Fresh details on GM’s Asian wranglings are coming in, and it seems that SAIC paid The General a mere $85m for the one percent needed to control the joint venture. GM’s Nick Reilly tells the New York Times:

the 51 percent stake would give S.A.I.C. the right to approve the venture’s budget, future plans and senior management. But the venture has a cooperative spirit in which S.A.I.C. has already been able to do so… S.A.I.C. wanted to have a majority stake to consolidate the venture in its financial reporting

Which is about as credible as the conclusion that the Shanghai and India deals are going to provide GM International with a meaningful amount of cash with which to rescue its European and Korean divisions. As it turns out, the Indian deal isn’t going to translate into free cash for GM. GM and SAIC will set up a joint Hong Kong-based investment company, which GM will give its Indian operations and SAIC will fund with $300-$530m, bringing its overall value to $650m.

Read More >

And so it happened. Xinhua (translation via Gasgoo) has put on the wire that General Mayhem will “transfer half of its Indian operations to SAIC Motor by setting up a 50-50 joint venture there with the Chinese partner.” As expected, “GM and SAIC have also reached an agreement to transfer 1 percent of GM’s stake in their 50-50 Shanghai car venture to SAIC.” With that little percent, SAIC has a controlling majority of the Chinese joint venture. What for?
Read More >

China  and the world are waiting for a press conference to be held at 5pm local time (0900 zulu,) for which GM is promising “some important GM news,” relating to SAIC, says Reuters. Nick Reilly will take time off from restructuring Opel, and will personally host the conference.

It is widely expected that GM will cede control of the 50:50 China joint venture by selling 1 percent to SAIC. They will also most likely announce that GM will transfer half of GM’s India operations to the Chinese company. Read More >

Ford were mighty relieved when it managed to off-load it’s British marques, Jaguar and Land Rover, to Tata. Now after 1 year and 9 months of ownership, causing the normally profitable Tata Motors to fall into a £41 million pound loss and falling sales, how do you think Tata are feeling about the purchase of JLR? Sad? Depressed? Suicidal? According to steelguru.com, Ratan Tata is surprisingly optimistic.

If we assume that the global meltdown is a phenomenon that will be over in the near term, I think we will look back and say that these are very strategic and worthwhile acquisitions. There were many questions raised regarding whether these two large acquisitions Corus and JLR are worthwhile and whether the prices were right in terms of being at the top of the market, virtually. My view on that is that if you want to buy a house and that house is of a particular value, then it may not be there if you wait

Read More >

Autoblog ran this picture purporting to show the locations of future dealers of Mahindra and Mahindra pickup trucks. This piqued our interest because we’ve been curious to see how the Indian firm’s plans to bring diesel-only compact pickups and SUVs to the US market would play out for some time. Over a year ago Mahindra said it would be delaying its US launch (originally planned for Spring 2009) until the fourth quarter of 2009 because, as Mr Mahindra himself put it “my family’s name is going onto this vehicle, and it’s not going to fail.” Well, here we are in the fourth quarter, and Mahindra is still calling the dots on the map “potential” outlets. They’ve also apparently pushed back the launch date again, to the first quarter of 2010. Automotive News [sub] reported way back when that Mahindra’s distributors (Global Vehicles USA) were asking for $200,000 in franchise fees. Maybe finding folks willing to pay that amount for the honor of selling diesel-only compact trucks and utes are hard to come by. Either way, it’s getting to be defecate-or-get-off-the-pot time.

With Tata unable to produce enough Nanos to keep up with demand, more automakers are gunning for its entry-level segment. Renault-Nissan is teaming up with its Indian-market partner Bajaj to produce a car that’s even cheaper to produce than the Nano. “I can tell you the cost of this car would be lower than any car today made in India,” Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn tells Gasgoo, adding that a lower production cost wouldn’t guarantee that the new car would be priced lower than Nano. The Renault ULC, as the low-cost car is being called during development, will be available in India in 2012, by which time GM and Toyota could have competing models on the market. Ford’s recently-announced Indian market low-cost car, based on the discontinued previous-generation European Fiesta, will be positioned above the Nano. And that strategy also appeals to Honda. The Motor Company tells the WSJ that rather than competing directly with the lowest-cost segment, a sub-Fit (Jazz, as it’s known globally) hatchback will be introduced around 2012 to compete with Ford’s model. The Jazz/Fit currently sells for about $15,000 in India, leaving a huge window between there and the Nano’s approximately $3,000 price price tag.

Read More >

I’m thinking about opening a car factory. A really small one. Tata would sell me their Nano in kit form. I’d have it assembled (using cheap Chinese labor, of course) and sell it as the Bertel car. Entirely possible. Tata may allow small car assemblers to put together its Nano and sell it under their own brand, India’s Business Standard reports via Reuters.

Read More >

Some of the speculation surrounding GM Daewoo’s woes centers around the possibility of GM’s Chinese partners buying The General’s Korean division. Whether those rumors hold up remains to be seen, but there’s no doubt that GM’s largest Chinese partner, SAIC, is looking into taking a larger ownership in GM’s Asian operations. Automotive News [sub] reports that GM is in talks with SAIC on cooperation in the Indian market. One possible outcome could be SAIC taking a stake in GM India. “GM’s discussions with SAIC include business opportunities in India, but no final decision has been made on how they will cooperate,” say GM spokesfolks. But we can guess that it will involve SAIC taking a bigger ownership stake. The Shanghai-based firm has seen sales rise 47 percent, and net profit rise 70 percent in 2009 to-date. GM, in partnership with SAIC, has become one of the top automakers in China. Could that success be replicated in India, or is SAIC simply outgrowing its partner?

Brook from team-bhp.com sent us this heads-up re: the “other” burgeoning automobile market: India. “Here’s a list of the Top 20 selling cars in India. Ford doesn’t have one car in the top twenty. Chevy has one, thanks to a rebadged Daewoo called the Spark. Suzuki (Maruti) and Hyundai are the clear leaders. Tata could have done better if only the unfortunately named Indica Vista wasn’t so conservative. Most people confuse it with the older first generation Indica. Tata Nano volumes will pick up, but Jag and Landie’s owners barely make any money selling the car itself. Honda’s hawking overpriced (and poorly equipped) cars with terrible after sales service as ‘bonus,’ and Hyundai are stealing their lunch.” So now you know.

While Porsche has problems consummating the Volkswagen takeover, Volkswagen covets a smaller, but possibly juicy target: Suzuki. The German Manager Magazine has it on good authority that VW wants to get cozy with the Japanese maker of small cars. Buying, say, 10 percent of Suzuki would not be out of the question. Ulrich Hackenberg, head of VW’s R&D, had been in Hamamatsu, Japan. He came back impressed. “We are still in the sniff phase,” said a VW exec to Manager Magazine, no serious negotiations are being held—yet. Ferdinand Piech had praised Suzuki in May. Not that VW needs help building small cars. But they could need help where Suzuki is the market leader: In India, next to China the most promising growth market on the planet. Suzuki had a partnership with GM, but last year, all GM shares in Suzuki were turned into cash, so the coast is clear.

Motor Trend has “learned” that a version of the oft–rumored Jag “XE” roadster might have more than just a supercharger whine. They say the 2011 (likely XF-based) “new age E-Type” (lots of luck) will include an extended-range electric version. But don’t worry heritage fans . . . there will still be a proper engine. With three cylinders. Motor Trend kids you not. At least until they mention that “whether the extended-range XE will make it beyond the concept stage is uncertain.” But only after hinting that the forthcoming XJ is also due for the EREV treatment, circa “late” 2011. Time, tide and CAFE standards wait for no automaker? MT figures an EREV Jag will compete with the Tesla Roadster. Which, considering the differences between the XF and the Elise as starting points, probably only means the EREV Jag soft-top will cost around $100K. Perhaps sir would rather look at a V8 model?

Automotive News [sub] reports that Tata plans on bringing a version of its Nano subcompact to the US market “in about two years.” About? “Maybe two years and six months,” equivocated Tata chairman Ratan Tata at the Cornell Global Forum on Sustainable Enterprise. But the Indian firm faces at least one major challenge: where to sell the thing. Jaguar/Land Rover North America spokesfolks say that “Tata will not use Jaguar Land Rover’s distribution network and vice versa.” For obvious reasons. The Nano boasts none of the small-but-premium appeal of BMW’s MINI or Chrysler’s forthcoming Fiat 500. So where will it sell? Roger Penske’s Saturn World Market? Global Vehicles U.S.A.’s 330-strong Mahindra distribution network? Wal-Mart?

Read More >

Who’d have thunk it? The New York Times reports that despite being designed to become the world’s cheapest car, the Tata Nano isn’t attracting as many budget buyers as you might expect. Only 20 percent of Nano orders (India market only) are currently for the base model, a $2,600 vehicle. Half of all orders are for the top-of-the-line model, which boasts such ameneties as cup holders and air conditioning but costs some 40 percent more than a base model. When the Nano was announced, its lowest possible cost was widely touted to claims that it would become “India’s Model T.” And though the low-cost-at-all-costs approach hasn’t been wildly popular, orders for the well-optioned model will help Tata stay out of a profit-draining battle on price alone. But that isn’t stopping competitors from planning ever-cheaper models. Renault/Nissan is planning a $2,500 model developed in conjunction with Bajaj Auto. Toyota is also rumored to be pursuing a low-cost car for the Indian market.

In the WTF dept., “Hyundai Motor India is planning to shift production of one of its premium models to Europe after a strike over unionization at its south India plant that led to the mass arrest of 750 protesters,” reports Financial Times.

The move reflects growing skepticism of international automakers about the political climate in what used to be one of the world’s most promising growth markets.

Read More >