WOKING, UK—McLaren’s sports car assembly plant here is 344,445 square feet of automotive nirvana tucked away in the English countryside.

ZILINA, Slovakia—Thanks to a small army of robots, the Kia automotive assembly plant here is one of the few plants in the world capable of building up to eight different models on the same line.

SAO PAULO, Brazil—A Brazilian union carried out a 24-hour strike on Monday at the GM assembly plant here to protest dwindling output.

OBERHAUSEN, Germany—Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology in have developed a new fluid for cooling the costly batteries in electric vehicles.

DETROIT—The price of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles is expected to drop by 17 percent by 2025.

DEARBORN, MI—Drivers of the Ford Escape may be surprised to find out there is a plant inside the door. As part of its overall effort to make vehicles more sustainable, Ford is making the vehicle’s door bolster from the fibers of the kenaf plant.

HORN LAKE, MS—GreenTech Automotive has begun assembling the MyCar, a two-seat, all-electric vehicle, at its new assembly plant here. At capacity, the facility is expected to create more than 400 direct jobs.

BIRMINGHAM, MI—Wealth management firm The Schindler Group is hosting a series of free, educational webinars for Ford and GM retirees who face the question of whether to take a pension or a lump-sum payment. The webinars will be held at 1 p.m. EDT July 10 and 16.

TOKYO—Toyota sold 177,795 vehicles in the United States in May 2012, a 60 percent increased compared with May 2011.

KANSAS CITY, MO—Ford’s Claycomo factory produced more vehicles in 2011 than any other automotive assembly plant in the United States.