Kma-24h Audio Panel on 2040-parts.com

Seven seats for new 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport

The new 2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport – the car that will replace the British firm’s Freelander small SUV – will feature third-row seating. As a result, the Disovery Sport will be more practical than the car it replaces, offering room for seven people in a “5+2” seating arrangement.   2015 Land Rover Discovery Sport: seven seats as standard Land Rover has confirmed the third row of seats will be fitted as standard in the UK, as highlighted by the new prototype vehicle’s clever camouflage wrap.

Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.

Natural-gas-powered Honda Civic can stay in California carpool lane

Honda Civic GX drivers in California are smiling this week as they continue to have access to the high-occupancy-vehicle lane, even with just one person in the car. Even though one-occupant hybrid cars have lost access to the carpool lane, natural-gas-powered vehicles get to use it for another four years. Beginning on July 1, yellow-stickered partial hybrids were banned from HOV areas on the highways unless they carried the mandated number of people.