Electric car range drops by nearly 60% in cold weather

Electric cars like the Nissan LEAF (pictured) can lose 60% of their range when it’s cold We already know that the range of electric cars reduces as the car ages, with Nissan conforming that the LEAF’s range will drop by up to 28 per cent over five years. And now we have confirmation that the ambient temperature can have a big impact on range too, thanks to the AAA, America’s equivalent of the AA. The AAA took three standard EVs on sale in the US - Nissan LEAF, Ford Focus EV and Mitsubishi i-MiEV – and subjected them to test in different ambient temperatures.

New Mercedes S Class starts production – & reveals the new S 63 AMG

A new Mercedes S 63 AMG coming off the production line Last month we finally had the reveal of the new 2014 Mercedes S Class and it’s now started production in Sindelfingen in Germany. Which is what you’d expect. What you wouldn’t expect is that Mercedes would release a video (below) to accompany the news and manage to reveal a car that’s not yet been officially shown – the new Mercedes S 63 AMG – in the process.

2012 VW Beetle revealed

2012 VW Beetle – it’s official Back to the future again with the reveal today – ahead of a debut at both New York and Shanghai – of the 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. Where do you go when you update a car that’s already a pastiche of an original? It seems VW’s answer is you don’t go anywhere, you just fiddle at the margins.