Search Results for: cars

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers has approved in principle changes to the EU’s seatbelt laws, that will insist every Member State passes laws obliging motorists and passengers to wear belts and children aged under 12 to wear special seat restraints.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
FIVE YEARS since it was first proposed, the End-of-Life (ELV) Vehicle Directive has just about made it to the statute books of a handful of EU member states. A directive both controversial and complex, it was maybe surprising, if a little disappointing, that the deadline of April 21, 2002 for transposition went by without a single EU country passing legislation.…

BY MARK ROWE
MALAYSIA’S state oil company Petronas has signed a three-year deal with the Philippine National Oil Company to introduce its natural gas-powered Enviro 2000 cars to the Philippines. The first move involves a six-month field demonstration in Manila involving six units of the car.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
GERMANY is set to become the first European country to transpose the controversial EU End-of-Life Vehicle Directive (ELV), while Britain appears to be dragging its feet over implementation.

All 15 Member States failed to meet the ELV deadline of April 21, 2002, for introducing laws on the disposal and recycling of vehicles.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON
A CARMAKERS’ voluntary agreement on introducing technical changes in designs boosting cyclist and pedestrian safety has been approved by the European Parliament and will now be legally underpinned by a so-called Framework Directive enforcing a range of legal commitments.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
Motorists buying cars in a different EU country from their own will find it easier to get short-term insurance cover for the journey home under a proposed new directive announced by the European Commission today (Monday.) Brussels said this would help people buy cars wherever in the EU they could find the best value and help stimulate cross-border competition in the vehicle market.…

BY JONATHAN THOMSON, in Newcastle, England
FORD UK is backtracking on an earlier promise to fit digital radios to all its cars by 2004.

When contacted by just-auto.com, a spokeswoman for the company denied reports that the company had ever made a commitment to fit digital radios.…

BY MONICA DOBIE
Tyre producer, Pirelli Pneus SA, a subsidiary of Italy’s Pirelli SpA, is likely to receive financial assistance from the European Investment Bank to help the company flourish in the South American market.

The bank has drawn up plans to lend the company Euro 44 million to modernise and extend an existing plant in Feira de Santana, in Bahia Brazil, to produce radial tyres for light vehicles.…

MARK ROWE
MALAYSIA is calling for a review of plans to cut tariffs across south-east Asia, claiming that lower tariffs will affect its car production, particular the Proton series. The south-east Asian country has been given until 2005 to bring tariffs on imported cars down to between zero and five per cent, two years later than other key members of the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission has pared back regional aid earmarked by the Spanish government to invest in Ford España’s Almusafes (Valencia) plant, ruling that Madrid should spend only Euro 11.11 million, rather than the Euro 15.74 million originally planned. The money will help the plant produce a new engine, the I4, that will power cars like the Focus and the Mondeo from 2003 onwards.…