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Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

Road Safety Charity Says Casualties Increase In 20mph Zones

IN A potential blow to the current thinking by road safety campaigners, the number of serious accidents on 20mph roads increased by over a quarter (26 per cent) last year. That’s according to analysis of government data by road safety charity, Institute of Advanced Motorists. Slight accidents on 20mph roads increased by 17 per cent.However, in the same year, there was a decrease in the number of serious and slight accidents on 30mph roads and 40 mph roads.

Ferrari F70: New Enzo officially teased

Ferrari has revealed the first tease photos of the new Enzo (F70 / F150) in the Ferrari Magazine ahead of its reveal. We know what the front of the new Ferrari Enzo looks like thanks to photo sneaked at a private presentation for the Ferrari faithful recently, and we’ve seen the F70 on video, albeit camouflaged. But now we know what the back end of the F70 looks like thanks to a teaser photo on the latest edition of the Ferrari Magazine.