Chevrolet’s plan to launch the Chevy Volt electric hybrid by 2010 is going to be hard. CEO Rick Wagoner has admitted. “From the beginning, going foe 2010 was a stretch, and it’s still a stretch, but we are putting resources like crazy into it and we have not seen anything yet that says we have hit a glitch on it.” Wagoner said at a recent press conference in Las Vegas.

The Volt represents GM’s bid to beat rival Toyota to the market with a hybrid vehicle that can be recharged at a standard outlet and win back customers who have abandoned the American automaker because of the high fuel costs and environmental issues.

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Jaguar and Land Rover are planning to build new state of art design facility to draw on advanced audiovisual technologies to speed up product development cycle. More than $5 millions are to be invested in a ‘Virtual Reality Centre’, which will let engineers and designers to see life size 3D models of vehicles and components. This will reduce the need for physical prototypes, saving both time and money.

The most advanced facility of its kind in the world when completed. Jaguar and Land Rover’s four walled draws on projection power equivalent to eight hi-tech cinemas that provide a virtual reality car environment simulation.

Eight Sony SRX-S105 high resolution projectors are set to be used to outstrip existing industry virtual reality caves by producing photo realistic images. The user will wear 3D glasses to experience the real size model. The project is undertaken in partnership with Sony, HoloVis International and Sun Microsystems.

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