News watch January 2013: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hourFriday 18 January 2013• Mazda Motor Corporation (Mazda) and Fiat Group Automobiles S.p.A. (Fiat) announced today the signing of the Final Agreement which will see Mazda produce an open-top two-seater sports car for Fiat’s Alfa Romeo brand at its Hiroshima, Japan, plant starting from 2015 (Mazda) Thursday 17 January 2013•  Mark Reuss, North American chief of General Motors, has jumped to the defence of Electric vehicles and said he is not giving up on them despite struggling sales in 2012.

One Lap of the Web: Bugatti state of mind

-- Last week, we looked at the new Bugatti exhibit at the Mullin Museum, which taught us more about Bugatti in an afternoon than the last three years of idly flipping through Pebble Beach programs. Having thus immersed ourselves in the House That Ettore Built, we'd really like to drive to work in a faithful Type 35 replica by the aptly named Pur Sang, which Mark Dixon of Octane drove for his 140-mile commute. "You need to keep the revs up while the engine clears its throat and warms its plugs," he writes.

Volkswagen e-Golf stars at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show

Volkswagen is joining the revolution here at Frankfurt 2013 with its new all-electric e-Golf. And far from being an impractical method of transport to appease eco hippies and excite forward-thinking car geeks, it’s actually perfectly practical. Electric cars are rapidly becoming an unstoppable silent force, so it’s time to embrace them.