Chevy Volt and Opel Ampera win 2012 European Car Award

The Chevrolet Volt and its sister model, the Ampera, which is sold as under both the Opel and Vauxhall nameplates, have won the 2012 European Car of the Year (COTY) Award with 330 points. Coming into second place was the Volkswagen Up! city car with 281 points while the new generation of the Ford Focus finished third with 256 points.
The other cars that made it to the final round of the competition were the Range Rover Evoque (186 points), Fiat Panda (156 points), Citroen DS5 (144 points) and the Toyota Yaris (122 points).
The competition brought together votes from 59 automotive journalists in 23 European countries.
Last year's winner was the new, all-electric Nissan Leaf that beat the Alfa Romeo Giulietta and the Opel Meriva.

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Toyota Yaris Turbo Concept with 180-Horses [Video]

While Toyota has no current plans to develop a performance version of its latest generation Yaris (marketed in Japan as the Vitz), the automaker's tuning and motorsports partner Gazoo Racing introduced an interesting concept model at this past weekend's Tokyo Auto Salon 2012. The Vitz Turbo Concept is based on the three-door Yaris and comes with a raft of performance upgrades that may become available to the public in the very near future.
The highlight of the tune is of course the modified 1.5-liter four-cylinder gasoline engine that gains a turbocharger to deliver an output of 180PS (178bhp) and a peak torque of 220Nm (162.3 lb-ft). Power continues to be transferred to the front wheels through a five-speed manual transmission.
To improve handling, Gazoo Racing added a new lowered sports suspension and a high-performance braking system while the supermini now rides on 18-inch wheels shod in low profile tires.
On the outside, the Vitz Turbo Concept sports Gazoo Racing's signature colors along with a new wide body kit that includes a new front grille that extends to the lower part of the redesigned front bumper, a front lip spoiler, widened front and rear fenders, side skirts, a roof spoiler and a new rear bumper with a diffuser.
The darkened HID headlamps and tail lamps complete the look.
As for the interior, the Japanese tuner says it added new sports seats up front along with a different steering wheel while it also modified the instrument panel and changed the trim.

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New Toyota Yaris Hybrid Makes its First Appearance Online in Geneva

While on one side of the pond (Detroit) Toyota was debuting the new Prius C subcompact hybrid, on the other side the Japanese brand was announcing the production version of its new Yaris Hybrid with the release of the first pictures ahead of the car's public debut the Geneva Motor Show in March. The production model follows the presentation of the Yaris HSD Concept at last year's edition of the Geneva Salon.
Compared to the prototype, the Yaris Hybrid's appearance has been toned down a notch though it does feature the same design for the front bumper with the massive lower grille.
The Yaris Hybrid features the same powertrain as the Prius C combining a 1.5-liter Atkinson-cycle gasoline engine with a new electric motor, transaxle, inverter and battery pack, for a total system output of 98bhp (74kW).
Toyota says the revised system is 20% lighter than that of an Auris Hybrid, which was the brand's first core model to be offered with a hybrid setup in Europe.
According to the Japanese automaker, thanks to the reduction in size of all the key components, as well as the location of the fuel tank and hybrid battery under the rear seat, the Yaris Hybrid offers the same interior space and 286-litre luggage capacity as its regular siblings.
The new Yaris Hybrid will go on sale in Europe later this year.

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