– Ford of Canada says it will become the first automaker to assemble gas/electric vehicles there. A plant in Oakville, Ontario, will assemble the hybrid versions of the Ford Edge and Lincoln MarkX crossovers, which will come out for the 2007 model year. The move is part of a major turnaround effort by Ford Motor Co., which includes offering a hybrid option on half its vehicles by 2010.
– DaimlerChrysler has an initial agreement with a British group to redesign and build the Smart division’s two roadsters under a different brand name. The deal with the group, called Project Kimber, includes the possible sale of unneeded plants for the Smart roadster and coupe. Smart’s main models are the two-seat ForTwo and four-seat ForFour cars.
– GM’s European division will keep making the Opel Meriva minivan in Spain, citing cost, productivity and other factors as it chose an existing assembly line, rather than one in Poland, to produce the new generation of the vehicle.
– Despite a new law enforcement crackdown meant to make Wisconsin’s snowmobile trails safer, 24 riders have been killed in crashes this winter. “We are on pace to have another record, and that is not something that is very favorable or we wanted to occur,” says Gary Eddy, the Department of Natural Resources’ snowmobile education administrator. The 24 deaths are two more than a year earlier, when a total of 37 snowmobilers died for the season. The record is 39 deaths in the winter of 1999-2000.
– China’s passenger car production rose 52 percent in January from a year earlier to 391,600 units, and sales surged 73 percent, to 418,900 units, the Xinhua News Agency reports.
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Quick Trips are compiled from the notebooks of Jim Mateja and Rick Popely, and from Tribune news services.
