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

EV maker Coda trims staff

Not much more could go wrong for electric-car maker Coda, which has struggled to sell its four-door EV in the United States since officially launching it here in March. But Web reports, first seen at www.plugincars.com, say the company laid off 50 employees, or 15 percent of its workforce, last week, mostly in the sales and marketing departments. Efforts by Autoweek to contact Coda have not been successful.

Ram introduces CNG-powered pickup

Aside from the Honda Civic Natural Gas, compressed-natural-gas-powered vehicles have usually been converted after the fact, generally for fleet use. Chrysler is hoping to carve out a niche in the corporate-pickup segment by selling a factory-built CNG Ram 2500 that can seamlessly switch over to gasoline operation when the natural-gas tanks run dry. The twin 4.6-cubic-foot CNG tanks (which store the equivalent of 18.2 gallons of gas) take up a section of the bed, while an eight-gallon gasoline tank provides fuel during start-up and then reserve capacity when the compressed tanks are tapped out, allowing the bruiser a measure of operational flexibility.

Saab’s Jan Åke Jonsson retires, 2010 earnings & deals in Russia & China

Saab's CEO Jan Ake Jonsson to retire after almost 40 years with Saab It’s been a difficult period at Saab, what with trying to survive as GM came close to closing the Swedish car maker down in the absence of a ‘suitable’ buyer, through being taken over by Spyker and then trying to replace their entire range. And it’s taken its toll on Saab boss Jan Åke Jonsson. It’s been announced that – after nearly 40 years with Saab – 59-year old Jan Åke will step down from his job in May and hand the reins over – temporarily – to Spyker’s Victor Muller until a replacement can be found.