Volvo has announced [via Autocar] UK pricing for their new XC60. The cute ute's expected to go on sale in October for £24,750 (base), or about £5k less than BMW's X3. If we take a look at similar Volvo model pricing in The Land of Hope and Glory, the XC60 slots-in at around the same price as the V70 or XC70 ($32,465 / $36,775 in the USA). True Brits will get the same gasoline/petrol engine as the Yanks: Volvo's smooth and torquey turbo inline six, good for 281hp. Sadly for New England's college professors, the 182hp D5 diesel is unlikely to make it across the pond. Billed as the "safest Volvo ever," the XC90s baby brother will arrive with more [electronic] nannies than Angelina Jolie. Whether it can rescue the brand's falling US SUV sales is a whole 'nother matter…

The relationship between battery maker Cobasys and parent companies Chevron and Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) is entering the crisis stage. Previously, we reported that Cobasys had no budget or business plan for 2008. They still don't. Chevron cut off funding in September 2007. Oakland Business Review (via mlive.com) reports "the company has been operating on a loan and price increases from an undisclosed customer since February." In February, Cobasys' corporate parents "entered into an interim settlement agreement to negotiate a sale with an unnamed bidder;" they've extended the deadline for completing the sale seven times since then. GM's rumored to be their benefactor and mystery buyer, since Cobasys has the contract to develop and test lithium-ion battery systems for GM's plug-in hybrid electric vehicle program. Given GM's current financial situation, buying into a dysfunctional battery maker seems like a particularly dodgy deal. Which probably means it's exactly what they'll do. [Hat tip to Dan Segal for the link]

In July's Car and Driver, Csabe Csere takes the Secretary of Transportation to task for her ignorance about auto industry lead times. How can Mary E. Peters' department mandate a big increase in fuel economy standards for 2011 when Detroit’s already signed off on those products? Despite the obvious irony– the buff book’s hobbled by their two-month lead time– Csere makes a good point. The corollary: unless GM planned to switch from gas-guzzling light trucks to fuel-efficient cars in 2003, they’re insert F-bomb here. As May’s sales numbers indicate, indeed they are.

For Toyota NA, it's the best of times and the worst of times. Averaging it all out, the tempus ain't that great. More specifically (and less poetically), ToMoCo's U.S. ops were off 7.9 percent for the month. (And to their credit, they don't make you hunt– Ford style– for the bottom line.) The Toyota brand tanked by 6.3 percent, while Lexus hit the buffers by, get this, 19.6 percent. Despite their fuel economy, Toyota's passenger cars only held steady, losing .9 percent in all. The Prius took an enormous whack; moving down 39.8 percent, from 24,009 sales in May '07 to 15,011 sales in May '08. The Yaris (+26.6) and Scion xB (+40.9) scored notable victories. On the truck side, as you'd imagine, there's plenty of blood in the water. The new Tundra took it on the chin, shedding 34 percent of last May's sales. The FJ is in deep trouble, down 50.1 percent. Overall, Toyota's light trucks lost 15.5 percent. But hey, the new Sequoia's up 75 percent! Now if gas prices suddenly drop a buck or two…

The Ford Motor Company must be engaged in some serious back patting on the Land Rover front, as May sales stats reveal just how big a bullet the Blue Oval Boys dodged. Land Rover has bought the farm, down 23.5 percent in all. The LR2 (-51.2) and LR3 (-63.5) have dropped off the radar, while the Range Rover Sport (+5.6 percent) is cannibalizing the higher profit Range Rover (-21.4). Volvo's hurting, too. The XC90's 28.4 percent hit looks good– compared to the S40 (-42.1) and S60 (-66.7). Mercury's Milan (+36.9) and Sable (+39.8) helped limit the brand's losses to "just" 23.4 percent. Lincoln did only slightly better, dropping 22.5 percent in total. Don't even ask about the Navigator (-37.3) or Mark LT (-53.9). On the positive side, the MKZ is doing OK (-2.6). And the XF has basically saved Jag from oblivion. On the back of the new model (1170 units), Jaguar's U.S. sales gained 27.4 percent for the month, from 1757 to 1379. As the numbers indicate, the XJ (-27.8) and XK (-39.5) are a drug on the market. Note to Ford: it's the products, stupid.

Ford's May sales sank 16 percent overall. The number is the result of a 24 percent decline in truck and van sales with a whopping 44 percent drop in SUV sales. Fortunately, The Blue Oval Boyz had good showing on the car side. Fusion sales climbed 27 percent while the Focus ascended by 53 percent. Even though retail sales of cars were up 20 percent, when you factor in a drop in fleet sales (sales to rental companies down 30 percent), overall car sales were up only four percent. The big question, though, is if the F-150 is still the overall sales champ? Sales of the perennial best-seller were down 30.6 percent against last May and are down 18.7 percent year to date. Did it fall far enough for Toyota Camry to pull into the top spot? We'll let you know when all the sales numbers are in.

[Click here for Ford sales Press Release]

The new Lithium-Ion Polymer batteries are from Superlattice Power. Supposedly, they will "significantly increase operating voltage range and energy density." Translation: instead of going 120 to 140 miles between charges, electric vehicles will be able to go 200 miles on a single charge. [Ed: just like the Tesla Roadster!] Not only that, but unlike current lithium-ion batteries, the Superlattice variety will be non-toxic and disposable. How'd they do it? According to Motor Authority, a new material gives the new batteries a "wider volt range." We're not entirely sure what that means, but… sounds good! Which brings us to the hard questions. Like, is this the battery breakthrough we've all some of us have been waiting for? Probably not yet, as new technology is rarely cheap. Still, if you're going to spend $40K on a Volt, why not $50K? Oh yeah…

As you can imagine, GM's decision to close their Oshawa truck assembly plant in Ontario, Canada doesn't set well with the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW). "It's nothing short of betrayal," CAW Oshawa branch president Chris Buckley told Reuters. "General Motors is going to produce our truck in Mexico and the United States. That's absolutely disgusting." If he's looking for the real betrayal, he should think back to the contract negotiations in May, when CAW president Buzz Hargrove took a hard line stance against contract concessions, making Canada the most expensive place in North America to assemble cars. Or recall Buzz' statement that "It's my last set of negotiations and my legacy is not going to be that the sons and daughters of current workers that were hired over 20 years ago are going to come in at the same rate in 2008 as their parents did in '86 or '87." It now looks like Buzz' legacy will be unemployed sons and daughters of current workers thanks to his inflexibility driving production out of Canada and back to the lower-paid hands of the UAW and Mexican auto workers. Just sayin'.

In a video interview with USA Today. Ford CEO Alan Mulally admits that American consumers' switch to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles is permanent. Despite talking-up the new F150's chances of success, Big Al reckons the move from light trucks is "not a temporary shunning of big SUVs while they wait for record fuel prices to drop." Which Mulally says ain't gonna happen, anyway. "It's not like we have a shortage of oil, but recovering what's left under the earth has become very expensive, ensuring continuing high prices." When asked for a new date for The Blue Oval's scheduled return to profitability– previously set at 2009– the former Boeing exec would only say it's delayed by a weak economy and the shift from "high value trucks" to smaller cars. The video clips are interesting to watch, and much less painful than anything from Lutz or Wagoneer. But the spin doesn't stop here. Asked about Volvo, Mulally claimed the ailing Swedish brand isn't for sale. Last April, Mulally told the world Jaguar wasn't for sale. That deal went down yesterday.

Not only does GM want the U.S. taxpayer and the Chinese government to subsidize development and sale of the Volt, now they're reaching into Michigan taxpayers' pockets to subsidize the production. GM insists they want to produce their electric-gas wundercar in Detroit to show how much they support the city and state– but only if the city and state support them by giving them tax breaks. The Detroit News reports GM met with the Detroit City Council yesterday to discuss their plans for the Volt. But no one will say just what kind of extortion "tax incentives" they demanded are seeking. With the magical year 2010 just a short time away, it seems to me they need to stop their fund-raising activities and get on with aligning their webbed-footed waterfowl. That is, if they really do plan on getting the Volt to the market in 2010. Otherwise, they can just keep on playing "poor poor pitiful me" and blame production delays on the government. 

The Detroit News is reporting GM CEO Rick Wagoner's new new turnaround plan. As expected, The General is cutting back SUV and truck production in a BIG way: "phasing out" Oshawa, Ontario (2009); Moraine, Ohio (2010 or sooner); Janesville (end of 2009) and Toluca, Mexico (end of this year). At the same time, GM's ramping-up production– adding a third shift– at Lake Orion (Pontiac G6 and Malibu sedans) and Lordstown (Chevy Cobalt and Pontiac G5). And here's a surprise: Wagoner said GM is "exploring all options, including the possible sale of its Hummer brand." To whom? In other product news, GM said it was abandoning plans to build an entry-level Cadillac and will instead create an S-Class killer to replace it's ancient, arthritic STS. Just kidding. The company will build a new Chevy compact car at Lordstown (as reported yesterday). The DetN also reports that GM promises a "world car" replacement for the Chevy Aveo to go on sale in the U.S. in the second half of… 2010. Full Death Watch analysis to come, after the real news: GM's May sales results.

[GM press release here.] 

That's the difference between the cost of maintaining GM's $1 per share annual dividend ($567m) and the company's so-called "free cash flow" (.33 cents a share or $189m). As Bloomberg reminds us, GM cut its dividend in half– from $2 to $1 per share– in February '06. At the time, talk of bankruptcy was in the air and on CNN ("And yet the evidence points, with increasing certitude, to bankruptcy.") GM was well into it current market share decline, having lost some $8.6b in NA the year previous. But hey, given GM's recent $1b per month cash burn, what's $387m between friends? That said, if you want proof that the ailing American automaker is still in denial/maintaining a brave face regarding its cash conflagration and North American market share tumble (down from 26 percent in '06 to around 20 percent now), look to see if CEO Rick Wagoner eliminates the dividend at his turnaround hoe-down later today. And then duck, lest a flying pig hit you in the head. 

Toyota and Honda want to drive down then total cost of ownership of their hybrids. Autobloggreen reports that the Japanese automakers are dropping the price of replacement batteries for their hybrids, from stroke-inducing to somewhat painful. Replacement batteries for the Honda Insight are now $1,968, down from $3,400. Toyota lowered the cost of the Prius' power pack from $5.5k to a mere $3k. (Or you could buy them for $550 on eBay.) Still, though, the hybrid manufacturers are keen to stress the fact that battery replacement isn't a common procedure. Honda brags that they've replaced fewer than 200 battery packs out of warranty, out of 100k hybrids on the road. Toyota says their post-warranty replacement rate is 0.003 percent. What I want to see, though, is what their replacement rate is during the warranty period. I'm sure it won't approach GM's rate after their problems they had with Cobasys batteries. But you know they're all doing it. What they're not saying is how often.

No, of course not. And the sentiment is doubly true– OK "applicable"– if you're the CEO of Ford just before launching a new full-size pickup. Especially when full-size pickups sales are down 23 percent over the last three years. And falling. Of course, what else could Alan Mulally say? The F150 is still the country's best-selling vehicle, Ford has to defend its turf and the launch was planned at least three years ago. "What we have to manage is bringing down the overall volume on the trucks and SUVs," Big Al told Automotive News [AN sub]. "As we make this awesome transition to the new one." Like, totally. Big Al's "there's no such thing as bad timing" remark also refers to ALL of FoMoCo's '08 releases. As AN reports, "Ford still aims to hit volume targets previously established for the 2009 Ford Flex crossover and 2009 Lincoln MKS sedan." There's nothing on predicted F150 volumes, but Ford plans to sell between 75k and 100k Flexes and 36k Lincoln MKS per year. Big Al's theory: "Higher gasoline prices shouldn't hurt volumes of the Flex and MKS because consumers who were driving big SUVs are turning to cars and crossovers. They want improved fuel efficiency, but still may need the space of a bigger car." May? Uh-oh. 

Two hours. Thats how long I spent detailing the engine in my Hummer H3 from Budget Rent-a-Car. I spent another 2 hours detailing the rest of the car and discovered how dirty rental cars really are (how old ARE those M&M's?). In the summer, when I'm not racing my Porsche Boxster S, I'm at a car show, showing it off with my other racer friends and their BMW/Audi's. Replete with racing numbers, sponsor decals and helmets, we put on quite a different show from the normal pristine examples of automobilia from decades past. However, due to my Porsche being in the body shop, I was left without a car for last Sunday's Car Show in Oklahoma City. Over coffee, I came up with the brilliant idea to RENT a car at the airport, detail it, and see how it would do against all the other vehicles there, just for fun. At the Will Rogers International Airport, I was presented with three options, a Mustang V6 Coupe, a Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder, or a Hummer H3. The H3 was the cleanest, so $75, rental insurance and a distorted sense of reality and I was in with a chance! $25 in cleaning supplies later, I had the most pristine rental car in the MidWest. Several hours later, I was holding a plaque declaring my Hummer H3 had received first place in the truck category at the show. So if you want an award winning show car, call up Budget in Oklahoma City, they have one for rent…