Iveco is now marketing the EcoDaily Electric in the UK. Up for grabs at both 3.5 and 5.2 tonnes, and in van and chassis cab guise, it’s said to have a range of up to 80 miles fully-laden between recharges. That does, however, depend on the sort of work it’s on and the number of NaNiC12 sodium nickel chloride Zebra Z5 traction batteries fitted.

Wind the clock back over 20 years and the Taro was part of Volkswagen’s light commercial line-up. It was a rebadged version of Toyota’s Hilux pick-up, but only remained on sale for a couple of years.

Iveco is quietly turning itself into a one-stop shop for alternative fuel solutions. Recognising that there’s no single power source that will meet everybody’s needs, it’s producing electric, diesel-electric parallel hybrid and compressed natural gas (cng) versions of the Daily as well as the standard diesel.

Based on the same platform as the excellent, and recently revised Outlander 4x4, Mitsubishi’s latest entry to its UK passenger car is aimed squarely at the expanding ‘crossover’ market. The ASX is basically a pumped-up five-door estate car and it’s targetted directly at Nissan’s Qashqai.