1998 Land Rover Defender Lhd on 2040-cars

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Here's today's round of auto plant closures in response to coronavirus

More automakers have shuttered factories, as businesses everywhere work to slow the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus — and as the pandemic slows sales and disrupts parts supply chains. On Friday, the following closures were announced: • Volvo will close its factories in Sweden and the United States from March 26 to April 14. Volvo's U.S. facility, in Charleston, South Carolina, makes the S60 sedan. Its assembly plant in Torslanda, Sweden, turns out the XC90, SC60, and V90. Other Swedish facilities make engines and component parts. A Volvo factory in Ghent, Belgium, that builds the XC40 and V60 closed earlier this week and is expected to remain offline until April 6. Volvo's four factories in China have been reopened after a shutdown earlier this year. • Jaguar Land Rover announced that it will suspend production at its assembly plants in the UK over the coming week. The shutdown is expected to last until April 20. Elsewhere, production continues at the company's factories in India and Brazil, and JLR's joint-venture plant in China reopened at the end of February. • Bentley is closing its factory in Crewe, England, for four weeks, effective today. • Bugatti has put its atelier in Molsheim, France, on hiatus. No date was given for when assembly of its supercars might resume. • Mercedes-Benz on Monday will shut down its SUV factory in Alabama and its van assembly plant in South Carolina. Both will remain closed for a minimum of two weeks. Tesla yesterday revealed that it will suspend operations at its Fremont, California, vehicle assembly plant next week, on order from local officials there. Yesterday's factory closure announcements also included the U.S. assembly plants for Toyota (until April 6), Volkswagen (through March 29), Subaru (through March 29), and Hyundai (no time period specified). They join GM, Ford, Chrysler, Honda, Nissan, and Harley-Davidson, which earlier this week announced the suspension of production at their facilities. Plants/Manufacturing Bentley Bugatti Jaguar Land Rover Mercedes-Benz Volvo coronavirus

European automakers gear up for Brazilian production

Brazil is the place to be, apparently. Toyota has been investing in the South American country, as has BMW, which announced a $261 million investment in October 2012, on the heels of an Audi factory announcement in San José Chiapa. The high-end immigration is only set to continue, as Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar-Land Rover have both announced plans to set up manufacturing operations there.
Mercedes is the big news here, as its new facility will see the German manufacturer invest 170-million euros for production of its next-generation C-Class and upcoming GLA-Class. "Brazil is an important future market. With our local production we accept the challenge and take on the competition," noted Andreas Renschler, Management Board member for Production and Procurement at Mercedes-Benz Cars and Mercedes-Benz Vans. Production is expected to begin by 2016.
Jaguar-Land Rover, meanwhile, isn't so concrete in its plans. The news of its investment in South America comes from a job posting for a plant quality manager in Brazil that was picked up by the UK's AutoCar. "Portuguese language skills will be definite advantage" for interested candidates, according to the job listing. The want ad follows on the heels of remarks by Jaguar Land Rover's Dr. Ralph Speth, who said there are "very intensive discussions" with Brazil's government. Unlike Mercedes, there's no mention of which vehicles will be produced in South America, although AutoCar thinks the Freelander, sold in the US as the LR2, is a leading contender.

Second 'No Time To Die' trailer drops with lots of crunching metal

The second trailer for the new James Bond film, "No Time To Die," was posted to social media Thursday morning, getting us thoroughly hyped for the forthcoming installment thanks to some spicy car content and lots of other ridiculous, big-budget action sequences.  Fair warning for the purists: This might contain plot- and character-related information from the trailer itself. Also, it appears that many Land Rover Defenders died in the making of this film, so the footage may not be for the faint of heart; don't say we didn't give you advance notice.  As is typical of Bond films, most of the automotive eye candy is of the European variety. The classic Aston Martin DB5 gadget car (which we saw doing some crazy machine-gun donuts in the first trailer) makes yet another appearance, as does what appears to be fourth-generation Maserati Quattroporte. There's even something which might be a car, but also appears to be both some sort of airplane and submersible. Never change, Bond. We love it.  And then there are the Defenders. We've got Defenders speeding down hillsides, Defenders crashing through forests, Defenders flying over Land Cruisers. Yeah, do you like Land Cruisers? There's a Land Cruiser. It even (spoiler alert!) survives relatively unscathed; the same cannot be said for most of the automotive shenanigans we get to see here.  "No Time To Die" was originally slated to debut back in April, but its original release date roughly coincided with the projected peak of early coronavirus infections. Given how important the Bond film franchise's continued success is to MGM (it's virtually the only thing the studio has had going for it for 30 years) and the producers (who only make Bond films), meager box office returns were not an option. The last film, Spectre, pulled in the worldwide gross of $880 million, including $200 million in the United States and $83.5 million in China. The wait is almost over. "No Time to Die" will hit theaters Nov. 25 in the United States.  Related Video: