China, Mercedes, Mahindra, Audi, Berlin.

China to suspend EV sales tax: From the 1st of September, electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles will be exempt from the ten-percent car-purchase tax until 2017. The Chinese government thus hopes to finally boost the uptake of what it calls new-energy cars.
af.reuters.com, bloomberg.com

Mercedes shows S500 hybrid: Daimler brought its latest and most luxurious green car to the Silvretta E-Rally. The Mercedes S500 plug-in hybrid is expected in the USA in spring 2015 and will cost about 100,000 dollars. At the rally, people were invited to take a seat for free.
autoweek.com, rhein-zeitung.de (Silvretta in German)

Mahindra EV for Britain: British Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, said he expects a Mahindra Reva electric vehicle to arrive on UK shores next year. The news underpins Mahindra’s announcement from March to introduce the E2O to the Norway and UK by the end of this year.
indiancarsbikes.in

A silence that just keeps on giving: These are the close to poetic words of Jonathan Hawley to describe his (electric) drive with the Audi A3 e-tron. Overall, he finds the car “substantial” meaning it even is a better ride than its conventional brother. The A3 e-tron will cost about 60,000 Australian dollars and is set to arrive Down Under in January ’15.
drive.com.au

Berlin misses out: The ‘Eco-Mobility Festival,’ initially designed to electrify a whole Berlin borough (we reported), will now definitely not go ahead. The Global Cities Network Iclei could not find common ground with Berlin officials and has now taken up talks with Johannesburg, South Africa, instead.
berliner-zeitung.de (in German)