Manufacturing/Plants

This isn't good. The Associated Press is reporting that Fisker Automotive has stopped production of the Fisker Karma (*UPDATE: Not true, says Fisker PR: "We are currently producing 20-25 Karmas a day and will continue to do so.") and laid off 26 Delaware employees and 40 contractors in ...

Ford Motor Co. said it will cut landfill waste from its European factories by 70 percent and reduce water use by 30 percent within five years, all part of a plan the U.S. automaker has to cut its overall environmental footprint. The water reduction alone – 1.3 billion liters a year, or ...

At the Washington Auto Show today, Chevrolet introduced a sticker. Okay, the new Ecologic environmental labels that will be coming to all new Chevy vehicles – starting with the 2013 Sonic – is a lot more than just an adhesive piece of paper. Last year, the EPA revamped its mileage ...

Nissan reached an agreement to make four-cylinder engines at its Tennessee plant for Mercedes-Benz, marking a continuation of a collaboration launched in 2010 between Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler AG and the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Nissan will start making four-cylinder powertrains for ...

There's a surprising amount of water in pretty much everything – first-gen biofuels, anyone? – and Ford thinks it makes sense to get some of that precious liquid out of the process of making vehicles. Thirty percent, to be exact. That's the target that Ford recently set for global ...

When we visited Volkswagen's manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, TN a while back, we were told it would be model for other company plants around the world. That's just what an announcement today puts into effect. Expanding on its "Bluemotion" tagline for its more efficient vehicles, VW's cleaner ...

There are some numbers about the Fisker Karma we're already well aware of: it gets 112 mpg (according to the TÜV) and 52 MPGe or 20 mpg in charge sustaining mode (if you go by the EPA's numbers). The company has said it will make 15,000 of the luxury plug-in hybrids in 2012, but there are a ...

Nestled in the hills outside Chattanooga, TN squats a large, brand new Volkswagen plant. Fresh and shiny, the collection of buildings houses the people and robots that turn delivered parts and materials into brand-new 2012 Passats, the first of which was just sold to a young man in the tech ...

Today, Volkswagen's manufacturing plant in Chattanooga, TN was officially named a Platinum LEED-certified facility. This makes VW the first automaker to reach the notoriously difficult highest level of LEED certification. Situated on a former brownfield site, VW's Chattanooga plant is where the ...

The details of exactly how clean car manufacturing facilities are in the U.S. are, to be honest, not entirely clear. Claims of being "landfill free" or "zero waste" seem pretty easy to throw out there, but there is bit of a grey area with these terms since some companies burn some waste to create ...