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Opel GTC Concept

By Gavin Green Motor Shows 08 March 2007 10:07 Looks good. But is it just some flight of fancy concept car with as much High Street relevance as one of Naomi Campbell’s more outrageous catwalk creations? Not at all.

New Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive goes in to production

The first Mercedes B-Class ED (pictured) rolls off the production line in Rastatt With the BMW i3 grabbing headlines – and flying out of showrooms – as BMW’s first electric car, Mercedes need to play catch-up with a convincing EV of their own, and that’s the new B-Class Electric Drive – an EV version of the regular B-Class – which has now gone in to production in Germany. Built alongside regular ICE versions of the B-Class at Mercedes’ Rastatt Plant, the B-Class ED (Electric Drive) looks practically the same as its more conventionally powered siblings – although the front bumper does look a bit different – and has an electric motor good for 177 bhp and 250 lb/ft of torque, can manage a scoot to 62 mph in 7.9 seconds and has a range of up to 124 miles. The range – at least the quoted range – is a chunk better than the BMW i3′s and on a par with the latest Nissan LEAF, thanks to EV technology provided by Tesla, and the wrapping of an EV drivetrain in a conventional series production car could appeal to more buyers than the ‘statement’ design of the BMW i3.

BMW M Car sales keep growing

Now here’s a conundrum. Why do sales of BMW M Cars keep growing, when every other car maker (bar a couple of exceptions like Audi) are seeing sales decimated? Is it because the cars are so good?