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Chrysler to close Pacifica Advanced Design Studios

The 20 designers at Chrysler's Pacifica Advanced Design Studios in Carlsbad, California will soon be finding themselves out of a job. The struggling North American automaker announced the closure of the facility on Friday, stating that the company is ‘leveraging resources worldwide, forming new joint ventures and alliances and consolidating operations in order to better achieve global balance.' Responsible for many of the more successful designs hailing from Chrysler in recent times, including the Chrysler 300 sedan and the new Dodge Challenger musclecar, the Pacifica Advanced Product Design Center also yielded the Nassau concept car and the Pacifica crossover – bearing the same name as the west coast studios in which it was created. The work done at the Pacifica Advanced Design Center will be consolidated into the Advance Design function in Auburn Hills and continue to be led by Senior Vice President of Design, Trevor Creed.

Nissan UK Battery plans confirmed

Nissan - the Renault Nissan Alliance - has confirmed plans for car battery production in the UK and Portugal The aim of the battery production plants is to supply batteries for electric cars built by the Renault Nissan alliance, but Nissan haven’t actually said that they will build any electric cars in the UK. Hmm. The target production is 60,000 annually to be used in a range of Nissan and Renault electric cars that will start to hit the market next year (2010) – in the US and Japan – with full global roll-out by 2010.

Aston Martin Slash 1/3rd of jobs

It’s getting silly out there. Aston Martin has this afternoon announced that it is to cut around a third of jobs at its Gaydon facility. That’s 300 full time and 300 part time.