17,000 solar panels to power Toyota’s Derbyshire plant

Toyota’s manufacturing plant at Burnaston in Derbyshire, where the Auris and Avensis are built, will install the biggest solar panel system yet seen in a UK car plant.  British Gas, which will stump up the £10 million cost of installing the solar panels, and Toyota are working together to save 2000 tonnes of CO2 emissions a year. Once the solar panels are installed, they claim it will save enough energy to build approximately 7000 cars a year.

Ford Transit van gets five-cylinder turbodiesel

The full-size Ford Transit van that replaces the E-series Econoline in late 2013 will have a turbocharged five-cylinder diesel in its powertrain lineup. Today Ford uses the 3.2-liter engine in the Ranger pickup sold in international markets. The engine, which wears Ford's Power Stroke marketing name for diesel engines, is built in South Africa and will be exported to the Transit assembly plant near Kansas City, Mo.

GM to build eight-speed transmission in Toledo

General Motors is directing $204 million of a $2 billion investment in its U.S. plants toward building an eight-speed automatic transmission in Toledo. Automakers are turning to transmissions with more gears to meet more stringent fuel-economy regulations.