Audi has just announced a multimillion investment to adapt the VAG group's plant in Forest, near Brussels, Belgium to produce the A1. The Brussels plant will be producing a single model for the first time in its history. The site previously played a supporting role for the Volkswagen Group.

After the initial €100 million investment, the Ingolstadt firm is adding a similar quantity to finish equipping the body shop, paint shop and assembly plant. One notable aspect is that plant workers are being specifically trained in electronics. Audi states that the A1 "with its next-generation electronics represents a challenge" for the plant. Is this a hint at a hybrid version? We don't know, but what is certain is that Audi will use the latest iteration of its TFSI (gasoline) and TDI (diesel) engines in the A1. Audi expects more than 100,000 A1s to roll off the assembly lines in 2010. Full press release after the jump.

The first European hydrogen station installed along a highway is now open. The oil giant Total has opened the fuel kiosk along the Ruisbroek-Brussels highway in Belgium, and it is the first hydrogen dispensing station that is located in a place like "regular" ones. It's also the first hydrogen fuel station built outside Germany. Although owned by Total, the station was also sponsored by BMW, which must be glad to announce that lucky drivers of the BMW Hydrogen 7-series had another place to fill up with H₂. Brussels is not one of Europe's largest capital cities, but it is one of the most important ones thanks to the number of EU institution that it hosts.

[Source: BMW Belgium-Luxembourg and Total]

This video shows a group called 4x4info Action (4x4 is what SUVs are called in French) took 11 activists dressed as football (ok, soccer) referees and pulled out red cards at passing by SUVs drivers in the center of Brussels, Belgium. This non-violent action was so publicised that it eclipsed for a while Belgium's national problems. In the video you can see how festive the action was.

The slogan at the beginning is "Le 4x4, ça pue, ça tue et ça pollue" (SUVs stink, kill and pollute). The SUV driver is not really capable of mentioning a reason for driving an SUV downtown (la sécurité... safety). Even the kid at the end says "C'est trop gros... il foit avoir une petite voiture" (It's too big... you should have a small car).

What did the activists want to express? Here's their list:

• Despite the fact that heavy cars emit more CO₂, car manufacturers continue to flood cities with them.
• Car manufacturers break the rules by not informing consumers on the CO₂ emissions of the cars they sell, and advert mainly heavy and powerful cars instead of fuel-efficient vehicles.
• Consequently, car manufacturers fail to meet the CO₂ reduction emission targets, but paradoxically blame consumers for it.
• Governments should show strong leadership and force car manufacturers to make CO₂ reduction a top priority.

[Thanks to J. Verhoeven for the information]

Instead of throwing in a set of steak knives to clinch a big sales deal in Paris, advertising company JCDecaux has thrown in a low-cost bike rental service to seal a bus stop advertising contract. The service will allow people to pick up their ride from one of 1,450 planned bike stations across Paris using a credit card. Planned to be in operation by the end of the year, over 20,000 bikes will be available for residents to use in the city which has recently added bus lanes and widened footpaths to encourage the use of public transport.

JCDecaux isn't new to bike rental, having already established similar schemes in Vienna, Brussels and Lyon. In Lyon, signing up for the program costs five euro (US$6.45) per year plus one euro per hour with the first half hour free.

Analysis: While Parisian drivers are said to be enraged by the reduction in road space for them, there's nothing greener (apart from walking I suppose) than pedal power. Riding over cobbles all day would be hard work though.

Related:

• Norway adds bicycle trams to help cyclists up hills
• When you don't need your car, try a biofuel assisted bicycle
• In Australia, the bicycle is king

[Source: Drive.com.au]