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

Diesel Smart to become UK’s cleanest by 2009

By Guy Bird Motor Industry 17 June 2008 10:30 From February 2009 the cleanest conventional-engined car you can buy will be a diesel Smart Fortwo. That’s the date set for the launch of a right-hand drive version of the city car brand’s oil-burning two-seater Fortwo coupe and cabriolet already on sale in Continental Europe. The incredible economy and emissions stats – 85.6mpg and 88g/km of CO2 – are streets ahead of current low emitter champions like the VW Polo 1.4 TDI Bluemotion and Seat Ibiza Ecomotive, both offering 74.3mpg and 99g/km.

2013 Nissan LEAF updated

Nissan has updated the LEAF EV in Japan for 2013 with better range, less weight and a new LEAF S entry-level model. Revealed in Japan – but likely to come to the UK from 2013 when the LEAF starts rolling out of Nissan’s Sunderland factory – there are significant upgrades to the powertrain which result in both less weight and better range. Nissan has had a play with the electric powertrain and made it both smaller and lighter with a new motor that uses 40 per cent less dysprosium (a rare earth metal) than before, and comes in 30 per cent smaller and 10 per cent lighter, and a new streamline battery case and a few other tweaks drops the LEAF’s weight by 80kg.

New Mercedes GLA SUV: Frankfurt 2013

The new Mercedes GLA SUV (pictured) has debuted at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Mercedes may not have been exactly overwhelmingly good at producing a compact car with the old A-Class, but the new A-Class is a very good little car, and it’s rapidly spawning more variants to mop up more sales. We’ve already got the new A-Class and the swoopy-coupe Mercedes CLA and now we get the compact SUV take on the A-Class – the new Mercedes GLA.