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BMW i3 EV revealed. It’s clever, but it’s not exactly pretty

The BMW i3 electric city car (pictured) has been officially revealed The BMW i3 – the first of BMW’s production ‘i’ electric cars – has finally been revealed at events in London, New York and Beijing as BMW plots its course to bring a premium electric city car to the world. Looking much like the original Mega City Concept, the i3 debuts a number of innovations from BMW – which are very clever – but it also debuts perhaps the worst looking BMW we’ve ever seen, with its incongruous lines, bulging bonnet, odd shapes on the flanks and slab-backed rear view. But what underpins the i3 is clever indeed, with a lightweight inner body made from carbon fibre and carbon fibre reinforced body panels providing the skin, all conspiring to make the i3 light – 1195kg, despite 25 per cent or so of that being batteries – and very rigid.

Jaguar & Land Rover eschew Detroit for Delhi

The Jaguar C-X16 will be on show at the Delhi Motor Show in January. Although Jaguar Land Rover has revealed that it won’t be exhibiting at the 2012 Detroit Motor Show in January – instead it will be out in force at the Delhi Motor Show – it’s really not a huge deal. Motor Show exhibiting is an expensive business, and despite JLR’s strong sales, costs are a factor.

New Lexus LS600 Hybrid launches at Frankfurt

The revised 2010 Lexus LS600h Hybrid The 2010 version of the LS600h gets a set of styling tweaks, which include modifications to the front end with LED indicators, new bumper and grill, and new fog lights. Other changes include the door mirrors and chrome detailing. This hybrid only LS600 (Lexus has said they intend only making hybrids in future ) has had improvements made to the Hybrid System including an ‘Eco’ mode which effectively turns down throttle response to make the LS600h more economical.