BM microcar to revive legendary badge, with petrol, diesel and electric power. It’s the car that proves BMW is heading back to the future!
In an unlikely partnership, the German company has teamed up with the UK’s Bath University to design a new range of eco-friendly two, three and four-wheeled city runabouts. With this news comes the suggestion that the Isetta badge could make a comeback after 50 years, providing the main inspiration for the four-wheeled microcar. Read the rest of this entry »
The outlook for Honda has never been so clear. This is the firm’s hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity, which it is backing to lead the world into a fuel cell future.
As part of that effort, the FCX Clarity gets its European launch this week. Being previewed in Germany, the clock is ticking on a UK launch, too. We got behind the wheel to find out what a lucky few have to look forward to.
It’s soon obvious that there are some major hurdles to overcome – not least the fact that extracting hydrogen in a sustainable way remains a major challenge. Honda’s short-term solution is to provide drivers with their own ‘home energy station’ – a device that turns gas from the mains supply into hydrogen for your car. Read the rest of this entry »
Concept car shows vision for the future of the Toyota Prius as a practical family car, powered by hydrogen fuel cells
This is the FCV-R. It stands for Fuel Cell Vehicle – Reality and Revolution and is Toyota’s brand new practical fuel-cell concept and the strongest hint yet that the Japanese firm is serious about putting a fuel-cell vehicle into production.
Up until now, owning a fuel-cell car has been highly impractical due to the large production costs and lack of commercial hydrogen filling stations, but Toyota is looking to change all this and it aims to do it by 2015. Read the rest of this entry »
Twenty-four hours after departing a chaotic and densely populated London Heathrow, I touch down in Greenland on what appears to be the only patch of land that isn’t blanketed in white for as far as the eye can see. The reason I’ve come to this predominantly uninhabited and perilously cold country is to learn as much as possible about its mysterious and unique food culture.
With worldwide interest in Scandinavian food at an all-time high, Greenland and its eating habits remain largely enigmatic to the rest of the world. Over the next eight days my plan is to eat as much traditional food as I can manage and spend the rest of the time meeting and speaking with locals, chefs, fishermen and anyone else related to the food industry in an attempt to gain a better understanding of what it is that typifies Greenlandic cuisine. Read the rest of this entry »
It’s one of the toughest tests imaginable for Aston Martin’s new Rapide, as we team up with the firm to put it through its paces in some of the world’s most extreme terrain.
Modern cars have to be tough. And that doesn’t mean simply withstanding the rough and tumble of Britain’s potholed roads.
Before a new model hits forecourts, manufacturers need to be sure it can cope with the most extreme conditions the world can throw at it. So, where better to put this to the test than the scorching hot, hostile climes of the Middle Eastern state of Kuwait? Read the rest of this entry »
Early last year, one gloomy spring morning, the gods of travel journalism offered me, an amateur explorer at best, the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Greenland, following in the footsteps of Amundsen, Franklin, Fiennes and the other greats of Arctic exploration.
My task was to report on the country’s culinary revolution mixed in with some Arctic fishing and a bit of extreme sledging. With landscapes, fluorescent green skies, temperatures dropping as low as -50 and even more savage winds, it was pure adventure that shattered any David Attenborough-induced preconceptions I might have had. Read the rest of this entry »
The rather unconventional, early morning Eurostar commute from London to Frankfurt for my first Buchmesse was not without incident.
Things began promisingly with a continuous and complementary showering of various French patisserie, fresh juices and high-brow periodicals, but started to take a turn for the worse after a series of unprecedented technical delays and breakdowns – in German territories of all places. The journey was somewhat rescued after the final round of Deutsche Bahn musical chairs, landed me a seat in the company of a prominent Germanised, Chilean actress en-route to the same port of call. From the little she divulged in our brief encounter, our first Frankfurt Book Fair experiences sounded likely to be somewhat different. Read the rest of this entry »
As our small propeller-powered plane begins its descent into Ilulissat I’m glued to the small porthole-shaped window mesmerised by the breathtaking views. Once we break through the stationary clouds and snow-capped mountains, the sea reveals itself for the first time.
Frozen, motionless like a snapshot in time, the first signs of cracks are beginning to appear across its glistening surface. Trapped within it is a mass congregation of icebergs waiting for the waters to melt so they can continue on with their journeys. Read the rest of this entry »
