Bloomberg reports that Ford will not build its Kuga compact crossover at its Louisville, KY plant due to the falling Euro and UAW recalcitrance. According to the report
The promise of Kuga production in Louisville began to fall apart in November when UAW members rejected Ford’s request to match givebacks it gave General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC. Ford’s U.S. rivals, which each reorganized in bankruptcy last year, were granted a six-year freeze on wages for new hires and a ban on some strikes until 2015… The euro has fallen 14 percent against the dollar since Ford reached a tentative deal with the UAW in October to build the Kuga in Louisville alongside its mechanical twin, the Escape. At the time, the dollar had declined against the euro, lowering the cost of U.S.-made goods. Since then, the euro has dropped amid concerns Europe’s debt crisis may trigger another recession.
Barclays analyst Brian Johnson explains
This is a reminder to the UAW that Ford’s U.S. cars don’t have to be produced in the U.S. Ford’s global architecture allows them to build anywhere. That’s good news if the U.S. has competitive labor costs. It’s bad news if they don’t
The never-ending tension between the desire to give consumers more choices of in-car gizmos and the need to halt the advance of distracted driving took another confused twist this week, as Onstar announced that it is testing new features that could allow drivers to listen to text messages and update their Facebook status from behind the wheel. According to the DetN, the technology would read incoming text messages or a Facebook news feed to the driver, and could even allow the driver to update their own Facebook status verbally. Needless to say, GM and Onstar are hyping the updates as ways to keep up with Ford’s SYNC on the entertainment front, and because the features are all hands-free, they’re safe… right? Read More >
The best time to get concessions out of a company is before their IPO. It’s “how much for it to go away” time. The German metalworkers union must have had a crash course in pre-IPO maneuvering. The nagging Opel question was in the way of a successful offering. What GM needs is a solid restructuring plan for Opel. For that, they need the metalworkers. The metalworkers got themselves a deal. Read More >
Here’s a cheery study on the effects of Peak Oil, which is widely considered to be happening…right about now (throw in a few more hours/months/years depending on how big of an optimist/denialist you are). Der Spiegel got their hands on a confidential study commissioned by the German military, which has not yet been sanitized approved for publication. It’s a bit explosive…might get the civilian population riled up and all. It warns of shifts in the global balance of power, the decline of importance of western nations (oil importers), as well as “the total collapse of the markets” and…gulp…even worse. Let’s go talk about 1970 Boss 302 Mustangs. Read More >
Remember when Hyundai was famous for cheap, tiny hatchbacks instead of sculpted, Lexus-alike sedans? Though Hyundai’s first hybrid will be based on its popular Sonata, its first-ever EV is based on its old-school i10 hatchback. The AP reports that the BlueOn (remember, blue is the new green) will be delivered to Korean government fleets this year, with sales to the public starting in 2012. Hyundai hasn’t disclosed whether the BlueOn’s pricetag will be as old-school Hyundai as the i10, but with only 87 miles of EV range and 80 MPH from 16.4 kWh of Lithium-polymer batteries, it looks like low-cost city transport is the name of the game. But with a planned production volume of 2,500 units per year, the BlueOn shows how far Hyundai still has to come before catching up with the Nissans and Mitsubishis of the EV world. Then again, Hyundai’s come from behind before…
In the interests of truth, we feel compelled to point out that this is not, in fact, the 2011 Jaguar XJ. But considering the damn thing had hardly changed in 35 years, it’s easy to understand why the Detroit News thought it could get away with just slinging up a photo of the previous year’s model. And though that may have worked for the better part of the last four decades, now that Jag has a truly new XJ, it’s just cruel. Or sloppy. Either way, it’s plenty ironic.
More and more cities are thinking about installing light rail on city streets as the federal government holds out the prospect of greater subsidies diverted from gasoline tax funds. The California Court of Appeal on August 30 ruled that a lower court erred in throwing out a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles for negligence in a fatal accident involving a metro Blue Line train. The incident reveals the significant threat high-speed rail can pose when run on streets designed for automobiles.
When you start a new job, it’s considered important to make a good impression. How does the saying go? “Start as you mean to go on”. Well, Dan Akerson, I suspect, tried to heed that advice and ended up putting his foot in it. The Associated Press reports that Dan Akerson, CEO of Government (soon to be “General” again) Motors, presented a webcast to GM employees. The usual CEO rhetoric came out. “GM needs to keep competitors on their heels rather than responding to what they do” said one GM worker, who asked not to be identified as the broadcast was not available to the public; despite being owned by them. “Attack mode” was another phrase used. But then Mr Akerson said that GM’s Cadillac brand has to make cars that are better than BMW’s. Now I thought this was quite a harmless statement to make. The CEO set a (quite high) benchmark to beat. Sounds reasonable, right? Not according to some. Read More >
The CAAM calls the estimate “conservative.” China’s 21st Century Business Herald cited sources that are betting on 34 million annually in five years. The surprising part is not the total. 25m sold domestically by 2015 is lowballed. At the rate the world’s second largest economy is growing, anywhere between 30 to 40m units annually is doable.
What is surprising is the export number they have in mind. Read More >
China has a dizzying array of car brands. Nobody is quite sure how many car manufacturers there are. Number of car brands in China? Anybody’s guess. Well, there will be a new one. Nissan created a new brand exclusively for China. They call it the Venucia. Solid Chinese name … Read More >
When I was a young whippersnapper and did advertising for Volkswagen, we had a rule of thumb: “Over the lifetime of the car, you’ll spend the purchase price again.” In gas, oil, taxes, insurance, repairs, parts, you name it. We kept that rule to ourselves. We didn‘t want to shock the prospective buyer. Now, Volkswagen changed their mind. They are going for full disclosure. Read More >
The things you find on the Internet. FFOG (ever heard of them?) reports that the Iran has an electric vehicle that goes 300 kilometers (186 miles), “with the recharging battery in only six minutes.“ Read More >
A few weeks ago TTAC reported how BMW and Daimler revived a long-ago formed joint purchasing venture in order to help drive down costs for the 2 independent car makers who can’t achieve high volumes of scale. This was seen as quite a big step in a direction few expected. As our resident German put it, “If you think South Korea and North Korea have communication problems, then you should be in a meeting between Daimler and BMW engineers.” He does have a way with words, doesn’t he? But he wasn’t wrong. It’s been a bit of joke to in the industry how Daimler and BMW view each other. As the mustachioed one put it, “Daimler engineers view their colleagues as boorish Bavarian upstarts. BMW engineers think Daimler is a congregation of has-beens.” And you thought relations between GM and Toyota were frosty! At least they had a plant together. Well, it seems that relations maybe thawing between the boys in Munich and the lads in Stuttgart. Kind of… Read More >
The 1970 Mustang Boss 302 is a legend. Created specifically to compete against the Camaro z-28 in the Trans Am championship, the Boss 302 is a much rarer pony than its nemesis. Only 1628 were built in 1969 and 7013 in 1970. Its claim to fame was the unique pairing of the Windsor 302 block with the biggest Cleveland heads possible, the result rated (conservatively) at 290 hp. Somewhat surprisingly, CR bought and tested one in 1970. And since they just finished comparing the 2011 Mustang V6 against the Camaro, CR pitted the stats of the two against each other. Let’s just say that the forty years have brought some progress: Read More >
The first rule of blog relations: don’t let the blogs know that you have a blog relations program. The second rule of blog relations: bloggers are children. Use reverse psychology. BMW did… and look, it just worked! Anyway, if meta-irony isn’t your thing, feel free to to never mind the bollocks and simply speculate about this forthcoming BMW concept. Giant wheels, a tiny exhaust… what could those wacky Bavarians be up to?
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