2013 Jaguar XJ gets 3.0 Litre V6 S/C

Jaguar has announced the 2013 XJ with the new 3.0 litre V6 Supercharged engine replacing the old 5.0 litre V8. Starts at £65,365. Hot on the heels of the news of prices for the XF Sportbrake and the tweaks to the 2013MY XF range, Jaguar has revealed a few tweaks for the 2013 Jaguar XJ.

Pioneer App Radio officially unveiled

Pioneer has officially unveiled the App Radio that AutoWeek told you about earlier this month. Now that it's willing to talk, Pioneer claims that the radio and audio system is "the first in-vehicle product designed to utilize the processing power, storage capacity, network connectivity and apps of the iPhone and iPod Touch as the primary source for its information and entertainment capabilities." That does sound a lot like what Mini Connected and, in a more platform-agnostic sense, Ford Sync are doing. Pioneer said it couldn't speak to the similarity of those systems, but Ted Cardenas, director of marketing for Pioneer's car-electronics division, briefed us on installation of the device and what Pioneer is doing to minimize driver distraction.

Mercedes want more Tesla-powered EVs. A-Class & CLA EV?

The Mercedes B-Class EV (pictured) could be joined by more Tesla-powered compact Mercedes EVS When Tesla was still trying to be something more than just the Silicon Valley company that put an electric motor in a Lotus to create the Tesla Roadster, Mercedes took a stake with an eye to the future. That deal between Mercedes and Tesla has already reaped some rewards with the Smart EV and electric B-Class, but it seems Mercedes wants more EVs in its lineup and wants Tesla to provide the powertrains and batteries. Speaking to Reuters, Daimler’s CFO, Bodo Uebber, said they were looking at more ways to work with Tesla and that they were looking to fo more in the premium compact arena to appeal to a younger demographic.