Designer Tom Matano part of start-up car company in Louisiana

A new auto company backed by Texas billionaire investor T. Boone Pickens and staffed by former Mazda design chief Tom Matano plans to build "environmentally friendly" vehicles in Louisiana. V-Vehicle Co., of San Diego, will bring about 1,400 workers to a Monroe plant that once belonged to General Motors, according to a statement Wednesday from the Louisiana Economic Development Web site.

2013 Nissan LEAF updated

Nissan has updated the LEAF EV in Japan for 2013 with better range, less weight and a new LEAF S entry-level model. Revealed in Japan – but likely to come to the UK from 2013 when the LEAF starts rolling out of Nissan’s Sunderland factory – there are significant upgrades to the powertrain which result in both less weight and better range. Nissan has had a play with the electric powertrain and made it both smaller and lighter with a new motor that uses 40 per cent less dysprosium (a rare earth metal) than before, and comes in 30 per cent smaller and 10 per cent lighter, and a new streamline battery case and a few other tweaks drops the LEAF’s weight by 80kg.

Toyota iQ concept

By Tim Pollard Motor Shows 11 September 2007 02:53 Toyota iQ: the lowdown The Japanese scored one of the very few surprises of the Frankfurt show this year, with the titchy iQ concept car that previews Toyota’s new sub-Aygo city car. It’s one of our favourite cars at the show, bristling with intelligent new thinking and design flourishes to make small cars interesting again. And the best news is that Toyota has committed to building a production version, probably due in European showrooms by 2009.