This week's motoring news roundup
New electric offering
DAIMLER, OWNERS of Mercedes Benz, plans to work with China’s BYD to bring a new electric vehicle to the Chinese market under a brand created by the two companies.
The German carmaker has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese company, which makes both lithium-ion batteries and cars, to “establish a technology partnership for electric vehicles in China”.
The two companies gave no further details of when they planned to launch the car.
BMW 5-series from €41,750
BMW IRELAND has released details on the pricing of the new BMW 5-Series, which will arrive in Ireland from later this month. Initially, only 6-cylinder models will be available, to be followed in late June by what is expected to be the main seller, the 520d.
Pricing for the 184bhp 520d will be a very aggressive, at €41,750 for the manual model, which will include leather upholstery, Bluetooth phone preparation, a USB interface and automatic air-conditioning on all models. The automatic 520d will cost €43,964. Both the manual and automatic versions of the 520d have emissions of less than 140g/km so annual road tax will be just €156.
The 204bhp 525d will cost €52,370 for a manual model and €54,793 for an automatic, while the 245bhp 530d starts at €59,130 or €61,553 with an automatic gearbox. If you prefer petrol, the 204bhp 523i starts from €51,750 and at the top of the range is a 407bhp 550i at €93,560.
Listen up
This week's Irish TimesMotors podcast features all the latest from the floor of the Geneva Motor Show, one of the most eventful for impressive new metal in many years. We'll also have news and views on the rising car sales, and in his latest in-car road test, Paddy Comyn gets behind the wheel of the new Mercedes C220 CDI BlueEfficiency, a premium saloon with annual motor tax of just €302.
Listen in at irishtimes.com/motors/podcast