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Volkswagen Routan (2008): first official pictures

By Stephen Dobie First Official Pictures 16 January 2008 16:03 Volkswagen’s push for more sales in the US will be reinforced with the new Routan minivan, due to be shown to its North American market at the Chicago Auto Show in February 2008. The model is heavily based on the Chrysler Town and Country (the Grand Voyager to you and me) and will major on interior space. The car itself is over five metres long and accommodates seven.

2013 Nissan LEAF updated

Nissan has updated the LEAF EV in Japan for 2013 with better range, less weight and a new LEAF S entry-level model. Revealed in Japan – but likely to come to the UK from 2013 when the LEAF starts rolling out of Nissan’s Sunderland factory – there are significant upgrades to the powertrain which result in both less weight and better range. Nissan has had a play with the electric powertrain and made it both smaller and lighter with a new motor that uses 40 per cent less dysprosium (a rare earth metal) than before, and comes in 30 per cent smaller and 10 per cent lighter, and a new streamline battery case and a few other tweaks drops the LEAF’s weight by 80kg.

Audi Q5 concept is killer

Audi has provided the strongest hint yet that it plans to crown its Q5 lineup with an RS model by revealing a one-off, 408-hp, supercharged 3.0-liter V6 concept version of its compact SUV. The vehicle’s public premiere comes this weekend at the annual Woerthersee meet in Austria. Although Audi officials are playing down the importance of the custom concept, insiders have told AutoWeek that it was constructed to provide customer feedback on a possible performance-oriented version of the Q5, the likes of which would almost certainly form part of the company’s future North American lineup.