Suzuki Aerio 2001 F Exhaust Muffler [3022200] on 2040-parts.com

Lotus announces partnership with Mansory

Group Lotus has announced its new collaboration with Mansory, which will become its official customization studio. The German tuner will be contributing bodywork, trim and special finishes for the Elise, Exige and Evora in yet another controversial strategic decision for the UK company. Lotus confirmed the first fruits of this new partnership will be the unveiling a new model variant at September's Paris motor show, two years after the highly ambitious announcement of five new models of which the first is yet to become reality.

Tesla-Toyota RAV4 EV: LA Catchup +video

The Tesla Toyota RAV4 EV A couple of weeks ago we ran a story on the Tesla Toyota RAV4 EV, an electric Toyota RAV4 endowed with electric car gubbins by Tesla. That’s the same Tesla in whom Toyota recently acquired a stake and provided with a factory with a capacity at least twenty times that which Tesla will ever need. We speculated when the tease came in for the electric RAV4 that maybe Toyota had plans to get Tesla to run out electric versions of all its cars at the new Tesla plant to take up the enormous slack in production numbers.

BMW ready to shift small coupes, convertibles to even-number nameplates

Reports in Europe say that BMW is planning a shake-up in the naming strategy for its smaller coupes and convertibles, as well as planning to shift its 1-series cars onto a front-drive platform. The nameplate shake-up will have coupe and convertible variants of the 1-series become the 2-series, while coupe and convertible variants of the 3-series will become the 4-series. The changeover is expected to start in 2013, according to a report on the Web site of Car magazine.