Tesla takes a swipe at BMW & Audi

Tesla’s design boss, Franz von Holzhausen, says the BMW i3 is an IKEA car We’ve long been of the opinion that electric cars, certainly with the current levels of battery technology, can never be a replacement for an ICE car. But we do have soft spot for what Tesla are doing. That’s because Tesla has tackled the issues of electric cars in  the cleverest way possible by building a car (the Model S) that looks like a normal luxury car – rather than making it look odd or quirky just to ram home its difference – and made it travel a sensible distance on a single charge.

Audi A1 – Production to start

Audi will being production of the Audi A1 in October And now comes confirmation that Audi is finally going to kick off production of the A1 in October. The head of Audi’s Brussels plant – Alfons Dintner – has confirmed that the Audi A1 will start production in October after a five week shutdown in August to gear the Brussels plant up for production of the new A1. The new Audi A1 will start to hit European Showrooms in the early part of 2010.

Volvo XC60 Plug-in Hybrid concept car (2012) first pics

Volvo will showcase its latest plug-in hybrid technology in the new 2012 XC60 Plug-in Hybrid concept car at next week's Detroit auto show. The Swedes have been developing a range of plug-in hybrid cars, using both petrol and diesel. The hybridised V60 which goes on sale in Europe later in 2012 uses diesel, whereas the new SUV drinks from the green pump.