Tesla Model S owners will receive upgraded charge adapters

After a garage fire in Irvine, Calif., in November of last year in which an overheated charging system for a Tesla Model S sedan was stated to possibly have been involved, Tesla will be sending out upgraded wall-charger adapters to all Tesla Model S owners. This upgrade comes on the heels of an over-the-air software update for the charging system in the Model S sedan. Software version 5.8.4 would enable the charging system to automatically reduce the charging current by 25 percent if the system detects unexpected fluctuations in the input power, essentially slowing the charging current and reducing the heat created in any high-resistance connections if the car senses that the current is unsteady.

Design your own Caterham

Caterham Cars will soon be creating its next new vehicle, but it won't be designed by its design team. The new car will instead have the design conceived online by the public. The manufacturer of the Seven is offering every car enthusiast, irrespective of engineering skill, design experience or mechanical ability, a dream opportunity to design an all-new sports car in collaboration with Project Splitwheel.

Europe inches towards CO2 deal

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 24 November 2008 17:29 The European Union is close to agreement on a radically lower CO2 limit to apply to all new cars, diplomats indicated today. The EU’s 27 governments are set to agree a Europe-wide limit of 130g/km as a new-car average by 2015, according to sources in Brussels. The deal is likely to start from 2012, with full compliance three years later.