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Scion considers moving upscale

Toyota's struggling Scion brand may move upscale to challenge entry-level luxury models coming from European automakers. The new lower-luxury niche includes Mini, the front-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz CLA arriving this fall and Audi's compact A3 sedan shown last week on the eve of the New York auto show. Scion has gone after young entry-level buyers since its inception 10 years ago but has lost its early momentum.

Volkswagen BlueMotion at Frankfurt

The new VW BlueMotion versions of the Polo, Golf & Passat will be at Frankfurt this month The most efficient of the BlueMotion models is – hardly surprising – the new Polo Bluemotion. The Polo emits just 87g/km CO2 and manages to travel at least 870 miles on a tank of juice., averaging as it does 85.6 mpg. The new 1.2 litre three pot common rail diesel in the Polo produces 74bhp which is driven through a fibe speed manual ‘box and features stop-start and longer gearing.

Hyundai: E4U Egg Car & Fluidic Sculpture in Motion

Hyundai has already made it clear that 2013 will be about ‘Brand Awareness’ rather than releasing a new raft of models and chasing ever increasing sales, so two Hyundai outings in the last week can be put down to their targeted aim of profile raising. In Milan, Hyundai are taking part in the Milan Design Week by showing an innovative light sculpture that has been inspired by Hyundai’s ‘Fluidic Design’ (even though Hyundai have already said that ‘Fluidic Design’ is being replaced by ‘Fluidic Precision’ as they aim to make their designs ‘cleaner) with an installation made up of 12,000 translucent spheres acting collectively on a screen, surrounded by high-power lasers and suspended over a pool of water. The ‘performance’ starts with virtual rain created by the lasers which form three-dimensional shapes, followed by an interactive segment where human interaction creates three-dimensional images by scanning for body warmth so visitors can manipulate what they see by using gestures.