(December 7, 2010) WARREN, Mich. — Rapid urbanization, aging populations and more demand for personal mobility globally present challenges today’s vehicles will be hard-pressed to meet. Envisioning what that future will need gave birth to the Electric Networked Vehicle, or EN-V.

“In megacities like London, New York, Beijing, Singapore and New Delhi, the sheer number of vehicles on the road has become unsustainable,” says Chris Borroni-Bird, General Motors director of Advanced Technology Vehicle Concepts.

(December 7, 2010) NEW YORK — Toyota has announced that New York City will join the company’s U.S. Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicle (PHV) demonstration program. 

Five new Prius Plug-in Hybrid vehicles (PHVs) will be used on city streets as part of Toyota’s partnership with the New York City Department of Transportation (NYCDOT) and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

(DECEMBER 7, 2010) MUNICH — The man who guided the MINI design studio through a successful revival of the iconic English brand at BMW is stepping down.

After 10 successful years at MINI Design, Gert Volker Hildebrand is handing over the running of the studio to Anders Warming. Hildebrand will leave the company on Dec. 31.

(December 7, 2010) — Luxury automobile manufacturer Maybach and Julian Schnabel, renowned painter, sculptor and filmmaker, are sharing a common path as they kick off a two-year partnership during Art Basel Miami Beach with the world premiere of “Queequeq – The Maybach Sculpture.”

Consisting of two parts, it is 483 centimeters (190 inches) high, 170 cm (67 inches) wide, and 142 cm (56 inches) deep and has a weight of 1,488 kilograms (3,280 lbs.).

(December 6, 2010) SHANGHAI — The Chevrolet New Sail, Chevrolet Spark and Wuling Rong Guang finished first in their respective segments in the recently released J.D. Power Asia Pacific 2010 China Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) Study.

(December 6, 2010) DETROIT — GMC Terrain continued its ascent in the compact SUV segment in November with its best sales month since its introduction in September 2009, rising 56 percent year over year.

(December 6, 2010) DETROIT – If a crash test dummy could talk, what would it say? And would we understand what it was saying?

At General Motors’ Anthropomorphic Test Device (ATD) lab, new hyper-tech dummies talk in hyper-speed, recording and transmitting crash data 10,000 times a second.

(December 6, 2010) YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan has announced the 0-100km/h (0-62 mph) acceleration time for the 2011 Nissan GT-R supercar.

The acceleration time was measured during a media test ride event held at the Sendai Hi-land Race Way on Nov. 12 and Nov. 13. On both days, the GT-R clocked in with a time of 3.0 seconds.

(December 5, 2010) DEARBORN — New Ford Motor Company crash tests show that not all replacement vehicle parts are created equal when it comes to safety and the cost of repair when an accident occurs.
 
The low-speed crash tests conducted by Ford showed that a commonly used copy bumper beam absorbs less crash energy than the vehicle’s original bumper beam or a genuine Ford replacement bumper beam.

(December 5, 2010) DETROIT — Cadillac’s total U.S. sales rose 21 percent to 11,801 in November with another strong month from CTS and SRX. November marked the 10th straight month of year-over-year increases for Cadillac.