Original Audi A3 A4 A5 A6 A8 Q5 Q7 Tt Homelink Controller 8k0907410c on 2040-parts.com

Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

One Lap of the Web: Rolls-Royce in Thailand, 130-mph lawn mowers and Formula One in Canada

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- Check out some factoids about Formula One in Canada and how drivers have faired at Canadian tracks over time.

GM reveals new, highly modular Ecotec engine family

GM introduced its new modular family of Ecotec engines on Wednesday at its powertrain headquarters in Pontiac, Mich. The new, reduced-in-size three- and four-cylinder mills will replace three of GM's current engine families, eventually making their way into five of the company's brands. The Ecotec family will eventually spawn 11 engines in total, ranging in displacement from 1.0 liter to 1.5 liters.