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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’.

New software for cloud-based 3D model file sharing and reviewing

Sunglass is a new platform for sharing and syncing 3D models files over the Cloud has been developed, allowing designers to collaborate on a single model, regardless of their location. Created by MIT graduates Kaustuv DeBiswas and Nitin Rao, Sunglass allows designers, clients and co-workers to share, review and chat with others linked to the project in real time and virtually annotate onto the models directly in their browser without having to download any software. One of the main attractions of Sunglass is that it works with most 3D modeling software such as Autodesk, Solidworks, Rhino and sketch-up.

2014 Maserati Ghibli order guide leaked online

The 2014 Maserati Ghibli order guide leaked online at ghibliforum.com over the weekend. From it we get a good view of the trims, engines and accessories for the Italian brand's new 5-series fighter. We already knew two engines -- twin-turbo V6s -- would be offered.