Real Chinese brands are losing market share to joint ventures. The Chinese government wants to keep up appearances, and strongly suggests to joint ventures with foreigners that they should start a separate “Chinese” brand. Latest to say “hao” (yes, ok, jawohl) is Daimler.  Its joint venture with BYD to make electric cars in China will dispense with making electric Mercedes first and will instead immediately head to second base and launch a Chinese brand. Read More >

Leaked plans of GM doing the math on plant closures at Opel enrage Opel’s labor leaders. They already had been miffed by GM’s unwillingness to come to the negotiating table. Now they feel blindsided by math by math exercises at GM that involve the closure of Opel’s Bochum plant, the plant in Ellesmere Port, or both. Read More >

In a surprise attack, the UAW has taken the first formal steps to unionize Volkswagen’s U.S. factory in Chattanooga. In what Reuters calls “an escalation of its effort to establish a foothold outside the Detroit automakers,” the UAW started passing out authorization cards for workers to sign. According to U.S. labor laws, the union needs signatures from at least 30 percent of the workers of a plant before a representation election can go ahead. The UAW’s timing could not have been worse. Read More >

For the second time this year, Volkswagen is increasing headcount at its Chattanooga plant. After hiring 200 new workers in January, Volkswagen now created an additional 800 new jobs. Read More >

Looking for a way to stop the chronic bleeding of money at it notoriously loss-making Opel division, GM has been crunching numbers to see what it would cost to close one of its European plants. Bad news for GM stockholders: Relief won’t come cheap, and it won’t come soon. Read More >

After rumors from Renault and announcements by Nissan, Volkswagen lifted the skirt on its plans for the ultra-low-cost segment. Volkswagen wants to build cars for the €5,000 to €7,000 ($6,600 to $9,200) price bracket, development chief Ulrich Hackenberg told Germany’s auto motor und sport. Read More >

Volkswagen received a legal black eye from its estranged Japanese partner Suzuki. Volkswagen had taken a silly trademark fight all the way  to the General Court of the European Union, and lost today, Reuters says. This is unrelated to the divorce proceedings between Volkswagen and Suzuki, but it definitely comes at an inopportune time. Read More >

With GM wanting to have a turn-around plan for its money-losing Opel division in a couple of months by summer, one would think there is at least some sense of urgency. Opel’s workers thought the same – until management rebuffed repeated attempts to sit down and talk. Opel labor leader Wolfgang Schaefer-Klug said management was not being “responsible” by rejecting the repeated efforts for negotiations, Reuters reports. Read More >

In the market for an upscale Mercedes? Are you a reader of USA Today? In that case, stop talking to your travel agent. If you have already booked a ticket to Beijing, cancel it. USA Today fooled you. Most likely without malice. USA Today doesn’t know better.

Today, USA Today writes: Read More >

The EU Commission in Brussels made good on its threat to drag Germany in front of the European Court of Justice. According to Automobilwoche [sub], Brussels has filed suit in Luxemburg. Brussels demands that the “special treatment” for Volkswagen is to be dropped. If the suit is successful, and if Germany remains obstinate, then a penalty of at least €46.6 million ($62.2 million) is demanded. The fine would have to be paid by the German government, not by Volkswagen. Read More >

A lover of a former Volkswagen labor leader has been charged for aiding in breach of trust over her role in a bribery scandal, Focus Magazin reports. The scandal had rocked Volkswagen, destroyed the image of the German metalworker union IG Metall, and aided in toppling the center-left government of Gerhard Schröder in 2005.

According to prosecutors in Braunschweig, a 47-year-old woman from Brazil received €250,000 euros ($327,000) under sham contracts between 2002 and 2005. It is also alleged that she billed Volkswagen for travel costs and language courses, totaling €100,000 ($130,000.) The woman was not identified, but anybody who has been close to the upper echelons of Volkswagen in those days knows that it can’t be anyone else than the buxom Brazilian Adriana Barros. Read More >

Daimler has attracted the wrath of Wikipedia. An anonymous Wikipedia editor had “corrected” a harmless entry about Daimler’s lobbying activities. The edit was caught. The IP address was traced back to “a server of Daimler AG,” writes Der Spiegel.  All hell broke loose. Read More >

Chinese media has written for a while that Volkswagen and its Shanghai joint venture with SAIC will do a new “Chinese” brand called “Tianyue” by the Chinese, or “Tantus” by the longnoses. Only Carnewschina did some research and tells us what those names really mean. Careful, do not read on if you are offended by “mature” content, or could be fired for reading such. Read More >

When I started working for (not at) Volkswagen in the 70s, they talked about adding many brands, all the way “from MAN trucks to a motorcycle.” 40 years later, Volkswagen finally has MAN. And it might soon have that motorcycle wish fulfilled. Read More >

The podium was all smiles when Volkswagen reported an unheard-of profit of €18.9 billion ($24.8 billion) before tax, which turned into €15.8 billion ($20.7 billion) after the taxman got his €3.1 billion share. When Volkswagen announced this today in the annual results press conference, there was one man who grinned even more than anybody else. Read More >