Full year 2012 results continued rolling in this week with another set of read-em-and-weep figures (if you’re at, say Ford of Europe, GME or PSA) from Volkswagen Group. There was a note of caution about 2013 before, a day or two later, came the news of EUR7,200 in annual bonus for each of the worker bees. Nice, if you can get it.

As expected, Nissan has revamped the Leaf EV ahead of European production here in England and the mods largely followed those announced for US production with three new trim levels aligned to other local models, darker and leather trim options for the cabin and some general tweaks to the electrickery. Having mucho appreciated the LED ‘torch’ in the end of the Vauxhall Ampera [Chev Volt] charge cord when connecting up on dark nights, I was intrigued to see Nissan’s put a similar light in the socket. I greatly like the Leaf and am looking forward to seeing if the powertrain tweaks and new heater mean I can get more than 69 miles as a regular range offering, warmer feet and less fogged glass. Leather seats will be nice but, without lecky-sapping cheek warmers, maybe a bit cold first thing in a Euro winter? Even with cabin pre heat.

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Colleague Simon Warburton spent much of this week with European suppliers in Brussels and filed a number of reports including this and that on FTAs and union haggling over Ford’s Genk closure. There was also more news on the fate of GM’s Bochum plant this week.

There was also some good news – VW’s Audi is adding March shifts in Germany and Chrysler’s spending big on transmission production in Ohio.

Have a nice weekend.

Graeme Roberts – Deputy Editor – just-auto.com

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