Car & Traffic
Lotus to star at Sexy Green Show
Lotus will show off its Exige 270E Tri-Fuel sports car for the first time in the UK at this month's Sexy Green Car Show. The Lotus has a top speed of 158mph and covers 0-60mph in just 3.9 seconds, yet it is cleaner than most small hatchback cars. It uses an engine that can run on normal petrol, bio-ethanol or methanol. The two biofuels... more
Car & Traffic
Beijing Auto 2008 opens amid boom in car sales
BEIJING - The world's top car-makers descended on China in force Sunday for the eight-day Beijing Auto Show 2008, which is expected to attract up to 600,000 prospective buyers. Top manufacturers are hoping to cash in on China's booming market which rose by 20 percent to 1.85 million vehicles in the first quarter of 2008 as sales around the... more
Car & Traffic
Microsoft to launch intelligent traffic system
Microsoft is launching a free application that will plot routes for car journeys by cross-referencing them with historical traffic data, according to the New York Times. The result, the company claims, will be a vastly improved route finder, which the company is dubbing ClearFlow. The system works by not only considering highways but also... more
Car & Traffic
Seat launches hot diesel Leon
Seat is building on its switch to a diesel Leon for the British Touring Car Championship by launching a track-themed oil-burner version of the car, the FR550. The BTCC-inspired Leon is powered by the same turbocharged 2.0-litre turbodiesel engine found in the standard 2.0 TDI FR, with outputs of 167bhp and 258lb ft of torque. That’s good... more
Car & Traffic
British car marques sold in £1bn deal
The ownership of two famous British-based car companies are to pass from America to India. US giant Ford is set to announce that Tata Motors, of India, will take over Land Rover and Jaguar in a deal valued at about £1 billion and which will safeguard about 16,000 jobs. Industry sources confirmed a deal had been agreed. But a Ford... more
Car & Traffic
Italy's Latest Hot Hatch
You’re looking at the first official photograph of the aggressive new Fiat 500 Abarth, one of the funkiest looking, and potentially most exciting, hot hatches arriving in 2008. The 500 Abarth will debut at the Geneva motor show next month and is the second Fiat to be overhauled with the scorpion sports treatment as part of the Abarth... more
Car & Traffic
VW Touareg R50 reaches Britain
The high-performance, range-topping Volkswagen Touareg R50 has gone on sale in Britain, costing from £61,885. Volkswagen's asking for a £3885 premium over its current top-end SUV, the Touareg V10 Altitude. Autocar first brought you news of this 345bhp R50 model when it debuted at the Australian Motor Show back in October. It uses an... more
Car & Traffic
Nissan to launch electric car in US in 2010
GENEVA - Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn said Wednesday that Nissan would launch an electric car in the United States in 2010, which would be introduced to the global market by both brands two years later. "Nissan is working on an electric vehicle which will be launched in the US in 2010," Ghosn told journalists on the sidelines of the... more
Car & Traffic
Toyota's new sports car also 'green'
Toyota has launched a new vehicle which combines the slickness of a sports car with a petrol-electric hybrid engine. The car manufacturer launched its Future Toyota Hybrid Sports (FT-HS) concept on Monday, and said the vehicle would provide both ultra high performance and ultra low fuel use and emissions. Toyota's manager of product... more
Car & Traffic
Electric performance
What is it? The world’s first pure-electric production sports car is a clever amalgam of Japanese-made lithium-ion batteries (6831 of them in all), Lotus lightweight engineering, and Silicon Valley audacity. While the $98,950 Tesla Roadster lacks the sheer speed needed to pass the true supercar litmus, it’s an entertaining plaything... more
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