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2013 Scion iQ EV to join car-sharing programs

The diminutive 2013 Scion iQ EV battery-electric vehicle will join car-sharing programs in the United States. The automaker says that details on which car-sharing programs the iQ will join will be announced in the coming weeks. The iQ EV sports a 12-kilowatt-hour battery, which provides an estimated range of 50 miles on a full charge.

Mercedes-Benz axes Maybach

High ranking Mercedes-Benz sources have confirmed to Autoweek that the underperforming Maybach brand will be officially killed off in 2013. The decision to disband Mercedes-Benz’s upper luxury marque comes after a decade of disappointing sales for the Maybach 57 and 62 and a recent decision from the German car maker’s chairman Dieter Zetsche not to push ahead with the development replacement models – the likes of which were tentatively due out in 2014 – owing to what one insider describes as a “positive move to focus greater attention on the Mercedes-Benz brand” . “We’ve come to the conclusion that it is better to cut our losses with Maybach than to continue into an uncertain future with a brand that has failed to live up to original sales expectations," the insider said.

BMW Z4 – with 550bhp V10!

Manhart Racing has produced a BMW Z4 with the M5 V10 BMW reckons that there is no need for a Z4M, so the best Bavaria offers off the shelf is just over 300bhp. But one man has other ideas – Günther Manhart of Manhart Racing. He decided that what was really needed in the Z4 was that nice V10 from the M5.