Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

VW Up Taxi Concept (2010): first official pictures

Volkswagen has shown off its Up Taxi Concept at a special unveiling in London today. The Up Taxi is VW's vision of a quirky and environmental rival to the classic London black cab, the Hackney carriage, and offers a very good idea of what the Up will eventually look like. The concept has luxurious leather seats and big touchscreens in the front and rear.

Skoda MissionL Concept revealed – the Skoda Lauretta, perhaps?

Skoda MissionL Concept - destined to be the Skoda Lauretta Skoda is on a mission to push its sales through the roof in the next year or seven – aiming for 1.5 million sales, no less, by 2018 –  and part of that strategy is to fill the gap in its range between the Fabia and Octavia. So it’s a good thing the Skoda MissionL Concept fits the bill. Not that we have a great deal to go on with the MissionL Concept, as all Skoda have done so far is send us a short press release and the teaser photo above (which was a lot darker until we sent it through Photoshop).

Electric SEAT Altea & plug-in SEAT Leon hybrid revealed

The SEAT Altea EV & plug-in SEAT Leon hybrid - testing for the next 4 years Seat may have revealed a pair of cars with ‘eco’ powerplants -  the Leon TwinDrive Ecomotive and the Altea XL Electric Ecomotive – but they’re not coming to a showroom near you. Well, not before 2015, anyway. The plan is to build a small prototype fleet of the Leon Hybrid and Altea EV and make them available to local government in Catalonia and Madrid, to get evaluation and real-world feedback before the cars go in to production, which won’t be for at least four years.