Auto News 5

The new 2012 Jeep Wrangler Arctic Edition, which debuts later this week at the Frankfurt Motor Show, will only be sold in Europe -- where, contrary to the SUV's new theme, Wrangler sales remain white hot.

The Audi Urban Concept blends soapbox, bubble car, quad, go-kart and electric runabout into a new cult car for environment-conscious urbanites. We hit the road - a cordoned-off parking structure, to tell the truth - in this plug-in egg on wheels which will soon be okayed for low-volume production.

Fisker is branching out beyond its Karma luxury sedan with the new Surf shooting brake. Unlike other shooting brakes, the Surf is a five-door (instead of three); CEO Henrik Fisker has deemed it to be the most beautiful family car ever made.

The BRZ Prologue concept is Subaru's version of the Subaru/Toyota rear-wheel-drive sports coupe. It appeared today at Frankfurt only as a perspex "technical concept" mock-up, with the low-slung boxer engine, driveline, and suspension shown as silver fabrications.

Volvo's Frankfurt concept is called the You because the Swedish company says it's taking a human-centric approach: it's "heart is in Sweden but eyes and ears are all over the world," said German-born Volvo boss Stefan Jacoby. Right after he praised the company's Chinese owners. And after he took the microphone back from British design boss Peter Horbury.

Thundering drum-and-bass music accompanied the debut of the Opel RAK e, pronounced rack-ee, a tiny two-seat electric concept. Opel says it "combines a fighter jet-like fuselage with an advanced drivetrain." We say it looks a bit weird, what with it's exposed rear wheels and super-skinny body.

Although Lexus already showed the new GS, in the form of the GS350, at Pebble Beach, today's unveiling at the Frankfurt Motor Show gave us our first look at the new hybrid Lexus sedan -- the 2013 GS450h.