Fiat 1100 1957-69 Autobook on 2040-parts.com

The €2000 car

By Tim Pollard Motor Industry 15 June 2007 08:28 The market for bargain basement cars costing as little as €2000 (£1400) is about to grow dramatically. CAR Online is reporting from Bosch’s annual technology seminar all week – and we grilled the bosses at the world’s biggest components supplier to find out about the soaring demand for cars priced under €7000 (£4900). Bosch’s president of gasoline systems, Wolf-Henning Scheider, said: ‘According to our estimates, this vehicle class will reach a share of 13 percent of the world market in 2010.

Toyota ends powertrain deal with Tesla

To the surprise of no one, Toyota has announced the end of a partnership with Tesla that gave rise to the slow-selling RAV4 EV, which will be replaced by a fuel cell car next year. Toyota has said that it can't meet California's zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate profitably with electric cars, but it thinks it can make money, or at least not lose so much of it, with fuel cells. Toyota signed a $100 million joint development deal in 2011 with Tesla, to build powertrains for its RAV4 EV.

Lotus NOT for sale as Proton sold to DRB-Hicom

Lotus NOT for sale - at least not for two years Despite rumours that Lotus was for sale, the sale of Lotus parent Proton to DRB-Hicom appears to preclude any sale of Lotus for two years. We reported recently that Lotus owners Proton had been advised to sell its loss-making Hethel car-maker Lotus as it geared up to be divested of State ownership in Malaysia. But it seems the sale of Proton in to private hands is to have the opposite effect.