Jaguar Keychain Metal on 2040-parts.com

BMW i8 plug-in hybrid supercar is more economical than BMW thought

The BMW i8 does 134.5mpg on the official cycle. The production version of BMW’s plug-in hybrid supercar – the i8 – finally arrived at the Frankfurt Motor Show last year offering almost proper supercar price – £100k – along with an almost supercar 0-62mph of 4.4 seconds. What the i8 also offers is ridiculous economy figures thanks to its plug-in hybrid power (and thanks to the daft way official economy figures are calculated) and now, as the i8 gets ready to go in to full production, BMW has revealed that the official economy figures have just got dafter.

GM's Bob Lutz put off retirement and put life back into a sagging lineup

Originally published: Sept. 14, 2008 Editor's note: This story comes from 100 Years: How General Motors Changed the World, published by Automotive News to commemorate the 100th anniversary of GM. In 2001, with seven years left to go in General Motors' first century, CEO Rick Wagoner knew that his product lineup badly needed upgrading if the company was going to have a second hundred years.

BMW takes the Active Tourer Outdoor outdoors this weekend

This weekend BMW will be taking its BMW Concept Active Tourer Outdoor to the annual OutDoor fair in Friedrichshafen, Germany. We first saw the concept last September, noting that it was a departure for BMW in more ways than one -- with the German automaker stretching itself into segments in which it previously had no foothold. The BMW Active Tourer is meant to preview a whole new generation of small cars from BMW, but one of the biggest changes underneath is a transverse layout of the engine -- a setup that BMW has traditionally shunned in favor of a longitudinal layout.