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News watch Sept 2012: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hourMonday 24 September 2012• Volkswagen has dropped its appeal in the brand infrigement case against former partner Suzuki. The spat dates back to 2004, when VW contested an approval allowing Suzuki to brand a variant of its Swift supermini as 'Swift GTi'.

Volvo confirms big production increase for V60 Plug-in Hybrid

Volvo has been building around 150 V60 Plug-ins a week at its facility in Torslanda – alongside the regular V60, V70, S80 and XC90 – but that is now set to be upped to 282 cars a week for the rest of 2013, with plans to build at least 10,000 in 2014. The fact is that the V60 is a very appealing estate car already, and bolting a plug-in hybrid setup has turned it in to a big hit in showrooms because the barking mad official economy and emissions system bestows the V60 plug-in with emissions of just 48g/km, making it a real no-brainer in countries where governments blindly tax cars based on their official emissions. That means countries like Holland, where Volvo has received more than 3,000 orders for the V60 Plug-in, and the UK are lapping up the hybrid offering from Volvo as a way to escape big taxes and still have a swift (0-62mph in 6.1 seconds), appealing and stylish car.

Aston Martin Vanquish (2012) first official pictures

Aston Martin today unveils the new, mostly carbonfibre Vanquish supercar - its 183mph range-topping V12 supercar to replace the DBS flagship. The new Aston Vanquish Mk2 lands in showrooms in spring 2013, priced at £189,995. It's a milestone car, this, for Aston; they're considering it as their anniversary present to customers as they prepare for their centenary next year.