Two appointments were announced in Zurich on 3rd April by Carl-Peter Forster, GM Group vice president and president GM Europe. Jonathan Browning, GM Europe vice president, sales, marketing and aftersales and chairman of Vauxhall Motors Ltd has been appointed GM

Nissan's Sunderland-built Qashqai compact crossover range has been expanded with a seven-seat version called Qashqai+2. In January this year, the plant - which produced 353,000 vehicles in 2007 - transferred production of Qashqai models built for export to Japan to

Ford will add a third wind turbine at Dagenham to power the expansion of its diesel engine manufacturing site. This extra turbine from Ecotricity enables Ford's Dagenham Diesel Centre to remain 100% wind powered following installation of a new 1.4/1.6-litre

Prodrive has developed a new production-ready ECU specifically for the control of hydrogen fuel cells as part of a programme part-funded by the Technology Strategy Board. The unit, called PP150, has been developed in conjunction with the fuel cell power

2005 saw exports of vehicles from China exceed imports for the first time, with exports climbing to almost 165,000 units, more than twice the number in 2004. In 2006, exports rose to 230,000 units, up more than 40% year-on-year. A

Valeo plans to sell its heavy duty truck engine cooling division to the Swedish company EQT. The division comprises three manufacturing sites - in Mjällby and Linkoping, Sweden and Jamestown, NY in the US - and employs around 900 people.

The Spanish Banco Santander has agreed to buy GE Money's automotive finance unit in the UK together with GE Money businesses in Germany, Finland and Austria. In turn, GE Commercial Finance will acquire Interbanca, the Italian commercial bank acquired by

Ford Motor Company released its 2007 Annual Report and notice of its 2008 AGM to its 730,000 shareholders on 4th April, together with details of senior executives' pay. President and CEO Alan Mulally earned over $21.6m.

Supermini registrations were up 4.3% year on year last month to account for 35.3% of one of the year's twin market peaks, according to SMMT figures. Diesel and alternatively fuelled vehicle volumes also grow, up 7.7% and 14.7%. Q1 '08

One of America's biggest hedge funds and three Wall Street banks today pulled $2.55 billion (£1.3 billion) of rescue funding from Delphi, the near-bankrupt car parts maker, marking the latest casualty of the US credit crisis.

Toyoda Gosei has announced the closure of its loss-making UK fluid management systems plant at Market Harborough by the end of 2008; the 130-strong workforce has been informed of the decision; no redundancies are to be made for at least

Metalrax Group Plc, the Birmingham engineering group which combines ownership of five automotive supplier units with its UK market leadership in baking tray manufacture, has reported its first loss in at least 17 years, of £6.99m last year, partly due

Under a new structure just annnounced, Ford Motor Company is designating global product development leads for different vehicle segments, such as small, mid-size and large cars. At the same time, Ford is assembling joint product development and purchasing teams around

Cenex, the UK's 'Centre of Excellence' for Low Carbon and Fuel Cell Technologies, has been appointed as the Department for Transport's delivery partner to develop the new Low Carbon Vehicle Procurement Programme. The aim of the programme, announced in the

We apologise sincerely to all users for the unavailability of this site from 1-6th April for reasons beyond our control. Daily automotive news updates recommence from today, 7th April.