The new Mercedes-Benz CLA Super Bowl spot

It takes a certain kind of chutzpah for a German company that supplied the Nazi war machine to use a track that features the line, “I rode a tank / Held a general's rank / When the Blitzkrieg raged / And the bodies stank.” Apparently, Mercedes-Benz has exactly that sort of chutzpah. The premise, of course, is that you don't have to sell your soul to afford the company's stylish new CLA. That for under 30 grand, you too can dance with Usher, be pulled into red-carpet photographs with Kate Upton, and compete in Formula 1 races.

War of the greens as Leaf gives Volt a shock

By Freddie Fulton Motor Industry 13 August 2009 10:31 The Chevrolet Volt was gunning to be the ‘first mass-produced car with a triple-digit fuel economy,’ according to General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson. Earlier this week he announced the US’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would rate the new Chevy Volt as capable of 230mpg on the open road. The Nissan Leaf EV has picked a bone with the Volt.

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.