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Minicars perform poorly in crash tests, study says

Minicars made by Toyota, Honda and Daimler AG did poorly on frontal crash tests with mid-sized automobiles, prompting an influential safety organization to suggest consumers consider buying larger cars that have comparable fuel economy. The Toyota Yaris, Honda Fit and Smart ForTwo all collapsed upon impact into the space around the driver dummy, according to the study released today by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Drivers in all three vehicles faced high risk of head and leg injuries after test collisions at 40 miles an hour, even after airbags inflated, said the non-profit group funded by auto insurers.

L’argus Student Competition 2009

French magazine L'argus de l'automobile has announced the winners of its seventh Student Competition Awards, themed ‘Automobile Design for Social Utility'. Open to students studying design within the European Union and Switzerland, the competition culminated at a recent awards ceremony at the Eiffel Tower. The first prize of €3000 and an internship at Renault's Technocentre in Guyancourt (near Paris) went to Damien Grossemy, Thibaut Dereymacker and Maxime Dimarco from the Institut Supérieur de Design in Valenciennes, France.

BYD E6 – Next Gen Electric Car battery technology

Chinese car maker BYD are using revolutionary battery technology in the BYD E6 The biggest problem with electric cars (or one of them, at least) is that the battery technology is not really up to the ambitions of car makers. Chevrolet’s Volt (aka Opel Ampera) is a good case in point. Tellingly, a Toyota tecchy referred to the science behind the Chevvy Volt as ‘Vaporware’, and the whole project is founded on the expectation that the technolgy will develop quickly enough to make the car a reality.