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Top Gear names BMW i8 Car of the Year, Corvette, Ferrari, Mercedes also win big

The lads at Top Gear have released their listing of the finest cars of the past year, handing the ultimate honor to BMW's revolutionary i8 plug-in-hybrid supercar. "The i8 is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers - and then some," the British mag wrote. The i8, though, was far from the only hybridized car to take victories. James May and Richard Hammond both highlighted hybrids as their personal cars of the year, with May saluting the Ferrari LaFerrari and the Hamster, unsurprisingly, heaping praise on the Porsche 918 Spyder. Jeremy Clarkson, meanwhile, opted to shock many by selecting not only an American car as his best of 2014, but giving the honor to of all things, a Corvette. Clarkson wasn't the only person to honor the USA's iconic sports car, with the new, 650-horsepower Z06 variant being named TG's Muscle Car of the Year. Other big winners include Mercedes-Benz, which TG honored for S-Class Coupe (Luxury Car of the Year), the new AMG GT (Sports Car of the Year) and the not-for-US C-Class Estate (Family Car of the Year). The 458 Italia Speciale A snagged a second win for Ferrari. The best of the rest include the Citroen C4 Cactus, Renault Twingo, Volkswagen Golf R, Lamborghini Huracan and Audi TT. Take a look below for the celebratory press blast from BMW. The BMW i8 wins Top Gear Car of the Year The BMW i8 has been named as Top Gear magazine's global Car of the Year 2014. The plug-in hybrid performance vehicle beat off some stiff competition from a host of other premium and luxury manufacturers to win the overall award. The editorial team of Top Gear commended the BMW i8 for its breadth of abilities. Its 1.5-litre three-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine combined with an electric motor gives searing acceleration and driver enjoyment but all wrapped in a package that takes BMW's EfficientDynamics philosophy to the extreme courtesy of CO2 emissions less than 49g/km and a 135mpg combined cycle figure. Charlie Turner, Editor in Chief at Top Gear magazine, said: "The BMW is a milestone in the annals of automotive history and a glorious statement for an exciting and positive future. The i8 delivers – and then some. It's the kind of car we should celebrate, a beautiful vision of the future, delivered now.

Peter Max staring down $1M lawsuit over Corvette collection sale

Pop artist Peter Max recently sold off his collection of 36 vintage Chevrolet Corvettes – one each from 1953 to 1989 ­– for an undisclosed amount. The new owners have already announced plans to restore some of them and auction the models off sometime soon. Up until then, the sports cars had been languishing in various garages around New York City for decades and were caked in dust and grime. However, Max's end of the transaction has just become more complicated, because two men are suing the artist claiming he employed them to complete the deal first. The men allege that Max hired them to broker the sale of the 36 Corvettes in exchange for a 10-percent commission, according to the New York Post. They claim to have emails and text messages proving the existence of the deal, and are taking Max to court for $1 million over the squabble. The collection of Corvettes was amassed in 1989 as part of a prize package from the television network VH1, and Max bought the cars from the winner intending on using them for an art project. He never got around to it, though, and parked the sports cars around New York, until he finally sold them over the summer.

Recharge Wrap-up: NEDC's NOx problems, autonomous Chevy Volts

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) found a significant difference in NOx emissions in Euro 6 diesel cars in NEDC and WLTC testing. While 88 percent of the cars tested met emissions standards for NEDC, NOx emissions averaged five times higher under WLTC, with only 27 percent of vehicles under the limit. WLTC is considered to be a more realistic driving cycle, using hot starts and factoring a higher top speed as well as harder and more frequent accelerations than the NEDC. Read more at Green Car Congress.GM Canada will build a fleet of autonomous 2017 Chevrolet Volts. The self-driving Volts will be deployed for testing at GM's Warren, Michigan Technical Center. Employees will be able to use a carsharing app to reserve a car, which will then drive itself to the set destination. The project will allow GM to collect important data and experience to help the company more quickly develop autonomous driving technology. Read in a press release more from GM Canada, or at Green Car Congress.Carwatt is showing an electric Renault Trafic powered by second-life batteries at the COP21 environmental summit in Paris. The lithium-ion batteries used to power the EV were recycled from other Renault EVs. With the electric Trafic, Carwatt – a company that converts vehicles to use electric power – aims to demonstrate the "circular economy" of batteries, which can provide more value through a longer lifecycle. Read more in the press release below. Carwatt presents a unique automotive application for second-life batteries from electric vehicles. On the sidelines of the COP21 summit, in the Solutions Gallery running from 2 to 9 December 2015 in Le Bourget near Paris, Carwatt and its partners —Renault, Paris City Council, BPI France, the Ales Ecole des Mines Engineering School, and the Bobigny Business Campus — are showing a very special electric Renault Trafic. This prototype vehicle, the only one of kind in the world, is powered by second-life lithium-ion batteries recycled from Renault electric cars. Circular economy at work with electric vehicles When, over time, the batteries of a Renault electric vehicle fall the performance threshold specified for their initial automotive power duty (around 75% of initial capacity), they can still provide valuable service in "second-life" applications before end-of-life disposal at a recycling centre. Experiments are already under way on power storage applications, for example.