To the people in the room the buyer of Saab the remaining assets of bankrupt Saab was known before the press conference started today at 1pm at the Saab showroom in Trollhättan. When Dalong “Kai Johan” Jiang takes a seat in the audience, and is joined by his Chairman Karl-Erling Trogen, it is clear what bankruptcy administrator Hans Bergqvist will announce minutes later:

“The buyer is the National Electric Vehicle AB.”

Jiang takes the microphone. He knows his audience and says what everybody wants to hear: “Electric cars powered by green electricity is the future and electric cars will be built in Trollhättan.” (Read More…)

That huge sunroof on top of you greenhouse could cost you more than just a few extra $$$$. It could ruin the car’s mileage, says a new report. “Automakers may be obsessed with cutting vehicle weight,” writes Automotive News [sub], “but they are happily packing on pounds in one place.” Those added lbs will mean increased gals, and not the female kind. (Read More…)

A few months ago, Volkswagen’s 2018 goal of world domination was in gripping distance. In a record run, and helped by tsunamis and floods, Volkswagen had finished 2011 as world’s second largest automaker after GM and before Toyota. Overtaking GM was seen as a matter of short time. Six months later, the advantage is slipping away. A visibly rattled Volkswagen now musters all energy to stay in the race. (Read More…)

In Japan, drivers of Nissan’s all-electric Leaf plant trees while they drive. Nissan started a Zero Emission Fund. Carbon credits are paid into this fund by converting the CO2 emissions prevented by individual Leaf owners in Japan. (Read More…)

For all intents and purposes, Porsche is part of Volkswagen. Except for one niggling detail: Officially, Porsche still owns Volkswagen, and not Volkswagen Porsche. See complicated graph. Volkswagen had planned to swallow Porsche whole, and to add it to Volkswagen’s large collection of brands, but there were some nasty details. The most worrisome detail is solved: The tax bill. (Read More…)

TTAC’s patent-pending China sales oracle is back to old form again. A few days ago, GM China reported a May sales increase of 21.3 percent. Today, China’s Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) announced its official numbers, and sales are reported to be up 22.6 percent in May. (Read More…)

Even after its death, Saab is still good for some excitement. Today, the Wall Street Journal breathlessly reported that an “electric-vehicle consortium buys Saab assets.” When you click on the link in Google, you get your assets handed to you via a rude 404: Page not found. The same is happening with many sites that reported a sale of Saab’s assets to a company called National Electric Vehicle Sweden (NEVS), which is as Swedish as chopsticks.

What is behind those missing links? Who is the nice man who goes thumbs up next to China Communist Party Polit Bureau member Li Keqiang? And why has he allegedly just bought Saab? (Read More…)

Did you hear the one about Opel’s latest scheme to stave off disaster? Don’t read this article while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Opel wants to sell 30,000 cars in China – eventually. Or rather “step by step,” as Opel CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke told Germany’s Handelsblatt today. (Not on-line, therefore via Reuters.) This is not the first time Opel had announced plans for China. (Read More…)

On a mountain road near Bo Xilai’s city of Chongqing, two boulders got bored and went on a run. On the way down the mountain,  the rocks crushed five cars. The bigger boulder, estimated to weigh 200 ton, hit the jackpot: (Read More…)

We have a new winner in the MPGe brawl: Honda’s new all-electric 2013 Fit  can go 118 miles on a gallon of imagined gas, measurement brought to you by your tax dollars and the EPA.  Chevrolet meanwhile tweaked battery and electronics of its range-extended Volt for four miles more on the MPGe scale (95 to now 98, combined), and a slightly better electric  range of 38 miles. The perception of customers remains conflicted. After all, they wanted to escape gas, and now they have to contend with simulated gallons. That’s just the beginning of the plug-in perplexity.

The electric leaderboard now looks like this: (Read More…)

When we wrote about Mitsubishi’s electric attack on the hill at Pike’s Peak, Toyota did not want to confirm rumors that  WRC rally driver Fumio Nutahara would join the race on Toyota’s behalf in a TMG EV P001, the same that set a new electric lap record at the Nürburgring Nordschleife. They were right. The rumor was off by a digit. (Read More…)

Texas hopes that speed is addictive and will drive paying speed junkies to a new toll road that will open before the end of the year. Currently, if you want to drive 80 mph, and stay legal, you need to go to Texas or Utah, and there to pretty desolate parts. You may be able to go five miles faster on newly built Texas State Highway 130 between San Antonio and north of Austin. If approved by the Texas DOT,  Hwy 130 would be the first road in the country to have a posted 85 mile per hour speed limit, News Radio WAOI says. (Read More…)

China’s car dealers’ “backs are broken,” Luo Lei, deputy secretary general of the China Automobile Dealers Association told Bloomberg. “Dealers can’t shoulder the burden anymore.” They are overstuffed with cars. Average inventory at Chinese dealerships stands at more than two months of sales at the end of May up from a 45 day inventory by the end of April. It could be worse: In America, inventories are way ahead of China.

(Read More…)

“Don’t shift!!!!” I will hear this many times today. In the many underpowered cars that I had driven up a hill, around a bend, or towards an intersection, a well-meaning friend, instructor, or authority figure in the seat next to me inevitably yelled: “Shift!!”  This was to entice me to stir the stick, and to […]

Hybrids and minivehicles continue to top Japan’s list of best-selling cars in May. With 20,789 units sold, Toyota’s Prius is leading the list now for the 12^th month in a row. Hot on its heels is Toyota’s Aqua, better known in the U.S. as Prius C.  Only supply constraints at Toyota can keep the compact and affordable hybrid from taking the top spot.     (Read More…)