Automobilwoche [sub] has it on good authority (Mini chief Wolfgang Armbrecht) that BMW plans a minier than Mini car. They want to show a prototype at the Detroit Auto Show next year. They probably can bring it as carry-on. Read More >
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China’s BYD needs good news real bad. The Chinese market for EVs is … what Chinese market for EVs? And wasn’t their E6 coming to the U.S.? Whatever happened to that? That’s what we get from investors brought to California by the Governator. Oh well, Jerry Brown instead. In the meantime (as in “mean”), Nissan delivers its first real Leaf to California man. BYD will sink into irrelevance, unless they come up with something, fast.
Suddenly, they have a swell idea. Something way bigger than cars. Read More >
Global alliances between humongous corporate entities are always intimidating and mostly ill-performing. Oftentimes they just don’t work (née Daimler-Chrysler). Other times we just don’t see the point (Ford and various ex-PAG members or GM-Saab). The Renault-Nissan Alliance, who-would-have-believed-it is maybe, just maybe, the most successful of the lot. As TTAC itself has reported earlier, the French car known as the Nissan Tiida is now America’s best-selling compact car. In Brazil, Nissan has just sprinkled some of its Nippo-fairy-wand-dust on Renault’s latest gambit in the relatively small, but very profitable executive level segment in Brazil.
Now, let’s clarify a bit. Read More >
This is the first year in nearly a decade that I haven’t owned an all-wheel-drive vehicle. I’ve been putting Blizzaks or Dunlop Winter Sports on them and enjoying the arrogant self-satisfaction that comes with always being the fastest traffic on bad roads.
When I had my Rovers, my brother and I would go out during the “Level 3 Emergencies” and pull people out of ditches. Sometimes we would do ten cars in three or four hours, using my off-road recovery equipment to unstick everybody from sweet coeds in Jettas to Somali immigrant families packed into corded-tire Isuzu Troopers.
With the arrival of my almighty Town Car, however, the prospect of rescuing others has faded, replaced by a determination to simply not require any rescue myself. The solution was simple, but I learned something surprising about cops and tires along the way.
Lately, we’ve often been blamed to be “against electric cars.” We aren’t against electric cars. We are The Truth About Cars. We are against hype and we are for facts.
These days, Google will deliver you your “facts” any which way you want them. Let’s have a look at two particular gems. They are from the world’s largest auto market, from the market that will dethrone the U.S.A. this year as the country with the most car sales in any given year. They are from the country that has problems with pollution, and if pundits are right, will choke on oil imports. You guessed it: China. How are electric cars doing in China? Take Google, and take your pick. Depending on what you click on, EVs will either take off like gangbusters real soon now. Or they are the proverbial epic fail already. Read More >
Having been cut off the lucrative (and in the end deadly) derivatives business, Porsche looks for other sidelines. And it seems very much like they have found one: Consulting.
“Just as car enthusiasts envy Porsche drivers,” reports Automotive News [sub] “company executives salivate over the carmaker’s profit margins, the highest in the industry.” Said salivation generates juicy business at Porsche. Read More >
According to Brazil’s Globo, Brazil’s baby darling, the new Uno, is outgrowing its baby shoes. Fiat must expand to keep up with the demand. The likely winner will be the northeastern state of Pernambuco. Fiat announced that it is in negotiations with that state’s government. Though the Italians denied that a factory was in the offing, what else should an automaker discuss with a state government? Police cars? It is a well known fact that Fiat needs more capacity. It is also well-known that Fiat and various state governments have been doing the habitual mating dance whenever a maker says it’s looking for a new place to call home. Next year will witness the beginning of operations at three new sites as Hyundai, Toyota and even Chinese Chery are busy building their new factories. The Big 4 (Fiat, VW, GM and Ford) in Brazil all have two factories, except for Fiat. Fiat only has one. Market conditions are now forcing the Italians to commit: Double-up or fold? Read More >
Two months ago, American road-racing fans watched the heartbreaking finale of the Pennzoil-sponsored Risi Competizione attempt to win both the final race of the ALMS season and the series championship. Half a lap from victory, the Ferrari F430 simply ran out of gas, handing the race to the Corvettes and the season to the Rahal-Letterman BMWs.
This finale was also a beginning for a colleague of mine. Michelle Naranjo, a female journalist whom I met at a Ford press event earlier this year, flew to the event with her daughter, Henrietta. For “Henri”, this was a chance to work with the biggest names in racing photography; for Michelle, this was a moment to reflect on childhood, life, and all the other things normally covered in “Lifetime” movies. I’ve included a gallery of Henri’s photography below, and I’ll let Michelle pick up the story:
GM’s troubled Australian division Holden has maintained its place in the GM empire for years now as the development center for GM’s global rear-drive architecture. The Holden-developed Zeta platform began as the basis for Holden’s Commodore full-size sedan, and has been put into use on a global basis by cars as diverse as the Chevy Camaro, the Chinese-market Buick Park Avenue and the Pontiac G8. But now GoAuto reports that the next-gen Commodore could be moved to Holden’s plus-sized version of the Epsilon II midsized front-drive chassis known as “Super Epsilon II,” the platform that will underpin the next Chevy Impala and the Cadillac XTS. The era of the Aussie RWD sedan may well be coming to a close…
Typically when a major automotive manufacturer is preparing to spend a billion bucks on a new manufacturing facility we’ll see multiple reports on the investment. That’s why it’s strange to see only a single report, from rediff.com, on a new manufacturing plant in Punjab province that will reportedly be built by a US automotive firm. According to the report
A United States-based automobile company may set up a car manufacturing facility in Punjab with an expected investment of $1 billion, as audit and consultation firm Deloitte has made enquiries on behalf of the firm with the state government.
“There is some American company which has made enquiries and has shown interest (for setting up a manufacturing facility) here,” Punjab Industry Minister Manoranjan Kalia said on Friday.
Asked about the name of the automobile company that has evinced interest, Kalia said that the company’s name has not been disclosed.
However when contacted, a senior official of Punjab State Industries Department revealed that Deloitte has approached Punjab government on behalf of US-based automobile company to look at the possibility of setting up a car facility.
State industry secretary S S Channy said Deloitte has indicated an investment of $1 billion for putting up a car facility and the company requires 750 acres of land for manufacturing facility and 150 acres for ancillary units.
The automaker in question probably isn’t Chrysler, as Fiat is leading that firm’s international efforts. It probably isn’t GM either, as The General has subordinated its Indian campaign to its Chinese partner SAIC. That leaves Ford, which has recently targeted India with its Figo small car, as the most likely builder of this plant. But does Ford work with Deloitte? Are there any other hints as to who this American investor is? Over to you, Best Brightest…
$2, $20, $200. $2000. Which one of the four would you like to pay? I always liked to opt for that simple $2 key. A crafted piece of metal cut to fit another crafted piece of metal. Turn the key for 20 years and enjoy a simple solution. But not everyone thinks that way.
While I was working for the German auto industry (and that wasn’t that long ago), I used to call it the last outpost of unabashed male chauvinism. From dealers (where female customers are treated with disdain) to the boardroom (where women serve coffee), the business remains a man’s world. BMW wants to do something about it. Come on, BMW? Read More >
You’re back on a winning streak (of one) with the Civic wagon. poltergeist unveiled it within about 30 minutes; congratulations. Now let’s see if you can keep the streak going. Happy guessing!
Volkswagen has announced that its 256 HP, AWD Golf R is coming to the US market just like the R32 and other über-Golfs before it. And though switching the enthusiast’s Golf from a V6 to a turbo-four was the right decision, there’s just one minor problem: this Golf has competition. Subaru’s WRX may not be the prettiest car out there, but it offers 265 turbocharged horsepower to the Golf R’s 256, and it starts at a budget-basement $25,500. Previous R-badged Golfs have cost upwards of $30k, or approaching the $34k, 305 HP WRX STI. Of course the Golf R does have some advantages: an optional dual-clutch transmission, a cleaner look, a European badge… but in addition to having less horsepower than a WRX, it weighs a good 100 pounds more. In short, the Golf R may be manna from heaven for Volkswagen fans who are disappointed in the new Jetta, but it’s not exactly going to turn America’s performance market upside down.
Chinese car sales were strong this year, increasing by 34.1% in the first 11 months of this year according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and the WSJ. But those numbers have largely been driven by government incentives on cars with 1.6 liter engines or smaller, a segment that accounts for some 70 percent of the passenger car market. But, according to the CAAM
China will likely extend one incentive for small-car purchases–a cash subsidy of CNY3,000 a car for purchases of certain fuel-efficient vehicles with 1.6-liter or smaller engines. The purchase tax for small cars, however, will likely rise to 10% from the special low rate of 7.5% currently
Moreover, some cities (including Beijing) could start regulating the number of car puchases allowed, and this combined with a reduction in subsidy levels could cause sales to start declining.
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