We obsessively cover the auto industry…

In a blink-and-you'd-miss-it announcement during an event in Berlin, the head of marketing and sales for Smart, Martin Hülder, told us that the third model in the Smart e-Mobility range – after the Smart ForTwo Electric Drive and eBike – will be the Smart electric scooter (or "smart scooter"). To be fair, the original announcement happened in mid-May at a shindig in Davos, Switzerland, but Daimler had some new news for us in Berlin.

The stylish two-wheeler was first shown at the 2010 Paris Motor Show but was whisked into limbo from there, presumably to end up a no-go along with several previous ideas from the traditionally cash-burning company. Instead, the scooter has gotten the green light and the United States is a key market for it.

To rehash the features of the silent plug-in runabout, a 48-volt lithium-ion battery pack stored down low behind your feet supplies juice to a 4-kW (i.e. 5.4 horsepower) wheel-hub electric motor at the rear wheel. Top speed is listed at 45 km/h or 28 mph – a choice by Smart that allows the scooter to be driven on streets in many countries before one has a driver's license.

"Trend-conscious commercial users" isn't a phrase we've heard recently ever, but perhaps we're just fraternizing in the wrong circles. Mini, on the other hand, knows so many of them that it has created the Clubvan, a two-seat, five-door, panel-style version of the Clubman that is "the world's first premium compact delivery van."

As the word "van" might indicate, instead of back seats the Clubvan has a cargo bay and a fixed grate to keep breakables and bulldogs from sliding into the cockpit. According to Mini, those aren't actual panels where the Clubman windows usually reside, it's just that the windows have been blacked out so as to be opaque and further bolstered with an inner layer of polycarbonate. The glass in the rear doors has also been blacked out.

The 860-liter loading area is lined with carpeting and an acrylic roof, has 12-volt sockets, attachment loops, and can handle up to 500 kilograms.

Trend-conscious grunt will come in three flavors: gas options in 98 horsepower and 122 hp, and a diesel with 112 hp. A six-speed manual will be standard, a six speed automatic an option on the diesel. This being classified as a commercial vehicle, your trendiness does get curbed slightly: only four colors will be available outside, and the interior will be black.

It goes on sale this August, and you can find out all about it in the press release below.

French automakers Citroen and Peugeot are flip sides of the same coin. So with few exceptions, when one introduces a new product, you can expect the other to follow with a version of its own.

That's what we have here with the new Citroen C-Elysée, a rebadged version of the 301 sedan that sister company Peugeot recently announced for developing markets. The 72-horsepower sedan will be manufactured in Spain and marketed in places like Central Europe, Turkey and North Africa by year's end.

Joining the C-Elysee is the new C4 L, a sedan version of Citroen's mainstream hatchback. With a larger rear seating area and a proper trunk, the C4 L will offer three engines ranging from 150 to 170 horsepower mated to a six-speed transmission. The first production vehicle to be penned at the company's new design studio in Shanghai, the C4 L is targeted at the Russian and Chinese markets and will be produced locally in both countries.

If you take just a quick glance at this 2011 Toyota Tundra you might think that it's had a pretty hard life, but a closer look reveals that the rusty appearance is actually a custom paint job from Sherwin-Williams. Built by NASCAR driver Clint Bowyer as a tribute to America's Heartland, the truck features many classic design cues including a vertical bar grille, a wood bed floor and vintage looking 20-inch wheels. Much of the paint job is hand-painted including the white pinstripe to the lettering on the doors, and the interior has a vintage appearance as well, with a set of custom cloth seats.

Toyota graciously donated the truck for the auction here at Barrett-Jackson in Orange County with the goal of raising money for the Emporia Community Foundation, a charity that benefits the citizens of Emporia, KS. Bidding for the truck started out slowly, sticking at $30,000, but after Bowyer added a driver suit and a trip to next year's Daytona 500 the price tag skyrocketed to a final price of $100,000.

You can see detailed photos of the custom 2011 Toyota Tundra at Barrett-Jackson in the gallery above.

The American Le Mans Series is going a little greener next season. Teams are developing Le Mans Prototype Challenge cars that use natural gas in place of traditional race fuel. According to The Washington Post, Patrick Racing is already working on a natural gas 430-horsepower Chevrolet LS3 V8 to power a 1,985-pound ORECA FLM09 chassis. Rated at 130 octane, the fuel is ideal for high-compression race engine applications.

ALMS has made it clear the series is pushing to become one of the world's most efficient by following the Environmental Protection Agency Green Racing protocols. Last year, organizers started researching both natural gas and electric systems for race teams, and while ALMS is keeping details on the Prototype Challenge program quiet at the moment, The Washington Post says that the natural-gas racers should be ready in time for the 2013 season.

It's become customary for automakers to offer up the first production example of collectible cars, so it was no surprise that SRT announced earlier this year that 2013 Viper GTS VIN #1 would be selling at Barrett-Jackson's Orange County auction. Adding to the auction's appeal, proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Austin Hatcher Foundation, an organization that helps children and families dealing with issues resulting from pediatric cancer.

With the Viper's 640 horsepower V10 and beautiful carbon fiber bodywork shining under the lights, bidding for the red snake rose quickly past the six figure sticker price to a quarter of a million dollars. At this point an SRT Track Experience and a trip to this year's Petit Le Mans were thrown in as a bonus to go with the car, but it couldn't entice any bidders to go much higher and the hammer fell at $300,000.

You can view our huge gallery of photos of the 2013 SRT Viper GTS at Barrett-Jackson above, watch a video of the auction below, or head over to the Austin Hatcher Foundation web site to make a donation of your own.

When using or wearing branded gear is cause to ask yourself, "Um, too much?" the answer is usually a resounding "Yes." If you're incapable of responding to this question honestly, then Porsche Design has created a new suite of accessories for you. The Colors of 1968 collection celebrates the available hues of the 911 at the close of the sixties: Tangerine, Polo Red, Irish Green and Ossi Blue.

In addition to the predictable $60 t-shirts and a themed messenger bag (above), you can also snap up future dust-collectors like the Porsche Design "Speedminton" set.

Described as a mix of badminton, squash and tennis, Speedminton still boils down to the genteel art of whacking birdies at an opponent, something we're sure you'll be instantly remarkable at with your black carbon-composite rackets and candy-corn-colored shuttlecocks.

Also available are new additions to the Porsche Design Driver's Selection Martini Racing collection-inhale-which should elevate the golf-course parking lot rivalry between you and your Ferrari-jacket-wearing counterparts to Bloods vs. Crips intensity. More details about the latest Porsche Design swag can be found below.

Cadillac struck out with engines in the early 1980s. The V8-6-4 was a good idea in search of the engine management of the future. Despite a diesel-crazy public after a pair of fuel crises, General Motors had so botched the execution of its V8 diesel program that only recently have diesels from all brands been able to shake the severely damaged reputation. It was into this morass of dissatisfaction that General Motors pushed the HT4100 V8 in an attempt to stem the tide of failure.

The HT4100 was a lighter and smaller clean-sheet design built in a new highly-automated, computer-intensive plant. "When the engine works so well for you, it's no surprise," says this GM video, "we knew it would, and so did the computer." That's a shocking disparity compared to the real world experience of HT4100 owners. "We call it high technology, but we hope you'll call it just another pleasant Cadillac experience." The HT4100 was yet another example of GM's ability to engineer but not execute engine-wise, and it was the third failure for Cadillac within a very short timespan. Pleasant is far from what leaking, failing, iron-head, aluminum-block HT4100s were called.

Check out the video below, and remember that Cadillac's next attempt at atonement and a "pleasant experience" was the Cimarron. It's a good thing there's all this past experience for GM to reflect upon, so that it doesn't launch the 2.5-liter four-cylinder ATS with disastrous results or completely alienate the premium European buyers it seeks. Let's hope they're paying attention in history class.

Now that we're familiar with Bulgarian tuner Vilner Studio, we shouldn't be surprised by the generous application of quilted leather in its latest project, the Mercedes-Benz W113 Gentle Pagoda.

A comprehensive luxification of a Pagoda-roofed SL, two-tone leather in cafe and latte hues are cross-stitched throughout the cabin, and set off with chrome, aluminum and a mahogany-rimmed steering wheel. Incredibly, the nicest part of the car could be the trunk, which is so well turned out you'd need to think about which valuables are worthy of putting in it. Take a closer look at it in the photo gallery above.

We may love our cars, but we certainly don't spend much time with them.

The 2012 Emerging Trends in Parking survey by the International Parking Institute reveals a number of interesting facts about the place the vehicles we love spend the most time: Parking spaces.

According to the survey:

• 30 percent of most traffic in a city comes from people looking for parking spaces.
• Most cars are parked 90 percent of the time.
• Urban planners, architects and politicians are the three groups most in need of a parking expert.

While often an afterthought, creating good parking spaces is essential in creating a more efficient, more sustainable and even more walkable environment. Parking lots need to be easy to enter, a breeze to leave and easy to pay for. If not, parking can make any place a frustration for someone to visit or live, the survey points out.

The survey also says emerging technology has become more important to parking planners, as they look for ways to electronically pay for a parking space, locate spaces while in a car and better plan urban spaces. It's obvious when you think about it, but only then. Our parking lots on the whole, it appears, need a lot of work.

We're not finished with the 24 Hours of Le Mans yet, and this could be the best of it: fifteen minutes of race action in super slow motion. You'll see a Corvette spitting flames and another dragging pieces, an Audi on three wheels, a Nissan on three tires, and how kerbs and G-forces put wear on suspensions and carbon-fiber tubs.

It's more uplifting than the crashes that were last week's news, but just as riveting. The video's posted below.

Want to watch something strangely beautiful? We suggest the BMW M5 footage crafted by BMW of Canada in the video below. No scantily clad women, no overtly gratuitous tire smoke – just a 560-horsepower super sedan doing its best impression of a bullet.

Shortly after getting "shot" out of a makeshift barrel, the M5 hurdles its way at something we approximate to be its artificially limited top speed of 155 miles per hour at a series of targets, taking them out one by one in slow motion.

It's two minutes of your life that we don't think you'll regret spending. See for yourself by scrolling down below.

This Craigslist abomination is certainly a sign that something very, very evil has gone down in the Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky.

The monstrous mashup is advertised as a "1962 International rat rod?". Note the question mark. It is possibly the most important piece of punctuation in the entire listing. For this is no rat rod. Sure, it's cobbled together with pieces of several other vehicles, and at least some of it is unpainted. But rat rods are cool. This is, well, rat wrong. Or maybe just rat.

Features include the best of all three vehicles. It's got an Olds dashboard, tilt steering, cruise control, power seats, and, we think, alloy wheels. Below the beltline are the ribbed side panels of a Pontiac Grand Am and in back its "duel" exhaust. And plopped right behind the engine is the primer-red cab from a 1962 International pickup truck with Grand Am door handles "allready" installed. Three orphaned nameplates right there in one (un)tidy package.

The seller claims the only thing wrong with it is "the aircondition is low of freon," but it drives fine and (somehow) retains the International's good title. So despite the heat, and the inevitable run-ins with hordes of pitchfork wielding locals trying to burn it at the stake, just $3,000 (price is firm, btw) drives this unholy wreck right on home. Why would anyone want to part with such a work of, um, art? The seller says he has too many other projects to do.

Someone, for the love of Harley Earl, please stop this guy before he strikes again.

Car and Driver is reporting that Mini has confirmed the three-door version of the Countryman will debut at the September Paris Motor Show. Rechristened "Countryman Coupe," the production version of Mini's 2011 Detroit Auto Show Paceman Concept will go on sale early next year as a late-arrival 2013 model.

C&D doubts that the real deal will have the bronze accents of the concept, but says the rest will be "nearly identical." The Countryman Coupe specs and options lists will likely follow suit with the four-door version of the crossover, according to the report.

If you need a refresher on the Paceman, be sure to click through our gallery.