While it was all but ignored at the 2007 Dubai Motor Show, the Chevrolet Volt has been doing rounds of international auto shows in concept form, and is set for release in 2010. As brash as the deadline is, the Volt is a game-changing car, designed to run purely on electricity from on-board lithium-ion batteries for up to 64 km, enough for commuting to work, while charging the batteries overnight every day. Also, with the use of a small petrol engine driving a generator to resupply the batteries, the Volt’s range is potentially increased to 580 km on the highway. GM has been promoting this car a lot, and it has become a byword for the future of cars in the United States. As America suffers from high oil prices and General Motors is under the threat of bankruptcy, the Volt is seen as a saviour for both. It has finally been fully exposed on the sets of the upcoming Transformers 2 movie. Read more… »

General Motors has released brief details about their upcoming 2010 Chevrolet Cruze compact car, along with official photos. Read more… »

Believe it or not, but there are people out there who actually worship the perennially awful Honda City. Most of these people reside in countries such as India, Malaysia and China, and they’ve been tracking the progress of the upcoming 2009 model. We have to say, the new model actually looks rather decent, even though it looks nothing like any other Honda, in keeping with the company’s unfortunate tradition of all its models not sharing any corporate styling features among one another. Read more… »

One of our readers, Mohamad, pointed us to this thread on nissan-arabia.com, showing local photos of the GCC-spec Renault “mystery sedan” that we exposed some time ago. It looks like the new sedan will revive the Renault Safrane nameplate for this Japanese-designed Korean-built French-badged car. Read more… »

The 2010 Cadillac SRX has been revealed, alongside the CTS sport-wagon. While the older SRX was based on the larger rear-driven CTS platform, the new SRX will be based on a smaller front-driven platform to be shared with the upcoming Saab 9-4X. Read more… »

Hot on the heels of renderings for the 2009 Mazda 3 sedan, these photos show early models of the 2009 Mazda 3 hatchback. Read more… »

Early photos of the next-generation 2009 Volkswagen Golf has surfaced on the internet, ahead of its official launch this week. So far, things are not looking good for the gay icon. Read more… »

The current Mazda 3 is a class-leading car. But while it is winning awards elsewhere for performance and handling, only the most basic versions come here in GCC-spec form, effectively crippling it against the likes of Honda and Toyota. The all-new 2009 Mazda 3 is just around the corner. To be unveiled at the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show in November, the new car is set to revolutionise compact cars again. Read more… »

Honda is displaying the OSM concept sports car at the ongoing British Auto Show. OSM stands for “Open Study Model,” and it is supposed to be an idea for a low-emissions roadster. Read more… »

Considering all the hype over the debut of the new 2010 Camaro, Ford brought out its fully-camouflaged 2010 Mustang prototype at an event in the United States. Read more… »

The 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, which more or less looks just like the overexposed prototype, is going to be revealed on July 21 in the United States, and these are the first photos. Powered by a 300 hp 3.6-litre V6 or a 400+ hp 6.2-litre V8, and riding on a shortened Lumina SS platform with four-wheel independent suspension, the new Camaro already makes the low-tech Mustang seem outdated by three decades. Read more… »

Mitsubishi is planning to unveil the 2009 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport at the Moscow Auto Show, of all places. The Pajero Sport is just another name for the pickup-based Mitsubishi Nativa that has been soldiering on unchanged for ages now. Read more… »

The British magazine CAR had apparently got its hands on first images of the upcoming 2010 Lotus “Eagle” earlier. Powered by, of all things, a 3.5-litre Toyota V6 mounted behind the seats, it is supposed to a luxury cruiser alternative to the strippo Elise and barely-known Europa. “Eagle” was the codename for the car that eventually debuted as the new Lotus Evora at the British Auto Show. Read more… »

Renault Middle East sent us news that they will launch a new midsize sedan in the GCC during September. They even sent us a teaser photo of the unnamed car, showing only a tail-light. That was enough for me to figure out that the car will be a rebadged version of the Korean-built Nissan-derived Samsung SM5. Read more… »

With the new SL65 AMG Black Edition taking up the top spot in the Mercedes-Benz line-up temporarily, the SLR McLaren is being discontinued soon, as AMG and McLaren branch off to make brand new supercars of their own. To give the aging SLR one last hurrah, an SLR Speedster is being developed. The funny part is, these “spy shots” were deliberately leaked by Mercedes-Benz themselves. Read more… »

General Motors has announced that they will soon unveil a new compact car called the 2010 Chevrolet Cruze, ready for release by mid-2009. The fact that it will be launched at the 2008 Paris Auto Show in October, and that it will also be available in the United States, hints at a new “world” car that will rival the Toyota Corolla and the Ford Focus in international reach. The car has already been spotted undergoing testing in USA. Read more… »

Photos of the all-new 2009 BMW 7-Series have hit the web before its upcoming official launch. The new model looks strikingly better than the outgoing blob, which can truly be called the ugliest sedan in the history of BMW. Read more… »

Since one of our readers, Ali Z.Tabrizi, brought up the Cadillac BRX in a message to me, I figured I’ll use this vehicle to introduce the new incarnation of the Future Car Preview section, now rolled into this blog itself. As for the pictured Caddy, it is the Provoq concept, which was supposed to become a new crossover called the Cadillac BRX. The word now is that this will simply replace the slow-selling CTS-based SRX, thereby becoming the 2010 Cadillac SRX. Read more… »

While we were not sure whether the new-generation Nissan X-Trail would even make it here, one of our readers, Don, spotted a 2009 model on a flatbed towtruck on the Sheikh Zayed Road. Read more… »

Honda’s advanced hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicle came off the assembly line at the world’s first dedicated fuel cell vehicle manufacturing facility in Japan. After 19 years of development, the arrival of this “real world” fuel cell car is a step forward towards cleaner motoring. While expensive, the car will be available only on lease in the United States and Japan, in limited numbers. Read more… »