JLR makes a bid to bolster vendor skills

Over 50 Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers attended an event this week staged by JaguarLandRover (JLR), the UK’s largest automotive employer, to share best practices around skills development and address recruitment challenges.

A boost for women at Toyota

Toyota is launching a new foundation to give women support and opportunities to build careers in manufacturing.

SCR and traps can revitalise old buses - Ricardo

Latest research from Ricardo shows that “some of the oldest vehicles” can also be the cleanest, if retrofitted with SCR and regenerating particulate traps.

Torotrak: Deering, out; Hughes, in

Jeremy Deering is to step down as chief executive officer of Torotrak plc and Steve Hughes, formerly engineering director at JCB Transmissions, has joined the group as chief operating officer.

Russians set to buy more subcompacts

Russia will emerge as a top automotive market in Europe as consumers in the country are beginning to place emphasis on driving dynamics and are willing to pay more for advanced driveline technology features.     

F1-inspired bus tech scoops UK innovation award

Torotrak Group’s kinetic energy recovery system (KERS), originally devised by Flybrid Automotive, has taken first prize in the prestigious SMMT Award for Automotive Innovation 2014.

Ford F-150: A cost analysis of moving to aluminium

Ford has surely started a trend in a shift from steel to aluminium for its F-150 pick-up truck. But how does the cost-benefit stack up for Ford?

Kohler's diesels benefit from Ricardo know-how

The new Kohler KDI 3404 engine has been developed in partnership with Ricardo and features the revolutionary Ricardo Twin Vortex Combustion System.

Ford targets Middle East and Africa

Ford Motor Company underscored its growing ambitions in the Middle East and Africa last week when it introduced the all-new Mustang on the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building.

Question: Is RVT the new CVT?

OEMs, seemingly, are taking an interest in the reversible variable transmission (RVT) but is it a better transmission than the toroidal continuously variable transmission (CVT)?

One man thinks so, but then he would, being the inventor. And inventors, by their nature, consider their own inventions far superior to those of other people

Tofas JV to invest $1 billion in Turkish plant

Fiat's Turkish joint venture, Tofas, plans to invest US$1 billion to produce its Linea replacement, adding different variants to the Tofas plant.

Tofas, a joint-venture (JV) between Turkey's Koc Holding and Italy's Fiat, is to expand its investment programme and spend a total of US$1 billion to produce three new cars in Turkey, mainly destined for export, according to the Zaman newspaper.

GM job changes for purchasing, powertrain

General Motors has announced a series of leadership changes affecting purchasing and powertrain.

GM invests $200m in two Michigan plants

General Motors will invest US$200 million in its Orion Assembly and Pontiac Metal Centre plants to prepare for a future vehicle programme – but there will be no new jobs.

Orion will receive $160 million for tooling and equipment, and Pontiac will receive $40 million for new dies.

GM boosts diesel use for pick-ups

Is The General’s dream of seriously stepping up to the pick-up truck diesel engine table to rival Chrysler and Ford be about to be realised?

Chevrolet introduced at the Los Angeles auto show this week the Colorado ZR2 concept – a vision of how The General's division could take the all-new midsize truck’s off-road capability to the next level. 

Fuel cell: "engine" of the future?

Audi is calling the fuel cell “the power source of the future”.

In this “engine”, in which hydrogen and oxygen are combined to form pure water., the Powertrain of the future?  In the fuel cell, Energy is released in a "cold combustion" process to provide the drive energy for an electric motor that turns with zero emissions.

Mercedes-Benz boosts international buying

Mercedes-Benz Cars is expanding the international presence of its procurement organization with extended responsibility for supplier quality.

The aim is to safeguard the company’s Mercedes-Benz 2020 growth strategy from the perspective of procurement.

VW lays Crafter foundation stone

The foundation stone has been laid for Volkswagen’s new plant in Września, near Poznań where the next generation Volkswagen Crafter will be built, with production set to begin in the second half of 2016.

EcoMotors SOP now set for 2015

EcoMotors Inc. of Allen Park, Michigan, now expects production of its ground-breaking opposed-piston diesel engine to begin in 2015, according to company sources.

BMW third-quarter sales grow 4.5 per cent

BMW Group revenues increased in the third quarter by 4.5 per cent on the back of higher sales volume to €19.6 billion compared with one year earlier (2013: €18.751 billion). 

Volkswagen sets emissions goal for 2018

Volkswagen AG has set the goal of becoming the world's most sustainable carmaker by the year 2018.

Ford can make 700,000 F-150 pick-up trucks a year

The first production 2015 Ford F-150 pickup with its aluminium body rolled off the line today at Ford Motor Company’s Rouge Center, Dearborn, Michigan, truck plant after years of preparation.

The F-150 will be built at two plants – Dearborn and Kansas City givin a total output capacity of 700,000 a year.

BMW i8 is first with GKN’s eAxle

GKN has produced the industry’s first two-speed eAxle which has entered production on the BMW i8 plug-in hybrid.

Renault kicks off production in Algeria

Renault Algérie Production (RAP) has launched its new car manufacturing plant in Oued Tlelat in the Oran region of Algeria.

The Prof. who teamed JLR with Tata

Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, who has created a business out of education and industrial R&D, was the “kingpin” in the deal to persuade Indian carmaker Tata to purchase JaguarLandRover from Ford, according to a magazine just published.

Fields swaps over top men in Ford Europe/global

Ford Motor Company has switched the jobs of two senior men as it seeks to deliver the company’s One Ford plan for profitable growth.

Ricardo makes bid to support Chinese University

Ricardo has teamed up with Harbin Engineering University, one of China’s leading higher education and research institutions, in a bid to provide engineering support.

Warwick University bolstered by £32 million

The University of Warwick, its relationship with Jaguar LandRover (JLR) and its commitment to the UK automotive industry appears to be going from strength to strength.

 A further £32 million of State funding has been declared for two new projects to research manufacturing technology for electric motors and develop cleaner internal combustion engines, during the official opening today of the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) headquarters at the University of Warwick.

Jaguar to launch AWD F-Type in LA

Jaguar has introduced an all-wheel-drive (AWD) F-Type as one of a number of performance enhancements to the award-winning Jaguar range that will grow from six to 14 derivatives in 2015.

The full range will debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show on 19 November. 

Daimler blooms as US truck sales rise

Daimler Trucks’ US subsidiary booked its highest level of incoming orders in October, as customers ordered a total of 31,304 Class 6 – 8 NAFTA and export vehicles of the Freightliner, Western Star, and Thomas Built Buses name plates.

According to the data collected by the Americas Commercial Transportation Research (ACT) organization, Daimler Trucks North America (DTNA) achieved a new monthly order record for a single manufacturer in the North American truck business.

Nissan refines Infiniti Q30 prototypes

A team from the North-East car firm Nissan Motor Manufacturing UK has travelled to Japan to refine prototypes of the Infiniti Q30 hatchback.

Production trials start next February ahead of the launch of car making in August, according to the Northern Echo.

Daimler opens China R&D centre

Daimler Greater China has opened its new Mercedes-Benz Research & Development Centre in China and extended its local RD network.

In future 500 highly qualified engineer and designers will be working at the new R&D site.

An illusion: hybrids' gain over 'frugal diesels”

The advantage of hybrid vehicles over frugal diesels can be an illusion, if the judging criteria are based solely on fuel economy, according to Emissions Analytics – a leading provider of real-world emissions measurement.

Emissions Analytics has tested over 30 hybrids in the UK and US, and analysed thousands of data points to understand how such vehicles really perform in the real world, and compared them to vehicles with conventional internal combustion engines (ICE) only.