Five-Door Mini Hatch Is Go

BMW HAS announced that production of the long awaited five-door Mini Hatch has started, signaling the next phase in the car maker’s £750 million investment programme across its UK production facilities from 2011 to 2015. The car comes hot on the heels of the new Mini Hatch, which was launched in November. The new five-door version will go on sale in the autumn.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV big dealer push – first UK cars being delivered

The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV – moving quickly in the UK The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, the plug-in hybrid Outlander, has been the subject of a big marketing campaign by Mitsubishi in recent weeks, and this weekend sees a big dealer push to educate buyers. But actually, it’s a very easy job for Mitsubishi because they seem to have hit the ground running with a car that could see the beginning of the end of the BEV electric car market. That’s because the Outlander PHEV offers the best of both worlds, with its plug-in hybrid setup offering pure EV running for up to 30 miles or so – enough to get in and out of most cities – and the ability to run on carbon fuel even when the batteries run down.

First Sight: Divine DS concept

To mark 100 days since the announcement that DS was to become a brand of its own, separate from Citroën, it has created the Divine DS concept – a self-styled manifesto for the new marque. We traveled to Citroën's DS' design center on the southern outskirts of Paris to be amongst the first to see this statement of intent and speak to the people behind its creation. "This concept car is the very essence of what DS is and what it will be," declares Yves Bonnefont, the CEO of the DS brand.