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News watch Sept 2010: 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-hour Wednesday 29 September 2010• Porsche today posted record turnover, off the back of rising sales. It announced an 18% leap in annual turnover to €7.8 billion while sales rose 9% to 81,500 vehicles, up from 75,238 the previous year.

BMW revives four-cylinders for better mileage

BMW is bringing four-cylinder engines back to the U.S. market as one response to the scheduled increase in fuel-economy regulations. BMW quit selling the four-cylinders for its 3-series lineup in 1999 because of low demand, but gasoline cost only $1.14 per gallon at the time.

Better Place Electric Car visitor centre opens

Better Place have opened a visitor centre in Israel to demonstrate their battery swap technology for electric cars Last October we wrote about a start-up company in Israel – Better Place – that had a new way forward for electric cars by taking the purchase of battery packs out of the equation, and was developing a system for ‘Battery Swap’ stations where electric car owners could drive in and swap their battery pack for a fully-charged one in a few minutes. That story first brought to our attention our favourite quote of last year – by Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn – who said “A hybrid is like a mermaid: if you want a fish, you get a woman; if you want a woman, you get a fish.” Which probably explained why Nissan – and its partner Renault – got involved with Better Place. Better Place aims to address the main concerns of electric car drivers by making the battery packs in electric cars ‘swappable’.