Count me amongst those who consider the BMW X3 the ugliest vehicle the propeller people have ever inflicted upon an all-too-willing public. I also consider it to be about as much of an "ultimate driving machine" as a sit-down lawn mower. In fact, when the model was first unleashed, its ride was so harsh even the normally acquiescent mainstream automotive press felt obliged to warn potential customers to put their dentist on speed dial. As it's getting time to reinvent the X3, we turned to our resident photochopper for a guess where the mess might be headed. Mr. Avarvarii reports: "When I started working on this project I imagined a gorgeous looking car at the end of the road, as I am quite a BMW fan. So I started by mixing some X3 DNA with the latest tendency in BMW’s design philosophy (see flame-surfacing, axe-surfacing and non-surfacing) and a little drop of the “be-ahead-of-the-competition-by-any-means” secret potion. What I got out of that salad, as you can see, is no prince. In my defense, the first X3 was the ugliest Bimmer ever. Why should the next one be different? Seriously now, as BMW’s “X” family is expanding, the X3 has to step up, following his older brother, the X5, and making room for the new kid, the X1. As the sporty-sleek-charming role has been already taken by the X6, the next-gen X3 will get to be the macho-wannabe-chubby-evil-son."

[For more Avarvarii photochopistry, click here.]

Even as Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli is talking of billion dollar losses, his Dodge Boys are declaring the yet-to-be-seen Challenger SRT8 a runaway hit. The Detroit News reports that over 6k customers plunked down deposits this week for the $37,995 retro musclecar– much to the glee of dealers, some of whom have been dodging tumbleweeds on the showroom floor for years. Over half of the Challenger preorders specified "Hemi Orange," with the rest divided evenly between black and silver (the only other colors available). Placing an order only guarantees a Challenger challenger a place in line. With 2008 production limited to 10K units, there's gonna be a whole lot of disappointed muscleheads. The real determination whether or not the Challenger is a sales champ arrives in 2009 when the full line of cars, styled after one of the worst-selling '70's pony cars, hits the streets (or not). At that point, the new Challenger will be going head-to-head with the new… wait for it… here it comes… Chevrolet Camaro. And, lest we forget, the old new Mustang.

While The Big 2.8 keep playing "Crisis? What Crisis? Oh THAT crisis," Toyota's taking some time off (as if) to muck about with robots. Toyota's just announced that two of its new Toyota Partner Robots will hit the market in 2010. As The International Herald Tribune reports, one 'bot plays Sir Edward Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance" on a violin (when it can play "A Lark Ascending," give us a call). The other 'bot is Segway's worst nightmare. Weighing in at 150kgs., Mobility Robot (MR) can negotiate stairs, surmount 10 degree gradients and travel 20km at a rate of 6km/h. It's (he's?) also capable of avoiding obstacles and transporting its owner autonomously. (That's Toyota-speak for "getting you back from the pub while you're too drunk to know what you're doing.") And when you feel like using the legs that God gave you, Mr. MR will be your personal porter, following you like a dog. (Which is God spelled backwards.) Next week, Honda's takes the wraps of the latest version of Asimo. While both automakers claim 'bot-making is a logical outgrowth of their car-building 'bots, we reckon they need to make them mightier still. Meanwhile, GM's still building the first ever G6.

What was that song? I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think so. Well, apparently not. As an upscale buyer, Volvo wants me to embrace my inner Swede. Only I shouldn't get to feeling special. According to the chairman of Volvo Cars and president of Ford's European division, "We're looking to take customers from everybody." The Detroit News reports that Lewis Booth's immodest (not to say foolhardy) statement comes as part of Ford's decision to take the Swedish brand waaaaaay upmarket, to battle with the likes of Lexus, BMW and Mercedes [NB: no mention of Cadillac]. Booth reckons the move makes sense 'cause car buyers are catching up with Swedish values: "Care for the family, concern for the environment and a design aesthetic that values simplicity over all else." Needless to say, Peter Horbury, the British designer who penned Volvo's new look (and identified the average American Ford customer as "Dave"), agrees. Horbury issued the headline above, as well as declaring "Volvo is bought by somebody who is self-confident enough to make their own decision." So if Volvo is Ford's new upscale brand, where does that leave Lincoln? Perhaps their execs are busy asking each other talar du Ikea? 

BusinessGreen reports that Ricardo, Land Rover, mapmaker Ordnance Survey, mobile giant Orange and the UK's Transport Research Laboratory have banded together to develop the "rCube control system." In theory, the bolt-in computer will combine the [now] familiar real time traffic data with automatic control over a hybrid's engine, batteries, throttle and brakes. Say what? "If you are approaching a junction or a traffic jam and have to stop, the control system will optimise the deceleration to limit how hard you have to brake and maximise the amount of energy that is captured and used to recharge the battery," explains Tom Robinson, senior product group manager for control and electronics at Ricardo. "It means that you get a smoother ride and lower emissions." The scarily-named "Sentience project" promises a prototype rCube-equipped Ford Escape Hybrid by the summer. So… what's hybridless lame duck Land Rover got to do with any of this? And why can't they just teach people to go easy on the gas and the brakes?

Setting aside our usual "show me the infrastructure" hydrogen economy skepticism for a moment, it looks like we may have a winner! The AFP (via Yahoo News) is reporting that Penn State researchers have discovered a way to generate hydrogen that produces more hydrogen energy than the process consumes in electrical energy. [NB: for those of you wishing to cite basic laws of thermodynamics, electrical energy is not the only source of energy in the process.] Poor efficiency rates and low yields have led many alt. energy experts to consider hydrogen an also-ran even before it technically ran. Apparently, adding acetic acid to the production process allows scientists to produce hydrogen at 99% of the theoretical maximum yield. Theoretically, that's more than enough efficiency to make hydrogen a viable energy source. Even better, acetic acid is a common byproduct of glucose fermentation, which is typically discarded. Isn't it wonderful when a plan comes together? Expect tons of complaining from flyover, er, corn land, and much rejoicing from grocery aisles as the price of beef and dairy go back down to reasonable levels. That is, if this isn't a bunch of hot (cold?) air.

The "will they/won't they" question about a Prius-based plug-in electric vehicle (PHEV) is gradually being replaced with "how, when, what and where." Why? Because the Japanese automaker has announced it's sending a brace of Prius PHEVs to the University of California (UC) for study. They're current gen Prii fitted with extra nickel metal hydride batteries. Electric-only mode only kicks-in at slow speeds, intermittently, for seven miles, on a full charge. One of the PHEVs is headed for the boffins at the UC's Irvine's Advanced Power and Energy Program. They'll try to figure out how to rate the mpg on the wee beastie and whether or not there are any environmental benefits to partial plug-in power. The other PHEV goes to the social (not to say socialist) scientists at the University of California Berkeley. They're looking to determine whether not anyone wants the darn fool thing and what a PHEV has to do to hit the consumer sweet spot (e.g. range, charging time, battery size and battery costs). Toyota Motor Sales' Marketing and PR Communications Manager says buyers hot for a PHEV will have to wait 'til 2010, at the earliest. 

[Interview with Toyota PR on the whole PHEV thing below.] 

Now that GM's Rethink American brand has finalized plans to stock its showrooms with a Belgium-made Astra subcompact, The General is looking to its European  passenger car division to aid its American Revolutionaries at Chevy. Automotive News [sub] reports that GM's Hamtramck, Michigan plant will build a compact minivan in 2009 based on the next-generation Opel Zafira. The seven-passenger vehicle will be produced for both domestic consumption and foreign delectation. Despite a long and lackluster history in the minivan genre–  Lumina, Venture, Uplander (not to mention the Astro)– GM says it expects to sell 100k units annually in the U.S., stickering somewhere in the high 20's to low 30's. Needless to say, Saturn will get a version and then, who knows? Pontiac? Saab? GMC? 

If you're want to run a bunch– OK 30– hydrogen cars without answering uncomfortable questions about how much energy you used to make the hydrogen inside the hydrogen fuel cells and how much carbon releasing the process involved, where better to plunk your water vapor emitting vehicles than Norway? I mean, these guys are serious about switching to hydrogen– as is the prerogative of a country flooded with petro-dollars harvested from selling the black stuff on the world market. To that end, Auto Spectator reports reprints a Mazda press release revealing that the Japanese automaker has signed a "memorandum of understanding for collaboration and support in the development of a Hydrogen Economy" with HyNor （Hydrogen Road of Norway）. More prosaically, Mazda's selling them 30 RX-8 Hydrogen RE vehicles for their "real life implementation of a hydrogen energy infrastructure" along a route of 580 kilometers from Oslo to Stavanger. HyNor's side of the press release is all about "climate change mitigation," "Hydrogen Society," "carbon neutral infrastructure," "real hydrogen world" (as opposed to?), etc. For its part, Mazda wants the world to know that Norway's RX-8s are the first hydrogen-powered vehicles they've sold outside of Japan. Way to keep your eye on the ball!

There must be something lost in translation. The English-language version of Korea's Maeil Business web site is reporting that Kia will introduce a "premium large-sized" SUV in the U.S. next June. It'll have either a V6 or V8 engine (which would be Kia's first). So far so good. Then they give the original name of the vehicle as "Mohave," which we can only guess is their phonetic spelling of "Mojave," the concept vehicle on which it's based. BUT… now Kia is changing the name from that to "Borrego," after "a desert situated in eastern San Diego, California." The reason for the name change? "Because the word 'Borrego' is more familiar to Americans than the original name 'Mohave.'" I wonder if they got that information from their design center in Irvine, California, which designed the Mojave Mohave Borrego. If so, their marketing mavens need to get their heads out of Southern California and get in touch with the rest of the country before making such an assumption. Just sayin'.

The Detroit Free Press reports that Canada's Ballard Power Systems has so much faith in the future of hydrogen fuel cell-powered automobiles that they're looking to sell that part of their business. And here's the kicker: Ballard wants to off-load the whole hydrogen kit and caboodle on the unit's minority partner: Ford. The news comes one day after USA Today touted GM's recently released experimental fleet of 100 hydrogen fuel cell Equinox. And just two short years ago, "then-CEO Dennis Campbell was in Detroit touting the fact that a hydrogen economy was on the horizon and that fuel cells would likely replace the internal combustion engine." Yes, well, Campbell now reckons it's time to bail, due "to the lengthy projected timeline to commercialization and high cost of development." Needless to say, the move hasn't deterred the faithful, although they have moved the goalposts. Again. The National Hydrogen Association expects automakers to decide in 2015 whether to mass market the technology. We can't wait!

Chinaview reports that China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has issued regulations for manufacturers of alt. fuel vehicles. From now on, any company in China wishing to sell hybrid cars, battery electric vehicles, fuel cell electric vehicles, hydrogen-fueled vehicles or vehicles powered by an alt. fuel to be named later must have "adequate research, production and after-sale service to ensure the reliability of the autos." The director of the Center for International Energy Security at Renmin University of China in Beijing, warned-off pretenders to the throne of environmentally responsible transportation. "Enterprises wanting to manufacture new-energy cars should pay attention that their development of new type of energies should be truly 'energy-efficient' rather than only 'new in name,''' Professor Zha Daojiong said. "It is also crucial to avoid creating new sources of pollution in the process of the production of vehicles fueled by new energies." One might also see the regs as a way to control pesky start-ups and unwanted foreign automakers from swooping-in on the Chinese automotive market. And I'm not quite sure how Chinaview figured that the NRDC announcement's timing was part of an effort to quell public unrest at recent gas price hikes…

With the pickup truck market headed for the crash barrier and consumer demand shifting from SUVs towards more fuel-efficient cars and CUVs, GM has decided to introduce a pickup truck version of one of its slowest-selling SUVs. CNNMoney reports GM is wasting spending $73m to equip its Shreveport, Louisiana plant to build the Hummer H3T alongside Chevy Colorados and GMC Canyons. You may recall– then again why would you?– that the H3T was introduced as a two-door concept at the LA Auto Show in 2004. Although the concept looked kinda cool and (relatively) compact in a Jeep Gladiator kinda way, the new Hummer pickup will have a four-door cab. GM describes the forthcoming H3T as "larger than a mid-sized truck but smaller than a full-sized truck." Which raises an interesting question: "Why?"

Audi has the A3. Mercedes has the B-class. BMW has the 1-series. And now Lexus is jumping on the small car bandwagon. According to Redbook (the Aussie website, not the thirty-something fashion mag), Toyota's upmarket car brand is dumping plans to build a RAV-4-based SUV in favor of crafting the Lexus of small cars. An unnamed, overly-grammatical Lexus executive claimed "the booming small passenger market in Europe has required us to rethink the situation in terms of the sub-RX entry-level SUV. In response, we have decided to shift from SUV to passenger car, under the project name of C-Premium." The new baby Lexus will be offered in both sedan and hatchback versions. It should arrive just in time to help Lexus meet stricter CO2 and fuel economy standards. Let's just hope the "C" in "C-Premium" doesn't mean "Corolla."

Forbes' columnist Jerry Flint says rising U.S. gas prices are not changing– nor are they about to change– America's car-buying habits. "We can afford it. If we rushed out and sold our big, safe, comfortable cars and trucks, trading them for little minis, we would be driving uncomfortably and less safely. We would lose more money on the trade-ins than we would ever save in lower gasoline bills." Uh, what about sagging pickup trucks sales, or the switch from SUVs to crossovers? Don't the numbers reflect a new mpg-related car-buying paradigm? Flint dismisses the shift as nothing more than a continuation of a pre-existing trend– although the dean of automotive journalists fails to state what triggered these trends in the first place. As always, Flint's take on the hard numbers is let-the-chips-fall-where-they-may PC anti-matter. Until the last 'graph. "But all is not hopeless," Flint opines, suddenly revealing his disapproval for American consumers' recalcitrance re: downsizing their cars, carpooling or hopping onto public transportation. "Auto companies around the world, those in Detroit included, are developing improved engines that will push a car farther on a gallon. They will be here in a few years. And they'll fit under the hood of a roomy, comfortable American car." Well thank God for that!