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

Electric car range drops by nearly 60% in cold weather

Electric cars like the Nissan LEAF (pictured) can lose 60% of their range when it’s cold We already know that the range of electric cars reduces as the car ages, with Nissan conforming that the LEAF’s range will drop by up to 28 per cent over five years. And now we have confirmation that the ambient temperature can have a big impact on range too, thanks to the AAA, America’s equivalent of the AA. The AAA took three standard EVs on sale in the US - Nissan LEAF, Ford Focus EV and Mitsubishi i-MiEV – and subjected them to test in different ambient temperatures.

Leno invites Ricardo HyBoost Ford Focus to the garage

Jay Leno invited Tom Apostolos to the garage this week. He’s the president of Ricardo Americas, a tech company partially responsible for the hybrid powerplant on the McLaren P1. Leno and Apostolos talk about hybrids, and how you have to drive them tens of years and hundreds of thousands of miles to get any added value out of them.

Volkswagen Up (2012): first photos of VW's mini

Almost four years to the day after we first saw the VW Up concept car, Volkswagen is unveiling the real thing: this is the new VW Up city car, on sale in UK dealers in spring 2012. Forget the official, trendily informal name 'up!'. I'm afraid CAR's going to overrule the grammatical violations and call it the good old Volkswagen Up.