Global auto makers are rushing to challenge the dominance of Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrid with a slew of ecofriendly vehicles. But Honda Motor Co. is likely to pose the most formidable threat to Toyota when it unveils its new Insight hybrid car Thursday at the Paris Auto Show.

Honda is betting that the five-passenger hatchback, set to go on sale next spring, will steal away Prius buyers by delivering greenness for fewer greenbacks. Honda has yet to disclose many details about the car or its cost, and it calls the car to be shown in Paris a concept, but it says Insight "will be priced significantly lower than hybrids available today." Analysts expect the model will cost less than $20,000, undercutting the current $22,000 starting price of the Prius.

The MINI brand is continuing its overwhelming story of success - now taking a new approach with the MINI Crossover Concept.

This Design Study offers a fascinating outlook at a new facet of the brand powerfully expressed by a truly innovative body concept - the fourth body variant, to be precise, following the classic two-door, the MINI Convertible, and the MINI Clubman.

The MINI Crossover Concept is a new model variant for the first time measuring more than four metres in length, with four drive wheels, four doors and four single seats. These features alone place the new car right in the line of vision of new target groups seeking to combine the individual style of the brand with enhanced versatility within the interior and innovative functionality throughout

Ford Motor Company is leading the development of a virtual paint simulation tool called EPD (Electrocoat Paint Deposition) that helps ensure vehicle body panels are adequately coated with electrocoat, the polymeric coating that protects vehicles against corrosion.

Developed in conjunction with Norwegian supplier Bergen Software Services International (BSSI), EPD is an industry-first full-vehicle virtual tool that simulates electrocoat coverage, giving Ford engineers the ability to modify vehicle design and/or application parameters in a virtual environment for better corrosion protection.

The virtual testing eliminates the need to run expensive prototype vehicles through the assembly line to verify electrocoat coverage, saving time and manufacturing costs. In addition, Ford engineers can use EPD to optimize the electrocoat application on existing products, further improving current-model corrosion protection and quality.

"With EPD, full vehicle simulations can be done in one week or less with relatively inexpensive computers using unique methods developed by BSSI," said Janice Tardiff, a technical specialist in Computer-Aided Engineering at Ford's Research and Innovation Center in Dearborn. "The speed of the simulations allows us to optimize vehicle attributes during the design cycle and avoid costly late changes to vehicle programs."

Your vehicle automatically maneuvers into parking spaces. The Bosch parking assistant takes the stress out of parking. The system uses ultrasonic sensors to precisely measure parking spaces and then moves the car into a space, without drivers having to steer the vehicle themselves. Automatic parking is as fast as with an experienced driver. The system is available for the first time in the latest Mercedes-Benz A and B class. In the face of increasing traffic density, less and less available parking space, and rising demands for convenience, the Bosch parking assistant makes day-to-day driving much easier.

Enhanced convenience through precise and rapid parking maneuvers, and the drivers only need to apply accelerator and brake. Manual intervention in automatic steering mode possible at any time.

The parking assistant requires a vehicle configuration with electric power steering, a parking aid, and an additional ultrasonic sensor on each side of the front fender. These two ultrasonic sensors are needed to measure a potential parking space as the car drives by at up to 35 kilometers an hour.