Chevy 261 Thermostat Housing on 2040-parts.com

£5000 electric car grants to cut a quarter off EV price

British motorists will qualify for grants lopping a quarter off the price of electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen cars – up to a maximum of £5000 discount – the Government confirmed this week. The Office for Low Emissions Vehicles, which launched six months ago, said the new grants would come into force from January 2011 as part of a £230 million low-carbon car incentive programme. Car buyers will qualify for the Plug-In Car Grant from an approved list of low-carbon cars.

Nissan recalls trucks, SUVs to fix ignition relay

Nissan is recalling about 760,000 trucks in the United States and Canada to fix a faulty ignition relay. The recall covers the Nissan Titan and Frontier pickups and the Nissan Pathfinder, Xterra, Armada and Infiniti QX56 SUVs. The North American recall is part of a larger, global recall of 2.14 million vehicles by Nissan to fix the bad relay.

GM technology chief Tom Stephens to retire

Tom Stephens, GM's vice chairman, chief technology officer and former head of global product operations, will retire on April 1 after a 43-year career with the automaker. His successor will be named later, GM said Sunday. Stephens, 63, has served as GM's chief technology officer--a new position--since Feb.