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Volvo wants to deliver stuff right to your car

If you've missed deliveries of items you've ordered online because you weren't home when the delivery person showed up (who knew they have the same working hours as you?), then you may be interested to hear that Volvo has a new system in development that could enable logistics companies to deliver things right to your car, whether you're there or not. The cost of missed parcel deliveries amounts to 1 billion Euros per year according to Volvo. This week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the automaker showed off a system that would notify car owners, via a smartphone or tablet, when a delivery company wants to drop off or pick up something from their car.

Autoweek in review: What you may have missed

It was a slower week in the newsroom as 2012 winded down. On Monday, we learned how motorcycles were coming back and got some ideas for last-minute holiday gifts. In the racing world, the Trans Am Series announced that it’s expanding the 2013 race schedule.

Toyota & Lexus: Hybrid sales in Europe hit 20%

The ‘Green’ evangelists want to get us all driving electric cars to save the planet, but in the real world car drivers want a car that offers them all the practicality of a normal ICE car, but without the penalties of the poor range, high cost and inconvenience of an EV. So, with ever-rising fuel costs, it’s no wonder car buyers are willing to pay a little more for a car that offers better economy at the pumps – which plays straight in to the hands of Hybrid pioneers Toyota. The result is that Toyota and Lexus now see a full 20 per cent of their sale in Europe being hybrid cars in the first quarter of 2013, with sales of hybrid cars up a massive 82 per cent year-on-year.