Alfa’s been talking about selling an SUV for years now, as the brand has thrashed around looking for a rescue line. Now, a long-rumored ute named Kamal (after an Alfa SUV concept) has finally materialized at Alfa’s 100-year anniversary, looking an awful lot like a BMW X1. In fact, it is a BMW X1 with tacked-on Alfa cues. If this is a sign that Alfa fans are desperate for an SUV, their dreams will come true. Automotive News [sub] reports that SUVs are a crucial component of Alfa’s plan to sell half a million cars per year by 2014, up from just over 100k last year. A small SUV, to be built by Chrysler and imported to Europe, will start sales in 2012, with another, larger ute (based on the next Jeep Libery) planned for 2014. In other words, look for rebadged Chryslers to rescue Alfa’s SUV dreams rather than a taped-off BMW. No wonder analysts are so skeptical of Alfa’s turnaround plans, telling AN [sub]
The potential of the (Alfa) brand is huge, but to multiply sales fivefold in five years they probably also will need to sell cars on the Moon and on Mars
Yesterday we suggested that this line drawing of a smaller-than-full-size Chevrolet pickup meant that Chevy would be “recommitting” to the US market for compact pickup trucks. Today, however, Bloomberg reports that Chevy is planning a mid-sized truck for production in Thailand, and that GM is focusing its smaller pickup efforts on the developing markets in South East Asia and Brazil (importation to Europe is also planned). GM’s Martin Apfel explains
The logical consequence is to build where the customer wants it, as that keeps your costs down. [Thailand and Brazil are] the two centers of gravity for midsize trucks
Today, natural gas is a rational alternative to gasoline that can provide a near-term environmental solution on the road to vehicle electrification. It is the most effective solution, in terms of costs and timing, to lessen this country’s reliance on oil
Chrysler/Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne tells the Detroit News that despite not having an electric vehicles in the works until 2012 (can you believe ENVI was just vapor), Chrysler can sell environmentally-friendly vehicles sooner than that. After all, Fiat sells a grip of natural gas-powered vehicles in Europe (130,000 last year), offering the alt-energy drivetrain on nearly every model. Of course, there’s a hitch. Or three.
You take some of my rescued state-owned automaker, and I’ll take some of yours. That seems to be the cunning plan cooked up by presidents Putin and Sarkozy, as the two face the prospect of rescuing struggling firms in the midst of a weak European market. And actually, it seems that the idea was really Putin’s. French-owned automaker Renault is “more than happy” with its 25 percent stake in the moribund Russian automaker AvtoVAZ, reports Bloomberg, but Russia is offering to buy 15 percent of the French firm if France in turn takes on more AvtoVAZ equity. Considering that Reanult paid $1b for 25 percent of a firm that has been kept alive only by government intervention, a closer embrace of VAZ does not seem advisable. Nor, frankly, does any form of “Franco-Russian Leyland” sound like a good idea.
GM has been showing off all kinds of future product at its day-long “Global Business Conference,” as it drums up support for its upcoming IPO. Sadly TTAC was not invited, but a wealth of exciting news is percolating through the autoblogosphere. Like this item: Compact MPVs are a big deal.
The Fisker Karma hybrid sedan may be debuting in about two days and counting, but what does a debut mean? According to the Detroit News, Fisker spokesfolks are already saying that
the “first few customers” will get Karma vehicles by the end of the year, with full production to start in the first three months of 2011.
In other words, we’re afew days away from a Potemkin launch, in order to keep the Department of Energy from looking like a misinformation peddler. The DOE said the Karma would be on sale this summer way back when it lent Fisker $530m. Whoops!
What, you didn’t know that Amarok is Inuit for “Wolf”? Anyway, Forget Mahindra. Third-world compact diesel pickup fetishists can move their misplaced hopes for US-market salvation on Volkswagen’s Amarok. Not because VW is particularly likely to bring it to the United States, but because Auto Motor und Sport just posted a bunch of photos of the new single-cab version. Plus this sweet angle on the double-cab model. All this Eskimo wolf needs is a fire hydrant. And some magical way of passing EPA tests without an expensive diesel-scrubbing system. Not to mention a free pass on the Chicken Tax.
Either CNN Money’s Chris Isidore just rained all over GM’s IPO parade with his headline The auto rebound is a myth, or GM’s IPO is going to need a lot of support from abroad. With GM planning on dropping billions of dollars worth of stock on the market, investors interested in supporting US-market growth have quite a bit of cold water to deal with. Isidore’s piece is a good place to start. As has been the case for some time, GM’s real growth opportunities appear to be in developing economies like the so-called BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries. The Chinese are notoriously cash-rich, and hold a special affection for General Motors which is the second-largest foreign automaker in China. And with Chinese sales outstripping America’s sluggish sales, China is already GM’s most important market. GM’s Chinese partner SAIC recently took a majority stake in their “Shanghai GM” joint venture and was given the keys to GM’s Indian market operations for its trouble. Why wouldn’t Chinese firms like SAIC move on a chunk of GM’s equity when it goes to market? Given how perennially popular US sovereign debt has been with Chinese investors, why wouldn’t a Chinese corporation love to become business partners with the United States government? But how would Treasury react? Would the White House rather hold onto GM than let Chinese investors take it piece by piece? Or is this all just too terribly paranoid to consider?
Chrysler’s Ed Garsten breaks the last bit of bad news TheFirehouse will ever have to spin:
I wanted to let you know that on Wednesday we’ll be closing the doors at TheFirehouse.biz, our media-only blog…
We had a great time posting things you wouldn’t dare put in a news release. Things like “Friday Night, Gotta Go,” an explanation of the company’s potty break policy in response to a minor flap at one of our competitors. When coverage of recalls at domestic automakers seemed out of whack, compared with coverage for recalls by foreign companies, we listed every recall by a major Japanese competitor that had previously won a free pass in the press, and pointed out that indeed, they had recalled many, many more vehicles than the Detroit bunch.
Our biggest blowout was calling out “Big Oil” for artificially propping up fuel prices.
Over time we were playful, pointed, and took great glee in “guiding” journalists towards positive results hidden in those monthly sales reports.
The brick and mortar firehouse during the auto show has been gone for a couple of years, a victim of financial realities, and now we’ve made the tough, but logical decision, to shutter the virtual version.
O Noes! Where, oh where will the internet get its coveted Chrysler spin on the automotive industry?
Will the North American market for cars go up 45 percent in the next four years? I’m not convinced. Certainly the momentum hasn’t shown up yet. But this slide is from GM’s “Global Business Conference” which the company is holding in Michigan this week to drum up support for its forthcoming IPO. So… a little over-optimism is hardly surprising. But we’re not the only ones skeptical of GM’s ability to take flight as a public company. Automotive News [sub] reports that
Mirko Mikelic, a fixed income portfolio manager at Fifth Third Bank in Grand Rapids, Michigan, said he expected GM to face grilling about the risks of a return to recession in the United States.
“There’s concern about a double dip out there. That’s probably the biggest thing that’s weighing over GM coming to the market because that’s going to keep (auto sales) down for another year or two,” he said.
It’s been written at least a few times here at TTAC that crossovers are the methadone of SUV addiction, and Ford is proving the point, as it prepares to launch its 2011 Explorer. Once one of the most popular SUVs in America, the Explorer is going to a unibody chassis, and the reactions to teaser images on Facebook show that America is still struggling with its SUV addiction. Facebook reactions [in gallery below] show a mixed reaction to the Explorer’s new crossover-inspired look, including unfavorable comparisons to such “cute utes” as the Honda CR-V. Ford is reacting with a video [above] which describes the Explorer as a “21st Century SUV” that offers “do anything, go anywhere” capability. Which is funny, considering that the original Explorer was never exceptional at either off-road or on-road capability. But hey, who ever said that addiction was a logical choice?
sold 13.3 million shares for $17 each, raising about $226 million. It raised the number of shares it hoped to sell by 20 percent. It had planned to sell 11.1 million shares for $14 to $16 each.
That’s more than the “as much as $213m” number floated earlier, but with a recent Toyota deal and an EV-infrastructure bill in congress, Tesla has as much wind at its back as it can ask for. But if investors do get to start trading Tesla stock starting tomorrow, they’ll have a gut check before long. Tesla lost $30m last quarter, and it the second quarter ends on Wednesday. If those numbers show another healthy loss, investors will look away knowing that they’re in a risky, long-term investment. But can a $1.6b market-cap firm really compete in development, design and manufacturing with the giants of the automotive world simply by taking in two times its 2009 revenue in one IPO?
Since EPA certification has not been obtained, we were worried the delays would continue. We want to begin sales in December as Mahindra stated to the press on May 17th. Our sole intent was to get Mahindra focused on not missing another deadline. We simply wanted to protect you, our dealers, and your investment in the Mahindra brand.
That’s what John Perez, President of Mahindra’s US-market distributor Global Vehicles wants to know. Perez is suing the Indian manufacturer of the compact diesel pickups and SUVs to make sure his dealers dealers don’t miss a fourth blown sales deadline. Mahindra, according to Global’s suit, has not yet filed official EPA paperwork for any of its vehicles. December launch, huh?
Audi’s new A8 and a prototype of its upcoming “four-door coupe” cousin, the A7, get caught looking mighty similar by Auto Motor und Sport’s Erlkönig spy photographers. And though it’s unfair to judge prototypes too harshly, the Nürburgring footage at AM und S reveals an A7 that leans in the sweepers and looks confused in kinks. With the rumors of an S7 and RS7 sporting the R8’s V8 and V10 respectively floating around, one hopes that Audi gets the chassis sorted quick smart. The A7 has to offer something besides worse rear headroom.
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