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UK electric motor maker YASA expands production 50-fold for EVs

LONDON — British electric motor manufacturer YASA said on Thursday it was increasing its production capacity from 2,000 to 100,000 units with a new factory to tap into growing demand from carmakers for greener technologies. Automakers are racing to build greener vehicles and improve charge times in a bid to meet rising customer demand and air quality targets but Britain lacks sufficient manufacturing capacity, an area the government is building up. Last year, the government picked a site in central England to house a new automotive battery development facility, which will develop the processes required to manufacture the latest battery advancements. On Thursday, YASA, based near the English city of Oxford, said it had raised another 15 million pounds ($21 million) as part of its expansion. "Our customers are looking to adopt innovative new technologies such as YASA's axial-flux electric motors and controllers in order to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding hybrid and pure electric automotive market," said Chief Executive Chris Harris. The firm exports 80 percent of production and has worked with companies including Britain's two biggest carmakers Jaguar Land Rover and Nissan as well as Aston Martin. JLR will decide this year whether to build electric cars in its home market, previously citing factors such as pilot testing and support from science and government as pre-requisites. Reporting by Costas PitasRelated Video:

Total auto recalls already on record pace in 2014

If you've noticed that there have been more recalls than usual this year, you may be on to something. According to a report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the US market is on pace to break a record for recalls. In 2013, 22 million cars were recalled. We're only a third of the way through 2014, though, and we've already halved that figure, with 11 million units recalled. That's wild.
Considering the past few months, it shouldn't be a surprise that General Motors is leading the charge, with six million of the 11 million units recalled coming from one of the General's four brands. Between truck recalls, CUV recalls and the ignition switch recall, 2014 hasn't been a great year for GM.
Other recall leaders include Nissan (one million Sentra and Altima sedans), Honda (900,000 Odyssey minivans), Toyota (over one million units in a few recalls), Volkswagen (150,000 Passat sedans), Chrysler (644,000 Dodge Durango and Jeep Grand Cherokee SUVs) and most recently, Ford (434,000 units, the bulk of which were early Ford Escape CUVs). So while it's been a bad year for GM so far, its competitors aren't doing too well, either.

2014 Nissan Leaf named overall cleanest car in US

A research firm has named the zero-emission 2014 Nissan Leaf the cleanest production vehicle in the US, and that's figuring in the full, wheel-to-well lifetime impact of the car on the environment. The Automotive Science Group (ASG) studied more than 1,300 automobiles with at least four seats across nine categories, measuring everything from the amount of fuel needed to run the car during its lifetime to the extraction of natural resources to build the thing in the first place to end-of-life processing. ASG calls the process "wildly complex." The battery-electric Leaf, with its 84-mile single-charge range, took top honors overall, but there were other highly ranked vehicles in different categories. ASG also said that the Mitsubishi Mirage, with its sub-2,000-pound curb weight and 40 miles per gallon fuel economy, was the cleanest among gas-powered vehicles, while the Chevrolet Spark had the lowest cast of ownership over five years. Last month, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) put together its annual "Greenest" and "Meanest" (notice: we didn't say "Cleanest") lists and put the Leaf at number three. Topping that list was the Smart ForTwo ED battery-electric, but that was followed up by the Toyota Prius C compact hybrid, so fans of those vehicles can now start a healthy debate. The ACEEE uses data from the Environmental Protection Agency and California Air Resources Board to compile its list. We have ASG's press release below. Life-cycle Assessment of 1,300 Models Reveals Best of 2014 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 4 February 2014 [Santa Rosa, CA] – The Automotive Science Group (ASG) conducted a comprehensive life-cycle assessment of over 1,300 automobiles across nine categories to distinguish the BEST model year 2014 vehicles in environmental, economic, social and "all-around" performance. Auto consumers are now equipped with a car buying guide founded on principled facts, a departure from the notoriously subjective test drive "editor reviews" that have long been the industry norm. Using a unique combination of vehicle data inputs that include conventional specifications as well as ground-breaking social, environmental and economic performance indicators, ASG's back-end algorithms are wildly complex, but the front-end results – meaningful vehicle ratings and distinguished awards – are forthright and consumer-friendly. ASG's Automotive Performance Index is for automotive consumers what Google is for web users.