Westerbeke 58 Heat Exchanger on 2040-parts.com

New Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive goes in to production

The first Mercedes B-Class ED (pictured) rolls off the production line in Rastatt With the BMW i3 grabbing headlines – and flying out of showrooms – as BMW’s first electric car, Mercedes need to play catch-up with a convincing EV of their own, and that’s the new B-Class Electric Drive – an EV version of the regular B-Class – which has now gone in to production in Germany. Built alongside regular ICE versions of the B-Class at Mercedes’ Rastatt Plant, the B-Class ED (Electric Drive) looks practically the same as its more conventionally powered siblings – although the front bumper does look a bit different – and has an electric motor good for 177 bhp and 250 lb/ft of torque, can manage a scoot to 62 mph in 7.9 seconds and has a range of up to 124 miles. The range – at least the quoted range – is a chunk better than the BMW i3′s and on a par with the latest Nissan LEAF, thanks to EV technology provided by Tesla, and the wrapping of an EV drivetrain in a conventional series production car could appeal to more buyers than the ‘statement’ design of the BMW i3.

Porsche Cayenne Hybrid (2007): first official pictures

By Ben Pulman First Official Pictures 26 July 2007 04:57 A Porsche hybrid? That's right, and CAR Online has just returned from a visit to Weissach - Porsche's R&D HQ near Stuttgart - where we were given the full lowdown on the Cayenne Hybrid. Porsche's hand has been forced by the current public and political climate surrounding CO2 and global warming - and the company has taken the unusual step of showing its prototypes even though they're a few years from production.

Kia Magentis (2011) first official pictures

This is the all-new Kia Magentis, revealed by the Korean company ahead of the official launch on 1 April at the 2010 New York motor show. It does indeed. Saloons below the likes of the Aston Martin Rapide are rarely beautiful, and although we're not saying the Magentis is a stunner, it is definitely a decent step forward for Kia.