Mazda Millenia S Supercharger Air Bypass Valve 084900-067 on 2040-parts.com

Best Western Hotels rolling out EV charging points in the UK

We’re electric car sceptics – or at least sceptical about their ability to replace the ICE car as our principal form of personal transport – although EVs do have their place as runarounds in urban areas, where their limited range isn’t really a factor. But taking your EV off for a weekend jaunt does pose logistical problems when the average range is probably no more than 80 miles, and something worth making the effort for a weekend away is almost always going to be further away than that. But a bit of smart marketing by Best Western Hotels – a group of 270 or so independently run hotels round the UK – means EV drivers will soon be able to plot their weekend away on the basis of Best Western Hotels en route, with Best Western planning on fitting EV charging points in their car parks, with half their hotels having free charging points by September.

New Volkswagen Tiguan (2012) gets R-Line options

2012 VW Tiguan gets R-Line options The new VW Tiguan turned up earlier this year, looking for all the world like a mini-me VW Touareg. But with the reveal of the 2012 Tiguan came no news of the R-Line add-ons which turned the old model Tiguan from a bit of a bland and boring-looking compact SUV, to something more appealing (as we discovered when we reviewed the old model VW Tiguan R-Line). But now the 2012 Tiguan is in the showrooms VW has decided the time is right to offer a bit more pizzazz for the new Tiguan, so they’ve revealed R-Line packages for the interior and exterior.

2012 Mercedes SL63 AMG – now it’s the video

Mercedes SL63 AMG Video The official public debut of the 2012 Mercedes SL63 AMG is at Geneva next week and Mercedes has divvied up a video to pique interest. It’s easy to think of the Mercedes SL as an old man’s convertible; a soft and soggy soft-top for those who are more interested in the pose than the drive. But that’s not really been true for a long time, and certainly not in the SL AMG models, which have offered real performance and decent dynamics since arriving as the SL55 AMG a decade ago.