A small Kenyan company called Mobius Motors has started production the Mobius Two, a boxy two-door vehicle designed specifically for the rough roads of rural Africa.

Spartan at best, the Mobius Two can accommodate between six and eight adults thanks in part to two bench seats installed over the rear wheel arches.  Alternatively, it can be transformed into a pickup with an 1,100-pound payload by simply folding down the rear seats.

The off-roader’s body sits on a tubular steel frame that can be safely welded back together if broken, eliminating the need for expensive tools.  Precise technical details are not available but Mobius chose to fit the Two with a Toyota-sourced gasoline-burning four-cylinder engine because it returns good gas mileage and local mechanics are already familiar with it.  The mill sends power to all four wheels via a five-speed manual transmission.

About 35 percent of the parts required to build the Mobius Two are sourced locally.  Mobius expects the figure to grow as production increases.

Mobius founder Joel Jackson, a British computer engineer, hopes to sell about 500 examples of the Two before the year ends.   With a base price of roughly $6,000, the Mobius Two is one of the world’s cheapest off-roaders.

Boutique automaker VŪHL (pronounced “vool”) has announced that it will build 20 examples of the 05 sports car that debuted at the Goodwood Festival of Speed last month.  The 05 is a niche vehicle aimed at the KTM X-Bow and the Ariel Atom.

Stretching 146 inches long, 44 inches tall and 73 inches wide, the VŪHL 05 takes the form of an open-top two-seater with an aggressive look reminiscent of a race car.  Its chassis is made out of aluminum in order to save weight and increase torsional rigidity, and a steel subframe houses the engine and the rear suspension. 

The 05 tips the scale at 1,532 pounds when fitted with a body crafted out of reinforced plastic.  Buyers looking for a lighter car can order a full carbon fiber body at an extra cost.Â

The cockpit offers carbon fiber bucket seats, a digital instrument cluster and a removable steering wheel.  The list of options includes an integrated high-definition GoPro camera, padding on the seats, a fire extinguisher, a racing center console and an electronic dash data acquisition function.

Power comes from a 240-horsepower Ford-sourced 2.0-liter EcoBoost engine mounted transversally behind the rear seats.  Linked to a six-speed manual transmission that spins the rear wheels, the four-banger sends the 05 from zero to 60 mph in a little over four seconds.

A 285-horsepower variant of the mill that cuts the zero-to-60 time to 3.7 seconds is available for an extra $3,700.

On sale now in the United States and the United Kingdom, the VŪHL 05 costs $89,000 before taxes, options and shipping from the final assembly point in Mexico City are factored in. The first deliveries are scheduled to take place early next year.

Volkswagen has confirmed the all-electric variant of the seventh-generation Golf will make its world debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.

Previewed by a discreet concept introduced in Geneva last March, the production variant of the e-Golf will be available as both a three-door and a five-door hatchback.  Save for a model-specific front bumper with C-shaped air intakes and extra badges all around, the EV will look the same as its gasoline-burning counterpart, enabling it to keep a low profile.

In its transition to an EV, the Golf will lose almost an inch of ground clearance and gain a set of low-rolling resistance tires.

Inside, the e-Golf will feature a bespoke instrument cluster that incorporates a charge gauge, as well as a touch screen mounted on the center stack that allows the driver to access vital information about the car.  The rest of the interior is not expected to change.

Italian magazine Quattroruote reports power will come from an electric motor mounted in the engine bay that makes 115 horsepower and 270 lb-ft. of torque.  It will get electricity from a lithium-ion battery pack developed jointly with Siemens that will be located under the rear seats and under the trunk floor.  The two components will add about 440 pounds to the Golf’s weight.

The driver will be able to pick between three different driving modes: Normal, Eco, and Range.  When the first mode is selected, the car has a maximum driving range of 108 miles and a top speed of 83 mph.  The second mode limits the engine’s output to 95 horsepower and the top speed to 75 mph.  The third mode limits the speed to 59 mph and shuts down the A/C in order to preserve as much energy as possible.

Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn previously hinted that the EV will retail for over €40,000 in Europe, a figure which converts to roughly $53,000.  Pricing information for the United States will be released closer to its launch.

Official details about Volkswagen’s first-ever battery-powered Golf will be released in the coming days.

Two leaked low-resolution technical drawings have prematurely revealed the facelifted 2014 Lexus GX 460.  Introduced in 2009, the current-generation GX is based on the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado that is sold in select markets around the world. Â

Visually, the 2014 GX gains a sharper front end defined by Lexus’ trademark spindle grille, smaller headlights, a more angular lower fascia and rectangular fog lamps.  The changes carried out to the back end of the SUV are relatively minor and largely consist of a revamped bumper.

Lexus is not expected to make any modifications under the hood, so the GX 460 will carry on with a 301-horsepower 4.6-liter V8 that sends power to all four wheels via a six-speed automatic transmission.  The eight-cylinder mill returns 17 mpg in a mixed cycle.

Look for official information about the 2014 Lexus GX 460 to emerge over the next couple of weeks.  The SUV will go on sale across the United States before the end of the year.  

The body-on-frame GX will be replaced by an all-new unibody crossover dubbed TX in 2016.  The TX will offer seating for up to seven passengers and select models will use a fuel-saving gasoline-electric hybrid drivetrain.

Chevrolet has lifted the veil off of the refreshed 2014 Camaro Convertible.  Essentially identical to the facelifted Camaro hardtop that bowed earlier this year, the ragtop will make its global debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show next month.

Visually, the convertible features a new front fascia with smaller headlights, a narrower grille and a revised bumper.  Out back, the double-style tail lamps that defined the outgoing car have been swapped for chunkier single units with LED bulbs.  

Chevrolet is not making any significant changes to the interior, but 2014 Camaro Convertibles will gain the automaker’s MyLink infotainment system.  Controlled by a seven-inch color touch screen mounted on the center stack, MyLink groups the car’s connectivity, entertainment and navigation (if equipped) functions into a single easy-to-use unit.

The powertrain lineup remains the same.  The base Camaro soldiers on with a 323-horsepower 3.6-liter V6 engine, the SS retains a 6.2-liter V8 rated at 426 horsepower and the range-topping ZL1 features a 6.2-liter V8 that churns out 580 ponies.  The convertible body style will not gain a track-ready Z/28 model.

Following its debut in Frankfurt, the revised 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Convertible will go on sale in the United States before the end of the year.  The car will retail for €44,990 (roughly $60,000) in Germany, where it enjoys a monopoly on the pony car market because its Ford- and Dodge-badged rivals are not officially imported.

BMW has detailed the Concept X5 eDrive that will bow in less than a month at the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Based on the all-new third-generation X5, the concept is powered by a plug-in hybrid drivetrain that consists of a four-cylinder gasoline-burning engine and a 95-horsepower electric motor linked to a lithium-ion battery pack.  Power is sent to all four wheels via an automatic transmission.

Full performance figures are not available, but BMW says the X5 is capable of sprinting from zero to 62 mph in less than seven seconds with both power sources running.  It returns 61 mpg in a mixed European cycle when driven conservatively.

With the battery pack fully charged, the X5 can drive on electricity alone for 19 miles at speeds of 75 mph.

A switch mounted on the center console enables the driver to select one of three driving modes: Pure Electric, Hybrid Drive or Save Battery.  The latter puts the electric motor on standby in order to keep the battery’s full charge for a later time.

The high-voltage battery pack can be recharged by plugging the vehicle into a household power outlet, a wall-mounted charger or a public charging station.  A purpose-designed smartphone application lets the owner monitor the charging process from a distance.

Bespoke 21-inch wheels, blue trim all around, model-specific roof rails and a fender-mounted flap that hides the charging socket set the eDrive apart from regular X5s.

Although billed as a concept, the X5 eDrive will likely be added to the BMW lineup as a regular production model in the near future.  

The eco-friendly X5 won’t be the only global debut on the BMW stand in Frankfurt.  The Munich-based firm will lift the veil off of the production version of the i8, a plug-in hybrid sports car powered by a 231-horsepower turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine and a 131-horsepower electric motor.  The i8 is expected to land in United States showrooms in late 2014 as a 2015 model. Â

Faced with mounting competitive pressure in the midsize sedan segment, Toyota isn’t planning on raising incentives for the Camry beyond their current elevated level.

 
After Camry sales failed to keep pace with industry growth through the first five months of the year, in July Toyota began offering aggressive discounts with the goal of keeping its bread-and-butter sedan the top-selling passenger car in the United States.

 

According to Edmunds data, Camry spiffs averaged $2,581 in July, compared with $627 for the Honda Accord.

 

The strategy worked, with Camry volume shooting up 16 percent to 34,780 units for the month, but Toyota doesn’t intend on increasing incentives again to chase further gains.

 

“For incentives, we don’t think that our current level is necessarily high, but traditionally, we try not to be too dependent on them,” said Nobuyori Kodaira, executive vice president at Toyota. “I can’t really comment on our future plans, but our plan for now is to stick to that as much as possible.”

 

In the future, some industry analysts believe that Toyota may respond to heightened competition from sedans like the Ford Fusion, Honda Accord and Nissan Altima by setting aside incentive spending in favor of a new strategy.

New safety features or even a refresh similar to Honda’s revamped 2013 Civic could be on the horizon to increase the Camry’s appeal, Kentaro Hayashi, an analyst at Tachibana Securities Co. in Tokyo, speculated to Automotive News.

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