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Feds researching fire risks from EV batteries, regulator says

Federal safety regulators have begun an $8.75 million study of whether lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles pose a potential fire hazard, officials said Thursday. Kevin Vincent, chief counsel of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said researchers are looking at whether the high-voltage batteries can cause fires when they are being charged and when the vehicles are in an accident.

Subaru BRZ tease & new Subaru Hybrid concept at Tokyo

Subaru BRZ teased ahead of Tokyo We’ve seen speculation on the Subaru BRZ – Subaru’s version of the Toyota FT-86 – increase hugely as the arrival of the production version of the BRZ approaches at the Tokyo Motor Show in just a few weeks. The general consensus is that the BRZ will get something around 295bhp – after a Subaru spokesman said the BRZ will have ‘less than 300bhp’ – but we really have no idea how much more powerful the BRZ will be than the FT-86. So when we got an email in this morning with a teaser image for the production-ready BRZ, we thought maybe Subaru has decided to put us out of our misery.

Nissan reportedly to adapt hybrid system for front-wheel drive

Nissan Motor Co. is reportedly developing a front-wheel drive adaptation of its in-house hybrid vehicle technology for the next generation Altima Hybrid as early as next year. The system will be based on the rear-wheel-drive hybrid drivetrain that debuted in the 2012 Infiniti M Hybrid, Japan's Nikkan Kogyo business daily says.