The world congress for intelligent transport systems (ITS) will be held in Melbourne, 2016.

More than 6000 delegates are expected to attend the congress, named 'ITS - enhancing liveable cities and communities.'

A recent UK report by technology analyst, Juniper Research, has suggested intelligent vehicles, through embedded connectivity, will be directly responsible for creating revenues of $14.4 billion by 2016, as existing telematics players extend to new geographical markets and expand their service models in the next five years.

Two transport industry forums are being held over the next month, the Australian Trucking Convention, and the Commercial Vehicle Engineering Conference (ComVec)

The 2012 Australian Trucking Convention and Trucks on Show exhibition is being held at Rosehill Gardens event centre in west Sydney until Saturday 19 May, bringing together hundreds of business owners and managers, suppliers, manufacturers and industry representatives to discuss key industry issues.

A key feature will be a presentation by international safety leader Don Osterberg from Schneider National, the largest privately owned trucking company in America.

Holden and electric vehicle network providers ChargePoint have unveiled the first electric vehicle charging station for the upcoming Holden Volt in Port Melbourne, outside Holden’s Salmon Street headquarters.

Volt, which goes on sale later this year, is a plug-in hybrid that can operate as a pure electric vehicle, or a traditional series hybrid.

The new charging station, is powered by Origin’s government-certified 100% GreenPower and will be available to Holden Volt drivers in one of Melbourne’s fast-growing business and industrial precincts.

Peugeot's new 4008 small SUV will go on sale next month, priced at $28,990 for the entry model 2WD manual.

Last month,  SUV sales totaled 21,841, up 27.8% on April 2011. The small segment totaled 4543 units, up 70.5% on 2011. Year-to-date small sales of 19,178 are up 52.7% on 2011, by far the biggest segment growth.

The new 4008 comes in both two and four-wheel drive and the choice of two model grades – Active and Allure.

A comprehensive review of laws governing NSW motor vehicle dealers and repairers is looking to consolidate the Motor Dealers Act 1974 and the Motor Vehicle Repairs Act 1980.

The review will also look at the business relationship between dealers and vehicle manufacturers -  and the fairness of franchise contracts.

The review aims to simplify legislation, enhance consumer protection and bring about consistent regulation for dealers and repairers. To start the process, a paper has been released which examines the various options and benefits to changing the legislation (available HERE).

Some 42 workers made redundant from Melbourne car parts manufacturer CMI, will receive millions of dollars in unpaid entitlements, following a meeting between union officials and federal employment minister Bill Shorten.

CMI was placed under receivership (story HERE) last month, following a rent dispute with their landlord.

The funds will come via the government's General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS), usually not available until a company goes into liquidation, which is unlikely to happen before receivers next meet CMI's creditors on May 30.

Two partners in the vehicle repair industry have been fined a total of $34,000 for operating without a licence and for misleading consumers.

Ivan Herpel and Jermaine Bladimir Erpel, partners in the Perth-based smash repair and spray painting businesses Latino Garage and American Resprays, came to the attention of the Department of Commerce in February 2011 when they were warned that they could not carry out repairs without a licence, but continued to do so.

During the course of an investigation it was found that the repairers had carried out sub-standard panel beating and spray painting work on a customer’s vehicle.

A recent Roy Morgan survey into how consumers view the ethics and honesty of certain professions has shown the automotive retail industry to be extremely consistent.

For 30 straight years car salesman have recorded the lowest scores for ethics and honesty, despite another 29 professions vying for the title.

However, with actual buying intentions at a record high (story HERE), and actual sales on the increase, the low scores may indeed be a self-fulfilling prophecy, with the idea of the 'dodgy car salesman' being a popular and much quoted misconception.

Subaru will introduce its first automatic diesel vehicle in the first quarter of 2013.

The Outback 2.0 diesel will be equipped with Subaru's 'Lineartronic' CVT transmission, which the company say will build on the success of the manual diesel variants of Outback and Forester.

“Diesel Foresters and Outbacks represent up to 20% of sales for those models, so the addition of the automatic diesel Outback is significant news for Subaru," says Nick Senior, managing director of Subaru Australia.

Dealerships in the US are responding to the now common 'starship enterprise' levels of technology found in new vehicles, with a renewed focus on educating potential new buyers.

With the adoption of new in-car technologies often occurring faster than consumers are buying vehicles, many do not get the most out of their navigation,voice, info, and entertainment systems.

As well as training up current staff to teach customers about getting the most out of their cars, dealers are also employing specialised tech tutors, and developing model-specific, easy-to-use smart phone apps.