Car and Van News

Aston Martin celebrated its 100th birthday on Sunday and marked the day by unveiling a radical concept car.

The CC100 Speedster Concept is described as very much a one-off, harking back to the earliest Astons but also boasting hints to the brand’s future design direction.

What is it: Soft-top version of successful lifestyle supermini

Key features: Full-length fabric roof, retractable at 70mph

Mercedes’ new compact four-door coupe, the CLA, will be available with special aerodynamic tweaks that can reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 20g/km at speed.

A reduction of just 0.01 in a car’s drag co-efficient, or Cd, brings down CO2 by 5g/km at motorway pace, say Mercedes aerodynamics engineers.

Peugeot-Citroen is showing its revolutionary hybrid-air technology at the Geneva show, and says the system will be in production by 2016.

The technology matches a compressed-air powerplant to a petrol engine, and offers a number of potential benefits over hybrids using an electric motor.

Lamborghini may be celebrating its Golden Jubilee at Geneva, but Porsche is celebrating 50 years of its most famous car – the 911.

To mark the birthday, Porsche has taken the wraps off the GT3 version of the latest 911 generation.

Chevrolet is wowing the Geneva show with some serious American muscle – a drop-top version of its Corvette Stingray.

Just like its hardtop sister, the car is powered by a NASCAR-evoking 6.2-litre V8 of 450bhp, along with, neatly, 450lbft of torque.

Audi will debut a hybrid version of its A3 hatch with electrifying eco figures at next month’s Geneva show.

The petrol-electric A3 e-tron is said to be capable of 188mpg while producing CO2 emissions of just 35g/km.