“Automotive future is lighter, safer - Oakland Press” plus 4 more

Automotive future is lighter, safer - Oakland Press
Penske secures credit lines - Oakland Press
General Motors plans new research lab in Shanghai - Newsday
Lowell pulls ethanol plant welcome mat - NWITimes.com
Monro buys two service companies with 50 stores - Democrat and Chronicle

Automotive future is lighter, safer - Oakland Press

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:59 PM PDT

By JOSEPH SZCZESNY
Of The Oakland Press

The Oakland Press/TIM THOMPSON Concept Engineer Lisa Viazanko and Jay Hutchins, director of marketing and product planning, look over new lightweight products at Faurecia in Auburn Hills.

Faurecia North America is showing new technology this week that it believes will help reduce the weight of future vehicles.

Experts from the company's headquarters and technical center in Auburn Hills will present information about the natural fiber composite materials and processes that Faurecia is applying as the next generation of lightweight automotive interior substrates.

Christophe Baillet, Fauercia senior manager of concept engineering, will also discuss replacing the airbag cover that sits in the middle of the steering wheel with a cover made from foam rather than plastic in a presentation at ITB Group's Automotive Cockpit and Door Conference in Novi.

The lid's structural 3D-skeleton creates significant weight savings, while improving passenger safety and providing more design freedom for the instrument panel and exhaust systems, Baillet said.

Stiffer fuel-economy regulations are forcing both carmakers and suppliers to look at more ways to reduce the weight of various parts. Reducing the weight of vehicle parts also can save space, Faurecia representatives said.

Earlier this month, Ford Motor Co. reported that it has used soy-based polyurethane foam seat cushions on more than 1.5 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles, eliminating the need for 1.5 million pounds of petroleum-based material.

Ford also has expanded its soy-foam portfolio to include the industry's first application of a soy-foam headliner on the 2010 Ford Escape and Mercury Mariner, which produced a 25 percent weight savings versus a traditional-type headliner without any degradation in design.

"Natural fiber-reinforced composites and polymer resins made from plant resources provide positive environmental impact by utilizing renewable resources, reducing CO2 emissions, by being entirely compostable and — in some cases — reducing weight, which helps improve fuel economy," said Debbie Mielewski, technical leader at Ford Plastics Research.

"We have to entertain the thought of bio-replacement in baby steps, looking at every aspect of a car that could be green. Where I hope to see the world of automotive plastics go: totally compostable, removing petroleum 100 percent," she said.

Plastics currently make up about 10 percent of a vehicle, ranging from sight-unseen parts such as impact shields and engine covers to components drivers see and interact with every day, including doors and instrument panels, Ford engineers said.

Contact Joseph Szczesny at (248) 745-4650 or joe.szczesny@oakpress.com.

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Penske secures credit lines - Oakland Press

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:59 PM PDT

By JOSEPH SZCZESNY
Of The Oakland Press

The Bloomfield Hills-based Penske Automotive Group has secured new lines of credit with assistance from Daimler Financial Services of North America and Toyota Motor Credit Corp.

The big automotive retailer said in a filing with the Securities Exchange Commission that it had secured a new $479 million credit agreement with Daimler Financial Services of Farmington Hills and Toyota Motor Credit.

"We purchase motor vehicles from Daimler AG and Toyota Motor Corp., affiliates of the respective lenders under the credit agreement, for sale at certain of our dealerships. The lenders also provide us with 'floor-plan' financing and consumer financing," Penske Automotive Group noted in its SEC filing.

Penske is in the midst of negotiations to purchase the Saturn brand from General Motors Corp. GM left Saturn behind as it emerged from bankruptcy.

The new agreement ensures Penske Automotive Group with a secure source of credit until September 2012.

As amended, the credit agreement provides Penske Automotive Group with up to $250 million in revolving loans for working capital, acquisitions, capital expenditures, investments and for other general corporate purposes.

The agreement also includes a term loan for $219 million and for an additional $10 million in letters of credit through Sept. 30, 2011. Pursuant to the "evergreen" provisions of the original credit agreement, the term of the loans was extended by one year through Sept. 30, 2012.

In a separate SEC filing, Penske reported it had also secured a line of credit for its wholly owned subsidiary in the United Kingdom, Sytner Group Limited.

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General Motors plans new research lab in Shanghai - Newsday

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 11:18 PM PDT

September 24, 2009 By The Associated Press

SHANGHAI (AP) — General Motors Co. said Thursday it plans to open a new research center in Shanghai focused on developing "breakthrough" auto technologies for the future.

The China Science Lab, to be based at GM's manufacturing complex in Shanghai's Jinqiao district, will work on advanced engine technology, battery cells, safety research, driverless vehicles and light materials, the company said.

"Our aim is to develop breakthrough technologies that will differentiate GM vehicles in the marketplace and build on GM's long history of industry firsts," Alan Taub, vice president for global research and development, told reporters.

"China has begun emerging as a world class research hub for automotive technology," Taub said.

The new research facility plans to hire about 100 staff initially, both from overseas and China. It will be headed by John Du, former general manager of Intel Corp.'s China Research Center.

GM provided no financial information about its investment in the wholly owned project, which GM executives said will collaborate with the local automotive research institutions.

China's auto industry overtook the U.S. in market size earlier this year as sales surged, thanks partly to government subsidies for purchases of fuel efficient, smaller cars. While GM and its local partners are among the market leaders, they face aggressive competition both from global rivals and domestic automakers.

To help burnish its R&D prowess, the company's joint corporate pavilion with local partner Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp. at next year's Shanghai Expo will highlight those efforts, demonstrating transportation concepts and technology for the future.

GM kicked off its "Drive to 2030" campaign Thursday with an exhibit featuring past technology achievements at the Automobile Museum in the Shanghai suburb of Anting.

"GM has been a technology leader for the first century of the auto industry and we are committed to being the technology leader for the second century," Taub said.

___

On the Net:

General Motors Co.'s interactive Expo Web site: http://www.gmexpo2010.com/

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Lowell pulls ethanol plant welcome mat - NWITimes.com

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 09:38 PM PDT

LOWELL | The possibility of building an ethanol plant in this south Lake County community has headed south.

"I support the project, but not in Lowell. Earl Powers (CEO of Powers Energy) has an option down in Schneider, and he's liking that more and more," Lowell Town Council President Phillip Kuiper, D-4th, said Thursday. "I'm supporting Schneider. It still will impact Lowell and the Tri-Creek school system."

The Tri-Creek School Corp. Board had been set to authorize a study of how building the proposed trash-to-ethanol plant in Lowell would environmentally affect two of its schools. But, given Kuiper's assessment, the study was taken off the School Board agenda Thursday night.

Kuiper, chairman of the Lake County Solid Waste Management District -- which approved the siting of a garbage-to-ethanol plant in Lake County last year -- had been a big booster of the project for Lowell.

Kuiper had said he saw it as a chance to bring much-needed jobs and broaden the town's tax base, especially in light of the planned shuttering of Rieter Automotive by year's end.

On Thursday, he said, "I'm moving on."

After assurances from Kuiper that an ethanol plant would not be in the town's future, Tri-Creek Schools Superintendent Alice Neal pulled the environmental study from the board's agenda. Rieter Automotive is adjacent to district-owned property, including two schools, and the board had concerns should a biofuel plant locate there.

Six months ago, an angry crowd of West Creek Township residents rejected a Powers ethanol plant just west of Lowell. Schneider is farther south in West Creek Township.

Powers also has expressed interest in Crown Point. But earlier this month an environmental attorney, Vicki Wright, hired by the Sisters of Saint Francis Health Services sent a six-page letter to Mayor David Uran opposing the plant, its adjacent to a possible site for a Crown Point campus of the University of Saint Francis.

A letter dated about a week later, Sept. 15, also written to Uran from Wright, thanked him for a meeting with him and Ken Bosar, vice president of Powers Energy of America. However, the letter states that the Sisters' opposition is unchanged, "based on additional questions that arose during the meeting."

The letter also states that because other locations in Crown Point are being considered, the Sisters have included a list of additional information that Crown Point should consider reviewing before a decision is made. On the list is information such as the resumes and references of the company's key players including Powers and Bosar, the business plan, proof of long-term financial viability and a variety of studies including economic impact, air emissions, traffic flow and wastewater.

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Monro buys two service companies with 50 stores - Democrat and Chronicle

Posted: 24 Sep 2009 11:54 PM PDT

Monro Muffler Brake Inc. has purchased two tire-and-repair businesses for $36 million.

The businesses are Tire Warehouse Central of New England and Midwest Tire & Auto Repair, a tire chain in northwest Indiana.

They will add 50 stores to the 740 units that Monro Muffler already owns.

Robert Gross, chairman and CEO of Monro, said Thursday that the acquisitions fit the company's strategy of acquiring inexpensive assets that add to earnings-per-share as soon as possible.

The companies will continue doing business as normal under Monro. But Midwest Tire will be rebranded as Mr. Tire, said Gross.

The 50 stores will add nearly $60 million in annual sales, according to John Van Heel, president of Monro.

Monro, which expects revenues of between $515 million and $530 million by the end of its fiscal year in March 2010, specializes in automotive undercar repair and tire services.

John Lawrence, an analyst with Morgan Keenan & Co. Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., said the recession has closed many auto dealerships, increasing demand at Monro while bolstering their acquisition plans.

Additionally, few companies such as Monro are seeking out family tire businesses for acquisitions.

Many of those small family businesses do not have successors in mind, making them ripe for Monro's strategy, said Lawrence.

The company services about 3.5 million vehicles a year.

Employment is about 4,300. Monro plans to release its second quarter fiscal results on Oct. 26.

JFSTINSO@DemocratandChronicle.com