Worried about the Chinese grabbing a piece of GM while it’s cheap? Don’t feel like the lone ranger. China is joining  an illustrious circle of investors from Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and around the world and grabbed a “notable” stake in Daimler. An unnamed Chinese institutional investor has bought a chunk of Daimler, as their CFO Bodo Uebber told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), which sent an advance copy to Reuters. (Read More…)

Our patent-pending China new car market prediction system (take GM China, deduct a few percent) hasn’t been doing so well lately, due to the poor showing of Wuling, which confused the mix. Let’s give it another cautious go.  GM China increased its October sales by 19.6 percent on strong sales of Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac cars. That according to Bloomberg, which has it straight from GM Shanghai. (Read More…)

GM China has made good on its threat to sell Made in China GMs abroad. According to The Nikkei [sub], Shanghai General Motors Co. has begun exporting the Chevrolet New Sail from China to Chile. Some of the B&B opined that this is nothing new. However, the Nikkei says that “this is the first time a world-class automaker will export from China a model it developed in the country.” A few weeks ago, Terry Johnsson, Shanghai GM vice president of vehicle sales, service and marketing, said that this is “the first locally developed and manufactured passenger car from an international brand to be exported.” (Read More…)

Honda is finally doing something against the ever stronger yen: They are selling more cars to make up the difference. Honda’s CFO  Yoichi Hojo told The Nikkei [sub] today that his company can make profits, even with the yen at its current near-record high against the dollar, if it can increase its global sales by 200,000 vehicles per year. The figure is already in their current budget. In the current fiscal, which ends March 31,2011, the want to sell 3.615m vehicles worldwide, modestly up from 3.392m a year earlier. They’ll probably do better. (Read More…)

Automotive News [sub] hasn’t received the memo that EVs need good news, badly. Instead, AN hammers the last nail into the electric vehicle’s coffin. If range anxiety, the lack of 220V outlets at your curbside parking spot, and high prices aren’t enough to keep you away from an electric car, how about “an Orwellian future where faceless international corporations track your every move. Drop by the bar after work, call in sick to go to the beach, visit your mistress’ house. The all-seeing eye of Big Brother knows where you’ve been.”

That’s what will happen when you drive an EV, says Automotive News [EN]. Your green friend will snitch on you. 24/7. (Read More…)

Most of the smaller makers reported October sales yesterday as the nation went to go vote. The big ones decided to wait until today: The Detroit 3, Toyota, Honda, and Nissan. (Read More…)

After the Abwrackprämien-high in 2009 (which saved the auto industry from damnation and got rid of a lot of old cars), and the short hangover that followed, Germany is definitely back to normal. For the second month in a row, German new car sales are at 2008 levels. According to the official data of the German Kraftfahrtbundesamt, October sales were 20 percent below October 2009, but only 0.8 percent below October 2008. The graph above tells a better story. (Read More…)

U.S. car sales had peaked in 2000 at 17.4m, and it’s been downhill from there. Especially lately.  This year, we might see between 11 and 12 million in the U.S.  But wait, we might see the +17m again this year. In China.

“Industry experts are now saying China is on path to surpass that record,” reports Gasgoo. And that’s just the beginning. (Read More…)

Numbers are not in yet, and many makers won’t report until tomorrow, but it already looks like October was the best in 14 months, if Bloomberg has it right. What’s more, buyers are willing to cough up more for 2011 model-year vehicles. (Read More…)

The folks at the F1 circus are getting desperate. Car makers are evacuating F1 as if it’s about to be wiped out by a hurricane. Honda gone. BMW gone. Toyota gone. Hyundai said “are you kidding us?” (Or Korean words to that effect.) And now someone, obviously on serious mind altering substances, thought they could get Volkswagen to come and play. (Read More…)

Nobody knows for sure how many automakers China has. The guesses were somewhere between 60 and 120. Now we have it official: It’s “more than 130 big and small companies in 27 provinces,” writes China Daily. But it looks like a lot of them need to seek other employment. After having made consolidation noises for more than a year, the Chinese government is about to bring their car companies down to a manageable number. (Read More…)

Germany’s new car market continues to be anemic. In September, sales for the first nine months were down 27.5 percent. Official October data are expected later in the day, or tomorrow.  Nobody expects sudden growth. (The whisper number is -20 percent.) Nevertheless, the German car industry runs extra shifts and out of cars.

Why? (Read More…)

Tomorrow, you have two choices:

1.)    Go vote.

2.)    Watch the real time reporting of October new car sales on TTAC.

What should you do? (Read More…)

Four driverless, autonomous vans finished a trek most drivers would never think of driving: From Italy through Eastern Europe, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Gobi Desert, all the way to Shanghai, China. They arrived there last Thursday, just in time for the Expo that closed last weekend. It was a long 8000 mile way, and they never got lost. (Read More…)

Ever heard of a Chinese city by the name of Ordos? Neither have I, and it’s my sixth year in China by now. Google maps says it is in Inner Mongolia, China, halfway between the buzzing cities of Hohot and Yinchuan. Ordos just started its 2010 International Auto Show, going from September 30 to October 4. And what do they sell there, you ask, ox carts?

Prepare to be blown away. (Read More…)