Automotive

Volkswagen led in global car sales for the first half of the year, ahead of Toyota and General Motors.

A major European carmaker will conduct the first on-road trials of driverless cars in the Southern Hemisphere in South Australia in November.

General Motors Holden sold 106,092 vehicles and was the second-most popular car brand in the country, but made a loss of $361 million last year.

High-performance heat exchangers could be a new sweet spot application for metal additive manufacturing. Brent Balinski spoke to Conflux Technology founder Michael Fuller about an Australian-born innovation that’s getting worldwide attention.

Ford’s Shelby Mustang GT350R will be fitted with carbon fibre wheels from Geelong’s Carbon Revolution, the first original equipment use of CF’s high-performance wheels.

There will be no utes made in Australia, following the end of local production for Ford next year.

The old ACL Bearing factory in Launceston will reopen, with 40 workers re-employed by the new owners.

The Federation of Automotive Parts Manufacturers has been voluntarily liquidated and merged with the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce.

Joint Strike Fighter supplier Quickstep has announced a “logical step” to becoming a major automotive supplier, and is expecting its first production order of components within weeks.

There’s a broad discussion happening in Australia about how to strengthen relationships between private industry and universities in order to foster innovation.

ABB has won an order worth $52 million to boost the flexibility and efficiency of Changan Ford Automobile Co’s new production facility in Harbin, China.

Dandenong automotive component manufacturer Katjen Enterprise was found to have underpaid a migrant worker by $16,000 over four years.

A young contractor technician has been killed at a Volkswagen factory in Baunatal, Germany by an industrial robot.

More and more international trade is being made up of intermediate goods and services. Brent Balinski reports on some of the efforts to get Australian manufacturers better involved in this.

A start-up car maker, Divergent Microfactories, has claimed that its “3D printed” supercar, the Blade, can reach 60 miles per hour quicker than the Porsche 918 Spyder.

On May 28, Manufacturers’ Monthly held its annual Endeavour Awards. We will continue profiling winners this week. PWR was the champion in the Exporter of The Year category.

Advanced manufacturing is an unavoidable term nowadays, and this is for the best. Brent Balinski talked to Jeff Connolly, CEO of Siemens Pacific, about advancing Australian manufacturers, and about the challenges and opportunities of Industry 4.0.

A South Australian government taskforce has met all the state’s tier-one auto suppliers, and warned thousands of jobs are at risk.

Divergent Microfactories has unveiled its new supercar, the Blade, which uses 3D printed aluminium in its chassis.

Ford Motor Company has launched a store where customers can order 3D printed versions of vehicles or STL files from which they can make their own.