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Opel Ampera plug-in hybrid design sketches leak out

By Tim Pollard First Official Pictures 19 February 2009 09:28 These pictures allegedly reveal the production-spec Opel/Vauxhall Ampera a fortnight ahead of its Geneva show debut. A Spanish website claims to have stumbled across the technical design sketches at a European patent office and – if authentic – they spill the beans on the new plug-in hybrid electric concept car that’s bound for a showroom near you within two years. The Ampera is Opel/Vauxhall’s version of the Chevrolet Volt, the breakthrough car that could just save GM if it survives its current crisis.

Mercedes-Benz A-Class concept

The A-Class concept from Mercedes-Benz is set to make its debut at both the Shanghai and New York auto shows later this month. A distinctively aggressive development over the outgoing model, the A-Class concept is said to draw on the 'defined edges and free interplay of surfaces' first demonstrated with the F800 Style. The taught muscularity of other Mercedes models is also translated onto the show car.

UK buyers plugging into electric cars

Renault New figures suggest UK motorists are charged up about electric vehicles (EVs), with a record number of zero-emission cars now on Britain’s roads. Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) suggest there are more than 10,000 electric cars on the road today, with as many as 1,200 EVs sold in March alone. In the midst of an EV revolution Compare that to the lowly 270 that were sold during the same month in 2013 and it becomes hard to argue that we’re not in the midst of an EV revolution, especially when you combine the figures with the 10,200 hybrid cars sold so far in 2014, up by 45% on last year.