Volvo plans hybrid trucks

Sweden’s AB Volvo, one of the world’s largest truck makers, on Friday unveiled a new hybrid engine technology that it said will cut fuel consumption in heavy vehicles by up to 35 percent.

The hybrid vehicles are expected to be launched in 2009, and will feature a diesel engine supported by electric batteries charged by energy released from the brakes, Volvo said. The electric engine will reduce both fuel emissions and noise levels, making the vehicles more suitable for city traffic, the company which also makes buses said at a news conference in Stockholm.

•Dana Corp. said Friday it hopes to emerge from bankruptcy within 18 months, and its chief executive told creditors that the auto parts company plans to further wean itself off of three major customers, the Big Three automakers.

The Toledo, Ohio-based company filed for bankruptcy protection last week because of rising energy costs that drove up production costs and hurt demand for its customers’ products.

The meeting with creditors in a midtown Manhattan hotel was to determine who would sit on a creditors’ committee to oversee how the company manages its bankruptcy.

•The city of Santa Clara agreed to pay Enron Corp. creditors $36.5 million to settle a lawsuit over terminated electricity contracts with the city’s municipal utility, the two parties said Friday.

Enron, the scandal-plagued power supplier that collapsed into bankruptcy proceedings in 2001, sued Santa Clara the following year, claiming officials owed it $147 million for terminating two electricity contracts ahead of schedule.

Santa Clara stopped paying Enron in December 2001 after the company ceased delivering promised electricity, said Junona Jonas, utility director for Silicon Valley Power, the city-owned electricity utility.