Only green cars allowed in cities

The European Commission plans to gradually phase out ‘conventionally fueled’ vehicles from cities here. According to the new set of transportation plans adopted by the Commission cities here will cut down in half the number of petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and completely remove them by 2050.

New Aston Martin Virage

A new Aston Martin Virage had it's world debut at the Geneva Motor Show on 1 March, 2011. The new Virage comes somewhere between the DBS and the DB9 and combines outright sports car performance with luxury, comfort and refinement. With it's signature swan wing doors, the Two-door, two-plus-two coupé has a distinct modern look.

The front mid-mounted 6.0 litre V12 engine produces 490 bhp (365 kW/497 PS) and 570 Nm (420 lb ft) of torque and gives a maxmum speed of 186mph. The engine ismated to a six-speed Touchtronic II automatic transmission mounted on the transaxle contributing to perfect 50:50 weight balance.

The car features a newly developed Adaptive Damping System (ADS) which intelligently ‘reads’ the road to provide optimum road holding, adapting to different conditions. The system now selects up to five different stiffness settings within normal mode, and a further five stiffer settings within sport mode.

Aiding driver control, a ‘Sport’ button on the facia allows the driver to select a sharper throttle response and faster gear changes while also holding the gears without automatically shifting up at the revolution limiter.

With regards to stopping power, the Virage comes with Carbon Ceramic Matrix (CCM) brakes as standard.

Inside the car, a 6.5 inch high resolution display uses the latest graphics and maps powered by Garmin software to visually and aurally guide the driver to their destination.

Prices for the Virage starts from £150,000 and is on sale now.

Tata Pixel concept

The Tata Pixel concept was recently unveiled at the 81st Geneva Motor Show. This new city car concept for Europe is based on the Tata Nano, the World's cheapest car.

Featuring scissor doors, the car boasts of what they term as "zero turn toroidal traction drive infinitely variable transmission (IVT)" which enhances the car's ability to manoeuvre and park in the tightest of spaces with a turning circle radius of just 2.6 metres.

The Pixel is powered by a 1.2-litre three-cylinder turbocharged diesel engine which gives an economical 3.4 l/100km with CO2 emissions of just 89g/km.

The MINI Yours

MINI Yours made its debut at the 81st International Motor Show on March 03, 2011.

Allows the customer to customise the Mini making it truly yours.

ECJ Ruling Set to Hit Young Female Drivers Hardest

A new ruling by the European Court of Justice could hit female young drivers in the pocket as car insurance companies will no longer be able to use gender as a factor in calculating risk.

The new ruling, passed on March 1, will come into force in December 2012 and from that time onwards, women will cease to benefit from cheap car insurance premiums, despite the fact that they are statistically less likely to have a crash than men.

Car insurance expert Steve Sweeney from MoneySupermarket, believes the new ruling will have long-lasting, wide ranging implications for the car insurance industry.

He said:

"The ruling will no doubt hit female drivers the hardest with premiums rising in line with male drivers. If your car insurance is due for renewal in the next couple of months then you should shop around and buy your new cover as soon as possible before any new rules come into force."

My wife and some of our lady friends are quite unhappy with the ruling. So what do you think?

The Electric Car Wars

Edited from the press release by Dr Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx

Toyota announced today that their global cumulative sales of hybrid vehicles have reached 3.03 million worldwide. They entered the market with the Coaster Hybrid bus in August 1997 followed by the original Prius in December of the same year. 

The Toyota Prius, now made in still drives almost all of its hybrid car sales. It is now joined by the hybrid version of the Auris, global production being in the UK. Other electric versions of all its car models are being rapidly introduced. Toyota is not very keen on pure electric cars at present levels of battery performance and focusses on the hybrid versions of their model.

Many car companies only realised the potential too late and the only way they had a chance of competing with Toyota from a position a long way behind, was to form alliances with other car companies. 

Now the BMW cooperation with PSA Peugeot Citroen is being solidified into a 50:50 joint venture, functioning in the second quarter, to share the formidable cost of developing hybrid powertrains and seek early volume.

Before that, Daimler AG, bought 10% of Tesla, and developed electric Smart and Mercedes models. They have struck a partnership with Renault Nissan to develop small cars, notably pure electric ones. Renault Nissan also partners with Mitsubishi on this. Mitsubishi promises electric versions of all new car models. Like Nissan and Fiat, it seems to prefer the pure electric small car route.

VW unveils New Passat

Volkswagen has unveiled the new Passat BlueMotion at the Geneva Motor Show. The car is said to be the most fuel-efficient production Passat to date and has a combined consumption of 67.3 mpg for the saloon, while CO2 emissions are expected to be just 109 g/km (114 g/km for Passat Estate).

The car is powered by a 1.6-litre 105 PS common rail TDI engine with manual six-speed gearbox and with the 70-litre fuel tank capacity, the Passat BlueMotion has a theoretical range of 1,035 miles.

The car comes standard with Stop/Start and battery regeneration systems.

High tech features available as options include the fatigue detection system, city emergency braking function, Park Assist II, High Beam Assist and Easy Open boot.

The new Passat is due to go on sale in the UK in June and the first models are expected to arrive in August. Prices will be announced later.