Tuesday 6th March 2018.   Before I start, in the last few minutes the Geneva motor show has just seen the launch of the VW ID Vizzion, with some very good carpets but a lack of steering wheel, and the Bentley Bentayga Hydrid with a “statement piece” charging station.  I will decipher the press releases and talk more about what you want to know tomorrow.   I-PACE DRIVEN Firstly, car mags and journalists have been given their first taste of driving the new all electric Jaguar I-PACE as they arrive for the Geneva Motor Show. However these aren’t what you call in depth road tests and the drives were limited to a few minutes around a carefully controlled track designed by Jag, but we don’t care, the first reviews are in. Firstly Autoexpress who say “The I-Pace ticks the usual EV boxes, with instant torque delivery and the ability to slow down to a complete halt just by lifting off the throttle pedal. But there’s also impressive refinement from those dual motors; only a faint whine is audible under hard acceleration.” Car Magazine on the other hand praise the steering and how jaguar-y it feels. I presume that’s a compliment. They also noticed how aggressive the top level of regen was and inform us that Jaguar engineers say one pedal driving is suitable for 98% of all braking events. Until some more in depth reviews surface in May that’s all we have to be getting on with, but I’ll keep an eye on the in person comments at Geneva.   CUPRA EV SPECS On the podcast recently was news about Volkswagen’s Spanish division Seat, and their Cupra eRacer, the first touring car powered by electrons. At the time I lamented any actual specs because I’m guess you like me, enjoy a stat or two. Well now we have more details. It reaches 100km/h or 62mph in 3.2 Sec, onto an eventual 270km/h, thanks to 4 electric motors and continuous 402hp, which allow a peak of up to 670hp. The battery pack has 6,077 cells, weighing in at 450kg which makes up a third of the car’s weight Cupra e-Racer Technical Director, Xavier Serra says “One of this vehicle’s most surprising aspects has to be its power. The Cupra e-Racer can reach 12,000 revolutions, compared to the 6,500 of a petrol powered racer car, and all with a single gear.” It’s race-ready too, with a roll cage and racing displays. Will it ever race? Is this just proof of concept? And if so, can I please have it when you’re finished showing it off.   MERCEDES SMART CARS AND EQ POWER The Mercedes Benz Smart Cars have always been a little arms length from it’s parent. The showroom near here for instance has a separate building, logos and branding. It’s very different to Mercedes showroom. Now Mercedes are bringing the Smart electric into the fold, and making it part of their EQ brand of EVs. CEO of smart Dr. Annette Winkler said: “smart is electric, innovative, intelligent and totally unique, or in three words each: ‘smart EQ fortwo’ and ‘smart EQ forfour’. With the smart EQ fortwo/forfour, we are putting the first products from the Mercedes-Benz Cars EQ family on urban roads and showing how much fun electric mobility can be.” The new models also come with a more powerful onboard charger for level 2 charging, up to 22kW power. Staying with Mercedes they also launched their EQ Power plug-in diesel hybrid. They say that electrification via hybrid means that they are locally-emission free, which is somewhat of a caveat as they run on diesel. The powertrain will be available for C-Class and upwards, with benefits for efficiency and performance. But it still burns Diesel. The electric range of 50km is in line with what we’ve seen from other plug-in hybrids recently, this time with a 13.5kWh battery and onboard 7.2kW charger, with 2 hours charge time to full. They talk about pre-entry climate control, a benefit pure electric owners love, being part of their plug ins too. Their press release goes on to mention improvements in diesel, the combustion process and internal friction. I switched off slightly because it me