Subaru Pleo 1998 Radiator Grille [0310400] on 2040-parts.com

VW Up! Lite Concept revealed in LA

The Volkswagen Up! Lite has been revealed at the LA Motor Show Volkswagen had promised a surprise at the LA Motor Show, and this is it, the VW Up! Lite Concept, another car in the quest by VW to produce the most efficient cars on the market.

Infiniti opening in Brazil in 2014

Nissan’s answer to Lexus, Infiniti, is on a bit of quest to sell its premium cars in every market that can afford them and will open in Brazil in 2014. Infiniti started out as Nissan’s answer to the success of Lexus in North America by launching a range of ‘Premium’ Nissans in the U.S. in 1989, since when it has expanded to Canada, the Middle East, Taiwan, Korea, Russia, China and, in 2008, the UK and Europe.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.