Search Results for: cars

BY KEITH NUTHALL

EUROPEAN Union (EU) environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas has unveiled European Commission plans to next year launch comprehensive legislation boosting effective carbon capture and storage.

The laws would remove legal barriers impeding research and development into this environmental technology and would also lay down rules on liability, for instance, if stored CO2 leached into the environment.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has published an inventory of potential European Union (EU) pollution from non-industrial sources – such as cars, aeroplanes, ships and household appliances – as a first step towards creating a comprehensive detailed emissions database. Brussels wants to help environmental policy-makers develop better targeted proposals, which have been stymied in the past by non-industrial pollution estimates, which are notoriosly tough to measure accurately because they come from a huge number of sources.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

It looks as though you’re going to have to pay even more to run a big car in Europe soon if the motor industry there doesn’t smarten up its act to cut CO2 emissions. This follows a new report from the European Commission in Brussels on the progress made since 1998/9 when auto manufacturers from Europe, Japan and Korea pledged to voluntarily reduce carbon dioxide emissions in new cars sold in the 25-nation European bloc to 140g/km by 2008/09.…

BY DINAH GARDNER, in Beijing

CHINA is talking tough over the launch of a World Trade Organisation (WTO) case over its levying of tariffs on imported auto parts, and analysts expect Beijing to follow this up at the WTO before even considering compromise.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EURO 1.8 million European Union research project claims to have reduced the cost of coating aluminium to such an extent, that a potentially lucrative niche could have been created. Project coordinator Germany’s Fischer Oberflachentechnik says its coating can make aluminium tough enough to replace the steel that is usually employed in cars, aeroplanes and other heavy industrial applications.…

BY PAUL COCHRANE, in Damascus

FOLLOWING a sizeable reduction in import duties last year, Syria’s fledgling car market has grown by up to 60% in under a year.

A mere decade ago Syria’s roads were full of ageing cars, such as 1950s and 1960s Chevrolets, Dodges and Plymouths that were either lovingly maintained or had had one paint job too many.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Commission has demanded that the Polish government reforms a sliding scale determining the cost of original registration fees for cars, that hinders fleet managers’ sale of used vehicles. This rate depends on the age of the car, so new cars – made in or imported immediately into Poland – attract the lowest fees, and cars imported into the country when old incur the highest fees.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

A EUROPEAN Union (EU) research project has developed special technology to coat aluminum auto parts, making them tough enough to replace the steel that is usually employed, reducing vehicle weight and hence boosting fuel economy.

Automakers have long looked to use aluminum and related alloys where they can, but coating surfaces to make this non-ferrous metal sufficiently strong and durable to withstand the pressures exerted in a working auto has long been too expensive.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

FINLAND has been told by the European Commission to scrap a law telling drivers of vehicles who motor in Finland for more than a week to secure Finnish registration, at the full fee rate, even if a car is legally registered elsewhere in the European Union (EU).…

BY DEIRDRE MASON, in London

AFTER years of tests and international negotiations, Europe’s Galileo satellite navigation network at last has announced the technical details of its signal, crucial information for auto and component suppliers wanting to develop components to exploit the system.…