Today, Porsche decided what everybody thought they would decide: They will build the mid-engined plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder. After all the pomp and circumstance at the auto shows in Geneva and Beijing, it would have been a big let-down if they would have said: “Sorry, it was just an idea. We didn’t really mean it. How about that Cayenne?” (Read More…)

Where would we be without our breakfast cereal, fresh from the  Chinese rumor mill? Two days ago, we wrote that Suzuki, Volkswagen, and SAIC are rumored to be working on a three-way tie-up. “Not so,” says SAIC according to Gasgoo. They denied a rumor that was spread by the competition at Suzuki’s Chinese partner Changan Auto. (Read More…)

The market took note when little Daihatsu announced  that its group net profit jumped 460 percent year on year to 19.9 billion yen ($227m) in the April-June quarter of the Japanese fiscal year.  Daihatsu is a Toyota company, and the market is eagerly expecting Toyota’s results. (Read More…)

The Chinese market keeps going, and going, and going. It was up  47.7 percent in the first six months of 2010. Can’t be, you say? Well, the rest of the Asian markets are not far behind. The six major ASEAN countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Singapore) bought 41 percent more cars in the first six months of 2010 than in the year before. (Read More…)

China’s quality regulator has ordered the recall of 875 imported C30 vehicles. What’s wrong with the car? Nothing. (Read More…)

Again and again, the mucky-mucks of Daimler and BMW had sworn to do stuff together, buy parts, build engines, there are occasional rumors that the two will tie the knot. North and South Korea will unite and hell will turn into a glacier before that happens – which is not saying that it might not. Some day. In a galaxis far away. As long as Daimler and BMW employ engineers who make crusaders look like the Peace  Corps, no jointness between the two luxury brands has any perspective. Every win-win so far has turned into a whine-whine. But it’s not for a lack of trying. (Read More…)

Nissan wants to invest “the Americas” with three new low-cost subcompacts, made in Mexico by their Aguascalientes factory that can crank out 300,000 units a year. The cars are based on the Nissan’s V-platform. The Nissan March (known outside Asia as the Nissan Micra) is currently being made in Thailand and re-imported to Japan. It sells there for around $10,000. (Read More…)

China isn’t Porsche’s largest market quite yet (it’s only a matter of time, now they are #3), but China is now officially the world’s largest market for the Porsche Cayenne. Porsche China CEO Helmut Broeker said it himself to Gasgoo. The luxo-SUV is popular with China’s well-heeled and high-ranking military figures. (Read More…)

Except for Nissan, which outpaced the market, the big Japanese automakers are having a bit of a hard time in China. Toyota and Honda received a lot of bad press in the Middle Kingdom. Toyota for its recalls. Honda for its series of strikes. Whatever the reason, both are losing market share. This doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year, when the red-hot Chinese market is expected to cool down a bit. (Read More…)

We’ve always suspected that there’s something bigger driving the (well..) tie-up between Volkswagen and Suzuki than little cars: Big markets. Volkswagen holds the keys to China, where they rule the roost, whatever numbers GM may conjure-up. Suzuki is nobody in China. Suzuki holds the keys to India. Volkswagen is nobody in India. It’s the perfect marriage. Even more perfect with some Chinese help …. (Read More…)

Toyota Motor Corp. is expected to report a group operating profit of about 100 billion yen ($1.14b) for the April-June period, The Nikkei [sub]. That would be a huge improvement over the same quarter loss of 194.8 billion yen ($2.23b) in 2009. In case you are wondering about the strange quarters: Japan goes by the fiscal year that ends on March 31. The April-June period is the first quarter of the new year, and times are good at TMC. (Read More…)

Two robots are retracing the tracks of Marco Polo and are on their way from Italy to China. The two heavily modified driverless Piaggio Porter Electric vans started last week in front of of the Milan Cathedral. By end of October they are expected to arrive in Shanghai after having driven 8,000 miles, all the way through Siberia and the Gobi Desert, all by themselves, untouched by human hands.

Well, kind of. (Read More…)

Ever heard of Ronn Motor Company? We don’t blame you. Well, at least they have a website. They even have their own in-house chaplain. (sometimes called a “Chaplin”. As in Charley.) They have reason to pray a lot, and to keep up their good humor: At the time of this typing, their stock traded (on the pink sheets) at 6 cents. It once fetched $6.

That minor detail doesn’t deter them from announcing that their “Scorpion® eco-exotic supercar, H2GO® real time hydrogen production unit and Ronnzoil® biodegradable lubricants may soon be available in China and the rest of Asia in the coming months.” Why?  Because everybody goes there. (Read More…)

China Car Times reports that “Whilst the Chinese auto market is down as a whole,” (well, it’s not “down”, a growth of 23.5 percent in June is not “down”, and a growth of 48.2 percent in the first half year isn‘t “down” either – it just cooled off a bit, in a Chinese way)  “there are certain niche segments such as the luxury car business that seems to performing above and beyond expectations.”

Apart from the tortured language – no kidding. (Read More…)

Chrysler is taking a page out of Ford’s playbook and will surprise and delight Japan with their  “latest version of the Jeep Grand Cherokee sport utility vehicle, which features Chrysler’s new Pentastar 3.6-liter V-6 engine,” if The Nikkei [sub] is not mistaken. (Read More…)