2014 Honda Accord Passenger Side Front Seatbelt Retracter (gray) on 2040-parts.com

AC Schnitzer turns BMW 4 Series into German police car

Crime can’t crack itself – which is why the German tuner AC Schnitzer has equipped the German police with this, a specially modified BMW 428i coupe. Making its debut at the 2013 Essen Motor Show in Germany, the tuned bee-em gets some rather interesting modifications. Some of which we can see being useful for catching criminals, some of which might be more of a hindrance in chasing down felons… Please click on the image above to read more on the BMW 428i police car by AC Schnitzer…

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.

SAE approves new fast-charging standard for EVs, plug-ins

SAE International said it has approved a new technical standard that will dramatically reduce charging times for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles. The global engineering group said the new charging standard, developed with the cooperation of more than 190 automakers, utilities and equipment builders, will allow charging times to be reduced from as long as eight hours to as short as 20 minutes. Automakers want DC direct charging to take less than 10 minutes, or roughly the time it takes to fill a tank with gasoline.The goal is to accommodate currents as high as 500 volts distributed from public charging stations.