Volkswagen is dead set to gain market share in the U.S. this year, and it’s rolling out the big guns. They might add an SUV larger than the Touareg to reach hearts, minds and wallets of American customers. (Read More…)

On Monday, the wraps will come off Volkswagen’s secretive NMS (New Midsize Sedan). Readers of Autobild in Germany already had first visual impressions of the car, we’ll know Monday whether Autobild was, well, given the right pictures. The car will be a bit longer than the Passat. It will be made especially for American tastes and wallets.

Wallets: The car will cost around $20,000, that’s $7,000 less than an entry model Passat. Tastes: “Inside, much cheaper plastic that in European vehicles will be used,” says Autobild. On Monday, we’ll also know what the car will be called, that’s the only thing that remained a secret so far. Some think it might be called Passat. (Read More…)

Fears of appliance cars finally manifest themselves. More car manufacturers that ever showed their wares at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the fact that there is a Detroit Motor Show (opening Monday to the press) notwithstanding. Ford notably used CES to take the wraps off its 2012 Focus Electric car. (Read More…)

James W. Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Wells Capital Management, sees U.S. auto sales bouncing “back to normal” by year’s end. “Normal” being  “a rate of 15 million to 16 million vehicles.” Bloomberg painted a nice Chart of the Day, which seems to support that gutsy theory. (Read More…)

A few days ago, we mentioned that Volkswagen might have something to say about GM’s press release which claimed that in 2010, “Shanghai GM became China’s first passenger car maker to sell 1 million vehicles annually.”

Today, Volkswagen said something, without even mentioning GM. (Read More…)

We don’t know who gave which state secrets to whom at Renault. But now we know what everybody already suspected: “The Elysee has charged the DCRI (intelligence services) with an investigation. It is following a Chinese lead,” a French government source told Reuters.

If they find a smoking gun in China, then it’s war: Yesterday, France’s industry minister Eric Besson called the scandal “economic warfare.”

Reuters doesn’t know more, but found some highly suspicious activity: (Read More…)

For the first time in recorded history, Audi sold more than a million cars per year. In 2010, Audi sold 1.092 million cars worldwide. In the year before, it was 949.700, and that’s a plus of 15 percent, Audi CEO Rupert Stadler told reporters on the sidelines of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Stadler was a keynote speaker there, and delivered the stump speech of cars which will be part of the Internet and will be communicating with other cars and central databanks, whether you like it or not. But back to cars: (Read More…)

Want to belong to a really exclusive club? Own a car in Beijing. Don’t have one yet? Sorry, try your luck in the license plate lottery. Out-of–towner? Don’t even think of entering downtown during rush-hour. “Vehicles that are not registered in Beijing are prohibited from entering the urban area inside the Fifth Ring Road during the two daily rush hours,” reports China Daily. Even during off-peak hours, Beijing’s capital is full of surprises for outsiders. (Read More…)

The majority of car makers the world over think that for the next five years, electric cars will remain too expensive to stand a chance in the mass market. Their saving grace must be government subsidies. Without government money, EVs are priced out of the market. (Read More…)

New car sales around the world are mostly rebounding – except in the markets where they had been artificially stimulated last year. This list will be continuously updated as new data becomes available. (Read More…)

GM has invested $5 million in the Powermat wireless charging start-up, and they want to use the technology “to charge its soon-to-be-launched Chevy Volt hybrid electric car,” Businessgreen reports. They report from the UK, so they shall be forgiven the “soon-to-be-launched” this one time only. But to charge a Chevy Volt? (Read More…)

PSA Peugeot-Citroen is feeling its oats again. PSA “remains open to equity alliances with other partner companies in its sector,” PSA CEO Philippe Varin told the Dow Jones newswire. Well, after recent mass weddings that had produced mixed nuptials between Volkswagen and Suzuki, Fiat and Chrysler, and even Renault-Nissan- Daimler threesomes, PSA is looking for a tie-up again. The trouble is: There aren’t many attractive partners left match.com of the international auto business. (Read More…)

Letter to the editor of the New Times by Robert Pankhurst:

“On my drive home yesterday, an advertisement over my car radio told me how much the Cancer Society needed old cars donated to help them fight cancer. Then I remembered watching the Youtube video where cars were turned in for the government program called “Cash for Clunkers.” (Read More…)

Scotia Bank in Toronto has an insightful and resourceful car analyst, Carlos Gomes. Whatever he writes is worth reading. He expects car sales to rise and the “United States and the euro zone to climb out of their deep hole.” He also expects that the developed nations are ripe to be plucked and eaten by an upstart, roughhewn  crowd:

“In 2011, new car sales in China and the other BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia, India and China) will surpass the combined volumes of Western Europe and Japan, and account for roughly 30 per cent of global car sales.”

Here is his case: (Read More…)

Dying to have OnStar in our car, but don’t want to buy a GM car? No problem! At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, GM unveiled an add-OnStar that fits (nearly) any car. (Read More…)