News

Battery-powered versions of the Ford Transit Connect and the Focus, the best-selling car in Britain, are currently being tested. Ford predicts that by 2020, between 10 and 25 per cent of new car sales will be hybrid, plug-in hybrid or battery-electric vehicles. Nancy Gioia, Ford’s director of global electrification, predicts that the...

The latest design of electric-assisted bicycle from Iwatani of Tokyo does away with the need for recharging points by using hydrogen cartridges as a source of fuel. Hydrogen fuel cells usually replace the need for batteries but this bicycle will include a lithium-ion pack as a back-up power supply. One hydrogen cartridge will give the 31kg...

A national road-pricing charge should be added to existing environmental and fuel taxes to encourage motorists to leave their cars at home, according to the Government’s climate change advisory body. Up until now it has been assumed that a pay-as-you-go motoring charge of the future would replace road tax (VED) and fuel taxes, but according...

The British government should offer a rebate of £10,000 to drivers who buy electric cars, according to the Government advisory board, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC). A subsidy of £5,000 will be available to those buying cars that run entirely on electricity. The scheme will run from 2011, but the government’s climate change committee...

Peak District National Park has been singled out to become the first rural area in Britain to receive government funding to promote cycling. A cash injection of £1.25 million from Cycling England is to be used to transform the park into a "haven for leisure and commuting cyclists". The independent body has launched the initiative, which is...

Halfords has reported a boom in business as more Britons get on their bikes. The retailer announced a jump in pre-tax profits from £59 million to £61 million for the six months leading up to October 2nd. This represents a 2.2 per cent rise in profits for the firm, which sells items such as bikes and accessories. It said that the growing...

Nissan’s luxury car brand, Infiniti, has announced that it is set to join the hybrid vehicle market. The firm revealed that production of its first vehicles of this type could be available by 2011. These will be the Infiniti M35 saloons, the first hybrid cars from the company in its 20-year history. According to the firm, these will...

The Conservatives would stop government funding for new speed cameras if they came to power, the shadow transport secretary has announced. Theresa Villiers revealed in a speech at the party’s convention that it would stop Labour’s "cash cow camera culture". She declared: "Ladies and gentlemen, a Conservative...

The vast majority of the British public would rather cut energy use at home than go without flying for a year, according to research by Loughborough University. Eighty-eight per cent of participants said they were willing to reduce how much energy they use in their home throughout the year, but only 26% said they were willing to forgo air...

A SMART ForTwo CDI city car has won first place in an eco rally by achieving an impressive 96.81 mpg over a 360-mile course across Lincolnshire, the Cotswolds, Shropshire, West Midlands, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Second place went a Toyota Yaris TR Diesel, which achieved 86.18 mpg, a 25 per cent improvement on the...