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WRC Mini Concept (2010) first official pictures

While the Mini Countryman might be destined for suburban mumsville, BMW has confirmed the new model will also terrorise the countryside in the form of the WRC Mini from 2011, with IRC champ Kris Meeke at the wheel. Officially launched at the 2010 Paris motor show in concept guise, the WRC Mini will be engineered and run by motorsport doyen Dave Richards and his Prodrive outfit, although customer packages will be available too, allowing independents to compete in the car. Not so much – this is no time for misty-eyed Paddy Hopkirk odes.

Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.

Last 2013 MINI leaves the production line to make way for the new 2014 MINI

The last 2013 MINI rolls off MINI’s production line It’s only ten days since the all new 2014 MINI was revealed, but already production of the current MINI – launched in 2006 – has ended at MINI’s production plant in Oxford. It’s hard to believe, but the current generation of the MIN I has sold over 1 million around the globe in the seven years since it launched, and the BMW MINI – since its re-birth in 2001 – has shifted a grand total of 1,863,289 MINI hatches and 2.4 million MINIs have been built in Oxford since 2001. When the current, 2nd generation BMW MINI, was launched in 2006, it brought with it new turbocharged engines and suspension tweaks to make sure the then ‘new’ MINI continued to offer all the things that make MINI special, but in a more grow-up way.