1983 300 Sd Mercedes Benz on 2040-cars

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Child cobalt miners: Automakers pledge ethical minerals sourcing for EVs

BERLIN - Leading carmakers including Volkswagen and Toyota pledged on Wednesday to uphold ethical and socially responsible standards in their purchases of minerals for an expected boom in electric vehicle production. Demand for minerals such as cobalt, graphite and lithium is forecast to soar in the coming years as governments crack down on vehicle pollution and carmakers step up their investments in electric models. To cover its plans for more than 80 new models by 2025, Volkswagen alone is looking for partners in China, Europe and North America to provide battery cells and related technology worth more than 50 billion euros ($59 billion). Talks with major cobalt producers, including Glencore, at VW's Wolfsburg headquarters last week ended without a deal. More than half of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a country racked by political instability and legal opacity, and where child labor is used in mines. On Wednesday, a group of 10 leading passenger-car and truck manufacturers announced an initiative to jointly identify and address ethical, environmental, human and labor rights issues in raw materials sourcing. The partnership dubbed "Drive Sustainability" consists of VW, Toyota Motor Europe, Ford, Daimler, BMW, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo Cars and truckmakers Scania and Volvo. The alliance "will assess the risks posed by the top raw materials (such as mica, cobalt, rubber and leather) in the automotive sector," said Stefan Crets of the CSR Europe business network. "This will allow Drive Sustainability to identify the most impactful activities to pursue" to address issues within the supply chain.Reporting by Andreas Cremer.Related Video: Image Credit: Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images Green BMW Ford Honda Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Automakers Toyota Volkswagen Volvo Green Automakers Green Culture Electric Scania ethics mining

One year since accident, most of Schumacher's sponsors still on board

It's been almost exactly a year now since Michael Schumacher suffered massive head trauma in a catastrophic skiing accident in Switzerland, and while details on his recovery have remained few and far between, we're sure his progress has been anything but easy. Meanwhile his sponsors have faced a difficult decision of their own: to continue supporting him financially despite getting nothing tangible in return, or cancel their contracts and suffer the blow to their public image as a result. According to Schumacher's longtime manager Sabine Kehm in speaking to news outlets like Italy's La Gazzetta dello Sport, most of the imperiled former F1 driver's personal sponsors have remained by his side. The encouraging news updates on what we reported back in August, that Mercedes-Benz and German investment firm Deutsche Vermogensberatung AG were sticking with the champ through the hard times. Other sponsors, including helmet manufacturer Schuberth and watchmaker Audemars Piguet, are also believed to still be on board. Not all of Schumi's sponsors have stuck around, though. German bottled water brand Rosbacher reportedly broke off its contract with Schumacher back in July. And more recent reports confirm that Gaydoul Group fashion labels Navyboot and Jet Set canceled their sponsorship deal earlier this month. These and other contracts made Schumacher one of the world's highest paid sports figures and the first billionaire athlete in the world. Even in retirement, he was still making more than most active F1 drivers. While we don't know just how much he's pulling in during his recovery, here's hoping that his continued sponsors can find a way to make their support worthwhile – and that the champ makes a full recovery in the near future.

Edmunds ranks the best used cars for 2013

When people ask us what car we would recommend for them, it's usually not easy to answer. To make a useful recommendation we must consider which of the numerous vehicle segments fits their needs best, and then choose one of the many vehicles offered in each segment. For some people, new cars don't meet their expectations of value, because they lose so much of it the moment they are purchased and driven off the dealer lot. For them, there's always the used-car market, where great deals can be found, but cars' histories of reliability and maintenance records - and perhaps that Certified Pre-Owned warranty - become ever-important factors playing into purchase choice.
To help out, Edmunds has done us the favor of assembling a list of the best used vehicles money can buy, covering model years 2006-2011, according to what it considers the most important criteria when shopping for used autos: reliability, safety, value and availability. That means unreliable, unsafe, super-expensive or limited-edition models don't appear on the list, but instead cars from each segment that are more likely to satisfy the general population.
There are some real goodies on the list, including but not limited to vehicles such as the capable Honda Fit, the cultish Honda Accord coupe (which can be had with a 240-horsepower V6 and a six-speed manual transmission some years), and the powerful Chevrolet Corvette. While Edmunds' choice of the Volvo C70 for best used convertible baffled us at first (not that it's a bad car), it redeemed itself by stating that the Mazda MX-5 still is an unofficial top choice if you don't require more than two seats.