(2) Volvo Tamd 41 P on 2040-parts.com

LA Design Challenge 2013: The Entries

The LA Auto Show Design Challenge entries have been revealed, featuring designs from nine of the world's top design studios. JAC, Mazda, SAIC, Qoros, Subaru, Changfeng, Toyota and two groups from BMW DesignworksUSA have submitted designs for the challenge, themed ‘Biomimicry & Mobility 2025: Nature's Answer to Human Challenges'. This year's brief asked for designs for a vehicle experience that identify issues like congestion, pollution, sustainability, flexibility and safety in designing a mobility solution that mimics nature to solve them.

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.

Mercedes R-class facelift (2010) first official pictures

This is the facelifted Mercedes R-class, unveiled today at the 2010 New York auto show.  It lives, and in the UK the new model will only be available as an entry level, rear-drive R300 CDI and a top-spec, long-wheelbase R350 CDI. The R300 CDI BlueEFFICIENCY 2WD (to give this big beast its full name) is 7% more efficient than before but still offers the same power and performance. The more snappily titled R350 CDI 4MATIC is also more economical (its 33.2mpg bettering its predecessor by 2.8mpg) but also more powerful, with outputs of 261bhp and 457ft up from 218bhp and 376lb ft.