Alpinestars Ageless Velo Hat (osfa, Blue) on 2040-parts.com

Electric cars amped up with £500 million boost

THE GOVERNMENT is to extend the £5,000 grant scheme open to anyone who buys a car with plug-in electric power. It is part of a £500 million move to encourage car owners – and city authorities – to take up the electric car baton and run with it. The initiative will give cities a chance to win government funding to further the sales of electric cars in their areas, for example by allowing them to use bus lanes or park for free.

New Porsche 911 Club Coupe revealed

New Porsche 911 Club Coupe - just 13 being made Porsche built its first car in 1948 and it took just four years for the very first Porsche Club to arrive - Porsche Club Westfalen. To celebrate 60 years of Porsche Clubs, Porsche is building a very limited edition 911 – the Porsche 911 Club Coupe – which will be revealed at  the opening of a special exhibition at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart tomorrow – 26th May 2012 – and just thirteen 911 Club Coupes are being built. Although the collaboration between Porsche Clubs and Porsche Exclusive will yield thirteen cars just twelve will be up for grabs and they will be allocated by ballot, with the thirteenth car staying in the Porsche Museum.

Mercedes S500 Plug-in Hybrid revealed – gets official 94.2mpg

The Mercedes S500 Plug-in Hybrid (pictured) has been revealed There will come a point when legislators wake up and realise that car makers are getting too clever at gaming their CO2 based taxation and change the goal posts. But until then, cars like the new Mercedes S500 Plug in Hybrid – revealed today – are the perfect company buy. That’s because the clever use of a plug-in electric motor coupled with a relatively frugal ICE engine – in the case of the S500 Plug-in a 329bhp 3.0 litre V6 and 80kW electric motor – produce official economy and emissions figures that are really only valid under test conditions but save a big chunk of tax for buyers.