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

Big news on GM's big SUVs

Good news and bad news for General Motors' large cash cows, the full-sized SUVs. The bad news: The massive sport-ute market has shrunk roughly in half to around 300,000 a year. The good news for GM: This drove some competitors either out of market or into the near-niche category, leaving the new-for-2015 Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban, the GMC Yukon and Denali, and Cadillac Escalade with a big share of this very profitable segment.

Electric Porsche Boxster being developed

Porsche are developing and electric Porsche Boxster It’s not exactly a surprise that Porsche has announced its intention to develop an electric roadster based on the Porsche Boxster, after all – as part of VW – they have access to an awful lot of technology and they’d be foolish to let car makers like Tesla or Fisker potentially steal some future Porsche glory. So starting early next year – as part of a programme Porsche call Modellregion Elektromobilität – three electric Boxsters will be out and about with their electric powertrains in the real world to give Porsche feedback. Porsche are making it absolutely clear that this rolling lab for an electric Boxster is entirely complimentary to – and in no way undermines – their hybrid programme, which includes the Panamera and Cayenne Hybrid and the Hybrid Hypercar that should soon become the production Porsche 918 Spyder.

North East worst for road safety

THE NORTH EAST of England has the worst rates for deaths and serious injuries on England’s roads according to data from the Department for Transport. In 2012, the number of deaths and serious injuries in the North East increased by 8%, with an extra 65 incidents recorded compared to 854 in 2011. The South East of England, which suffered some of the worst statistics in 2011, is now the most improved region.