It seems that recent reports suggest that Dodge has increased the towing capacity of their 2010 Ram without actually making any hardware changes. The increase is from 9,100 pounds to 10,450 pounds and Dodge points to the coil-sprung sprung suspension for the added performance.

Autoblog says that Dodge merely underestimated the towing power of their latest Ram hence the out-of-nowhere increase. We now also know that the 2010 Ram will include 22-inch wheels, iPod integration, trailer-towing mirrors and an engine management upgrade giving the truck better gas mileage by cutting the fuel during deceleration.

Tags: Dodge Ram, engine management, hardware, increase, iPod, towing capacity

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New Automotive Tech Centers were opened by Continental AG over at the Jiading Industrial Zone, Shanghai. Two Divisions of the Continental Automotive Group, Chassis & Safety and Powertrain, have invested in Jiading to conduct vehicle application development and system test of our new technology and products customized for the Chinese OEM market. The engineering activities cover electronic brake systems, hydraulic brake systems, and engine management and system control.

The new Tech Center occupies about 26 “Mu” (1 “Mu” is equal to 667 square meters approximately), and currently has approximately 10,000 square meters of construction space completed. The entire site is made up of three main buildings and other accessory facilities for engineering offices, product test laboratories, vehicle work garages, and facility equipment.

The front office building is a stand alone four-floor building with a total area of about 3900 square meters and the other two lab test buildings are respectively for brake system and powertrain system tests. According to the plan, about 200 engineers will work at this location by 2011.

(Source) Press

Tags: application development, automotive group, chassis, continental ag, electronic brake systems, engine management, garages, hydraulic brake systems, industrial zone, lab test, oem market, powertrain system, shanghai china, square meters, system tests, test laboratories, vehicle application

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