VITORIA, Spain—A disgruntled former employee of a Mercedes-Benz plant here reportedly stole a Caterpillar front-end loader from a construction site on New Year's Eve, drove it to the plant and rammed through the property gate before destroying nearly 70 vehicles.

OOSTBURG, WI—Automated packaging equipment manufacturer Viking Masek is significantly expanding the production capacity of its U.S. headquarters here.

TOKYO—Japan aims to eliminate gasoline-powered vehicles in the next 15 years, the government said in late December, and reach net zero carbon emissions and generate nearly $2 trillion a year in green growth by 2050.

CUPERTINO, CA–Apple Inc. says it is moving forward with self-driving-car technology and targeting 2024 to produce a passenger vehicle that could include breakthrough battery technology.

DETROIT–General Motors has announced that its all-electric vehicle assembly facility, Factory ZERO, is the first automotive plant in the United States to install dedicated 5G fixed-mobile network technology.

BERLIN–Volkswagen has started building its ID.3 electric vehicle, but is bracing for a major production disruption from a shortage of semiconductors.

SUZHOU, China–Dreame Technology has begun production of ultra-high-speed smart vacuum motors at its facility here. The motors, which can reach 150,000 rpm, will be used in a cordless vacuum model expected to be released in March 2021.

PITEA, Sweden—The research institute RISE is building a facility here that will focus on testing sustainable composite manufacturing. Its key piece of equipment is an AP&T servohydraulic press.

WEST LAFAYETTE, IN—A team of Purdue University mechanical engineers has created the first comprehensive open-source annotated database of 3D mechanical parts to help researchers apply machine learning to those parts in actual machines.

JONESBORO, AR—Camfil Air Pollution Control, manufacturer of industrial dust, fume and mist collection systems, recently announced plans to construct a new manufacturing plant here to replace its previous building that was destroyed by a tornado in March. Target completion date is early 2022.