J.D. Power seats Trim Masters at top of ranking July 21, 2008

Trim Masters Inc., a joint venture between Johnson Controls Inc. and Toyota Boshoku Corp., ranks highest in overall automotive seat quality for a sixth consecutive year, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Seat Quality and Satisfaction Study(SM).

NPD rolls out POS information on suspension categories July 10, 2008

A new tool to help the automotive aftermarket identify trends has been released by the NPD Group. The company, a leading market research firm, now offers suspension category point-of-sale (POS) information from all nine automotive specialty retailers and wholesale distributors in the Aftermarket Industry Monitor® (AAIM).?

The Activant Report: key products sales activity July 1, 2008 By: Rod Bayless

Whether it's because of the use of offshore replacement parts, vehicle design problems or misdiagnoses in the service bay, this month's three snapshots of national demand for replacement parts are dominated by Ford and General Motors applications. In fact, there's nary an import to be found in the top 10 of any of this month's categories — brake rotors, starter motors and ABS wheel sensors. This analysis was developed using the Activant® Vista® market intelligence solution.

Scope & Scan: Some ABCs of CKPs July 1, 2008 By: Jim Garrido

Unlike the Variable Reluctance (VR) sensors that output an AC signal, the output from a Hall-effect sensor is a square wave. This square wave starts from the sensor reference ground level to a positive DC voltage of typically 5, 8, 10 or 12 volts, depending on vehicle application. Hall-effect sensors, unlike VR sensors, always are supplied a power and ground in order to operate the sensor's internal electronics.

Factory Bulletins July 1, 2008

Factory Bulletin

Plug-in Prius prototype put on display June 17, 2008

Toyota recently displayed a prototype plug-in Prius hybrid at Legislative Plaza during a field hearing on electric drive vehicles called for by the Congressional TVA Caucus. The prototype Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) enhances the high fuel economy and ultra-low emissions of the popular Toyota Prius production hybrid model with an expanded Nickel-Metal-Hydride battery pack that can be charged by plugging into a standard household electrical outlet.

Delphi leading Department of Energy study into hybrid propulsion inverters June 13, 2008

The U.S. Department of Energy has selected Delphi Corporation to lead an industry-government team to develop the next generation propulsion inverter for hybrid vehicles. The new smaller inverter is lower cost and will be used on the next generation high-efficiency hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and next generation plug-in hybrids (PHEVs). In the longer-term, the inverter will be used for fuel cell vehicles (FCVs).

New contract for advanced hybrid powertrains goes to Quantum Fuel Systems June 12, 2008

Quantum Fuel Systems Technologies Worldwide, Inc. has been awarded a contract by EDAG Engineering + Design AG (EDAG) to develop advanced hybrid vehicle powertrains for the Future Steel Vehicle program sponsored by WorldAutoSteel, the automotive group of the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI).

Sanyo, Volkswagen developing lithium-ion battery systems June 12, 2008

SANYO Electric Co., Ltd. and German automaker VOLKSWAGEN Group have agreed to start co-development of next generation Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery systems for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV).