Jaguar Land Rover is safeguarding around 2,000 jobs in the West Midlands by the production of its new XJ model, it has been reported.

Every Jaguar job in the region supported five other local ones, car industry group Accelerate told the BBC.

Jaguar has employed 400 staff to work on the production of the new model, saying the XJ was "vital" to helping the manufacturer survive during the recession.

The car will be produced and assembled at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham. Coventry-based firm, Lear, will also benefit from the XJ.

It already makes seats for a number of Jaguar models and the XJ has secured 90 jobs at the site.

Advantage West Midlands regional development agency has funded Accelerate, which is committed to helping the automotive industry in the region during the economic downturn.

Since it started, the group has been hosted by Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, and has been trying to provide the industry with support packages to help it survive the current economic climate.

Toyota has been revealing its latest electric vehicle (EV) developments at the Geneva Motor Show.

The manufacturer will showcase its plug-in hybrid vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell technologies and battery design.

Some 600 Prius hybrid cars are already on the road as part of a worldwide leasing project, 200 of them are in Europe.

Before the car goes on general sale, Toyota will be analysing information such as the charging patterns of the model and obtaining user feedback to verify the vehicle’s overall environmental and technological performance.

In a project jointly funded by Panasonic EV energy, the brand is bettering the battery technology used in its vehicles.

By September this year, more than one million batteries a year will be manufactured by three facilities in Japan.

In an attempt to reduce the cost of its batteries, Toyota is looking at alternative ways to power hybrid vehicles apart from by using lithium-ion batteries, which recharge more quickly than nickel-metal hydride types.

The UK government has set up a scheme, in place from January next year, to provide an incentive to motorists looking to buy ultra-low carbon vehicles.

Those purchasing new low-carbon cars can obtain discounts of £5,000 off the models.

Honda has launched an Accident Repair Programme (HARP), which manages the repair of a car after an accident.

The brand’s new programme offers additional benefits such as a guaranteed replacement car regardless of the type of accident and will raise the industry benchmark for customer service in this area.

As HARP uses a unique mobility insurance policy, it is not reliant on Honda dealers or bodyshops to provide the cars or credit hire or courtesy hire programmes, which would normally increase the cost.

The nationwide network of approved bodyshops used by Honda has been audited to guarantee that customers are provided with a service that exceeds industry standards, due to the stringent testing procedure they went through.

Honda has also introduced a training scheme for HARP, which will ensure its entire repair network is repairing to exact standards and that staff are wholly competent.

The new programme strongly supports the Japanese manufacturer’s mission statement, that it is committed to supplying products of the highest quality to obtain worldwide customer satisfaction.

The Clean Energy Partnership (CEP) has just added to its members with Toyota being the first international auto manufacturer to join.

Responsible for the development of sustainable mobility, the partnership is mainly receiving funding and support from Germany.

The German government has invested around €2 billion (£1.8 billion) in the CEP initiative, which is committed to developing hydrogen fuel cell and electric vehicle technologies.

By 2011, Toyota will introduce five of its new hydrogen fuel cell vehicles to the German car market.

The FCHV-adv models will be introduced as part of the third stage of the CEP strategy.

Between 2011 and 2016, the partnership will be outlining the technical, political and organisational or logistical goals of meeting a 2016 target for the commercial hydrogen-powered vehicles market being prepared.

Hydrogen and CO2-free filling stations are being set-up by other CEP partners to be installed at key locations between Berlin and Hamburg.

UK motorists have nominated their top 50 garages in the country for car servicing and repairs.

The top five in each of the UK’s ten regions will go through to the final stage of voting in the nationwide competition to find the UK’s best garage.

More than 4,000 motorists have voted for the best garage in the Golden Garages competition and the overall winner will be selected by a panel of experts chosen by Motor Codes.

The competition was started by Motor Codes, established as a self-regulatory body for the automotive industry, in order to allow motorists to feel more confident about their choice of garage.

It was also hoped that reputable garage owners would also benefit from the competition and it would entitle them to well-deserved recognition.

Research from Motor Codes found that more than 14 million motorists felt short-changed by their local service and repair garage.

However, those using a garage recommended by Motor Codes were satisfied more than 90 per cent of the time.

The demand for used cars is expected to increase after the scrappage scheme has ended, it has been claimed.

According to online retailer Carsite, consumer demand for second-hand cars will increase as new cars become less value for money.

Between February and March, trade values of used cars in the £4,000 to £6,000 bracket, have risen by almost £2,000 on some models.

Once the scrappage scheme finishes at the end of this month, Carsite expects more demand for well-equipped, better value used cars, particularly in this price range.

Last year, when the scheme was implemented, it was more financially attractive to buy new cars as the price of second-hand models was rising and buyers could receive discounts on new models.

However, when the government-funded initiative ends, the cheapest new car on the market is expected to be around £6,500.

The scrappage scheme began last May and it was hoped it would provide a short-term boost to the car industry during the economic downturn.

A British eco-friendly car is the last European contender in the X-PRIZE competition to find the most environmentally-friendly car.

Delta Motorsport, an all-British company, has created an E-4 coupe, which brings innovation in design and technology to a zero-emissions four-seat road car.

The first example of the car will be complete in April and it has been manufactured with support from the East Midlands Development Agency, which provided £235,000 towards the research and development of the car.

One of 28 entries, the E-4 coupe will take part in the safety inspections and dynamic evaluations to compete for the $10 million (£6.6 million) prize fund, courtesy of American car insurance company, Progressive Insurance.

Unlike other electric vehicles, the E-4 has acceleration comparable to a Porsche 911 Turbo, zero to 60 mph in less than five seconds, and can reach a maximum speed of more than 100 mph.

The X-PRIZE foundation is a not-for-profit organisation committed to creating breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity, by fostering innovation through competition.

Nissan in Europe has reported a four per cent increase in sales on last February’s figure.

It has also gained a 2.9 per cent market share of the total industry volume (TIV) of cars compared with last year.

In the UK, the TIV rose by 25 per cent and other western European countries saw similar increases, including Spain with a 45 per cent rise.

The increased TIVs in western Europe compared to eastern Europe have been attributed to the effects of government scrappage schemes in many countries.

Year-on-year sales for Nissan’s popular Micra model are up 44 per cent on last year’s sales.

At the Geneva Motor Show this week, Nissan unveiled its fourth generation Micra.

The new model features stop-start technology, fitted as standard in Europe, which reduces its CO2 emissions by six per cent to an impressive level of 95g/km. It will be on sale across Europe from this autumn.

Volvo saw an increase in registrations and its market share this February compared with February 2009.

February 2010 registrations rose 90 per cent over last year, with 1,378 in the month.

Last year, the brand recorded a 1.33 per cent market share, which has increased to a 2.01 per cent share this year.

All models in the Volvo range have performed significantly better in registrations than last year with the XC90 seven-seat SUV noting a registration increase of 202 per cent compared with 2009 and an even higher rise from the S80 model with a 278 per cent increase.

Volvo expects to continue this positive trend in sales when it launches its all-new S60 model in showrooms this summer.

The brand has an entire range of economical, more environmentally-friendly models called DRIVe cars.

These are designed to reduce carbon emissions from the cars, bringing all of the DRIVe diesel-powered cars below the target guideline amount of 120g/km that the European Union hopes to achieve by 2012.

Europcar has pre-ordered 500 electric cars from Renault to be in major European cities from the latter part of 2011.

Already committed to protecting the environment, the rental car company is Renault’s principal short-term rental partner in Europe.

The partnership agreement was signed recently at the Frankfurt International Motor Show in order to promote zero-emission mobility.

Renault will be launching a three-car Z.E. range, including a family four-door saloon and a small city car, next year.

The cars all feature three different ways of recharging them. They can use standard charging, which takes six to eight hours, fast charging takes around 20 to 30 minutes and quick-drop charging, which is intended to top-up the battery.

All the cars will be fitted with an intelligent system that not only advises the driver of how low the battery is but will also give information about the nearest recharging or battery exchange stations, which will be around the UK from January 2011 thanks to the government Plugged-in Places scheme.

Renault aims to be the market leader in terms of innovative electric car technology, and this deal with Europcar is a further boost towards reaching its target.