“Delphi Gets $6.7M For Battery Research in Kokomo - WIBC.com” plus 4 more

Delphi Gets $6.7M For Battery Research in Kokomo - WIBC.com
Biden to discuss future of ex-GM plant in Del. - Philadelphia Daily News
ResponseLogix' Closes $5.6 Million in New Funding - Consumer Electronics Net
Global market review of automotive electric motors - forecasts to 2014 ... - PR Inside
Automotive players' changed ways translates to success on the gridiron - New York Daily News

Delphi Gets $6.7M For Battery Research in Kokomo - WIBC.com

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 08:31 PM PDT

Delphi Automotive Systems will develop more efficient car batteries with help from a $6.7 million federal grant.

U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., says the economic stimulus funds will finance research into technology designed to improve power delivery from batteries to electric motors.

Bayh's office says in a written release that the Delphi project is among 37 initiatives selected Monday by the Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program to invest in the energy sector.

The Indianapolis Star says Delphi and International Rectifier, an El Segundo, Calif.-based producer of high-tech electronics hardware, will work with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to take the power electronics technology from the laboratory to the prototype stage.

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Biden to discuss future of ex-GM plant in Del. - Philadelphia Daily News

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 01:36 PM PDT

WASHINGTON - Vice President Joe Biden is expected to announce Tuesday that a California luxury automaker will build plug-in hybrid electric vehicles at a former General Motors plant in Delaware.

The White House said Sunday that Biden, a former senator from Delaware, will make a major announcement about the future of the former GM plant in Wilmington, along with Delaware Gov. Jack Markell and state officials.

Fisker Automotive of Irvine, Calif., plans to revamp GM's Boxwood Road facility to build plug-ins, officials said Friday. The officials declined to be identified before the formal announcement.

The GM plant closed last summer and had produced the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice roadsters, as well as an Opel version that was exported to Europe.

Fisker CEO Henrik Fisker said last week that the automaker would soon announce the location of its refurbished U.S. plant.

The auto manufacturer recently received approval for a $528.7 million government loan to develop plug-ins and is expected to release its first vehicle, the Karma, in the summer of 2010.

The Karma, which will be built in Finland by Valmet Automotive, will start at $87,900 and has pre-sold about 1,500 vehicles.

Most of the government loan will be used to develop a next-generation plug-in, under a program called Project Nina. The vehicle will sell for nearly $48,000 before a federal tax credit of $7,500 for plug-in hybrids and is expected to be built at the Delaware facility with an annual production of about 100,000 vehicles.

Project Nina is expected to reach showrooms by 2012 and Fisker has said a lower-cost, high-volume plug-in could follow.

A Fisker spokesman did not immediately comment Sunday.

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On the Net:

Fisker Automotive: http://karma.fiskerautomotive.com/

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ResponseLogix' Closes $5.6 Million in New Funding - Consumer Electronics Net

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 11:34 AM PDT

October 26, 2009 -- SUNNYVALE, Calif., BUSINESS WIRE --

ResponseLogix, Inc., the leading provider of automotive digital response management software, today announced the closing of $5.6 million in new funding led by Emergence Capital Partners. The round also included existing investors GRP Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Belo Corp. and AH Belo Corp. The funds will be used to further cement ResponseLogix's leadership in the growing market for internet lead management services to the auto industry.

'Emergence Capital Partners invested in ResponseLogix because of its market leadership position, compelling customer value proposition, and the experience and passion of the management team,' said Jason Green, General Partner at Emergence Capital Partners. 'We have watched ResponseLogix grow its business dramatically during one of the worst financial and auto industry downturns in history. I can't wait to see what happens to this company as the economy rebounds.'

Emergence Capital Partners is the leading venture capital firm focused on cloud-based business and consumer services companies. In 2002, Emergence Capital was the first to recognize the power and potential of SaaS to disrupt the technology industry and invested in some of the most successful companies including Salesforce.com and SuccessFactors. Their mission is to help build market leading companies in true partnership with forward thinking entrepreneurs. Today the firm has over $325 million under management from premiere institutional investors.

'The Emergence team has a proven track record of funding and building market-leading technology companies, particularly software-as-a-service (SaaS) businesses. As a SaaS business ourselves, we are delighted to partner with them to accelerate our growth,' said Tom Mohr, President and CEO of ResponseLogix. 'We are also pleased that existing investors joined Emergence in this financing. The commitment of all our investors in ResponseLogix further validates our value proposition -- that a rapid quote response and effective ongoing customer follow-up are the keys to driving automotive Internet sales.'

About ResponseLogix, Inc.

ResponseLogix delivers software as a service (SaaS) technology to auto dealers so they can better respond to Internet leads. SmartQuote' answers Internet leads within 10 minutes, with a price quote on multiple vehicles based on the customer's make, model and trim level request. SmartFollow' helps dealers stay in touch with the customer with dynamically timed, interactive follow-up emails. SmartFacts' delivers powerful analytics to help optimize the performance or Internet sales departments. The ResponseLogix's SmartQuote product recently received recognition by Automotive News Magazine as one of ten featured products in its annual post-National Automobile Dealers Association convention product review, this year entitled 'Cool Stuff at NADA'. ResponseLogix products are available in 40 US markets for Toyota, Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Honda, Lexus, Audi, Honda, Acura, Nissan, Infiniti and Hyundai dealers across the US. Additional OEM's will be supported soon. Additional information is available at www.responselogix.com.

Keywords: responselogix, auto internet leads, automotive dealers

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Global market review of automotive electric motors - forecasts to 2014 ... - PR Inside

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 08:24 PM PDT

2009-10-27 03:49:01 - Global market review of automotive electric motors - forecasts to 2014 - a new market research report on companiesandmarkets.com

www.companiesandmarkets.com/Summary-Market-Report/global-market- ..

Electric motors can adjust seats and headlights, power side windows and mirrors, assist braking and steering, and are found in anything that has an electrical movement or solenoid function. With as many as 120 electric motors stuffed into a luxury car, manufacturers are finding some novel ways in which to package them. As electric motors proliferate around the car, manufacturers

have developed lighter and more compact units. Manufacturers are also working on ways to reduce the size of automotive electric motors while retaining or improving existing performance. Overall, the main drivers of electric motor development are power density, size, weight, noise and functionality.

This report provides a global review of the market for automotive electric motors, providing top level market fitment, volume and value forecasts through 2014. Our forecasts are not extrapolative but dependent on the underlying drivers of supply and demand. Our forecasts are largely based on interviews with the author's extensive international network of industry contacts. This allows us to consider and explain the meaning and implications of industry events, rather than offer simple description based on incomplete data. All forecast data in this report has been conducted using recent interviews, therefore taking into account the recent economic downturn.

In this, the fifth edition of this report, which is 2,000 words longer than the previous edition, just-auto reviews the key market drivers for electric motors, and updates the market analysis.

Following Chapter 1´s introduction, chapter two provides a market overview, looking at the major players´ latest activities.

Following this, just-auto's product fitment forecasts in Chapter 2 present full historic and forecast annual data for all key auto market segments from 2004 through to 2014 (both volume and value) in Europe, Japan and North America.

There are individual volume and value data tables for the major applications of electric motors including: electric parking brakes, rearview mirrors, seat adjustment mechanisms, steering systems, sunroofs, window lift mechanisms and wiper systems.

Chapter 3 sets out profiles of the major manufactures, namely ArvinMeritor, Bosch, Brose, Denso, Globe Motors, Johnson Electric, Mitsuba and Nidec.

Extracts of interviews with the industry´s leading executives are provided throughout the report.

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Report extract:

While electric DC motors have long since raised the comfort levels for front seat passengers, there are signs that such motors are appearing in the rear seats too. Imtiyaz Syed, vice president, engineering, Intier Automotive Seating, told us: "Power is definitely coming to the rear seats as well. For example, rear seat heating systems are fairly common in premium cars. There are also powered stow systems in the third row whereby just pressing a button, the whole articulation takes places so that the seat folds and stows into the floor automatically. We have also developed the ability to power removable seats. With our design, the seat is automatically connected and powered when installed in the vehicle and disconnected when removed without the consumer having to [physically] disconnect the seat before removing it."

"That is in production on the Chrysler minivan Swivel Seats," added Randy Koenigsknecht, vice president, sales and marketing, Intier Automotive Seating. "We had to make it very robust and almost invisible to the customer so that they do not even realise that the connection/disconnection is being made and, of course, they do not experience any error in that connection."

"But it doesn't stop there," said Syed. "The Lincoln MKX and Ford Edge feature powered seat back fold down on their rear seats. I think that the power growth trend for the rear seat will continue for some time to come."

Guido Wolfs, senior product business manager, JCI, told us: "We are not a manufacturer of DC electric motors, only a user of them. In our products, we use electric motors produced by various international manufacturers. In the case of customer orders, the motor chosen depends on the actual specifications of the automaker concerned. In the case of new product developments that are independent of any OEM, a decision is reached based on the required performance and cost-effectiveness of the motor for the individual project."

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Automotive players' changed ways translates to success on the gridiron - New York Daily News

Posted: 26 Oct 2009 06:37 PM PDT

BY Mitch Abramson
daily news sports writer

Updated Monday, October 26th 2009, 9:38 PM

Haseeb Khawaja, Automotive's sixth-year football coach, was sitting on a bench at McCarren Park in Greenpoint on Wednesday, talking about his players, lavishing them with praise. Then, he was rehashing their past troubles, going into depth on topics that many coaches might avoid. His honesty was unusual, considering the subject.

Maybe he was trying to make the point that there are second acts in life. "These are kids," he was saying. "They're going to make mistakes."

The Pistons this season reflect their coach's belief in second chances. Automotive is off to the best start in program history, sitting with South Bronx atop the PSAL Cup Division with a 7-0 record and winning with players who don't necessarily look like typical football players.

As the sound of handballs thumped in the background, Khawaja expounded on his team's fortune over the past few seasons: The Pistons have gone from 0-10 in 2006, to 2-8 in 2007, to 6-3 last year, when they narrowly missed the playoffs.

"We don't attract the kind of kid who weighs over 300 pounds and is over six feet tall," Khawaja says. "We get the kid who is hungry: 5-11, maybe 180 pounds, a tough city kid who is dealing with city problems."

Exhibit A is Jason Moquete, a senior defensive end who, as a junior, started a fight with a teammate who'd stomped on a packet of ketchup that splattered on his uniform. Moquete, a good student who is well-liked by his coaches, admits it was a mistake. Now, he is a captain.

"That wasn't the right thing to do," he says. "You have to realize that even though you might be having a bad day, the team comes first."

Exhibit B is Maurice Edwards, who ranks among the division's top passers. Khawaja calls Edwards a "natural quarterback," but the senior has also had to deal with maturity issues.

As a sophomore QB on an undefeated JV team, Edwards suffered a meltdown during practice, one day before a game against undefeated Bryant.

"It was raining and he just wasn't feeling it that day," recalls senior safety/halfback James Clark. "Just some of the things he's been through at home were bothering him."

Edwards, who declined to elaborate on those issues, was asked to leave practice. An assistant coach, concerned that Edwards might be a danger to himself, tried unsuccessfully to reach the player by phone. The police were called to his home, where Edwards said he was resting safely.

"Our biggest concern was whether he could function in a high school environment," Khawaja said. "This is a guy who was always getting in trouble, being late to class."

Three games into the season, after he'd proven that he could control his temper, Edwards was elevated to captain, one of five on the team. Seniors Harrison Fontenelle, a tackle, and center David Genis, are two others.

"People look at you as the leader," Edwards said. "You don't want to let your teammates down."

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