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Feds researching fire risks from EV batteries, regulator says

Federal safety regulators have begun an $8.75 million study of whether lithium ion batteries in electric vehicles pose a potential fire hazard, officials said Thursday. Kevin Vincent, chief counsel of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said researchers are looking at whether the high-voltage batteries can cause fires when they are being charged and when the vehicles are in an accident.

Infiniti Etherea to become B-Class based Infiniti DX

Infiniti Etherea will become the B-Class based Infiniti DX in 2014 To be entirely fair, the news that Infiniti is going to be build a compact crossover on the new Mercedes B-Class MFA architecture – and that it is the Etherea Concept forming the basis and likely to be called the Infiniti DX – isn’t a huge surprise. We knew last year when Nissan and Mercedes announced a partnership deal that it would impact on Infiniti as well as Nissan. And the first fruits of that have been confirmed by Carl Ghosn, with the news Infiniti will launch a compact crossover in 2014 using the Mercedes MFA platform which underpins the new B-Class.

Ford to adjust voice, touch-screen system

Ford Motor Co. will improve MyFord Touch, which uses voice and touch-screen controls, but won't remove it despite recent criticism that it distracts drivers, CEO Alan Mulally said last week. With the technology, also offered on Lincoln vehicles as MyLincoln Touch, drivers use a touch screen on the center console to control such things as temperature, music and cell phones.