Automakers try to stop increase in ethanol limit to 15 percent of gasoline

Automakers are seeking to head off an EPA ruling that would allow gasoline to contain 15 percent ethanol, up from 10 percent now, and they've won some bipartisan congressional support. The two main automaker industry lobbies have argued that the U.S. Department of Energy has done insufficient testing to assure that gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol won't harm vehicles.

Volkswagen XL1: Geneva Motor Show 2013

The VW XL1 is going in to limited production with the promise of 314mpg and a price tag likely to be £100,000. Surprisingly, one of those ‘Super’ cars is a Volkswagen that will cost £100,000 and has all the attributes of a supercar. Except its party trick is extreme performance in economy, rather than performance.

Volvo Plug-In Hybrid by 2012

Volvo are working on a plug in Hybrid for 2012 offerng 50g/km Co2 emissions Laudable though this intent is, it’s a little like the Vauxhall / Opel Ampera – it relies on technology that doesn’t yet exist to deliver what it promises. But to get things moving, Volvo are going to be running a number of Volvo V70 diesel-electric Hybrids round Europe this year, to guage customer feedback and try to establish exactly what the consumer wants. They also want to establish exactly what the consumer can live with in terms of ‘Re-fuelling’.