales have climbed to more than 100,000 vehicles for the first timein 10 years, led by the Outlander and Outlander Sport. Speaking of sales, the world of plug-in vehicles has reached a new height, led by a deliverypush by Tesla to put up big numbers by the end of the quarter. Meanwhile, the Volt continues to be the top plug-in hybrid, followed by the Prius Primeand a sudden, surprising surge in sales from the Nissan LEAF ahead of the release of anew generation. It’s a shame that plug-in sales only make up one or two percent of the total vehiclesales in America. However, I think it says something that all of the plug-ins in the top five are sold moreor less nationwide. In news that is actually a surprise, Buick has revealed the newest vehicle for its lineup,the Regal TourX, which is clearly a wagon. While Buick is protesting that the TourX is a crossover, it feels like a man in a sitcomshouting “This isn’t what it looks like!”It isn’t like I wouldn’t buy it if I had the money, but if you call a chair a chaise-lounge,it’s still a place for you to rest your butt. Buick, if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. Finally, the News Wheel is currently twice as awesome as usual, because we are givingaway an INDYCAR Unplugged board game, at the same time as we are still giving away thosetickets for the New York International Auto Show. The ticket giveaway still ends on April 12th, while the board game giveaway stops on thefirst of June, so don’t miss out on either one. Thank you for watching!For more on any of the stories I mentioned in the video, visit us at the News Wheel,and as always, make sure to like and subscribe.
source https://cardetailingphoenix.com/index.php/2018/08/05/car-news-in-the-rearview-elio-how-about-eli-no/
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