Fisker is asking a bankruptcy judge to delay an asset sale related to beleaguered battery maker A123 Systems.
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General Motors is so desperate to find new customers for Opel cars that they’re introducing the brand to Australia, where it’s set to butt heads against Holden – Australia’s long-time favorite car brand.
Scion may have taken some heat for its heavy metal marketing initiative, but Toyota’s youth brand is about to put its money where its mouth (and marketing dollars are). Scion will launch a small-business incubator, dubbed Scion Motivate, to help young people get creative-focused start-ups off the ground.
The EU sent a warning shot across the bow of protectionist France. Brussels refused France’s request to monitor car imports from South Korea. According to the Wall Street Journal, import surveillance could have been Europe’s first step toward blocking or reversing tariff cuts instated by a free trade deal between the EU and Korea. Read More >
Cratering China sales due to the islands row made Toyota revise its production targets. Worldwide production by the Toyota Group including Daihatsu and Hino “now looks likely to reach around 9.8 million units to 9.9 million units for the calendar year instead of the currently projected 10.05 million units,” The Nikkei [sub] says.
“When you do everything right but too late, you do it all wrong. Before reaching a dead end, PSA decided to forge a partnership with a manufacturer [General Motors] that I don’t consider to be among the industry’s leaders of the pack. Overall, I think there is a lack of ambition [when it comes to product] from the French manufacturers.”
Workers at an LG Chem plant in Holland, Michigan have already been put on furlough before a single battery has come off the line. Workers have three weeks of paid “work”, and one week off unpaid at the $300 million plant.
With Brazil’s national auto policy finalized, BMW has decided to go ahead with plans for an assembly plant in the country.
How does the French government save an ailing car maker that employs thousands of people without actually bailing out the auto maker? By baling out their finance unit, of course!
Stefan Jacoby is out as Volvo’s CEO, with Hakan Samuelsson, former head of truck maker MAN, replacing him effective immediately.
The Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, was initiated as a way to get retiree healthcare costs off the books of Detroit’s auto makers. While VEBA makes balance sheets look better, they are still an exorbitant legacy costs for the Big Three, and things are about to get a lot worse.
GM’s stock is still considered a “Buy” in the eyes of much of Wall Street, but analysts say that more changes are needed to accelerate the pace of growth in the post-Bailout era.
Europe’s auto market implosion has led BMW to shift units earmarked for the continent over to the United States and China, where demand remains strong.
The SAE unveiled their latest standard for quick-charging electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids that could cut charging times to as short as 20 minutes.
“It’s too early to say for sure whether GM will purchase the controlling stake in HKJV, and thereby regain full control of its India business. It is unlikely that SAIC will relinquish its grip on India, just because it suddenly can’t service the capital requirements of the HKJV. Possibly, more information will become available when GM files its Q3 paperwork, or possibly later.”
As it turns out, they did.
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