Clutch Pressure Plate-exedy Wd Express 151 18001 278 on 2040-parts.com

Luxury car price crash in China

Mercedes in China offering 25 per cent discounts on S Class Mercedes, BMW and Audi are having to offer discounts of up to 25 per cent on luxury cars in China to shift stock. The huge Chinese car market has been seen as a sales salvation for Western car makers; the automotive equivalent of shooting fish in a barrel. But it looks like that’s all changing, particularly at the luxury end of the market.

Mercedes SLS AMG E-Cell (2010): the electric SLS

Following the unveiling of Tesla's updated Roadster 2.5, Mercedes is showing off its iteration of an all-electric sports car: the SLS AMG E-Cell. While the regular SLS pumps out 563bhp and 479lb ft from its 6.2-litre V8, the SLS E-Cell has four synchronous electric motors, powering all four wheels for a combined output of 392kW (equivalent to 526bhp) and a mammoth 649lb ft of torque. Crucially, all of that power is accessible from zero revs, allowing the E-Cell to sprint to 62mph in four seconds dead.

Driven: Chevrolet Volt

Meeting the Chevrolet Volt could easily have been an anti-climax. This is a design that ‘feels' nearly four years old — the concept first seen in Detroit in 2007. Together with the online hype surrounding it, and the part it plays in GM's renaissance, the weight of expectation is alarmingly high.