Renault’s production Zoe Z.E. EV and Kangoo EV will be produced in France (although at two different plants), but the EV version of the Renault Fluence will be produced in Bursa, Turkey in the first half of 2011.

That’s over a whole year to go, but since the Fluence is a relatively affordable Megane sedan, an affordable relatively large C-segment (Civic FD sized) electric sedan is a welcome addition in the product offerings of any country. A Malaysian debut seems quite far off in the distance at this moment though, as the Renault Fluence EV will first be launched in Israel and Denmark, and then continue to make its way to other countries.

Fluence EV buyers will get three battery charge options – your regular charge which will take hours, a rapid charge that requires an external charger, and the Quick Drop battery exchange program. With Quick Drop, you basically cycle between multiple batteries with your EV ownership. Drive it into a Quick Drop garage and the system swaps your EV’s depleted battery with a new fully charged battery in about 3 minutes. It’s a very cool solution but of course Quick Drop will probably only be offered in countries that has Quick Drop centers in place.

There has been no talk of an ASEAN debut so far. Perhaps Tan Chong can try for an electric Fluence to be assembled here in Malaysia for local consumption and export. If they price it at RM150,00.99 or something they qualify for a new manufacturing license, zero local ownership requirement, etc etc various other incentives under the new NAP review. Look after the jump for a gallery of the Fluence EV.

Click here to read the rest of Renault Fluence EV made in Turkey from 2011

Despite Americans being known to be suckers for things like a large SUV ‘hybrid’ weighing over 2 tonnes, next year’s Detroit Auto Show (set to be held mid-January 2010) will have a special 37,000 square foot section called Electric Avenue devoted entirely to electric cars. Electric Avenue will be sponsored by Dow Chemical Co, a battery supplier who has EV batteries in the works.

So far a mix of both regular nameplates in the industry as well as new EV startups (seems like getting into the electric car business is quite easy given the accessibility to ready-made components like motors and batteries) have signed up and a total of 20 different cars will be displayed. Will we see Detroit Electric there? You can be sure for Renault to be there with some of their EV cars which use the Nissan Leaf’s EV powertrain.

A JV between Dow Chemical and South Korean company Kokam Engineering recently receiveda US$161 million grant to develop these EV batteries and build them at a $665 million 800,000 square foot facility consisting of an R&D center and production plant in Michigan.

The Proton R3 Rally Team is in China this weekend for the Rally of China 2009 in the Longyou countryside. They had their shakedown yesterday and managed to clock the 6th fastest time of the day with their Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 rally car.

6th is a pretty good result considering out of a total of 82 competitors, 50 consisted of turbocharged Mitsubishis and Subarus which have an advantage due to their higher torque in the Longyou countryside’s mountainous terrain. The Satria Neo Super 2000’s 2.0 liter Renault engine is normally aspirated so it has less torque but it makes its 280 horses through high-revving and an aggressive tune instead.

“The main thing is to get a good clean run here, maybe not go as quick as it can go and try and get to the end with no problems,” said driver Alister McRae, who will be racing tomorrow with his navigator Bill Hayes. Leg 1 of the Rally of China 2009 will span a total of 40 kms. Look after the jump for some photos from the shakedown today.

Click here to read the rest of Satria Neo Super 2000 clocks in 6th fastest at Rally of China 2009 shakedown

The McLaren MP4-12C is not in the showrooms yet but McLaren Automotive is already embarking on getting as many buyers as possible interested in the car. They’ve produced a video called “Inside McLaren: developing the MP4-12C” which tracks the MP4-12C’s development process.

The video introduces to the viewer the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) and the MP4-12C test programme (presented by McLaren Automotive Technical Director Dick Glover), footage of extreme test conditions (presented by Chief Test Driver Chris Goodwin), more footage of the development process by various senior engineers, and footage of the 12C development cars on road and track in England and Germany, and extreme hot weather testing in Bahrain.

Dick Glover managed the development process involving 50 Testing and Development engineers and a total of 8 development cars. The result – a car priced at between £125,000 and £175,000 powered by a 3.8 liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine making over 600 horses and 587Nm of torque. It’s exterior looks may not look that exciting but the specs definitely sounds very appealing!

Watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: McLaren MP4-12C Development Process

Here’s some interesting news – the 2nd generation Nissan X-Trail that has been around since year 2007 is making its debut in Thailand in Q1 2010.

The photo you see above is of the new model although it looks very similiar to the old one. More of a minor evolution of the old one in terms of design. The interior has been completely revamped though, and the center meter panel is now gone, replaced with a conventional one behind the steering wheel. The chassis is a new one shared with the Qashqai, with wheelbase increased by 5mm over the old model to 2630mm.

The X-Trail will be launched with a sole engine option – a 2.0 liter model mated to an XTRONIC CVT transmission with a 6 speed manual shifting mode. The 2.0 liter engine is not the old QR20DE found in the first generation X-Trail 2.0 sold here but the newer MR20DE model that you can also find in the Nissan Sylphy.

With the X-Trail soon in Thailand, there could be a chance that we can finally enjoy the new X-Trail here in Malaysia, as the SUV can be sourced from Indonesia whether in CBU or CKD pack form. Yes, the Thai market X-Trail is built in Indonesia, but the MR20DE engines are built in Thailand. Tan Chong tends to drag on their model lifespan here for as long as possible, resulting in a product lineup that’s an utter yawnfest if not for their ‘mother trucker’. But it could be because of a lack of support from Nissan.

There’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the Lexus LF-A. The exterior may look a little soft and boring but I’m in love with the cool instrument panel. The rev meter can actually physically move around according to the display’s needs! You’ll see what I mean in the video after the jump. Trust the Japanese to come up with something as techno-funky as this – totally gimmicky but damn cool.

Click here to read the rest of Lexus LF-A has one really cool meter panel!

Members of the media all around the world were in Miami a few days ago to drive the new BMW X6 ActiveHybrid, and you should already be seeing the test drive reports pouring in. The X6 ActiveHybrid not only has a 4.4 liter twin-turbocharged V8, but an additional two electric motors to help it blast along, with maximum traction too thanks to all wheels being driven. As per normal practice, BMW has released a batch of new photos of the ActiveHybrid X6 snapped at the media test drive event. Enjoy the photos in high resolution glory after the jump. The old batch of photos are here.

Click here to read the rest of New photo gallery of BMW ActiveHybrid X6

You have less than a week left to send in entries and stand a chance to win a set of four Goodyear Duraplus tyres for your car, in whatever size you need as long as they are available Duraplus sizes in Malaysia. Four sets of tyres have already been given out and there are an additional four sets to be given out in this second round.

Goodyear Duraplus tyres are claimed to be able to last up to 100,000km, which would make it suitable for the high mileage budget conscious customer who just wants to buy something, put them on and forget them them for the next year or so. The 100,000km figure was obtained during Goodyear’s tests on company tracks in France and Luxembourg, as well as open roads in Thailand. Here’s how you can join:

1. Snap photos of your current tyres to show that you need a change of new tyres.
2. Give your best reason to change to a set of Goodyear Duraplus tyres!

Mail your entries to paul@paultan.org.

You can have a look at the previous round of winners to have an idea of what kind of entries are likely to be picked. Goodyear says the key behind the durability of the DuraPlus is what they call TredLife Technology. It’s a buzzword that stands for a few key design features that enables the tyre to last longer.

Here’s a table of all available sizes as well as their recommended retail price per tyre:

This is basically a rebadged Mitsubishi i MiEV, due to go on sale in Europe in Q4 2010 under the Citroen brand. It is a expansion of an existing collaboration between Mitsubishi and PSA Peugeot-Citroen, where the French marques badge-engineered the Mitsubishi Outlander as their own SUVs. But with the Outlander they made significant changes to the exterior sheet metal, with the C-Zero the MiEV looks very much unchanged.

Drive is via a permanent magnet synchronous motor making 64 horses between 3,000rpm to 6,000rpm and peak torque of 180Nm from 0 to 2,000rpm. The motor is powered by a 330V lithium-ion battery made of 88 x 50Ah cells. You can recharge the batteries via a regular cord into a 220V socket. Regular charging takes 6 hours, and a 80% can be done in half an hour if you use an external charger which supplies a single-phase current of 125A at 400V.

Citroen will be launching more alternative fuel vehicles such as a full hybrid vehicle called the Citroen DS5 in 2011.

Bentley has come up with a few accessories for Bentley owners. Being the classy behemoths that they are, its not exactly common and tasteful for someone to slap on giant spinners and cover your Bentley with a psychedelic bright orange paintjob, but these subtle additions are nice for those who are really itchy to do something with their cars.

First up is a car cover for your Bentley available for the Continental Supersports and Series 51 GT and GTC models. And why? Oh, in case there’s no covered parking in your mansion for your car of course.

These wheel badges are self-levelling at speeds of up to 112km/h, which means although your wheels are spinning the Bentley logo will look like it stays static and upright.

This is a very expensive “Jewelled Torch” that can be charged via the car’s cigar lighter. A Bentley ‘B’ logo is lasered onto the torch lense, and Bentley’s unique knurling has been added around the beam adjustment bezel. Comes in a posh looking box as well.

Ah, for the Bentley owner with young ones. The leather can be done to match your car’s interior, including the same piping, fluting and hand-stitching. If you want, your kid’s name can also be embroidered on the seat back beneath the Bentley Wings.

And finally there are vented wings (front fender) for the Continental GT and GTC, styled by Raul Pires. The vents have a black mesh finish but Bentley will also offer a chrome mesh version in early 2010.

I’ve always wondered how different the car ownership experience is for those that are born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They never had the equivalent of some old Satria, Wira or Kelisa and saved up every month to do small little mods to get it to perform a little better or look just a wee bit more exciting.