Euro Auto Trends

Four German State Prime Ministers have urged Opel production stay in Germany and that global markets be opened for its models.

Ford says it is planning to more than triple the production of its vehicles equipped with fuel-efficient EcoBoost petrol engines to approximately 480,000 a year by 2015, from 141,000 in 2011.

Michelin is to stop production at its Dundee plant in Scotland for three weeks at the end of this month in response to falling demand across Europe, although no jobs will be lost.

UK-based automotive and motorsport engineering company Prodrive is reporting a surge in business from UK-based OEMs this year.