Nissan Altima 1993-2004 Haynes Repair Manual on 2040-parts.com

CDN and Opel/Vauxhall Interactive Design Competition Update

Seats, relationships, city life, the virtual world and new materials exploration: one month into the Car Design News-Opel/Vauxhall interactive design competition, launched on 11 October, these are a few of the themes student designers are exploring, in answer to the question 'What do you think is our lounge style?'. The competition, a collaboration between Opel-Vauxhall and Car Design News, is an interactive design competition for students who are studying design – of any discipline – at a college in Europe. The winner of the competition will work as a paid intern at Opel/Vauxhall design center in Rüsselsheim.

Battery breakthrough set to accelerate electric-car development

A team of scientists working at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are claiming a significant breakthrough in recharging times for lithium-ion batteries. According to findings published in the scientific journal Nature, MIT researchers Byoungwoo Kang and Gerbrand Ceder have unlocked the potential of lithium-ion batteries by patenting a unique process which is claimed to allow a typical laptop power pack to be fully recharged in less than a minute--an improvement in recharging performance of roughly 90 percent over existing lithium-ion batteries. Lithium-ion batteries generate electric current via the flow of lithium ions across an electrolyte, from an electrode to a cathode.

Connecticut garage fire destroys Volt and homemade EV

News reports say two plug-in electric cars--a 2011 Chevrolet Volt and a home-converted Suzuki Samurai--were destroyed in a garage fire in Barkhamsted, Conn., on April 14. The destroyed Volt had just 2,000 miles on the odometer. The owner said he converted the Samurai to electric power a few years ago.