While Opel, Fiat, and PSA blame the European malaise for their lack of luck, Mercedes, BMW, and now Volkswagen can’t get the grins off their faces. Volkswagen reports global group sales of 642,300 for February; this is up 5.1 percent from the 557,900 sold in February 2011. Global vehicle deliveries by the Volkswagen Group in January and February 2012 rose by 7.7 percent to 1.29 million units. According to Volkswagen, the world automotive market was up by roughly 6 percent in the first two months. This indicates that Volkswagen won worldwide market share.

The following tables show why Volkswagen has reason to be happy. Read More >

If you are anxious to hear what Opel is going to do to stop the bleeding of money (just in case you are holding GM stock,) then you need a lot of patience. GM Europe CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke thinks he might have a plan within two to three months. He might have a plan. Setting the plan in motion may take longer. Read More >

While carmakers in France and Italy complain about overcapacities in a declining European market, makers of German premium cars are reporting sales records. After astounding growth at Mercedes, BMW now announces its best ever February. Read More >

Two days ago, Volkswagen announced “ambitious new sustainability targets.” The Wolfsburg company promised “30 percent reduction in CO2 emissions during the period from 2006 to 2015,” and “emissions below the 120 gram CO2/km mark for first time in 2015.” Plants of the group are to become “25 percent more environmentally compatible by 2018.”

TTAC ignored the announcement. I know VW quite intimately, and they make these announcements on a regular basis. A lot of the above had already been announced  in 2011.

Our friends at  Hybridcars.com have a different perspective, they think Volkswagen hoisted the white flag in the war with Greenpeace: Read More >

It hasn’t been much of a secret that Opel is working on a small car, called the Junior, to take on BMW’s Mini, or Fiat’s 500. As a matter of fact, Opel had been working on the Junior since 1982. Way back when, the interior of the Junior had been designed by a new arrival in Rüsselsheim, a freshly graduated Chris Bangle. People who expected to see a Junior in Geneva were disappointed. Instead,”General Motors will launch its new small car, the Junior, at the Paris show next autumn,” just-auto was told in Geneva.

The bigger news: The Junior “will be strictly for Europe and unable to challenge the global success of the Mini, or take on the Fiat 500 in America, engineering head Rita Forst admitted” to just-auto.

The interesting part is the alleged why.

Read More >

Global sales of Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz car brand rose a whopping 20.3 percent in February compared to February 2011, Reuters says. A lot of this growth comes from a country already pronounced a basket case by some: China.   Read More >

It looks like the German new car market decided: “Last year was nice. Let’s do it again.” For a few months, the German market had retraced the prior year. In February, the prior year number has been hit with 0.0 percent precision. Read More >

The European malaise seems to have selective impact on European automakers. Audi announced record results today. Audi reported an operating profit of €5.35 billion ($7.16 billion) in 2011, and wants to have even better results this year. Read More >

Porsche put its Boxster on a diet. The result, a lighter Boxster with a wider stance (or, as Porsche calls it, a “road posture that is more muscular and more striking”) will be shown at the upcoming Geneva Auto Salon. Porsche promises “significantly enhanced driving dynamics,” resulting in “unadulterated driving fun.” For green cred, the new Boxsters are promised to be 15 per cent more fuel-efficient.

Germany’s Hannoversche Allgemeine, usually well-informed in Volkswagen matters, got its hands on hot data: Volkswagen’s 2011 balance sheet , which will be presented to the Supervisory Board on Monday. According to the paper, Volkswagen more than doubled its annual profit to €16 billion ($21.4 billion.) Read More >

Volkswagen’s Lamborghini division, along with Bentley, could be following Porsche and bring out a pricey SUV.  At the 2012 Beijing Auto Show in April, Lamborghini should show an SUV study to Chinese customers, Bloomberg writes. A production version is expected by 2016. Read More >

Opel Chief Karl-Friedrich Stracke told reporters that an agreement with unions about a fix of money-losing Opel is a while away. “I expect this not to happen in a month or so, rather than in a couple of months, that’s at least how I see the timetable,” Stracke told Reuters.

Analysts think that Stracke is an optimist, and that restructuring Opel won’t come cheap. The guesstimate is more than $1 billion, and the payback will take a while. Read More >

Growth at the world’s second largest automaker, the Volkswagen Group, took a breather in January. As indicated by its passenger vehicle division a few days ago, growth at the Volkswagen Group turned to a 1.3 percent trickle globally. This was caused by a calendar-induced decrease in China, combined with a soft European market. Read More >

So they will build the Porsche SUVlet after all. After years of on-again, off-again, Porsche confirmed that the Cajun will be built. Except that it won’t be a Cajun. It will be a Macan.

A Macan? Says Porsche in an email: Read More >

When GM will announce 4^th quarter and year-end earnings tomorrow, a lot of fingers will be pointed at Opel, and on GM CEO Dan Akerson who decided to keep the hemorrhaging unit instead of selling it off to Magna and the Russians. Bloomberg expects that tomorrow’s quarterly profit will be “GM’s lowest since it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009,” despite record sales in the U.S. and China. According to Bloomberg, Read More >