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McLaren P1 Concept is 97% production design (video)

At a private reveal of the new McLaren P1 Supercar in New York, McLaren has confirmed that 97 per cent of the P1′s styling will remain. McLaren has said that 97 per cent of the styling of the P1 Concept is exactly as the production version will look, with the only changes being some vents in the bumper to let hot air out and a tighter mesh on the grill at the back. The fac t that the P1 will stay faithful to the concept’s design already seemed evident after we had spy photos of the P1 visiting a McLaren supplier in Norfolk recently (and spy video of the P1 too), where we struggled to find anything different from the concept cars.

MINI celebrates 100 years of car production in Oxford

MINI will be celebrating a century of car production in Oxford on 28th March 2013, 100 years since the first Bullnose Morris Oxford was produced. It’s 100 years since the first Bullnose Morris Oxford rolled out on 28th March 1903, since when 11,655,000 cars have been built – with as many as 28,000 people employed in its heyday – and even Tiger Moth planes and Iron Lungs built alongside 80,000 repairs to Spitfires and Hurricanes during WWII. What is now MINI’s Plant Oxford was founded by William Morris – and Morris Motors kept control until 1952 – and has been owned and run by BMC, then British Motor Holdings (when Jaguar arrived), British Leyland (when Leyland Trucks, Triumph and Rover joined), nationalisation in the 1970s saw a variety of names, Rover Group arrived in 1986 and was subsequently privatised and sold in 1994 to BMW.

Nissan e-NV200 electric van gets a headline starting price of £13,393

The Nissan e-NV200 electric van (pictured) – the start of an EV revolution for commercial vehicles? We’ve always been reluctant to see the electric car as a proper replacement for an ICE car, but an electric van for commercial deliveries in a reasonably confined area is a different animal altogether. So the arrival of the Nissan e-NV200 electric van is a big deal and could revolutionise how deliveries are made in our towns and cities, usefully shifting not just CO2, but NoX and particulates off to where the electricity is generated and making much less noise too.