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Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

Fiat finishes buying Chrysler

The Chrysler Group is now wholly owned by Italian carmaker Fiat. The company announced on Jan. 1 that it made a $4.35 billion deal to acquire full control of the Pentastar.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars: The Japanese push

Honda Clarity Hydrogen Fuel Cell Car - already in the real world at $600 a month We make no secret of the fact that we consider Hybrid cars a stop-gap solution to reducing reliance on oil. And frankly, unless you drive like a saint you’ll probably find you get inferior performance and poorer fuel consumption out of regular hybrids than you would from a decent eco-diesel. Only when you start to put complex hybrid systems in high-end cars do you start to come up with something that does mitigate fuel use and improve performance.