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Mercedes touts future safety with research vehicle

In 1980, when several automakers began to use airbags, there were people who thought that cars couldn't possibly get any safer. Karl-Heinz Baumann, a safety researcher at Mercedes-Benz AG in Stuttgart, was not one of them. "We said, 'No, it cannot be all,' and we kept doing more research." The results of that research are presented on the company's most recent Experimental Safety Vehicle (ESV), on display now in the Mercedes Museum in Stuttgart.

Automakers try to stop increase in ethanol limit to 15 percent of gasoline

Automakers are seeking to head off an EPA ruling that would allow gasoline to contain 15 percent ethanol, up from 10 percent now, and they've won some bipartisan congressional support. The two main automaker industry lobbies have argued that the U.S. Department of Energy has done insufficient testing to assure that gasoline containing up to 15 percent ethanol won't harm vehicles.

Audi plans range of eco-friendly vehicles, report says

The British magazine Car reports that Audi's top executives have approved plans for an entire range of environmentally friendly vehicles to be launched over the next six years. The eco-friendly lineup includes five vehicles, dubbed E1 through E5, according to the report. The range includes a small city car, dubbed the E1, that will use the platform shown with Volkswagen's Up concept but with an entirely new body design.