The Spanish government’s crusade against cars continues this week as the national speed limit has been cut from 120 km/h (about 75MPH) to 110 km/h (about 68 MPH). The Spanish government claims the move is temporary (they say it will last until “at least” June), and that it will save some 15% on the country’s fuel bills. The opposition reckons the number is closer to five percent, asking Autocar the rhetorical question

What next? Will the government make people go to sleep earlier to reduce their consumption of light?

Spain’s many high-quality roads and relatively low traffic have made it something of a motoring destination for Northern Europeans (especially the British), but since most European nations allow speeds of up to 130 km/h on their freeways, some of that cachet could well be lost. The opposition reckons the government reduced Spain’s speed limit as much to raise revenue as save fuel. Could losses in the tourism sector cancel any revenue benefits?

With Sprinter back under the Mercedes sign, Chrysler Group is looking to Europe and Fiat’s Doblò (above) and larger Ducato to expand back into the commercial van segment, starting next year. The European commercial vans are a far cry from the last Ram-branded body-on-frame vans, as the Doblò is actually based on a 108.5 inch wheelbase version of Fiat’s SCCS platform, a development of GM’s Gamma subcompact platform. As a result, the front-drive Doblò comes with engines ranging from 1.3 to 2.0 liters, and are largely powered by diesel engines. The Doblò is available in everything from a two-door chassis cab pickup, a three-, four- or five-door panel van, or a five-door passenger configuration.Because the new Ram commercial vehicles will be imported starting next year, expect only the van variants to avoid the “chicken tax.“

The larger, rear-drive Ducato offers a dizzying number of body variants, with wheelbases ranging from 118.1 inches to 149.6 inches, and offers only diesel engines in displacements from 2.2 to 3.0 liters with 100-155 HP. Until we get more details, it’s impossible to know which versions of these vehicles will come to the US, and whether the diesel and (for possibly even natural gas) versions will come as well. But the real question remains the same as it was a year ago:

how will these Euro-derived efficiency-oriented urban haulers jive with the Ram brand’s overbearingly bro-magnon branding?

German motorists won an important battle against ethanol. They used a downright un-German tactic: Widespread insurrection. They simply won’t buy the stuff. An edict handed down from Brussels ordered that Super has to contain 10 percent of ethanol. An alliance from Germany’s ADAC autoclub to Greenpeace said the new gasoline is a work of the devil, it is liable to ruin cars, and the environment. That didn’t impress Brussels.  But then, a buyer strike did set in. Read More >

Don’t get confused by news that Volkswagen formally took over the Porsche Holding. They did, but Porsche Holding Salzburg is just one of the complicated web of Porsche companies. And  quite an interesting one. Read More >

Since 2002 GM’s Compact Crossovers, like the Chevrolet Equinox, GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Captiva/Opel Antara have been built on a unique platform known internally as “Theta.” That platform, which debuted on Saturn’s Vue, was developed largely in Korea by GM-Daewoo, based roughly on GM’s Global Midsized (“Epsilon”) platform. Since 2002, Compact CUVs have become one of the fastest-growing segments in the US, and though GM’s Theta-based CUVs have sold well, the competition is moving towards mildly-modified C-segment platforms for Compact CUVs in order to use as many common components as possible, thereby lowering the cost of development and increasing manufacturing flexibility. Now, it seems that GM is following suit, dropping the Korean-developed Theta platform for a new generation of Compact CUVs developed by Opel on the Astra’s global Compact (Delta II) platform.

Read More >

Having shown a raft of C-platformed cars, MPVs and crossovers at the Detroit Auto Show, Ford is making big deal out of its smaller B-segment platform at Geneva, with this “B-Max” MPV. Just over four inches longer than a fiesta but over a foot shorter than the C-Max, the B-Max packages pillar-free sliding door entrances into a tiny footprint for this MPV, which is destined for a 2012 launch in Europe (no word on US availability, but don’t hold your breath). And in addition to the Fiesta’s 1.6 NA four-banger, the B-Max will debut Ford’s smallest EcoBoost engine to date, a 1.0 liter with start-stop technology. Just the thing to take on Opel’s suicide-doored Meriva, which is headed to the US soon as a Buick.

Despite the strong yen, Japanese auto exports rose 7.3 percent in January to 365,288 vehicles, that’s up for the 13th straight month, reports The Nikkei [sub].  Exports weren’t strong enough to out-balance the Japanese car market that contracted 21.5 percent in January. As a result, domestic production in Japan dropped 6.3 percent to 706,107 units in January. This is the fourth straight month of decline, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association reported today.

A lot of executives at Japanese carmakers wish they would be doitsu, or German. Read More >

Developing a new car with traditional technology costs an arm and a leg. Add future technology, and you are starting to talk real money. You need to spread the R&D costs across a lot of cars. The trouble is, massive sales of EVs are still just a dream. What to do in such a dicey situation? You look for partners. Renault and Daimler hammered out a new agreement. “Renault will supply the electric motors for the Smart and Twingo, we develop and make the batteries for both models,” Daimler’s head of research and development Thomas Weber told his hometown paper Stuttgarter Zeitung in an interview that will appear today in the print edition. Read More >

Hyundai and Kia are on a tear in the European market, having recently passed Toyota to become the best-selling Asian automaker in the EU (at 605,386 units, some 50k away from Daimler’s 2010 sales). And with its first Europe-centric product coming online, aimed at the heart of Europe’s 896k unit midsize segment, it hopes to keep the growth coming. In service of that goal, Hyundai is moving European production of its iX35 (Tucson) CUV from Kia’s plant in Zilina, Slovakia, to its own factory in Nosovice, Czech Republic, and adding an extra shift according to the WSJ. And unlike many of its European competitors, Hyundai is keeping its Euro-zone production capacity on the slim side, importing the forthcoming i40 from South Korea and the i10 from India, helping to keep the Korean automaker out of the overcapacity trap that plagues its competitors. Though Hyundai has good prospects for growth in Europe, production capacity expansions are being targeted at the developing markets that show more promise for growth.

Read More >

Auto Motor und Sport calls the new Opel Zafira Touring Concept an “Oasis,” but could it be the “Baby Enclave” that’s been rumored for some time? The short answer is “no,” as the next Buick MPV will be a full class smaller than this Opel Astra-based compact 7-seater, based on the next Aveo platform and boasting suicide doors. But with gas prices rising, and CAFE standards possibly headed towards 60+ MPG, there’s certainly a chance that the next-gen Zafira could eventually end up in the US with Buick badges.

Bloomberg reports that Spyker Cars NV has sold its sportscar business to former chairman Vladimir Antonov for €15m, with the promise of up to €17m more over the next six years if profits allow it. They probably wont, however, as Spyker’s sportscars sell at a rate of about 30 per year, and have never turned a profit in the seven years the business has been public. The move is necessary, however, as Antonov was forced out of his ownership stake at Spyker (at GM’s request) when the firm bought Saab. CEO Victor Muller bought Antonov’s stake through his holding company Tenaci, and by selling Antonov the sportscar business, Spyker can pay back some of its €74m debt to Tenaci (another €17m will be converted into Spyker shares). Plus, explains Muller

Spyker’s (luxury car business) is a small fish in a large pond. Spyker would need additional funds, but to issue shares and dilute shareholders seemed like a very bad plan so we decided to divest these activities

With Spyker no longer part of Spyker Cars NV (the firm that owns Saab), the firm will be renamed this May (probably to some variation of “Saab”) when it lists on the Stockholm stock exchange. Still, though Saab and Spyker sportscars are no longer combining their crazy plans into a pie-in-the-sky juggernaut, and this may help get the ship right-side-up again, there’s no knowing where it’s all headed. Antonov could still buy back into Saab, and it sounds like the two will continue to share distribution channels. Whether either side of the business can actually make money is still the real question.

GM is pushing its Chevrolet brand as a ”world brand,” reports the Freep. First battlefields for global bowtiefication: Europe and Korea. In Korea, the matter is easy: Last month, they took off the Daewoo badge and put a bowtie on instead. As predicted by TTAC nearly a year ago. There is not much that can go wrong in Korea: Hyundai dominates the market, Dawoo’s and now Chevrolet’s market share treads water in the single digits.

In Europe, any substantial market penetration by Chevrolet is “still a long-term goal,” concedes the Freep. And then, the Detroit paper proceeds to publish completely bogus numbers: Read More >

One of the first rumors to come out of the Fiat/Chrysler tie-up was that Alfa-Romeo would replace its expired 166 flagship with a large, RWD sedan based on Chrysler’s updated LX platform. But with Lancia getting its own rebadge of the new Chrysler 300, and a possibly LX/LC-based entry-level Maserati in development, it seems that Alfa’s opportunity for a flagship rear-drive sedan has passed. Auto Motor und Sport reports that, rather than developing a large Alfa flagship, the brand will top out (in sedan terms) with its forthcoming, 159-replacing Giulia front-drive D-segment effort. That might not come as terribly shocking news to the brand faithful, as Alfa’s have been almost exclusively front-drivers for some time… but the fact that no fizzy, crackling Alfa-typical V6 is planned for the brand’s midsized flagship might come as a letdown (instead, look for turbocharged four-bangers making between 120 and 235 HP). All of which is very interesting in light of CEO Sergio Marchionne’s recent diagnosis of Alfa’s woes, in which he argued

I mean it’s got this incredible appeal which goes back, you know, to the time they used to be on the racetrack, and it’s the embodiment of a lot of things which are typically Italian; sportiness, lightweight, and everything else. And what happened is that when Fiat bought them back in the end of ’86 we Fiatized Alfa. Fiat was front-wheel drive; Alfa was rear wheel drive. So now all the Alfas are front-wheel drive. And we put Fiat engines inside the Alfas, and Alfa started losing more and more of its DNA as a car company.

Initial reports of a diesel version of the Chevy Cruze coming to the US market cited GM management sources who apparently told workers at the Cruze’s Lordstown, OH assembly plant they would begin building the diesel-powered Cruze for the 2013 model-year. But GM spokesfolks tell the Youngstown Vindicator.

GM has some of the most capable engineers in the world and very capable engineering in Europe. If and when the time comes, there is no doubt GM will be able to produce a diesel engine in America,

The implication being that a diesel Cruze is not imminent… but that doesn’t mean it will never happen. Local UAW boss Dave Green clarifies

I did see the report. I read where we may be getting some diesel-powered Cruzes, but we have not gotten word of that from our corporate offices

So… call the diesel Cruze a big maybe. At some point. Perhaps Chevy is waiting for the Cruze five-door to come online before making an all-out bid for America’s “Mr Euro” market with a diesel hatchback.

Nissan raised a tempest in a chatroom (or 20) when it claimed a 7:29:03 Nürburgring lap time for its GTR, and taunted Porsche that this time beat its 911 Turbo. Porsche took the bait, claiming that its drivers couldn’t replicate the GTR’s lap time and that Nissan must have used non-stock tires. Nissan fired back, and as the controversy became mired in he said-she-said nonsense, the fanboys gradually lost interest. And now, years later, Nissan is literally shoving the controversy into the faces of Porsche owners in hopes of getting even more mileage over one of the sillier controversies in the world of performance cars. But can you imagine this nearly three-year-old taunt actually stinging Porsche owners into considering a GTR?