General Motors has announced that the Euro version of the Chevrolet Volt will be badged Opel Ampera. A preview version will be displayed at the Geneva motor show in just over a month’s time.

The single teaser shot released by GM appears to be simply a Volt with a new nose, although we will have to see more of the beast to be certain.

We had wondered whether this car might be badged Electra, after GM Europe filed trademark claims on that name in both the UK and Germany last year. Trademark applications on the name “Vauxhall/Opel Lithia”, which hints at lithium-based batteries, were filed at the same time.

As far as we know GM Europe still has plans for a dedicated European eco-car, based much less heavily on the Volt, which may yet be launched. We will await further news from Geneva.

The E-Flex petrol-electric platform that underpins the Volt and Ampera is now being referred to as Voltec, by the by.

For short trips of up to 60km, Voltec-based cars rely on their lithium-ion batteries, charged from a standard domestic outlet. For longer distances, the car’s electric motor is powered using electricity generated on-board by a small conventional engine. Unlike Toyota's Prius, for example, the Ampera is never directly pushed along by its internal-combustion engine.

Volkswagen’s Golf Plus seems pretty close to a perfect second-hand purchase. Buying new, you’ll need to cough up slightly more than you would for a standard Golf to get into the slightly taller, slightly more versatile Plus. But a year on and the Plus commands noticeably less than its more conventional siblings.

Bargains are set to become even more pronounced as a facelifted Golf Plus is around the corner, offering a new nose, roof rails, a marginally nicer interior and not much else to shout about.

With this in mind, we went hunting for a bargain Golf Plus through VW’s approved-used scheme. We were, of course, interested in the BlueMotion model, which boasts official CO2 emissions of 127g/km, putting it into £120 tax Band C at present, and the new Band D tax category from March this year, qualifying for a £90 tax disc from March 2010.

Without too much trouble we found a pristine eight-month-old example with just 1,300 miles on the clock, on sale for £9,995. New, the Golf Plus BlueMotion currently sells for £16,647, so we think less than ten grand is a price that’s very hard to ignore. And no, that doesn’t mean slumming it in a poverty-spec model – our car has metallic paint, automatic aircon, electric windows all-round, a trip-computer, remote central locking, 15in alloy wheels, ISOFix child-seat mountings, body-colour mirrors and ESP.

Behind the wheel, the driver is greeted by the familiar VW interior style – sober shapes, quality plastics and lots of cupholders. The controls are fuss-free – unlike the larger Passat, there are no novelty keyfob-starter buttons here, you start the motor by twisting a key.

The Golf Plus’s only real party piece is its sliding rear seat. The whole split rear bench slides backwards and forwards, allowing you to trade legroom against boot capacity. There’s a strange rear armrest-cum-storage box that you can position between the rear seats or in the boot. Along with a row of four slim storage compartments in the roof lining, these are the car’s only real attempts at MPVish versatility. The front seats don’t swivel, fold into picnic tables, or pop out to become deckchairs, sadly.

In all of VW’s BlueMotion models you get five gears and tall gearing. The long-legged setup feels awkward in the smaller Polo BlueMotion, but the larger, torquier engine here can get away with the stratospheric ratios. It feels sluggish in top at dual-carriageway speeds, but not like it’s in the wrong gear. At 50mph in fifth gear the rev counter shows 1,300rpm, at 70mph just 1,900rpm. The four-cylinder engine is also smoother and much more muted than the raucous three-pot in the Polo.

A trip computer between the Golf Plus’s two main dials includes a small illuminated arrow, which reminds the driver when it would be more frugal to change up or down. This digital nanny is, thankfully, not daft. If you’re pressing ahead and asking for rapid acceleration, it keeps itself to itself as the revs climb. But as you near the speed you want and ease off, the arrow pops up to remind you to change until you’ve selected the best gear for your cruising speed and throttle position. Downshift reminders come just at the point where the engine starts to labour, so are arguably not necessary.

In our tests we did about 40 miles of motoring on country roads and dual carriageways, and averaged 55mpg according to the trip computer.

The suspension on the BlueMotion model is 15mm lower than standard, in the interests of aerodynamics, imparting a firm ride. Cornering on the low-rolling-resistance, 65-profile tyres was confidence-inspiring in the dry – we didn’t try it in the wet.

Drive a Toyota Prius and everyone can tell you’re trying to be green, but choose a BlueMotion and nobody need ever know. The biggest external clue is the badge on the boot. Up front, the main grille is blanked off on the inside, with cooling air entering through the grille below the bumper. There’s no spoiler at the rear.

Overall the Golf Plus BlueMotion is a likeable, comfortable and frugal family car. And at less than ten grand, before you start haggling, it’s a credit-crunch-busting bargain to boot.

As regular readers will know, we like to periodically rummage among the journals at the UK Intellectual Property Office, to see what names might be appearing on bootlids in the coming years and months. Some call it speculative research, while others call it a pointless obsession and a waste of time.

For your amusement we present the fact that one Ian Gordon Murray of Surrey has applied for automotive-sector trademarks covering the names iStream, iFrame and iCentre.

Of course Ian is the real first name of car designer Gordon Murray, and these new applications belong to the same Ian that has also registered the distinctive mermaid emblem of the Gordon Muray Design company. So we are forced to wonder if the three names above are destined for the T.25 city car project.

We think iStream would make a fine name for an iPod-generation runabout, and clearly you would zip along to an iCentre rather than a stuffy old dealer to buy one or to have your iStream serviced.

We’re not sure what an iFrame might be, though. Perhaps it’s a trailer or roof-rack so that the ultra-compact T.25 will have somewhere to put passengers’ luggage?

Feel free to provide better or more sane suggestions via the comments section, below.

Fiat, meanwhile, has applied for trademarks on Micky, Mickey and Michi, the last of which must surely be the name of the rumoured Fiat Topolino small car. Topolino is, after all, the Italian name for Mickey Mouse as well as the name of a 1930s small Fiat, so what better name for a modern reinvention?

Update: Michi/Mickey/Micky sounds like it might be a hedge bet - on the same day last year, Fiat also applied for trademark protection for the name Topolino, although it hasn’t yet been advertised in the journal. So assuming that Fiat gets the trademarks it wants, we assume it will be going forward with the better-known name.

When images of the Mk3 Prius leaked onto the internet, we weren’t impressed with what looked like an incoherent update of Toyota’s familiar and iconic humpbacked eco-whale.

Now that the covers have been literally whipped off the thing at the Detroit show, we’re more impressed with the design job. Not that we’ve managed to hop across the Pond for a proper look, but we have at least seen better pictures.

The headlamp area, for example, which looked a wibbly-wobby mess in the leaked photos, suddenly makes sense when seen from dead ahead. The side stance, as well, looks much better resolved that we’d expected, with a more cab-rearward feel than the Mk2. Toyota says the new Prius is the same height as the current model, and stands on the same wheelbase, but the top of the roof is about four inches further back.

This change is a surprise, given that Toyota says the drag coefficient is slightly better than the old model at 0.25 versus 0.26. Normally aerodynamicists prefer a bulbous front and tapered rear (as witness the obsessively slippery Aptera 2e with its tear-drop profile). This is the fruit of “more wind tunnel hours of testing than any other Toyota”, according to the firm, with particular attention being paid to under-floor airflow.

We’ve never seen an existing Prius with a sunroof, but the new model will offer one, which comes coupled with solar panels over the rear section of the roof. Energy from this panel is used to power a ventilation system designed to lessen heat build-up when the car is parked, meaning a more comfortable interior on summer start-ups and less fuel wasted powering the aircon. Heat from the exhaust system can also be fed into the heating system in winter - rather than relying on the engine coolant heat alone - with exhaust heat also helping to bring coolant up to temperature (and the engine up to peak efficiency) more quickly.

We’ve also now been able to have a better look at the Prius’s cheaper rival - the new Honda Insight - with pics of its rump revealing an eye-catching red bar linking the two rear lamp clusters.