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CARMAKERS NEWS * USA
* Michigan - Dodge Dart falls short of recommended grade
Auburn Hills,MICH,USA -The Detroit News -November 20, 2012: -- The Dodge Dart, the first all-new model from Fiat-Chrysler, earned praise from Consumer Reports in the upcoming January edition. The magazine praised its solid feel, handling and ride, and upscale options. But it didn't score high enough to be recommended... Testers criticized the Dart's powertrains. They said the standard 2.0-liter four-cylinder was underpowered, while the optional 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder is raspy and has drivability issues when mated with the optional dual-clutch automated manual transmission...
* Michigan - Fiat to Unwrap Electrified Version of 500 Small Car
Auburn Hills,MICH,USA -WardsAuto, by Aaron Foley
-Nov. 16, 2012: -- Fiat’s 500e, comes despite CEO Sergio Marchionne's remarks calling EVs “economic lemons." ... Fiat’s electric version of its 500 subcompact will make its first public appearance this month on a televised awards program, followed by its official debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show... Badged the 500e, the electric vehicle will be shown on the “green carpet” of the American Music Awards, airing Sunday. Fiat will release more specifics about the EV, including range, when it is unwrapped at the L.A. show Nov. 26... The 500e will be sold in California in 2013, before being rolled out across the rest of the US... It is the first all-electric vehicle for Chrysler, which has diversified its powertrain offerings and boosted fuel efficiency in recent months...
* Michigan - GE buys 2,000 Ford plug-in hybrids for fleet
Dearborn,MICH,USA -Associated Press/The Detroit News -November 20, 2012: -- GE is buying 2,000 plug-in hybrid cars from Ford for its corporate fleet... GE has set a goal of converting half its fleet to alternative energy vehicles. With the Ford purchase, GE now has 5,000 alternative-fuel vehicles, or about 10 percent of its fleet... The two companies plan to work with researchers from Georgia Tech University to study employees' driving and charging habits. The results of those studies will be shared with other companies that want to add electric cars to their fleets... The C-Max Energi went on sale this month. It can go around 20 miles in all-electric mode before a gas engine kicks in...
* DC - Ally: $4.2B agreement set for GM to buy global operations
Washington,DC,USA -The Detroit News, by David Shepardson -November 22, 2012: -- Ally Financial Inc., the nation's largest new-car lender, said Wednesday it reached a deal to sell its remaining international operations to its former parent General Motors Co. in a deal valued at $4.2 billion... The move will help GM boost sales annually by thousands of vehicles in key markets around the world by allowing it to offer more competitive financing deals — compared with other automakers that have in-house finance arms... Detroit-based Ally, which is 74 percent owned by the Treasury and 9.9 percent owned by GM, said the sale will help it repay its $17.2 billion bailout... As result of the acquisition, GM Financial's assets will double to about $33 billion and liabilities, including consolidated debt, will increase to about $27 billion from about $12 billion today...
* California - Mazda Miatas morph into street-legal track racers via Catfish kit
(Photo by Larry Edsall: The body kit gives older-model Miatas a radical aerodynamic body)Southern California,USA -The Detroit News (USA), by Larry Edsall -22 Nov 2012: -- Automotive designs have been inspired by many things — jet aircraft, crouching cats ready to pounce — but this may be a first: Cord Bauer was looking at a catfish when he started sketching... When he was finished, Bauer not only had a sketch for a very aerodynamic vehicle, but with a 177,000-mile Mazda Miata he bought for $800 and with the help of friends, he turned that sketch into a functioning prototype for the car he'll produce at Bauer Limited Production...
* Indiana - GM's new workforce: Younger and tech-savvy
Brownstown Township,Jackson County,IND,USA -The Detroit News, by Melissa Burden -November 23, 2012: -- The new generation of automotive manufacturing workers at a General Motors Co. subsidiary here is focused on career and environment, and they want to work with cutting-edge technology... That's part of what attracted many millennials — roughly defined as those born in the 1980s and 1990s — to help create an integral part of the future of the automobile: They're assembling lithium-ion batteries for the Chevrolet Volt extended-range plug-in and the equivalent cars the automaker sells in Europe and Australia... The Brownstown Battery Assembly Plant, in a former warehouse with little to identify it as a GM plant, represents the Detroit automaker's youngest workforce. It is operated by a GM subsidiary, GM Subsystems Manufacturing LLC. And 45 percent of its hourly workforce is composed of 24-to-31-year-olds... That's a huge contrast to other GM plants, where that generation, on average, represents 9 percent of the workforce. The average GM U.S. hourly worker is 47 years old...
Labels: carmakers news USA and Canada
posted by Unknown @ 6:40 AM
1 Comments:
California - Mazda Miatas morph into street-legal track racers via Catfish kit
this one picture is really great, i like that.
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