Original S&s B Carburetor "cycle" Air Cleaner W/ Backing Plate #3 on 2040-parts.com

£5000 electric car grants to cut a quarter off EV price

British motorists will qualify for grants lopping a quarter off the price of electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen cars – up to a maximum of £5000 discount – the Government confirmed this week. The Office for Low Emissions Vehicles, which launched six months ago, said the new grants would come into force from January 2011 as part of a £230 million low-carbon car incentive programme. Car buyers will qualify for the Plug-In Car Grant from an approved list of low-carbon cars.

Better Place EV Battery Swap business goes bust

It seemed like a good idea: take the cost of batteries out of the cost of buying an electric car and instead charge EV owners to use ‘Battery Swap’ stations where depleted batteries could be swapped for fully charged ones in the time it takes to fill an ICE car with petrol. But it’s all gone a bit Pete Tong. Better Place – which partnered with Renault in 2009 to make the battery swap technology viable – has failed to find anyone to add to the $750 million already involved in the project and has filed for bankruptcy.

BMW 4-series configurator goes live

The configurator for the 2014 BMW 4-series is live at www.bmwusa.com. Potential buyers can check out the new coupe and flip between 12 colors, two engines and three main trim levels. We first saw the BMW 4-series concept in Detroit back in January and we took a deeper look in June.