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Tour of quake zone shows Akio Toyoda 'the depth of destruction'

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda toured Japan's earthquake disaster zone, including the damaged assembly plant opened there in January, as the world's largest automaker struggles to get a grip on the supplier crisis and resume production. Toyoda's trip on Sunday and Monday took him to Miyagi prefecture, near the epicenter of the killer March 11 quake and an area being positioned by Toyota as its domestic center for small car production.

New Mercedes B-Class Electric Drive goes in to production

The first Mercedes B-Class ED (pictured) rolls off the production line in Rastatt With the BMW i3 grabbing headlines – and flying out of showrooms – as BMW’s first electric car, Mercedes need to play catch-up with a convincing EV of their own, and that’s the new B-Class Electric Drive – an EV version of the regular B-Class – which has now gone in to production in Germany. Built alongside regular ICE versions of the B-Class at Mercedes’ Rastatt Plant, the B-Class ED (Electric Drive) looks practically the same as its more conventionally powered siblings – although the front bumper does look a bit different – and has an electric motor good for 177 bhp and 250 lb/ft of torque, can manage a scoot to 62 mph in 7.9 seconds and has a range of up to 124 miles. The range – at least the quoted range – is a chunk better than the BMW i3′s and on a par with the latest Nissan LEAF, thanks to EV technology provided by Tesla, and the wrapping of an EV drivetrain in a conventional series production car could appeal to more buyers than the ‘statement’ design of the BMW i3.

Giugiaro honored in Korean ceremony

Giorgetto Giugiaro has received honors from the South Korean Government for his contribution to the nation's fledgling automotive industry.  In a ceremony in Seoul, Giugiaro received the prestigious 'Order of Merit' from the President of the Republic of Korea, Lee Myung-bak. The relationship between Italdesign Giugiaro and Korea stretches back to the 1970s, a period of significant growth for the Korean nation, stifled only by its lackluster automotive industry.  It fell to the Italian designer to invigorate an industry that survived on reassembling and rebranding foreign domestic models. Giugiaro's solution was the simple Hyundai Pony.