Mercury Mariner Prop on 2040-parts.com

Renault confirms electric car production for 2011

It's hardly kept it a secret, but now Renault has officially announced that it will be putting its electric car range into production come 2011. You can read the full story on Renault's electric vehicle range in CAR’s December 2009 issue out on 18 November, in which Chris Chilton drives the mad concept cars. Yes.

CDN–GM Interactive Design Competition winners announced at NAIAS

The winners of the CDN–GM Interactive Design Competition have been announced at the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit. Following a guided tour of the auto show with the GM design team, the finalists gathered on the GMC stand in Cobo Hall where Mark Adams and Ken Parkinson – heads of design for Cadillac & Buick, and Chevrolet & GMC respectively – were joined by Car Design News' Editor Owen Ready to present the winners of each brand's competition brief. Joining them on stage were the mentors from GM's design teams who interacted with the entrants throughout the competition to critique and help develop their work, making this a truly unique contest.

BMW i3 tops Sunday Times best Electric Cars list

The BMW i3 EV tops Sunday Times best Electric Cars list Just as they did with the new Range Rover last year, the Sunday Times has declared the new BMW i3 EV the pick of the bunch of electric and hybrid cars on sale in the UK, despite the i3 not yet arriving on UK roads. But there seems a good chance that the Sunday Times have got it right this time too, just as they did with the new Range Rover. The Sunday Times praised BMW for biding its time with the launch of their first electric and range-extender car (the next, the BMW i8 supercar, will arrive in 2014) and said the i3′s big appeal lies not in its cutting edge electric motor or battery technology – because there isn’t any – but in its appeal as a car even without its EV powertrain.