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Toyota Prius C not coming to the UK – Yaris Hybrid instead

Toyota Prius C - leaked in the photo above - is not coming to the UK Just last week we revealed that the new compact Prius City car – dubbed the Toyota Prius C – has leaked out in Japan from a brochure, ahead of an expected debut at the Tokyo Motor Show next month. But the UK won’t be getting the Prius C. A Toyota spokesman has said that with the UK already having the UK-built Auris Hybrid – and the Yaris Hybrid arriving next year – there are no plans to bring the new small Prius to the UK.

BMW creates mini version of Art Car by artist Jeff Koons

Known for his whimsical sculptures, artist Jeff Koons is using his skills to create limited-edition BMW Miniature Art Cars instead of giant stainless-steel balloon animals. Famed artists such as Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein have created their own BMW Art Cars, and Koons is just the latest in a line such works since Alexander Calder painted the first installment in the Art Car Collection in 1975 Adorned with bright streaks of color against a black background, the full-size vehicle competed in Le Mans in 2010. Miniature models are available now.

Ellesmere Port's bid to build Ampera hits snags

By Rob Golding Motor Industry 09 October 2009 15:02 Prime minister Gordon Brown’s personal crusade to get Vauxhall's version of the Chevrolet Volt petrol-electric plug-in hybrid – the Ampera – built in Britain's Ellesmere Port factory in 2012 is a dream delayed, CAR can disclose today.News that the UK Astra plant is the best in Europe, that the Astra's Delta platform will underpin the Ampera, and that Volt will be on US sale from 2010 had been taken to mean that Vauxhall would be churning out the cars in the north west within three years.But the prospect of an electric car industry growing up around the run-down Merseyside manufacturing site is not imminent, CAR has learned.'No Ampera to be built in Europe before 2015'Vauxhall insiders have made it clear that the car to be known as the Vauxhall/Opel Ampera in Europe will be an import from the US for at least five years. One senior planner told us: 'The US will be the sole source of Amperas until at least 2015.'Bob Lutz, GM's former product supremo who recently came out of retirement as a PR, said that the low value of the dollar made the US an ideal site for the manufacturing of export cars. And with forecast sticker prices of the range-extender electric car standing at a scary £35,000+, every price saving is vital to its marketability.The European market also needs time to get its electricity recharge infrastructure in place before it is worth making cars onshore in volume, GM high-ups point out.