Search Results for: cars

By Keith Nuthall

Windscreens are not such something to look through, say European university scientists: they also act as loud speakers, attracting and magnifying noise created by a car or lorry, reflecting the racket back at drivers and passengers alike. This fact has made researchers in the European Union (EU)-funded and University of Twente, Netherlands-coordinated InMAR (‘Intelligent Materials for Active Noise Reduction’) project consider how to change the materials making windshields, so that they absorb noise rather than amplify it.…

BY CHRIS JONES

FOLLOWING US government action to assist the American auto industry, European leaders are now considering measures to support their continent’s automobile manufacturers amid the ever-worsening global economy.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy, whose government is the current holder of the European Union’s (EU) six-month rotating presidency, has told journalists that the European Commission has been asked to develop a plan by December 11 about how national governments and EU institutions could support their heavy industry, including the automobile sector.…

BY SAEED AKHTAR BALOCH

PAKISTAN’s automobile industry, contributing 2.8 % to the country’s GDP by financial year (FY) 2006-7, has grown impressively this decade. But the sector’s growth may turn negative this year because of high inflation, especially rising steel prices, political uncertainty and overall economic recession in Pakistan and elsewhere.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE SHAPE of a European Commission rescue package for the European Union (EU) automobile industry now being drafted has become much clearer: a Euro 40 billion soft loan pushed through the European Investment Bank (EIB).

This was revealed by EU industry Commissioner Günter Verheugen after a meeting with European auto sector executives, including France’s Peugeot-Citroën and Germany’s Daimler, under the umbrella of the EU’s CARS 21 reform initiative.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE CO2 cap on new cars within the European Union (EU) that has been proposed by the European Commission looks set to be watered down, with the French government pushing a compromise deal that would delay full implementation to 2015.…

BY ANDREW CAVE and KARRYN MILLER

FACING a looming energy crisis, the battle to produce lithium ion batteries to power hybrid and battery cars is heating up. Germany’s Robert Bosch and Samsung of South Korea recently formed a joint venture SB LiMotive Co to compete with the likes of BorgWarner, Johnson Controls, TRW and Continental.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A KEY source of biofuels within the European Union (EU) – sugar beet – looks likely to meet EU sustainability criteria after new research concluded the fuel had fewer CO2 emissions than previously thought.

Earlier assessments from the European Commission had concluded that greenhouse gas savings compared to fossil fuels of sugar beet biofuels was just 35%.…

BY RAGHAVENDRA VERMA

AN INDIAN contract auto manufacturing firm has confirmed to just-auto that it is in negotiations with Chrysler about an outsourced manufacturing deal, and says it is busy retooling its plant to assemble larger vehicles.

Head of corporate communications for Argentum Motors Colonel Bhagwati Prasad Suman said talks were ongoing and that his firm was still in competition with other auto makers to seal the deal.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE DIPLOMATIC fallout over Russia’s attack on Georgia has continued to impact on European Union (EU) energy policies, although signs of an early thaw in relations are evident. At an EU-Ukraine summit in Paris, the EU promised to sign an Association Agreement with Ukraine mid-2009, bringing Kiev closer to becoming a member state, although no timetable for membership negotiations was set.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) ministers have discussed potential EU legislation ensuring Internet-linked tags integrated into products – such as navigation and digital tacograph devices in cars and vans – can be switched off. The development of these technologies has raised concerns amongst privacy activists and such a law is being seriously considered in France, where the ministerial meeting was staged.…