As predicted a month ago, Daimler did put a board member in charge of its lagging China business. Today, Daimler expanded its Board of Management to eight, and made its new board member and former truck chief Hubertus Troska CEO and Chairman of Daimler Northeast Asia. The job won’t be easy. Read More >
BMW and Boeing will share know-how about making carbon fiber. BMW says it signed a collaboration agreement “to participate in joint research for carbon fiber recycling as well as share manufacturing knowledge and explore automation opportunities.” Read More >
A day after GM’s announcement to close down most of its Bochum plant, Germany’s vice chancellor and economy Minister Philipp Rösler blamed GM’s management for Opel’s misery. German carmakers like Volkswagen, BMW or Daimler are relatively unaffected by the European contagion, because they are successful in export markets. “It has been a mistake that Opel was more or less kept out of the growth market China,” Rösler told the Rheinische Post. “There will be no financial help, because it won’t solve the management problems.” Read More >
GM’s Opel will cease building cars at its German Opel plant. After 2016, no complete cars will roll off the lines at the 50 year old plant. Opel will keep a logistics hub in Bochum. The plant will continue making yet undefined components, Opel’s interim boss Thomas Sedran told German media today. Read More >
Despite previous calls for his ouster, Fiat’s CEO Sergio Marchionne was elected for another year as president of the influential European auto trade group ACEA, Reuters reports. In July, Volkswagen demanded Marchionne’s head after he had accused Volkswagen of exploiting the European crisis to gain market share by offering aggressive discounts. Read More >
Opel is bleeding money and has to save at all costs. Opel hoped to share development of the next generation Insignia with PSA, but that was called off before it was even announced. According to German media reports, Opel engineers quickly developed a more cost effective solution: A head transplant. Read More >
BMW will enter marketing history by bringing McDonalds to the automotive industry. Just like McD took one food platform as the basis of a panoply of products (Hamburger, Cheeseburger, Double Cheseburger, McDouble, Daily Double) BMW’s MINI perfects the art and science of mass customization. The latest iteration: The long awaited Mini Paceman, debuting for North America at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Read More >
Smart asked fashion designer Jeremy Scott to come up with a special version of the smart fortwo electric car. Much to the horror of Daimler engineers who were used to fashion designers submitting patches of interior materials and color schemes, Jeremy Scott did put his trademark on the car: Wings, sprouting on both sides, and likely wreaking havoc with the CW coefficient. Read More >
One of the reasons for Volkswagen’s current strength dates back four years. During the carmageddon of 2008 ff, multinational carmakers such as GM and Toyota drastically cut back investments into new cars and technologies. Volkswagen did not change R&D spending. Four years later, this translates into a host of new models, and revolutionary platform architectures (MQB, MLB, MSB) that promise even more new models at lower cost. Read More >
Despite a tough situation at home, the Volkswagen Group continues to power ahead in the global markets. Volkswagen increased its global sales by 14.6 percent in October. For the year, Volkswagen delivered 7.5 million units worldwide, up 10.2 percent. In China, Volkswagen is nipping at GM’s heels, but does not seem to be able to overtake the General.
An experiment conducted in London shows that the new MINI is the world’s strongest babe-magnet. This 2012 MINI attracted 28 very skinny and flexible ladies. Read More >
By way of one of its usual trademark flowery press releases, BMW says it is developing a new two-man bobsled for use by Team USA in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Read More >
A while ago, I chatted with an industry executive who had “done time” (his words) at GM. I asked him how that was, and he said: “There is always that talk about the current Big Deal that will bring the company back to its former glory. When that Big Deal fizzles, it’s on to the next Big Deal.” A formerly Big Deal is fizzling in Europe.
As we reported yesterday, General Motors and PSA have put the brakes on a broader alliance. Allegedly after PSA accepted financial assistance from the French government, as Reuters says, which broke the story. GM’s stock price immediately changed course southwards, because the consequences can be enormous.. Read More >
Remember Wendelin Wiedeking? The dethroned Porsche CEO that saw himself as chief of Volkswagen and possibly the world’s largest automaker, has found a new market niche: Pizza. He started a pizza & pasta chain called Vialino, which hopes to feed the hungry mouths of in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland with faux Italian food. Before the first pizza is out of the oven, there is already new trouble: Two German companies feel duped. Read More >
Opel’s German unions want a deal with management before Christmas, Opel works council Chairman Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug told Reuters in an interview. Here the cliff notes: Read More >
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