Loss-making Dutch boutique carmaker Spyker (well, Spyker actually stopped making cars, and is outsourcing whatever car production is left to UK’s CPP) is revising – for a third time – its bid for GM’s loss-making Swedish carmaker Saab. Spyker received a new deadline of January 7th, Reuters reports. Everything else has already been said.
The United Nations UNECE World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations is likely to adopt many Japanese safety rules for hybrid and electric vehicles as a global standard, says the Nikkei [sub].
Currently, there are no ECE safety standards for hybrid and electric vehicles. Japan has pushed its domestic safety rules to be adopted as international standards. Chances for adoption are good, Japanese companies and rulemakers are the pioneers in the field. Europe, which usually dominates ECE rule making, is lagging behind in the development of hybrid and electric vehicles, and doesn’t have much to lose if the Japanese standards are accepted.
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“They don’t write songs about Volvos,” proclaimed an infamous Chevy billboard once seen in the Detroit area. Of course it wasn’t strictly true, but then Chevy’s two most recent forays into musical marketing, Volt Jingles versions 1 and 2, weren’t exactly “Little Red Corvette” either. And the trend seems to be holding: quality car-inspired music is slipping away. Even this song, the first Saab-inspired tune I’m aware of, is a wholly forgettable drone about fighting Saab’s inevitable closure. It’s not as bombastically awful as, say, the infamous Mercedes “One Goal” tune, but you know automotive culture is in trouble when the only music it inspires is about the closure of a niche Swedish nameplate. Unless the lyrics “we’re gonna make it, not gonna break it” has some kind of mysterious resonance for the daily Saab driver that I’m not getting. Either way, the world of car-inspired music needs some work.
Wonders never cease. Saab’s date of execution had been set for December 31. 24 hours before the last gasp, Saab has received a reprieve.
“We are preparing the wind-down process. At the same time we are open to options, to bids that come in. Therefore the deadline has also been dropped,” Saab spokesman Eric Geers said to Reuters. The news even surprised GM.
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Russia’s Sberbank isn’t the only party that is unhappy with GM and wants to see money.
Germany’s government wants GM to put “a lot of money” on the table before any further discussions about European state aid for Opel would be entertained, reports Germany’s Handelsblatt.
Note that the harsh comments are coming from Roland Koch, Premier of Opel’s home state Hesse. Previously, Koch had been a vociferous proponent of state support for Opel. Not more.
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These days, no Christmas cheer is complete without a little Opel jeer. Russia’s Sberbank has demanded compensation from GM for reneging on the Opel deal, Sberbank CEO German Gref said in an interview on Russia’s Vesti television channel. Groveled a grouchy Gref:
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At least now we know how Saab will die. But Spyker CEO Victor Muller’s unfortunate choice of metaphors isn’t the only indication in his interview with the WSJ Deal Journal that Saab will die on the operating table. Take, for example, his answer to the question “Why does Spyker want to buy Saab?”
Saab has 1,100 dealers world-wide. If we sold Spykers in just 5% of those dealers, we would be tripling our distribution base. Saab also has access to technologies that would be ideal for Spyker, such as an all-wheel drive system. Also, a company that should sell 100,000 cars a year has very high purchasing power and get parts cheaper than a company that wants to make 100 cars a year.
Emphasis on wants to make 100 cars per year (they sold fewer than 50 last year). And yet, somehow Muller “hopes to model a Saab acquisition after Audi’s successful take over of Lamborghini in 1997.” Except that Saab ain’t Lambo and Spyker ain’t exactly Audi. Meanwhile, Muller also seems to think that Saab can survive on “quirk” alone, and he does some confused back-pedaling on his racially-charged statements about Saab and Spyker. The saga continues. Read More >
At the urging of the Italian government, Fiat said today that it is willing to shift production of Pandas from Poland to the Pomigliano plant in Naples and invest “hundreds and hundreds of millions” in order to bring its Italian production to over 800k units per year. But, he warns, the Italian government must extend domestic consumer credits in order to sop up the increased capacity or face a rapid market contraction. As part of the deal, the government would allow Fiat to shut a terminally unproductive plant in Sicily, for as Sergio says, “the number of cars produced per worker [in Italy] is totally out of proportion” compared with plants in Brazil or Poland. “It doesn’t correspond with any industrial logic.” He’s right, of course, but you have to admit that it’s strange to see the man who took American taxpayers for a savage ride by snagging a bailed-out Chrysler without putting a penny down, suddenly bankrolling the oblivious nationalism of the Italian government.
Whitacre is a completely different type of manager than what you saw at GM in the past. It’s refreshing to talk to someone that gained his experience outside of the company. He truly wants our cooperation, he doesn’t want any confrontation at all. Just the opposite, he says that only together can we make GM, Opel and Vauxhall successful.
Opel union boss Klaus Franz expresses sudden enthusiasm for working with GM’s new leadership. And that’s a hell of a turnaround from his previous opinions on GM management, including (but not limited to) his assesment that “GM does not enjoy any credibility or faith in the eyes of the public or the (German) government.”
Two sales of two Swedish car factories are close to the finish line. One may live on happily, but in a foreign land. The other may die from exhaustion. You want the good news or the bad news first? Ok, let’s start with the good news.
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Europe’s auto capacity is staggeringly underutilized, as political pressure to protect jobs stacks overcapacity upon overcapacity. Analysts lay out the gory details at Automotive News [sub]: Global Insight says European production capacity is currently at 59 percent, while PriceWaterhouseCoopers figures excess production is 6.8 million vehicles. Assuming an average production of 300,000 units per plant, over 20 of Europe’s 100 major auto plants will have to go to bring supply back in line with demand. Though Saab’s seemingly imminent closure should take a first step towards a European coming-to-terms with its unreformed auto industry, the Opel deal is starting to look like an opportunity that GM could be too state-aid-dependent to take advantage of.
We’ve had our Saab wake, so its time to move on to the Requiem. And what could be more fitting than Saab’s own “Saab Suite”. This 1987 video launched the Saab Performance Team demonstrations, but the original, like most things in life, remains the best.
Sweden’s prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt had his fill of failed negotiations. Returning home from round-the-clock talks at the Copenhagen climate conference, he said that he saw the Saab collapse coming. Sweden’s prime minister is “unsurprised” by the collapse of the sale, says Reuters. Asked if he was surprised, Reinfeldt said: “No, the process was built around a loss-making company and an American owner that owned Saab for 20 years and made a profit in one of the 20. It’s clear that it was not successful enough.” Sweden’s head blames GM for the failure.
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It’s over. The deal with Spyker (surprise) fell through, and GM has announced that Saab will be wound down and 218 US dealer closed. Automotive News reports: “We regret that we were not able to complete this transaction with Spyker Cars,” GM Europe President Nick Reilly said in a statement. “We will work closely with the Saab organization to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner.” Read More >
Picture courtesy ACEA.be
According to hot-off-the-presses data compiled by the European car manufacturers association ACEA, new car registrations in Europe rose by 26.6 percent in November 2009. This looks like a healthy pop, but caution is in order: November 2008 had suffered a drop of 25.8 percent. As mentioned before, comparisons with post-carmageddon results must be treated carefully. For the first 11 months of the year, Europe is still down by 2.8 percent, composed of -0.7 percent in Western Europe and -27.4 percent in the new EU Member States. All in all, normalcy is slowly coming back to Europe, with Western Europe having a newfound appetite for cars, while Eastern Europe is still hesitant when it comes to new wheels.
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