Hyundai’s sales were up 22 percent last month, driven by huge growth for Sonata (13,261 units) and Elantra (9,659 units). But, rather than spend the whole press release [PDF here] trumpeting sales data alone, Hyundai upped the transparency bar on its competitors by announcing it would

begin reporting monthly sales-weighted Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) results to provide journalists, policy-makers and consumers with additional data to promote more meaningful dialogue on the feasibility of future fuel efficiency targets for the industry…

For January 2011, Hyundai’s sales-weighted CAFE level was 34.7 miles per gallon, with a model year mix for the month of 86 percent 2011 and 14 percent 2010 model year vehicles. This is a significant increase from Hyundai’s most recent official CAFE level for the 2009 model year of 31.7 mpg.

By publishing both its fleet mix (12%) and CAFE average, Hyundai is proving that marketing is a million times easier when the facts fit the message. At 34.7 CAFE, Hyundai is a single MPG away from complying with the 35.5 MPG 2016 proposed CAFE standard, and just a whisker away from meeting its corporate commitment to meet 35 MPG fleet by 2015. Which is all fine and dandy, but as a blog that’s forever digging for obscure information about the car industry, we’re even more excited about Hyundai’s decision to take the lead on transparency. TTAC encourages all automakers to release both sales-weighted CAFE numbers and full fleet-mix numbers (and any other relevant data) with their monthly sales reports. The truth, as we say around here, must out! [Hyundai and Kia sales breakouts after the jump]

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My home state of Oregon has the unfortunate distinction of pioneering the practice of pay-per–mile taxation, having studied the GPS tracking approach to road taxes in a pilot program back in 2005-2007. Originally, the track-and-tax scheme was envisioned as a replacement for the gas tax, but now it’s being raised as a way of taxing motorists who go without gasoline altogether. The Eugene Register Guard reports

A bill before the Oregon Legislature aims to deal with the government’s potential beefs with a growing fleet of cars and trucks that never stop for fuel at a gas station: that they don’t ever pay the gas tax that helps cover the cost of state and local road construction and maintenance.

Under House Bill 2328, those drivers would pay a “vehicle road usage charge,” starting with model year 2014 electric vehicles and plug-in gas-electric hybrids.

Proponents say the bill will build on lessons learned from the pilot testing, and avoids the legitimate concerns about pay-per-mile which were first raised by the pilot project’s report. But does taxing EVs actually make sense, or is this just the politically-palatable first step towards an Orwellian nightmare of GPS vehicle tracking? Meanwhile, doesn’t the State of Oregon give up to $750 in tax credits for EV purchases? Mixed messages much?

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TTAC’s monthly sales coverage rolls on with a look at Chrysler, which saw sales rise 22 percent last month. The volume increase, driven by the Jeep, Dodge and Ram brands, was the second bit of good news Chrysler announced this week, following up its water-into-wine 2010 financial results. Like Ford, Chrysler Group’s problems remain with its “luxury” brand, Chrysler. The eponymous brand fell 7%, although a 45% increase in T%C volume helped mask deeper drops in other models like 300 (1,329 units), PT Cruiser (342 units) and 200/Sebring (1,482 units). Though 200 and 300 sales should increase due to their current production changeovers, Chrysler still has a lot of work to do to make the Chrysler brand relevant again. Jeep, on the other hand, is rolling, with sales up 47%. Grand Cherokee led the way again, up 130% to 7,612 units, Wrangler and Liberty added over 30% each, and Patriot was up 75%. Dodge saw Caliber, Avenger, Journey and Charger lose volume last month, but big increases in Caravan, Durango and Challenger helped bring the brand up 22%. On the truck side, Ram was up 22%, while Dakota dropped to 823 units.

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Yes, everyone loves to hate on the BMW 3 Series’ success… but nobody loves to hate it like the Mercedes C63 AMG. And with a new version for 2012, Benz’s Bavarian-burner has about as good a shot as anything else on the market of convincing Mr Prospective Sports Sedan Buyer out of an M3. Meanwhile, it also serves as a stern, 481 HP warning to Jaguar, Cadillac and the assorted Dreier-chasers: when you’re chasing such a coveted market segment, you have to go big or go home [nauseating technical details for the 2012 C-Class can be found here].

Poor Ford. As the latest sales data shows, its lone luxury brand Lincoln is one sick puppy. Lincoln’s best-selling vehicles are its entry-level models, the MKZ and MKX, indicating that killing Mercury still has yet to bring higher-end buyers to Lincoln showrooms. Higher-end products like MKS and MKT are dead in the water, failing to crack 1,000 monthly units combined in January. Pull out the dying Town Car and Navigator, and Lincoln moved less volume last month than the subcompact Fiesta. And though Ford acknowledges that it has a problem at Lincoln, managers have hardly been forthcoming about what it plans to do to fix the problem. Which, as far as TTAC is concerned is fine… Ford doesn’t have to convince us that Lincoln is coming back. It does, however, have to convince Lincoln dealers to stay on board… and because they’re playing with their own money, that’s a trickier task. Ford’s Jim Farley tells Automotive News [sub] that

My experience is that if you cannot show concretely that you have to spend x amount of resources and you get this out of it in terms of volume, margin and profit, they’ll never invest, no matter how much credibility we have

But will they invest without seeing product? Ford has announced that it won’t be showing new Lincoln products when it pitches dealers on the brand’s future at the upcoming NADA convention. But isn’t product the problem? Hasn’t product been the problem at Lincoln for years? Even if Ford commits significant resources to the problem, dealers have no way of knowing what that investment will actually yield. Need we mention the LS experiment?

Since Ford won’t make a solid pitch for the future of Lincoln, we’ll send the task over to you, our Best and Brightest. Short of mocking up prototypes, what products and promises does Ford need to make to get Lincoln out of the luxury cellar?

Ford Motor Company sold 127,317 units last month for a 13.3% increase in volume, despite weak a performance from its Lincoln brand and a 95% drop in volume from the dead Mercury brand. Lincoln effectively has two viable products in its portfolio, the MKZ (1,574 units) and the MKX (1,546 units)… nothing else moved more than 1k units last month. And of all its products, only MKZ saw a year-over-year sales increase last month, up 17.5%. With Mercury gone (but for a few hundred Grand Marquis sales), Lincoln needs to get its act together before Ford becomes a one-brand outfit. Still, If Ford did cut back to a single brand, the Blue Oval would still be in decent shape. Ford-branded vehicle sales jumped 21 percent to 121,511 units last month. Focus fell slightly f(13.2%) to 9,014 units, but Fiesta is coming on strong with 4,270 units. Fusion saw a modest sales increase, as the midsized contender moved to 14,346 units. Taurus and Mustang fell by 23% and 33% respectively.  Edge and Escape were up 42.8% and 30% respectively, and the new Explorer looks to be a hit with sales jumping 71% to 7,351. F-Series kept growing as well, with 35,806 units sold, and Transit Connect rose to above 2k monthly units while Ranger slid 31%.

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January 2011, US Light Vehicle Sales

Automaker	Jan. 2011	Jan. 2010	Pct. chng.	1 month 2011	1 month 2010	Pct. chng.
BMW Group	18,683	15,436	21%	18,683	15,436	21%
Chrysler Group LLC	70,118	57,143	23%	70,118	57,143	23%
Daimler AG	17,636	15,443	14%	17,636	15,443	14%
Ford Motor Co.	126,981	116,277	9%	126,981	116,277	9%
General Motors	178,897	146,315	22%	178,897	146,315	22%
Honda	76,269	67,479	13%	76,269	67,479	13%
Hyundai Group	65,003	52,626	24%	65,003	52,626	24%
Jaguar Land Rover	3,206	2,589	24%	3,206	2,589	24%
Maserati	114	101	13%	114	101	13%
Mazda	14,267	15,694	-9%	14,267	15,694	-9%
Mitsubishi	5,714	4,170	37%	5,714	4,170	37%
Nissan	71,847	62,572	15%	71,847	62,572	15%
Porsche	2,150	1,786	20%	2,150	1,786	20%
Saab Cars North America	658	–	-%	658	–	-%
Subaru	18,858	15,611	21%	18,858	15,611	21%
Suzuki	2,562	2,040	26%	2,562	2,040	26%
Toyota	115,856	98,796	17%	115,856	98,796	17%
Volkswagen	26,295	24,614	7%	26,295	24,614	7%
Volvo Cars North America	4,276	–	-%	4,276	–	-%
Other (estimate)	298	294	1%	298	294	1%
TOTAL	819,688	698,986	17%	819,688	698,986	17%

TTAC’s on top of all of the monthly sales news, as the industry records its first month of sales in the new year. (Data courtesy Automotive News [sub] ). Ford and GM, the first automakers to report, show solid gains, seemingly confirming analyst estimates of a 12.4m unit SAAR this month. But don’t read too much into the trend, as Reuters reports that auto sales momentum stalled in the final weeks of the month, prompting JD Power to lower its SAAR expectation from 12.2m units to “between 11.5m and 12m.” According to a JD Power spokesman,

the sudden slowdown in sales in January could reflect both the impact in winter storms and the absence of new sales incentives from major automakers. Those kinds of discounts, including cash-back offers, were down 12 percent in January from December

Check back regularly as TTAC unravels January’s sales performance from all of the automakers.

Another month, another raft of sales data… and another month of solid sales growth for General Motors. Buick continued its industry-leading growth pace, rising 32% over January 2010 with 13,269 units sold. Enclave sales rose slightly, and Lucerne got a big boost, but LaCrosse encountered its first signs of slowing, as sales dropped 11%, falling below 4k monthly units.  Cadillac did Buick one better, jumping by 49 percent year-over-year, moving 12,850 units. CTS boomed by over 70%, joining the SRX above the 4k monthly mark. The Escalades showed strong growth as well, though at lower volume levels, as did the aging STS and DTS sedans. GMC sales grew by 29%, moving 27,658 units as Savanna, Sierra and Terrain recorded growth of more than 40%. Yukon and Yukon XL combined for over 3,500 units, and Acadia stalled at 5 percent growth. Chevy, meanwhile, saw 19% growth, although with Impala, Aveo, Express and HHR leading volume gains, much of that may well have come from fleet sales. Strong performances from Equinox and Traverse give more cause for retail optimism. Overall, GM’s retail sales were up 36 percent according to the firm, and fleet sales fell 7 percent.

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Lexus and Infiniti have been gunning for it for years now. Cadillac is working on its answer to it. And now, Jaguar says that it wants to take on the nameplate that every luxury brand wants to replicate: the BMW 3 Series. Jag’s Adrian Hallmark tells Autoweek

We need different models. We need lower priced models. Whether we do one, two or three body styles, we can still decide. But we have to be in the lower price. We don’t want to be fighting it out in the fleet business with little engines and small wheels and discounted 25 percent. If we go into the smaller car market, we want to build elegant cars with great technology that give a sense of occasion and position us above that competition — where Jaguar should be.

And no wonder everyone is out to get Mr 3: moving 100k+ units with a starting price over $35k in the US market is the holy grail of every luxury brand… and even the Chevy Volt is shooting for that lofty goal. But the Dreier has been building its market position for decades… and it won’t give up its throne without a fight. And if Jaguar and Cadillac jump into the fight at the same time, they could end up simply taking share from each other. But then, there’s no easy way to spin cars into gold.

Despite fears of building overcapacity in the Chinese market, GM is still very much enamored of its chances in the Middle Kingdom. Terry Johnsson, vice president of the automaker’s China operations tells Reuters

We sold everything we could build in 2010 and the same holds true in 2011. We could actually sell more than we will be able to (build) if we are not capacity constrained. We are actually short of capacity. The total business is going to go up by the size of a single plant. It’s not just about this year. We’ll have to look about a real rapid increase in our capacity

After all, the Chinese market may have slowed to a “mere” 10-15%, but GM’s sales were up by 20% last year as foreign automakers solidified their hold on the Chinese market. And even if the Chinese market does hit a wall (crazier things have happened), China’s desire to boost exports of its domestically-produced cars will help justify further investments in Chinese production capacity. Johnsson adds that GM will a “substantial amount” of its made-in-China Chevy Sail to emerging markets over the coming years, a decision that further justifies an investment in Chinese capacity. Only 5k Sails were exported last year (to Chile), but exports should rise to 20k units this year. Still, even those increased numbers pale in comparison to Chevy’s 125,625 Sails sold in China last year. But GM is already looking at shipping knock-down kits of the Sail abroad as it looks to increase Sail exports beyond even the 20k units planned for next year. After all, if The General has to bump UAW workers into the second tier to build subcompact cars in the US, production of low-cost cars like the Sail will have to stay in China for the forseeable future.

Well, the global car business is not as trusted as the technology business, according to Edelman’s 2011 Trust Barometer study, but it’s now doing better than any other industry out there. Yes, really. Cars may have taken some lumps over the last several years, but thanks to improvements in auto industry trust in the US and China, it’s now beating everything from telecom to pharmaceuticals to food. Does the auto business deserve that trust? That’s a question for you to answer…

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Though I’m generally too much of a libertarian to be a huge fan of the work of the neo-prohibitionists at Mothers Against Drunk Driving, this in-car breathalyzing technology is definitely the kind of active-safety mandate I can get behind. After all, the social debate over the the effects of and responsibility for drunk driving has taken place, and despite heavy penalties against it, drunk driving still kills too many people. Unfortunately, since this technology won’t be usable for another ten years, we’re all going to have to live with the risk of drunk drivers for quite a bit longer… and by the time this hits the streets, you had better believe that distracted driving will be a far more relevant risk factor. After all, if the current state of debate over distracted driving were compared to the drunk driving debate, the automakers would still be arguing that in-car kegerators help keep the danger out of in-car drinking… and the government would be working to set voluntary safety standards for those kegerators.

The moral of the story: by the time we recognize societal safety problems as real problems, we are already halfway to solving them… and the final 50 percent of the problem can take years afterwords to solve.

Ever since it beat back expectations of bankruptcy, Ford’s stock has been on fire, pushing the Blue Oval to the highest market capitalization of the Detroit automakers. Then, on Friday, when Ford announced its best financial results in over a decade, investors mysteriously sent the stock tumbling, pushing GM’s market cap higher than Ford’s for the first time since its government-ordered restructuring. How did that happen? Even with the one-time expenses Ford blamed for its Q4 drop in earnings, analysts expected Ford was expected to earn $2.05 per share… and analysts punished the automaker for making only $1.91 per share before special items and $1.66 after same. Since markets re-opened today, Ford’s market cap has gone on to $55.39b while GM has dropped back down to $54.73b, suggesting that GM’s stock price has been corrected downwards relative to Ford’s disappointing financial performance. Still, despite greater European-market problems, GM’s strong Chinese-market position will keep The General hanging just behind Ford waiting for the upstart automaker to stumble again.

With the UAW entering contract negotiations this year, all eyes are on Volkswagen’s discussion with its largest union IG Metall… and the signs coming from those European labor talks aren’t looking promising. Automotive News [sub] reports that VW has offered IG-represented workers a 2.9 percent pay raise over the next two years and a €300 one-time payment by June, but with VW raking in billions in profits this year, the workers aren’t biting. IG Metall chief negotiator Hartmut Meine tells Automotive News [sub]

The difference between demand and offer is much too big. The length of the deal has to be shorter and the proposed pay hike higher, before we can talk about a compromise

“The wage gap east of our domestic borders and new competitors from the Far East force us to be measured in all permanent increases in costs,” Schumm said, adding that VW already pays its workers 10 percent of the brand’s operating profits as a performance bonus.

Poor Ray LaHood. Having endured considerable embarrassment over his department’s handling of the Toyota Unintended Acceleration recall, all the Secretary of Transportation seems to want to do is talk about the “epidemic” of distracted driving. But, as TTAC has continually reminded, changing driver behaviors is a notoriously tricky task. The government’s choice: mandate intrusive measures like in-car cell phone blocking or continual surveillance of all vehicles, or go for voluntary “cures” that don’t even begin to address the underlying problem of increased driver distraction. And despite repeatedly referring to distracted driving in epidemiological terms, LaHood seems to prefer the “it’s actually your problem” approach, telling automakers [via AN [sub]]that NHTSA will

issue voluntary standards to handle the dangers of the connected car… in the third quarter of 2011.

Which means that nothing meaningful will ever actually be done about distracted driving. After all, the automakers contend that drivers will use cell phones in cars “no matter what,” and that in-car connectivity systems simply make the inevitable sin less dangerous. Of course, the evidence doesn’t seem to back up that position, as an IIHS survey shows no significant difference in safety after a hands-free cell phone ban. But, because the industry is under intense pressure to deliver profits from new connectivity systems, the logic that more systems will make drivers more likely to unsafely use phones in their cars is simply being ignored. And though the voluntary approach is better than intrusive government-mandated workarounds, is still nowhere close to living up to LaHood’s overblown rhetoric.

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