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Fuel protests halt Spanish car production

By Dimitri Pesin Motoring Issues 16 June 2008 10:25 Fuel protests in Europe triggered by the soaring cost of fuel have drastically reduced car production in Spain this month.  Last week's truck blockades and fuel depot pickets in Madrid caused car plants around the country to cut production. Seat, Citroen Peugeot, Ford, Nissan, Renault and Mercedes-Benz all have factories in Spain and most said they were affected.Seat production slashed by 40 percentSeat said its main Martorell plant was operating at 40 percent capacity, with production of the Leon and Altea models severely affected. However, the protests won’t delay sales of the new Ibiza, a spokesman promised, and assembly of cars in the factory is expected to return to normal this week.

First new Saab rolls off the production line

A NEW SAAB car has rolled off the Swedish production line for the first time in two and a half years. National Electric Vehicle Sweden, the Hong Kong-based company that bought Saab out of bankruptcy in September last year, presented its new 9-3 Aero at the factory in Trollhattan. The company, also called NEVS, aims to make electric cars under the Saab brand, but said it will also provide petrol cars until "electric cars fully meet customer demands." The first 200 cars will be delivered in spring costing 279,000 kronor (£26,000) each.

One Lap of the Web: Semi-truck drifting, quintessential British cars and Jay Leno's Garage

We spend a lot of time on the Internet -- pretty much whenever we're not driving, writing about or working on cars. Since there's more out there than we'd ever be able to cover, here's our daily digest of car stuff on the Web you may not otherwise have heard about. -- When you think of Gymkhana, you normally just think of Ken Block ripping up streets with a Ford Fiesta.