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Mazda halts production of the RX-8 rotary-engine sports car

Mazda Motor Corp. has canceled production of its RX-8 rotary engine sports car, citing falling sales and stringent global emissions standards. Production in Hiroshima, Japan, ended in early July and global sales of the car will conclude later this year.

News watch December 2011: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hourFriday 30 December 2011• Fisker has recalled all 239 Karma plug-in hybrids manufactured between 1 July and 3 November this year to fix a glitch in its battery. Supplier A123 Systems says the problem affects the battery's cooling system, but Fisker is adamant no customers have complained and this is a precautionary step (Automotive News)• Supplier Continental says business looks brisk in the first quarter of 2012, thanks to strong demand in the US and Asia (Automotive News Europe)• Toyota chief executive Akio Toyoda is gradually changing the culture at Japan's biggest car maker, according to the Detroit News.

Tesla takes a swipe at BMW & Audi

Tesla’s design boss, Franz von Holzhausen, says the BMW i3 is an IKEA car We’ve long been of the opinion that electric cars, certainly with the current levels of battery technology, can never be a replacement for an ICE car. But we do have soft spot for what Tesla are doing. That’s because Tesla has tackled the issues of electric cars in  the cleverest way possible by building a car (the Model S) that looks like a normal luxury car – rather than making it look odd or quirky just to ram home its difference – and made it travel a sensible distance on a single charge.