The Cars Coming In 2014

Motor show concepts are all well and good for a hit of glitz and glamour, but the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show is also offering some brilliant production car debuts along the way – the cars coming in 2014 that you can buy. These vehicles are the cars that could be your next set of wheels – real-world cars that are relevant,

We’ll kick off with Hyundai’s new i10 city car. This small hatchback made a big splash here at Frankfurt 2013 thanks to its more premium, upmarket interior featuring some big-car gadgets. The cabin is clad with lots of lovely leather and the switchgear looks and feels solid, too. Combined with Hyundai’s ‘Fluidic Sculpture.

VW’s all-electric Golf struck up a buzz at Frankfurt this year – and it wasn’t just the faint hum from its zero tailpipe emissions powertrain. A 115hp electric motor sees it sprint from 0-62mph (0-100kph) in a respectable 10.4 seconds, while a 118-mile (190km) driving range means you’re not limited to just a short trip to

The BMW i3 has the potential to change the face of motoring – it’s arguably the first truly premium electric city car, and with a fleet of i3 media shuttles silently whizzing around at Frankfurt, we can confirm the BMW lives up to its billing. The interior is beautifully trimmed and interesting to look at

The 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show was all about efficiency – from full-on hybrid hypercars to all-electric commuter vehicles. Somewhere in the middle stood this: the Caterham Seven 165, set to cost less than £17,000 ($27,000). Powered by an 80hp 660cc three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine and weighing in at around half a tonne, it should be enough to hurl the 165 from 0-62mph (0-100kph) in roughly 6.5 seconds. Best of all, being the lightest Caterham ever, it’s also the most efficient, so you can have your cake and eat it.

Kia updated its quirky Soul crossover for Frankfurt 2013, offering more distinct but more attractive styling and efficiency improvements to the engine line-up. Alongside that, the Korean carmaker also claims to have tweaked the chassis for better ride, handling and refinement, so the message is positive all-round. As is the trend at the minute, there’ll be even more potential for customisation with the new Soul, but it won’t break the bank to do so – we’re not expecting that much of an increase in the current car’s £11,800 ($19,000) base price. That means it should be decent value, especially when you factor in Kia’s seven-year warranty.

Next to Nissan’s Juke and Qashqai models, the current generation X-Trail off-roader is rather bland and boring – not so with the new X-Trail unveiled here at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. Nissan has eradicated the set square upright design and replaced it with a sleeker looking crossover – even if it isn’t quite as radical as the Juke. Expect the Japanese firm’s 130hp 1.6 turbodiesel to make up the majority of sales when it comes to market next year

Curiously, the Skoda Rapid Spaceback’s boot is actually 135 litres less spacious than the standard Rapid hatchback. It still doesn’t stop us strangely pining for one though. Skoda’s range of efficient petrol and diesel engines, strong styling (it looks brilliant with the contrasting black roof) and enough practicality to lob a couple of baby buggies in the back makes it the perfect family wagon in our eyes. A range-opening price expected to be under £13,000 ($20,800) is the icing on the cake

Yet another compact estate car that’s made our top 10 production cars list, the Honda Civic Tourer is even more practical than the Skoda. It doesn’t look quite as good in our opinion, but a whopping 624 litres of load space beneath the rear boot cover makes it massively practical. The 1.6-litre diesel version will also return a claimed 74.3mpg combined with 99g/km CO2, while all models get adaptive suspension dampers at the rear to help cope with heavier loads.

The idea of a hybrid Range Rover might sound absurd – after all, how efficient can a luxury two-tonne-plus SUV be? Very, as it turns out. Land Rover claims its Range Hybrid will return 44.1mpg (6.4L/100km) combined and emit just 169g/km CO2. A total of 240hp and 516lb ft means decent performance (0-62mph/0-100kph in 6.9 seconds) and all the luxury you’d expect from the famous British brand is certainly welcome – but just one-mile on electric power and a rumoured price tag of £98,000 ($157,000) might take some swallowing

The crossover sector just got even more crowded, with the Mercedes-Benz GLA making its debut here at Frankfurt 2013. Saying that, the raised A-Class stands a very good chance against the BMW X1 and Audi Q3 – and even lower-spec Range Rover Evoque models. Mercedes has migrated across the A-Class’ striking design with real style, both outside and inside the cabin, while efficient engines and the option of four-wheel drive give this pugnacious looking SUV even more appeal. It’s the latest crossover to market, too, so expect it to pique the interest of compact SUV buyers in the UK. And so it should, as on paper it looks very good indeed.

Frankfurt 2013 offered an automotive smorgasbord of technology, from out-there concepts like Vauxhall’s ‘condor-winged’ Monza to down to Earth next-gen production vehicles like Volkswagen’s e-Up! and e-Golf all-electric hatchback pairing. In the middle stood our next 10 cars. Eschewing the conventional and baulking at the orthodox, the manufacturers and tuners of the cars that made our list let loose out at Frankfurt – and boy was it great to see… This is has to take the crown as the craziest car at the Frankfurt show – the Brabus B63 S 6x6. Unbelievably, this lavishly trimmed six-wheel drive monster off-roader is actually road legal, and given it weighs a whopping 3,775kg, it actually boasts respectable performance, too. That’s because it’s powered by a 700hp 5.5-litre twin-turbo V8 engine, which kicking out 708lb ft of torque and driving all six wheels means it can hurl its considerable bulk from 0-62mph (00-100kph) in just 7.4 seconds. That makes the Brabus as fast as an Abarth 595 Competizione, despite weighing over three times as much

When a major carmaker like Smart turns up to an international motor show with a car minus doors and a roof, as well as sporting a boot that only holds a pair of helmets, you know it’s a wacky concept. Smart says the windscreen and boot spoilers on its Fourjoy concept are “reminiscent of 1990s tennis caps”, just to keep up the madness. In fact, the only sane thing about it is the zero tailpipe emissions electric powertrain, which could feature on the next Smart Forfour.

Audi unveiled a ‘confused’ concept car at Frankfurt. The ‘Nanuk’ (Inuit for polar bear) is a jacked-up, mid-engined, two-seat off-road supercar powered by a 544hp V10 turbodiesel engine that’ll propel the car from rest to 62mph (0-100kph) in 3.8 seconds. Unsure as to its point or purpose? So were we when it rolled onto the stage. Could it preview a future QR8 model? Maybe, but we wouldn’t bet on it. The four-wheel steering system is interesting technology, if a bit wild.

The Toyota Yaris Hybrid-R concept is certifiably insane. Sporting a 300hp 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged race engine driving the front wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox, it also gets two 60hp electric motors. These drive a rear wheel each, making it four-wheel drive. This also has great implications for handling, as the motors can be braked individually to help cornering, or given a boost of torque to neutralise a slide.

Renault’s TwinRun concept was on the French firm’s shows stand in Frankfurt – the spiritual successor to the hairy-chested Clio V6. The TwinRun might not be quite as powerful as the Toyota Yaris Hybrid-R, but with a 316hp 3.5-litre V6 mounted amidships, it’s not exactly going to be slow. And with a totally un-silenced exhaust system, it’ll sound as bonkers as it looks. Former Renault exec Carlos Tavares noted “the small wheelbase makes it feel extremely lively” – you’re not kidding, Carlos.

Caddy’s Elmiraj concept is a Coupe de Ville for the 21st century – put simply, it is massive. Caddy’s signature tail fins of the 1950s may have gone, replaced by a cutting-edge, sharply styled body, but it’s no less impressive. In fact, this thing is stunning – the huge doors are wild and extremely ambitious. They reveal a luxurious four-seat interior and the 500hp 4.5-litre twin-turbo V8 should match the car’s waft-along ethos. It’s a very imposing machine indeed.

Citroen pitched up at Frankfurt 2013 with a car clothed in bubble-wrap – seriously… It calls the new technology ‘Airbump’ and is aiming to eradicate the parking ding. The Cactus previews a new production crossover from Citroen, with the Airbump tech placed in strategic areas around the car. It’s able to deform by around 2cm to avoid city centre scrapes. If you hear a pop, you know you’ve gone too far.

Swiss tuner Mansory is always worth a look at a motor show and at Frankfurt it didn’t disappoint. Sitting pride of place was a blood red fettled Ferrari F12 with a massive carbonfibre bodykit. To its standard 6.3-litre V12 Mansory has bolted a pair of turbos, upping power to a crazy 1,200hp. The catch is the price rises, too – you’ll need 1.3 million euros ($1.8 million) to bag one of these, er, beauties.

The F12 La Revoluzione wasn’t the most amusing contribution from Mansory at the show, however. Outside the blazing fluorescent light of the halls, it had also brought with it a tank. Yes. A tank. Well, an Armoured Personnel Carrier to be precise. But however you put it, it’s a serious piece of kit. So was the Garia Mansory Edition – a fully carbonfibre golf cart with a teak dash and a fridge in the front. It even has ‘Golf’, ‘Street’ and ‘Race’ modes depending on how much performance you want on the fairway.

On the face of things, this production car doesn’t seem that outrageous, but then you learn it’s just lapped the Nurburgring in a frankly astonishing 6 minutes and 57 seconds – a new lap record for a road-going fully homologated production car. What is crazy is the exhaust system – the 4.6-litre V8’s twin tailpipes exit through the top of the deck lid. Can you imagine how cool that will look with a de-cat system, spitting two sheets of flame out the back on the overrun? Tailgaters beware…