Sheet Metal Stamping Simulation

By nearly every measure of success, Michigan's auto industry is now competitive.

Auto sales are on the upswing; corporate earnings are positive; productivity levels are on par with Japanese competitors; and quality is vastly improved, among other key benchmarks. Of course getting to this point hasn't been easy. Two of Detroit's automakers went bankrupt; thousands of jobs were lost; investors lost money; and many of the brands people loved have been eliminated.

Electric vehicles are nothing new. They were invented sometime during the 1830s in Scotland and later produced on a bigger level by France and Great Britain. In 1895 America began their interest in electric vehicles with a handful of companies producing them. It did not take long for them to die off because by the 1920s America had many more miles of roadway which called for the need of longer range vehicles, oil was a lot more affordable, starter motors were invented so hand cranks were not needed and the mass production of the internal combustion engines by Henry Ford.

Ford reduced its automotive operations’ debt by $12.8 billion last year, lowering annual interest costs by almost $1 billion. Ford, which will release fourth-quarter financial results this month, has said the auto operations would end 2010 with more cash than debt after a profitable year and a $1 billion dividend from the credit unit.

Philippines - The local arm of Ford Motor Co. hit record sales to both domestic and export markets in 2010 due to the strong demand for vehicles across its lineup, the automotive firm said in a statement on June 13.

The business case against small cars is strong. Simplified, it goes like this: Americans don't want them, won't pay the dramatically higher prices required for them to be profitable — and don't need them because gas still is cheap.And, all else equal, the laws of physics still mean small cars are less safe than big cars in crashes.

etail sales and industrial production both rose in December, indicating that the U.S. economic recovery is picking up as the new year begins.

Purchases climbed 0.6 percent, capping the biggest annual increase in more than a decade, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Output at factories, mines and utilities increased 0.8 percent, the most in five months, according to data from the Federal Reserve.

It's a good time to be an engineer looking for a job at an automotive company. That's because Ford recently announced that it plans to add 7000 hourly and salaried jobs between this year and the next across the U.S.In nine cities including Detroit, Ford is searching for engineers specializing in batteries, system controls, software, and energy storage to advance the technology of electric vehicles.

General Motors (GM.N) is planning to build small battery electric vehicles in China within two years, and to increase overall production in China to meet local demand, executives said on Monday.

The small "city" type battery electric vehicles are expected to be exported at some point, possibly even to the United States, Tim Lee, GM's chief of international operations said on the sidelines of the Detroit auto show.

"We are probably within a couple of years of being in ... production on battery electric vehicles specifically for China," Lee said told reporters.

GM, which completed the largest ever IPO last year, is focusing on China and the United States as two critical markets.

Louisiana regulators say contaminated soil has been cleaned up at a former General Motors plant where headlights were built.

When Lear Corp. (LEA-N109.362.622.45%) turned out the lights nearly two years ago at a plant in Ajax, Ont., that made seats for GM pickup trucks, Steve Batchelor knew it was game over. There was no hope of it ever reopening, he believed. “We were finished.”

In the grim days of May, 2009, leading up the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by General Motors Corp., it was hard to see how the auto industry could be turned around.

Thanks to millions of dollars of investment and a restructuring of its operations in Africa, General MotorsGeneral Motors has been able to cut costs and increase its market share in three years, explained Rajeev Chaba, managing director and chairman for General Motors' North African operations.

A former General Motors metal-stamping plant in western Michigan that closed in 2009 is expected to be demolished and the site redeveloped for advanced manufacturing, food processing or other industrial use under plans announced Thursday.

Led by new Gov. John Kasich, a delegation of top Ohio officials met Wednesday with auto industry executives at the previews of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Their message was that the Buckeye state "is open for business" if the automakers are looking to expand.

St. Petersburg is turning into Russia’s automobile construction centre. Two car-making factories at a time are due to be opened there later today.

When Alabama began attracting automotive manufacturers 15 years ago, it was the genesis of a southern car corridor that made national headlines.