Acdelco 24202794 Differential Bearing on 2040-parts.com

Electric cars get a £500 million government cash boost – but will it get spent?

The new BMW i3 EV (pictured) will be subsidised until 2017. The subsidy of up to £5000 paid to buyers of electric cars has been with us for three years, but it hasn’t had much impact on EV sales and it did look like the government had decided to scrap it all together. But it looks like the coalition has allowed Nick Clegg to have his way with EV subsides in a move that will see £500 million injected in to promoting and supporting electric cars in the UK in the next few years.

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.

Why the BMW M4 is better than the M3 V8 (2013)

It’s no exaggeration to say that the turbocharged engine in the upcoming BMW M3 (saloon) and M4 (coupe) models is one of the most important engines ever produced by BMW’s M Division. No, it’s not the first turbo lump the performance off-shoot has built – you'll probably know we’ve already had the X5/X6M mutants plus the brilliant 1M and M5 and M6 – but it is the first turbo ever to slot in a production M3, the car that personifies BMW’s iconic performance sub brand, which itself has always been defined by high-revving, naturally aspirated engines. All of this explains why M’s engineers have cut their teeth on other engines first before plucking up the courage to develop the M3/M4 turbo while turning their backs on the outgoing E92 M3’s exceptional V8.