Polaris 7198374 Decal-side Panel Trim Lh on 2040-parts.com

Electric cars get a £500 million government cash boost – but will it get spent?

The new BMW i3 EV (pictured) will be subsidised until 2017. The subsidy of up to £5000 paid to buyers of electric cars has been with us for three years, but it hasn’t had much impact on EV sales and it did look like the government had decided to scrap it all together. But it looks like the coalition has allowed Nick Clegg to have his way with EV subsides in a move that will see £500 million injected in to promoting and supporting electric cars in the UK in the next few years.

2013 Aston Martin Vanquish in the wild on video

The new 2013 Aston Martin Vanquish – Project Am 310 from Villa D’Este – has been caught on video in Italy in production guise. The story of the replacement for the Aston Martin DBS – which we now know is to be the new Aston Martin Vanquish – has been playing out over the last month or so. We reported at the start of May that the DBS name would be dropped and then exclusively revealed that it would debut at Villa D’Este as the Project Am 310 to try and mop up the honours in the Concept Category (it actually lost out to the Alfa 4C).

Interior Motives Design Conference 2005 announced

Inside the car industry some of the world's most talented designers seek to create exciting, safe, comfortable and desirable products that exceed the expectations of their customers. But consumer expectations of form and function are advancing faster than many companies can innovate, and the result is that there is a shortfall in exciting and emotional products. Yet the demand for them is real.