HyFive, Beetle, AVAS, Volkswagen, Porsche.

HyFive! Five major carmakers have now announced a 31-million pound (51m dollar) deal at the Mayor of London’s office. Together, BMW, Daimler, Honda, Hyundai and Toyota want to promote H2 transport by supplying 110 fuel cell vehicles (75 of which will be Hyundai’s ix35) in various cities including Bolzano, Copenhagen, Innsbruck, London, Munich and Stuttgart. Next to existing H2 refuelling stations, project partners like Linde, OMV and ITM Power plan to install new ones by 2015.
thegreencarwebsite.co.uk, greencarcongress.com (Hyundai)

Expanding the Beetle family? German magazine AutoBild reports in its print issue about Volkswagen’s plans to expand its Beetle series by 2019. According to a VW product manager, the convertible could be joined by an SUV, coupé and minibus similar to the Bully. Furthermore, all models could possibly come as electric or hybrid vehicles.
automobil-produktion.de (in German)

Mandatory traffic noise: The European Parliament ruled all electric cars to emit artificial engine noises for the protection of pedestrians, esp. the visually impaired. From 2019 on, ‘acoustic vehicle alerting systems’ (AVAS) will be compulsory for new electric and hybrid vehicles if the law gets the approval of the EU commission.
thegreencarwebsite.co.uk, dailymail.co.uk

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VW electrifies Britain: Volkswagen will present its electric offering to the UK next Wednesday at the Gadget Show Live in Birmingham. Here, VW will show its Golf GTE for the first time and also brings along the e-Up and XL-1 but not the e-Golf.
transportevolved.com

Porsche Spyder 918: Much has been said about Porsche’s hybrid super car but Nelson Ireson sure gave his review a lot of thought and prose when flying along. He seems intrigued by the Spyder’s performance that feels like magic even though Ireson thinks the hybrid mode is the one most closely to a conventional car.
motorauthority.com (with video)