Volkswagen Golf GTE plug-in hybrid revealed ahead of Geneva debut

The VW Golf GTE Plug-in (pictured) debuts at Geneva If you like a quite warm VW Golf with a petrol engine, VW has that covered with the Golf GTI, and if you’d rather burn oil you can do that too with the Golf GTD. But now there’s a third way – the Volkswagen Golf GTE plug-in hybrid. Combining a 1.4 litre TSI turbo petrol with 148bhp and a 101bhp electric motor, the Golf GTE manages a combined output of 201bhp, enough to get to 62mph in 7.6 seconds and return official economy figures of 157mpg and emissions of a paltry 35g/km.

Official: Aston Martin gets its hands on Mercedes AMG engines & Electronic Architecture

Aston Martin & AMG confirm they’re getting in bed together Back in December we reported that Aston Martin had new investment from Investindustrial and wondered if that would mean – thanks to an existing relationship between Investindustrial and AMG – if we’d see Aston Martin finally getting access to AMG’s engines and platforms. By May, things had moved on and it was clear that Aston Martin and AMG were in talks for Aston Martin to get access to their engines for the next generation of AML’s cars. Now those talks have borne fruit and AMG and AML have signed a letter of intent for Aston Martin to “access significant Mercedes-AMG GmbH and Mercedes-Benz Cars’ resources, allowing the development of bespoke V8 powertrains and the use of certain components of electric/electronic (e/e) architecture.” Interestingly, there’s no talk of V12 engines – which could mean Aston Martin are going to move from the current Ford V12 for the DB9 and Vanquish to a powerful V8 from AMG – and nor is there talk of sharing platforms.

Alfa Romeo US relaunch delayed

Alfa Romeo Giulietta - American launch delayed until 2013 It’s getting on for two years since we reported that Alfa Romeo were going to relaunch themselves in the US after an absence of twenty years, to give Americans an Italian alternative to the likes of Audi, BMW and  Mercedes. A quality European alternative with Italian flair was the logic. But within a month of the announcement that the US was to be beguiled by Alfas once more came the news that the MiTo wouldn’t be going on the American sojourn.