MILWAUKEE—Harley-Davidson has introduced its first electric motorcycle, the LiveWire, this month. The company is taking several dozen riders on a 30-city tour to test drive the bikes and provide feedback.

PLYMOUTH, MI—Chinese-backed developer Third Wave Group plans to open an automotive research and development center here.

Automotive manufacturers are using more adhesives, sealants, oils, and coatings than ever before. For example, today’s vehicles typically contain as much as 40 pounds of adhesive.

By some estimates, approximately 40 years’ worth of mineable copper resources remains worldwide. At the same time, global consumption is growing, driven particularly by infrastructure-related demand for wiring in emerging markets.

Oakland University is located a few minutes away from Chrysler’s corporate headquarters in Auburn Hills, MI. So, it’s appropriate that the school is home to the Fastening and Joining Research Institute (FAJRI), the only facility of its kind in the world.

AGUASCALIENTES, Mexico—Daimler and Renault-Nissan Alliance have agreed to jointly build a new assembly plant here. The two companies will equally divide the $1.36 billion cost of building the facility, which is expected to employ 5,700 workers and be able to produce 300,000 vehicles annually.

MEXICO CITY—BMW will unveil plans this week to build a new assembly plant in Mexico, as the company seeks to meet growing demand for premium cars.

Multi-axis robot arms perform a wide variety of processes in automotive assembly plants, including painting, welding and fastening.

Screws aren’t the only fasteners that can be fed to fully or semiautomatic installation tools. Nuts, setscrews and other fasteners—both threaded and unthreaded—can be fed automatically, too.

Although a global leader in mechanical and plant engineering, Dürr AG isn’t one to rest on its laurels. So in 2010 it acquired two adhesive technology companies (Rickert and Kleinmichel) to increase Dürr’s expertise in automotive body-in-white gluing technology.