Search Results for: cars

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research consortium has announced a breakthrough in cutting the weight of cars, by producing and testing a full-scale carbon fibre floorpan, sills, roof, pillars and side panels. The result, it claims are safe and fast cars, not only using smaller engines and so emitting less pollution than metal models, but would be popular and mass produced.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has announced two loans that will allow Romanian and Slovenian companies to lease commercial and passenger vehicles. As part of its general remit to develop eastern Europe, the bank will lend Euro 10 million to Romania’s BCR Leasing, which will on-lend the money to small businesses “to purchase cars or equipment that will support their business development”.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
BRITISH engineers have developed an invention making hybrid cars even more fuel efficient, possibly breaking the “magic target” of 100 miles per gallon, reducing their emissions and making them more attractive to consumers. Hybrid vehicles running on a combination of traditional fuel and electrical power have already produced significant pollution results.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
A CAMPAIGN to reduce the growing number of collisions between road vehicles and deer on Britain’s roads has called on both drivers and highways officials to deal with this potentially deadly risk.

The Deer Initiative estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 deer are hit by cars, vans and lorries in the UK annually, with 10-20 people being killed in such accidents.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
PRESSURE from consumers and regulators have forced automotive manufacturers to re-examine the vehicle construction process from top to bottom in recent years. Increasing fuel prices coupled with drivers’ demands for improved performance has meant that the use of lighter materials, such as aluminium and composites which are bonded using adhesives, has become far more widespread, and could be set to become even more commonplace in volume production.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
THE GROWING use of adhesives in the manufacture of automotive interiors is not only helping to meet the demands of consumers in terms of aesthetics and car performance, but is also satisfying environmental regulators. But could these bonding processes also be more widely used in the construction of car exteriors in the near future?…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
WESTERN European countries – including Britain – are facing an increasing risk of vehicles colliding with large wild animals, two independent European studies have suggested. Researchers from the UFZ Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, and Madrid University concluded more animals are straying onto roads, because habitat loss forces them to migrate for food and mates.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE EUROPEAN Commission has asked the vehicle leasing and management sectors whether it would like the existing patchwork of national passenger car taxation laws to be reformed and replaced with a more harmonised system.

Brussels is particularly keen to discover in wide consultation whether there would be support for replacing registration taxes with charges based on CO2 emissions, which would help the European Union (EU) meet its Kyoto Protocol global warming commitments.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
CHILDREN as old as 12 lack the cognitive ability to safely cross streets on their bicycles, according to a University of Iowa study published in the American journal Child Development. Researchers used virtual reality technology to allow participants to ride stationery bicycles through a residential neighbourhood, where cars were travelling between 50 and 70 kilometres per hour.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE FRENCH government will have to defend its vehicle registration rules against claims at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) that they are so bureaucratic, they break European Union (EU) law. The European Commission has launched a case at the ECJ, focusing on rules requiring vehicle owners in some circumstances to present certificates of vehicle identification either issued by a manufacturer or France’s state technical services agency – the Direction Régionale de l’Industrie, de la Recherche et de l’Environnement (DRIRE).…