Woken up by the Tata Nano warning shot (which so far seems to be a dud), everybody agrees that the key to making India “the next China” is to start small. Why does Suzuki own more than half of India’s market? Small cars. And motorcycles. Another key to emerging markets is to give people an easy upgrade path from two wheels to four wheels. Remember how BMW got started? Remember that the initial business plan for the Volkswagen was to offer citizens of the Third Reich a car for the price of a motor cycle?
No wonder manufacturers are scouring their line-up for cars small enough for the huge Indian market. (Read More…)
Remember carmageddon? It is not forgotten in Germany. As a matter of fact, Germany’s biggest carmageddon happened last month, in May. While champagne corks popped in the U.S., propelled by a 19 percent plus in May, the Germans are crying into their beers. According to numbers released by the German Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (KBA,) the new car market collapsed by heart attack inducing 35.1 percent in May. That’s not the worst part of the story. (Read More…)
Ferdinand Piech is cultivating long standing traditions. He always liked to watch a good catfight between his people. In the olden days, he did let plants in Europe compete and bid for cars. Now for the battle royale: Who will develop the basics on which all future sports cars in the Volkswagen empire will be built? Porsche or Audi? The answer should be obvious: (Read More…)
How did Tokyo digest Toyota’s lackluster U.S. May sales performance? In a market that forged ahead by 19 percent, Toyota grew only 6.7 percent. Even more embarrassing, other Japanese brands like Mazda (+ 35 percent), Subaru (+35 percent), or Nissan (+24 percent) had outpaced the market. When Tokyo woke up to the bad news this morning, everybody ran to the phone, called their broker and … (Read More…)
China has finally revealed its worst kept secret and announced a pilot program for five Chinese cities. It’s raining cash for buyers of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. And it “reflects Beijing’s resolve to foster domestic brands,” says Reuters.
Really? At first glance, there is no discrimination against laowei cars. (Read More…)
Everybody is waiting for a sign of the Chinese car boom to go ka-boom. Bloomberg aims to please, and has the story that Chinese “passenger-car sales growth slowed in May as falling stock prices eroded wealth and consumer prices rose in the world’s largest automobile market.” Bloomberg is alarmed that growth was only 25 percent. Let’s have a look. (Read More…)
Some time in summer, OICA will announce the world production ranking of all automakers and answer that all-important question: Who are the world’s largest auto makers? TTAC readers are an impatient bunch and are used to hear and know stuff before anybody else. TTAC is pleased to announce the preliminary, unofficial world ranking of 2009 production. Who’s the top? Who’s the bottom? Who dominates the industry? We present you: The top ten car makers in the world. (Read More…)
Production at the Honda parts factory in Foshan, China, partially resumed this Chinese afternoon after Honda offered to increase the wages of striking workers by 366 yuan ($54) a month, company officials told The Nikkei [sub]. This reflects a pay hike of 20 percent. (Read More…)
Japanese car buyers are still auto otaku. In May,new car sales in Japan rose for the tenth straight month. Total sales of registered vehicles are up 28 percent to 228,514 units, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association told The Nikkei [sub].
Not only are the sales growing, the cars are getting bigger too. (Read More…)
Financial Times calls “Volkswagen a long-time skeptic about hybrid and electric cars.” As a long time observer of the Wolfsburg boys, I have to agree. Despite green initiatives for public and political consumption, their private position has been that the consumption and emissions of a hybrid could be achieved with their low displacement supercharged engines and some weight savings. Some electric initiatives notwithstanding, this position has not changed. Case in point: Their new Touran. (Read More…)
Gasgoo has not surprising news. GM China announced that by the end of next year, they will invest India with mostly small trucks and possibly passenger cars, taken from their GM’s and SAIC’s Chinese portfolio. So far, so boring.
India’s Economic Times has a more alarming slant to the story: “General Motors may use its Chinese associations to launch a rival for Tata Nano in India.” Most likely, all are missing the real story. (Read More…)
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