Arias Pistons 12.5:1 Compression 82mm Bore Honda B-series on 2040-parts.com

Honda cutting production in Swindon again – 500 jobs at risk

Honda is cutting another 500 jobs in Swindon It’s only a year since Honda announced 800 job cuts at Swindon (which eventually was 550) and now they’re about to cut a further 500 as weak demand – particularly in Europe – sees the Swindon plant producing just half the cars it could. The plan is to cut shifts from 3 to 2 a day, which will result in the loss of 340 permanent jobs and 160 temporary ones, and production will be centred on just one production line to increase efficiency and flexibility. The Swindon Plant – which builds the Civic, Civic Tourer, CR-V and Jazz (and the Civic Type-R from next year) – has been hard hit by the slump in European sales in the last five years and, despite still strong UK sales, production levels of 120,000 cars a year – just half of the Swindon capacity – are not enough to sustain the current staffing levels.

Chevrolet Orlando MPV concept: first photos

By Tim Pollard and Richard Yarrow First Official Pictures 09 September 2008 11:00 Chevrolet's transformation continues unabated with the new Orlando seven-seat MPV. Unless you've been on an unusually long and distant summer holiday, you will have noticed that every manufacturer is whetting gourmands' appetites for a feast of new metal at the Paris motor show 2008 – and the Orlando is one of a handful of new Chevrolets being readied for the French auto salon. The Orlando pictured here is a concept car, but the production version coming by the end of the decade won't look much different.

Hyundai ix35 FCEV production starts – & previews the ix35 facelift?

Hyundai has started production of the ix35 Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle which perhaps previews the facelift for the ix35. We revealed last year that Hyundai were pushing ahead with their hydrogen fuel cell cars (and eschewing battery EVs in the process) with plans to start rolling the Hyundai ix35 FCEV off the production line by the end of 2012. That plan slipped just a little, but the first ix35 FCEV has now rolled of the production line in Korea (pictured above) as Hyundai work towards full scale production of the ix35 FCEV by 2015.