Aries Offroad Bc00831501 Aries Styleguard Floor Liner on 2040-parts.com

Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive gets wheel hub electric motors

The Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive – a driveable research vehicle built by Ford and German specialists Schaeffler – may be a regular supermini in size, but it points towards a potential future EV which is much more compact and very manoeuvrable. Ford has taken a regular Fiesta and dumped its powertrain, replacing it with a battery bank where the engine would be and fitted a pair of in-hub electric motors on the rear wheels. But the plan is to build new cars with the batteries under the floor which frees up the space under the bonnet which can then be all but removed to create a very compact urban car that still has space for four.

2013 Dacia Sandero Revealed

The new 2013 Dacia Sandero 2 – a Fiesta sized budget offering – has been revealed ahead of a public debut at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. Yesterday we had news of Renault’s cut-price Dacia Logan – which may come to the UK – and today we get news of the Dacia Sandero 2 – beloved by James May – which will debut at Paris at the end of the month and is definitely heading for the UK. The Sandero has been a big-seller throughout Europe for years but now, with the launch of the Sandero 2, Dacia has decided the time is right to make their budget supermini available in the UK alongside the new Dacia Duster SUV.

Concept Car of the Week: Nissan Nails (2001)

Japan's unique culture and lifestyle provides a fertile environment for some of the strangest ideas to blossom. The oddly named Nissan Nails is one of these eccentric concepts that shows typical Japanese thinking. Halfway between Gundam and a Pokemon, it was designed in Creative Box.