Jaguar hybrid cars due in 2013-14

Jaguar will launch its own hybrid vehicles soon after Land Rover, CAR can confirm. Parent company Jaguar Land Rover is developing battery-assisted hybrid versions for both brands but its strategy puts part-electric Land Rovers first on the launchpad in 2013.Hybrid Jaguars – set to include the XJ and XF, but eventually every model – are therefore likely to be on the market by 2013-2014, using a similar eight-speed ZF hybrid transmission to petrol-electric BMWs.The staggered roll-out of battery Jags and Land Rovers makes sense: heavy 4x4s have come in the firing line from green protestors who label them Chelsea Tractors. Hybrid Land Rovers will trim emissions and – in plug-in hybrid mode – enable even big bulky Range Rovers to drive in zero-emissions mode into central urban areas emitting nothing more unsaintly than an electric whir.So which Jaguars will go hybrid first?It's likely that the largest models such as the XJ will receive the hybrid power packs first; large cars reap the greater benefit and can more easily swallow the additional cost, put at around £10,000 in today's money.JLR's Midlands engineering bases in Whitley and Gaydon now employ 100 engineers in the expanding hybrid powertrain business unit launched 18 months ago.

Interior Motives China Conference 2011 – Day 2

Following on from the colorful discussions started yesterday, delegates returned to the Millennium Hotel in Shanghai for the second and final – and no less thought-provoking – day. Again the context for the discussion was 'The challenge of being different: establishing a local design direction for China's maturing market', with the day segmented into three distinct topics. David Muyres: As a car manufacturer, what's next?

New Hyundai i30 (2012) previewed ahead of Frankfurt

2012 Hyundai i30 previewed ahead of Frankfurt It’s easy to think of the Hyundai i30 as part of the new wave of Euro-centric Hyundai’s. But it’s now four years old and starting to look like ‘Old’ Hyundai, so we’re to be treated to a new Hyundai i30 at Frankfurt – destined to launch in early 2012. That said, the new i30 is not going to be a radical departure from the current i30, which has been a decent success for Hyundai.