Chinese upstart carmaker BYD isn’t as lucky as it used to be. Its sales and stock price are deep in the Chinese squat toilet. However, it is outdoing itself in the gadget dept. BYD,  the company that brought us the remote controlled car, now brings us the watch that opens your car’s doors and starts it. Call it keyless entry that goes with the times. (Read More…)

The EU sent a warning shot across the bow of protectionist France. Brussels refused France’s request to monitor car imports from South Korea. According to the Wall Street Journal, import surveillance could have been Europe’s first step toward blocking or reversing tariff cuts instated by a free trade deal between the EU and Korea. (Read More…)

“The rich are becoming richer in Brazil,” GM South American chief Jaime Ardila told Reuters, Therefore, “it’s time to start thinking about bringing Cadillac to Brazil.” The Caddys will be very expensive.  “We wouldn’t consider producing Cadillacs here, because of the low volume,” Ardilla said, but we may consider importing the brand.” Imported cars carry high customs duty, fallout of a protectionist policy in Brazil that was applauded by carmakers in Brazil, GM among them. (Read More…)

Tomorrow, GM’s sick French partner PSA Peugeot Citroen will publish quarterly sales. They are expected to be très dégoûtant, and will set off a chain reaction:  The credit rating agencies will put PSA’s already alarming rating down a notch further to near-dead status. Its captive financing arm BPF, a bank in its own right, will go down with the mothership. The bank’s rating is not allowed to stay more than two notches above the parent.  This will drag the bank into junk bond territory, and borrowing costs will explode. The French government is here to help – for a price. (Read More…)

Today, BMW confirmed what you could read here last week: The Bavarians will build a BMW factory in Brazil. BMW submitted an investment plan to the Brazilian government, BMW says. (Read More…)

Volkswagen will roll out its new NFS, MQB, MLB and MSB kit architectures to Brazil, Volkswagen do Brasil chief Thomas Schmall told Automobilwoche [sub]. The first representative will likely be a very small SUV, based on the UP! NFS (New Small Familiy) architecture.

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Cratering China sales due to the islands row made Toyota revise its production targets. Worldwide production by the Toyota Group including Daihatsu and Hino “now looks likely to reach around 9.8 million units to 9.9 million units for the calendar year instead of the currently projected 10.05 million units,” The Nikkei [sub] says.

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GM wants to double its $5 billion revolving credit line. However, the junk credit rated company does not want to pay junk credit interest for it. “We think we can get it priced as if we’re investment grade, which is kind of one of our goals going into 2013, to achieve investment grade,” GM CEO Dan Akerson told Bloomberg yesterday in Sao Paulo.

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The first American automobile built as a joint venture in China could soon be built at a China joint venture again.  Fiat plans to bring Jeep production back to the Middle Kingdom, Bloomberg says. (Read More…)

Warning: Video NSFW in Sharia jurisdictions and parts of corporate America

Nissan plans a budget Leaf to be sold along the current version, Nissan’s Andy Palmer told the Financial Times. With the stripper model, Nissan hopes to extend the car’s reach beyond early adopters to “pragmatists.” Another problems remains unsolved: The car’s reach. (Read More…)

Union representatives at Ford’s Genk plant in Belgium have been summoned to an emergency meeting on early Wednesday morning. No reason has been given, but unions expect the worst, says Reuters: The closure of Ford’s Genk factory. (Read More…)

Hong Kong, and I speak from experience, is a great place to incorporate, to save taxes, and to throw a cloak of secrecy over financial operations which otherwise would be out in the open. In the case of GM, it is also a great place to save their Korean behinds. In December 2009, GM sold a 1% stake in its Shanghai-GM (SGM) joint venture to the Hong Kong part of its Chinese partner SAIC for the paltry sum of $85m. GM also put its India business into a Hong Kong based joint venture (HKJV). GM provided the India business, SAIC provided cash. As it turned out later, unearthed in Ed Niedermeyer’s seminal oeuvre about the mystery golden share, SAIC also underwrote a $400 million loan. In its darkest hour at the end of 2009, GM was kept afloat by the Chinese. Now, history seems to repeat itself in some convoluted way. (Read More…)

Chinese traffic jams are great equalizers:  They slow down all cars (except black A6 with flashing lights and a police escort.) Our reader and commenter Daveinchina spotted this car with an odd paintjob on the Hukun Expressway in Songjiang, on the outskirts of Shanghai. (Read More…)

The great October surprise announcement of progress at GM’s Opel front is turning into an October letdown. What will be announced “this month, early next month” will be a joint purchasing agreement between GM and 7 percent partner PSA Peugeot Citroen, GM CEO Dan Akerson told Reuters ahead of the Sao Paulo Auto Show’s media preview.  In the industry, the joint purchasing agreement is seen as a non-event.
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Further on the news that Stefan Jacoby is out at Volvo and that Hakan Samuelsson is in, the parties decided to forgo the face-saving explanation that the change was due to medical reasons. They confirmed that is was a boardroom brawl which Jacoby lost. In a press conference today, Volvo Vice-Chairman Hans-Olov Olsson said “that Jacoby’s illness had nothing to do with the decision to remove Jacoby,” Reuters says. (Read More…)