Wheelies: The Battery-Powered Edition - NYTimes.com The auction for the bankrupt battery maker A123 is under way, and at least four companies have qualified to bid, according to Inside E.V.'s. The four were the Wanxiang Group Corporation of China, NEC Corporation of Japan, Johnson Controls of Milwaukee and Siemens AG of Germany. The bidding was scheduled to begin Thursday and could take days because of the complexity of the deal. Inside E.V.'s Those driving dogs in New Zealand have nothing on 10-year-old Pepper the parrot. She gets around on a battery-powered buggy that she steers with a joystick. The Bird Buggy was built by Andrew Gray, a retired Navy officer who is working on a master's degree in engineering at the University of Florida. The Nascar driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. has put his brand on another product: cigars. Earnhardt has joined forces with Ted's Cigars on a mild-bodied, one-size cigar branded with his signature No. The "88," which is rolled in the Dominican Republic, is sold in packages of three or boxes of 10 or 25. The price for each cigar is about $12. Cigar Aficionado This week Honda marked a milestone, the millionth car it was exporting from the United States. The Japanese automaker says it plans to become a net exporter of vehicles in the United States. The car identified as the millionth export was an Accord sedan sold in South Korea. Cleveland Plain Dealer