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BMW plotting a hydrogen fuel cell EV

The BMW i3 EV (pictured) will eventually be joined by a hydrogen fuel cell BMW BMW has now taken its first fully-fledged step in to the electric car market with the BMW i3, revealed in full earlier this week. The i3 is a properly competent offering from BMW and it seems likely that, despite a price pushing on £30k even after the taxpayer bribe for EVs, that they will find a ready market in their affluent customer base for the i3 as a second (or third, or fourth…) car for local runarounds. BMW has even managed to negate range anxiety by offering the option of a range-extender engine in the i3 – basically a BMW motorcycle engine to charge the battery when it runs out of juice – so BMW’s customers who may wish to use their i3 for more than just a trip the shops can do so without getting stranded.

2012 Mercedes SL – the aluminium supercar

2012 Mercedes SL - it's got a lot of aluminium It’s perhaps a step too far to describe the 2012 Mercedes SL as an aluminium supercar, but there is no doubt the 2012 SL will be a super car, and that it gets made from aluminium instead of steel. And the 2012 SL 63 AMG will undoubtedly be in the supercar league. Just like Jaguar, Mercedes sees the liberal use of aluminium as a cost-effective way to make its cars both lighter and more rigid.

Porsche Cayenne Diesel – it’s official

We all wondered how long it would take for Porsche to bite the bullet and give in to the diesel bandwagon. Well, it’s happened. Porsche has officially announced today that the Porsche Cayenne diesel will go on sale in Europe in February 2009.