Cardone Industries 79-4032v Remanufactured Electronic Control Unit on 2040-parts.com

BMW: Carbon fiber goes high volume in 2013

BMW AG plans to begin high-volume production of carbon fiber parts in two years, making it a strong contender to be the first automaker to move beyond limited-edition use of the exotic material. But Daimler AG, which has taken steps aimed at making carbon fiber parts in 2012, is among the automakers racing toward the same goal. In 2013, BMW will start building the i3 electric car, a vehicle that features a passenger cell--the protective shell around the passenger compartment that ensures the integrity of the vehicle in a crash--made of plastic reinforced with carbon fiber.

Audi Space Frame comes full circle at Frankfurt motor show

Audi is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the ASF, or the Audi Space Frame. After all, it was at the 1993 Frankfurt motor show that Audi wowed the world with the innovative all-aluminum Audi A8 prototype. And now, 20 years later, more than 750,000 cars have been built using this technology.

New 2015 Skoda Fabia revealed – well, sort of

The design sketch of the 2015 Skoda Fabia We’re not entirely sure we can consider the design sketch of the new Skoda Fabia (above) as a reveal of Skoda’s supermini, but it is a clue to what we can expect when the new Fabia arrives in the coming weeks. Skoda tell us that the new Fabia will be taking its design cues from the Vision C Concept we saw at Geneva – and the new Octavia –  and that is a new direction for Skoda  with added width and a flatter body creating, say Skoda, more harmonious proportions. Of course, the design sketch of the new Fabia has the usual artistic license to make it more dynamic than the reality will be, with the end product when it arrives likely to look much like a smaller version of Skoda’s latest efforts.