Dodge Hornet nears reality

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 25 January 2007 06:56 Isn’t the Dodge Hornet just another look-at-me concept car? The waspishly named – and styled – Hornet concept was shown at last year’s Geneva Motor Show, but it’s edging closer to a showroom near you. Thomas Hausch, Chrysler group’s international director for sales and marketing, told CAR Online that plans were moving apace for a production version of the butch supermini.

Chrysler to build an electric version of the Fiat 500 for the U.S. market

Chrysler will build an electric version of the Fiat 500 minicar for sale in the United States, starting in 2012, the automaker said on Monday. A prototype of the Fiat 500EV was shown at the Detroit auto show. The concept uses an electric motor, an advanced lithium-ion battery pack and an electric vehicle-control unit.

BMW plotting a hydrogen fuel cell EV

The BMW i3 EV (pictured) will eventually be joined by a hydrogen fuel cell BMW BMW has now taken its first fully-fledged step in to the electric car market with the BMW i3, revealed in full earlier this week. The i3 is a properly competent offering from BMW and it seems likely that, despite a price pushing on £30k even after the taxpayer bribe for EVs, that they will find a ready market in their affluent customer base for the i3 as a second (or third, or fourth…) car for local runarounds. BMW has even managed to negate range anxiety by offering the option of a range-extender engine in the i3 – basically a BMW motorcycle engine to charge the battery when it runs out of juice – so BMW’s customers who may wish to use their i3 for more than just a trip the shops can do so without getting stranded.