All three major Japanese automakers have reported their half year financial results. After Honda last week and Toyota yesterday, Japan’s number two automaker Nissan followed today. The presentations could not have been more different. (Read More…)

Nissan’s chief operating officer Toshiyuki Shiga said he was “disappointed and frustrated” by the lackluster sales of electric vehicles in general and the Leaf in particular. Speaking at the mid-term results press conference at the Nissan HQ in Yokohama, his emotional appeal to recognize Nissan’s pioneering efforts in the field of zero emissions had undertones of an eulogy on the electric vehicle: (Read More…)

China’s SAIC told Reuters today that its October auto sales rose 20.7 percent year-on-year to 414,471 units. This indicates a very strong jump in Volkswagen sales. (Read More…)

Ford and GM co-signed a $6.5 million loan in an effort to pull a key Australian parts supplier from the brink, Reuters says. (Read More…)

“No, Japan is not a closed market, come on, it has zero percent duty on cars.” Such spoke Yasuo Maruta, Communications Director of Volkswagen Japan, today at Volkswagen’s  Tokyo offices. Volkswagen Group sold 66,000 cars in the first ten months of the year in Japan, and is expected  to sell roughly 80,000 by the end of the year, making it Japan’s largest car importer, a title it held for as long as I can remember.

Maruta’s employer wants to enlarge its footprint in Japan. (Read More…)

Toyota’s CFO Satoshi Ozawa presented the financial results of the first half of fiscal 2013 to a packed conference room in the basement of Toyota’s Tokyo HQ. Analysts were astounded to hear that the company beat their expectations with a 6 month operating profit of 693.7 billion yen ($8.64 billion), an EBIT of 794.5 billion yen ($9.9 billion), and a net profit of 548.2 billion yen ($6.83 billion) after Japanese taxes are paid. What baffled them much more was Toyota’s business outlook: Toyota says it might make even more money than previously predicted. (Read More…)

For a while, TTAC has been following rumors that Renault may be reviving is storied Alpine brand. Renault will do it, together with another motor  celebrity, Caterham. (Read More…)

GM shows new vigor in its largest market China. October sales across all of GM’s Chinese joint ventures were up 14.3 percent on an annual basis. The Chinese market is of increasing importance for GM. In the first 9 months of the year, 30 percent of GM’s global sales were in China, trailed by the U.S. with 28 percent of GM’s global business. (Read More…)

Germany’s new car market was up 0.5 percent in October. What looked like bucking the European downtrend was quickly discounted by market observers who noted that October had two more working days than October last year. Taking this into account, Germany is down with the rest of Europe.  Meanwhile, sales in France dropped 7.8 percent, and those in Spain are down a gutwrenching 21.7 percent. (Read More…)

Super-Sandy rained into the sales plans of automakers and destroyed the predictions of America’s best analysts. All, except one: Rod Lache, Deutsche Bank’s star automotive analyst. (Read More…)

After a rash of interim-CEOs, Opel may have found a more permanent one. It’s the former Volkswagen manager Karl-Thomas Neumann. The successful recruitment was first published by Financial Times Deutschland, the report was quickly confirmed by wire services and major German newspapers. (Read More…)

Sergio Marchionne announced a drastic reorganization of Fiat. In a teleconference today, Marchionne announced the end of Lancia among a wide-ranging change of the company’s brand and model strategy. (Read More…)

Hyundai has long been in the top spots of America’s most fuel miserly vehicles. Over night, Hyundai will drop a few rungs down. Audited and found wrong by the EPA, Hyundai and Kia agreed to restate the fuel economy ratings on many of its cars. Cars in showrooms will be relabeled. Customers of more than a million 2011 through 2013 vehicles in the U.S. and Canada will receive debit cards. (Read More…)

Nissan announced a refresh of its GT-R supercar today.  Engine response in the mid- and upper-rpm ranges was improved using  high-output injectors and changes in the  turbocharger. The car’s center of gravity has been lowered, body rigidity has been enhanced, shock absorbers, springs and front stabilizer have been tweaked.  Racers can now use Motul Competition Oil. (Read More…)

Looking back at three catastrophes, the high yen, the tsunami and the Thai flood, a Japanese auto executive said to me last spring: “We’ve gone through hell, and made it. What else would be there, war?” He was close. A war of words over rocks in the East China Sea destroys Japanese car sales in China, while Korea profits.   (Read More…)