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High-five for Mini's new, larger hatchback

THE LONG-RUMOURED five-door Mini hatchback has finally been unveiled, featuring an extra seat, more legroom and a larger boot than the three-door. By using a longer and wider body, the five-door is able to offer 72mm more legroom for rear passengers, who can also now access the new row of three seats via small but useful rear doors. Boot space is up to 278 litres, which although still comparatively low is 67 more than the three-door hatch can boast.

Volvo’s new VEA family of four-cylinder engines starts production

As a result, Volvo has been planning a new range of four-cylinder engines to power their range in the future – the new Volvo Engine Architecture (VEA) – and has spent the last couple of years readying their design – and their facility in Skövde – to start production. And now it’s underway. Together with Volvo’s Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) the new VEA engines will be a core part of every new Volvo before too long, and will replace the five and six cylinder engines Volvo currently uses and will provide more power than current six-cylinder engines with economy and emissions better than current four-cylinder engines.

‘Nemesis’ breaks UK electric car speed record

An electric car – based on a second-hand Lotus Exige – has broken the UK electric car speed record with a speed of 151.6mph. We’re not entirely sure how relevant a new UK speed record for an electric car is, but let’s be parochial and report it anyway. The ‘Nemesis’ is an electric car built round a second hand Lotus Exige, bought off eBay, by a team of engineers in a shed in Norfolk and driven by an Estate Agent from Gloucestershire.