Volkswagen to launch new large SUV in USA

Volkswagen has revealed plans to invest $7 billion (£4.2 billion) in North America, with the launch of a new SUV in 2016. The midsize SUV will take Volkswagen towards it goal of selling 1 million cars a year stateside by 2018. On Bing: see pictures of the Volkswagen CrossBlue concept Find out how much a used Volkswagen SUV costs on Auto Trader The seven-seat SUV is based on the CrossBlue concept, seen at the Detroit Motor Show last year.

UK electric car sales hit record high

While electric cars may not have taken off as quickly as the likes of Renault and Nissan had hoped, the latest figures from the government’s £5,000 electric car grant scheme show that sales have leapt 25% in the last quarter. A total of 1,149 electric cars were registered in Q3, not only a 25% improvement over Q2, but the most successful quarter since the government scheme began back in January 2011, indicating that consumers are starting to understand the technology and its limitations rather better. On Bing: see pictures of electric cars in the UK Find out how much an electric car costs on Auto Trader This news comes as the Renault-Nissan alliance has been forced to admit it is not going to reach its self-imposed target of 1.5 million electric car sales by 2016.

Chrysler scraps paper owner’s manuals, shifts to DVDs

Chrysler Group is replacing its traditional owner’s manuals with DVDs and an abridged printed guide in an effort to reduce costs and save 930 tons of paper annually. Chrysler will see “substantial savings” from the shift away from paper manuals, which often had more than 500 pages, spokesman Bryan Zvibleman said. He declined to say how much will be saved by the change, which is taking effect with 2010 models.