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News watch June 2012: today's auto industry news

Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour Friday 29 June 2012• As predicted, BMW and Toyota today announced the next stage of their cooperation to jointly develop powertrains, lightweight technologies, fuel-cells and future platforms (BMW and Toyota)• Today's announcement follows the initial agreement signed in December 2011; in March 2012, BMW and Toyota signed a binding agreement to work together on lithium-ion battery research and for Munich to supply Toyota with diesel engines from 2014 • Now Toyota and BMW have signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate on the electrification of car powertrains, research into lightweight technologies, develop fuel-cells and to consider future vehicle architectures – 'for a sports car, for example'• Renault will cut 300 jobs at its Flins plant near Paris, it announced today. The factory builds the Clio and is preparing for the new Zoe ZE too (Automotive News Europe)• Ford has warned its pre-tax operating profit in the second quarter will be 'substantially lower' than before.

'Super salesman' calls time on 100,000-sale career

A SO-CALLED ‘super salesman’ is calling time on his career after notching up an incredible 100,000 car sales over half a century. Ken Searle, who works for Benfield Motor Group in the North East, started with British Leyland before moving to a new team selling Datsun cars when they first arrived in Britain. A proud Ken said: “I’ve loved every minute of my career and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

Watch this: Grand Prix title sequence

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