smart fortwo gets a facelift for 2012

The smart fortwo gets a nip and tuck for 2012 The smart fortwo has been given a small cosmetic facelift for 2012, and will debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March. The perpetual loss-maker for Mercedes that is the smart car (the other being Maybach, which is now being left to wither on the vine) still continues, and Mercedes are planning a replacement, previewed by the recent smart forvision concept which heralds the new smart fortwo which will share its platform with the next Renault Twingo. But to freshen the current smart fortwo until the all new smart fortwo arrives, Mercedes has rolled out a few cosmetic tweaks for the current smart fortwo for 2012, but haven’t bothered to tweak either the chassis or engines.

Seat completes industry's largest solar panel installation

SEAT HAS completed construction of the largest solar panel installation in the automotive industry. The huge 'Seat al Sol' array at the firm’s Martorell plant outside Barcelona is the size of 40 football pitches and generates 15 million kilowatt hours of power per year courtesy of the reliable Spanish sunshine. The electricity produced is enough to account for a quarter of the amount needed to build a year’s allocation of Leons, reducing the factory’s energy bills significantly and saving 7,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

Team Lotus buys Caterham Cars

Caterham Cars has been sold to Team Lotus Enterprise, the holding company for the Team Lotus Formula One team.  So Lotus has bought back the Caterham Seven? No. Team Lotus, the UK-based F1 team owned by Malaysian businessmen Tony Fernandes, Kamarudin Meranun and SM Nasarudin has done the deal. You're thinking of Group Lotus, the makers of Lotus sports cars led by Dany Bahar – Group Lotus sponsors of Lotus Renault GP, the UK-based F1 team that was formerly Renault.