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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.

Jaguar XK and XKR Special Edition launched

New Jaguar XK and XKR Special Editions launched Jaguar has decided to give the XK and XKR sales a bit of a boost with the launch of  Special Edition models as coupe and convertible. There’s nothing quite like a Special Edition model to get punters in showrooms, and with the Jaguar XK and XKR perhaps losing a bit of their glow – thanks in part to getting towards the end of their shelf life, and the arrival of the bonkers XKR-S – Jaguar has launched ‘Special Edition’ models of the XK and XKR as both coupe and convertible. The new XK and XKR Special Editions are purely cosmetic – there’s none of the extra power we’ve seen in the XKR-S – but the cosmetic tweaks are appealing.

2013 Ford Fiesta production starts

Ford has started to build the new 2013 Fiesta at their plant in Cologne which means the new Fiesta will be in a showroom near you soon. The facelift for the 2013 Fiesta sees the arrival of the ‘Aston Martin’ grill bolted to the front of the new Fiesta – a pitch for the AM Cygnet contract, perhaps – together with new headlights with LED running lights and a bulge up the bonnet. Small changes, but they do make the new Fiesta bolder, even though it loses some of its finesse in the process.