China’s Greatwall is apparently hell-bent on selling their Coolbear MPV in Europe next year. China Car Times reports that Greatwall has received the ECE Whole Vehicle Type Approval (WVTA,) awarded by the UK Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA.) The WVTA testing covers 48 different tests; 13 on active safety, 13 on passive safety and 8 on emissions and environmental protection. Passing the test makes the Coolbear legal to sell all over Europe and in any and all countries that accept the ECE regimen. (Read More…)
Lithium is known as a reliable treatment of depression. A double dose of lithium with a touch of cobalt is now prescribed by Nissan to cure range anxiety and other assorted phobias afflicting owners of plugins. The Nikkei [sub] writes that Nissan “has nearly completed development of a lithium ion battery that can power an electric vehicle for 300km on a single charge, about double the capacity currently possible.”
Nissan hopes to sell cars powered by the Energizer-bunny of all plugins by 2015.
Before this year ends, Beijing will have 4 million cars on the roads. Not to worry, says a city official, there is room for more.
Beijing’s car population reached 3.96 million last week, writes the state news agency Xinhua. The city adds 2100 new cars per day. At that rate, the 4m mark will be reached in 19 days. (Read More…)
South Korea’s Hyundai will spend some $800m to build a third Chinese plant, says the Nikkei [sub]. The plant will be located in Beijing along with its two existing facilities. It is targeted to come on-stream at the end of 2011, with an annual capacity of 300,000 units. (Read More…)
After we reported yesterday that the talks between Geely and Ford about Volvo are intensifying, China’s Xinhua news agency runs a terse one-liner today: “China’s Geely Holding Group said Friday it was having a detailed and in-depth discussion with Ford over relevant terms and contracts about acquiring Volvo.” That’s it. Short, sweet, and to the point. (Read More…)
There still is faint interest in Saab after Koenigsegg had pulled out. China’s BAIC, Merbanco Inc. and Renco Group Inc. have made advances to GM about Saab, says Bloomberg, quoting the usual “two people familiar with the situation.” (Read More…)
Roland Koch, the premier of Opel’s home state Hesse is pissed. GM’s plans to cut 2,500 jobs there are “completely unacceptable.” Koch said that Nick Reilly had told him just 24 hours earlier that GM’s restructuring plan would “in principle” orient itself on job cuts agreed with Canada’s Magna.
We know what Reilly will say. The Magna plans called for 10,000 cut jobs all over Europe, GM wants to cut only 9000, so “in principle” that’s a better deal. Except for the Germans. (Read More…)
Last year, Porsche gave Magna an eight-year contract to build the Cayman and Boxster models from 2012 on. Magna engineers immediately went to work and toiled with tricky tasks, such as the stiffening of the Boxter’s body. Which they say wasn’t, well, stiff enough. Then Porsche went to Volkswagen. Then Opel came and went. Finally, Volkswagen bought parts of bankrupt Karmann and needed to use the capacity. Cayman and Boxster will be built in Osnabrück, Instead of the Boxster body, Magna was stiffed and asked to pound sand. (Read More…)
Ford has enlisted JP Morgan and Citigroup to assist with the sale, Geely has employed Rothschild. The deal is expected to close soon, “before the start of 2010.”
According to CCT, Geely is working off a seven point checklist: (Read More…)
BS, we said, “there are ways to circumvent this nasty detail.” The best way to avoid taxes are losses. Actually, losses will get you a hefty tax refund. We were sure that VW’s CFO Hans Dieter Poetsch would know how to come up with hefty losses. Poetsch did not disappoint. (Read More…)
China’s BAIC said ”it will cautiously evaluate the situation regarding the sale of General Motors Co.’s Saab Automobile unit after Swedish sportscar maker Koenigsegg Group AB backed out of a deal to buy Saab,” the Wall Street Journal reports. (Read More…)
European governments that are lured into propping up GM’s Opel should resist the urge, said former Continental AG Chief Executive Officer Manfred Wennemer to Bloomberg. Why? It will cost them twice. (Read More…)
GM is no longer in hock with Germany. They paid back all of the €1.5b bridge loan Opel had received from Berlin to keep it afloat until it was taken over by Magna and Sberbank. As we all know, this didn’t happen. Berlin wanted its money back, and got it.
“I can tell you that the last funds for Opel have been paid back by General Motors,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. “I expect at least a thank you letter from General Motors in a few years.” There isn’t much love lost between GM and Berlin these days. (Read More…)
According to the German tabloid Express, Düsseldorf antique car dealer Michael Fröhlich has found Hitler’s car, a blue Mercedes 770K. Fröhlich started searching after a request by a Russian oligarch. He tracked the car to Austria, to where it had been sold for 2000 Reichsmark after the war. From there, the car went to the car museum of the Imperial Palace in Las Vegas. It was sent back to Germany into the collection of a loaded owner of a brewery in Munich. It finally ended up with a collector in Bielefeld. The collector had 5 more of the Nazi cars, one of them formerly Joachim von Ribbentrop’s daily driver. (Read More…)
It’s been year since we blogged Chinese press reports that China’s SAIC might buy GM. It turned out to be one of many Chinese rumors that followed. We became the target of hate mongering—some idiots even accused us of driving down GM’s and Chrysler’s stock price. Duh, buyout rumors usually drive prices up. At the time, the GM stock was worth at least a little money: the market cap of GM was less than Mattel. Months later, the stock was worthless. GM and Chrysler went bankrupt. Instead of the Chinese owning GM and Chrysler, the American taxpayer ended up holding the barf bag.
It took a year and six days to dawn on CNN Money that a Chinese-owned GM might not be such an outlandish idea after all. “A Chinese-owned GM, it could happen,” headlines CNN Money today. (Read More…)
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