1959 Edsel Front Grill Lower Stainless In Center on 2040-parts.com

Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.

What does owning a car really cost you?

Not many things are more terrifying than looking at your bank statement every month to see how badly you blew it. But aside from the day-to-day expenses, ever wonder where exactly all of your money is going? Our friends at The Wall Street Journal's MarketWatch site say that AAA's annual report on driving costs for 2013 suggest that it's your car sucking the life out of your bank account.

Mercedes AMG has best year ever

With car sales plummeting in 2008 (and likely to be worse in 2009) there aren’t many bright spots around. But performance saloons are certainly one of them. As we reported back in December, BMW’s M Division had a cracking year, with sales of nearly 27,000 for the year.