Continental O470 Oil Pump Housing P/n 538755 on 2040-parts.com

Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive gets wheel hub electric motors

The Ford Fiesta eWheelDrive – a driveable research vehicle built by Ford and German specialists Schaeffler – may be a regular supermini in size, but it points towards a potential future EV which is much more compact and very manoeuvrable. Ford has taken a regular Fiesta and dumped its powertrain, replacing it with a battery bank where the engine would be and fitted a pair of in-hub electric motors on the rear wheels. But the plan is to build new cars with the batteries under the floor which frees up the space under the bonnet which can then be all but removed to create a very compact urban car that still has space for four.

Design Development: Yanfeng Visteon Glide

Those who attended our Designers' Night in Beijing earlier in the year will have seen the Yanfeng Visteon Glide concept car, a car many thought one of the best displayed throughout the whole motor show period. However many asked why a Tier 1 supplier Yanfeng Visteon has gone to the effort and expense of creating a full concept car, especially one as exotic as the Glide, especially when the company's core business is designing and supplying interior components. We caught up with Shizuki Kajiyama, Yanfeng Visteon's Design Studio Manager to find out more about the project.

Tour of quake zone shows Akio Toyoda 'the depth of destruction'

Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda toured Japan's earthquake disaster zone, including the damaged assembly plant opened there in January, as the world's largest automaker struggles to get a grip on the supplier crisis and resume production. Toyoda's trip on Sunday and Monday took him to Miyagi prefecture, near the epicenter of the killer March 11 quake and an area being positioned by Toyota as its domestic center for small car production.