Sandia Stx 165 Transponder P/n 305832-00 on 2040-parts.com

GM's green future: EVs, plug-in hybrids

General Motors' future green-car efforts will focus on plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles rather than conventional hybrid powertrains, product chief Mary Barra said Wednesday. Barra said GM has narrowed its future development emphasis in an effort to defend its leadership position attained with the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. GM will unveil an electric Spark minicar in late November at the Los Angeles auto show.

Dacia Duster (finally) gets a bit of a facelift for 2015 in the UK

The Dacia Duster finally gets updated in the UK A whole year ago, at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2013, the Dacia Duster Facelift was revealed. But that facelifted Duster was just for the European LHD market; the UK soldiered on with the old model. But now, a year on, the UK is finally getting a facelifted Duster which, more or less, seems to follow the lead of the European makeover.

Mugen Honda CR-Z Hybrid Video ahead of Goodwood

Mugen Honda CR-Z Hybrid playing on video We reported back in April that Honda had turned to Mugen to see if they could inject anything in to the CR-Z Hybrid that might make it even remotely appealing to a driver. The plan was to take the resulting Mugen Honda CR-Z to this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, to see if the knowledgeable petrolheads that gravitate to the Goodwood Estate like moths to a Summer flame could find something to love in the Honda CR-Z, once it had had some Mugen fairy dust springled on it. We were a bit reluctant to expect anything much of the CR-Z even after Mugen had played, but we were pleasantly surprised to learn that the CR-Z would get a wider track, new suspension and brakes and a drop in weight thanks to some carbon fibre in the mix – most notably the carbon fibre bonnet.