Definitely infrequent for a few weeks while I’m in Europe, hunting the elusive Euro: An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Berlin – when I’m in Berlin.

Toyota shifting down in NA, again: Toyota will shut down all seven vehicle assembly plants in the U.S. and Canada on some days through early April, as part of an effort to cut growing stockpiles by half, the Nikkei (sub) reports. The number of non-operating days will vary by facility. The production line for the Sienna minivan at the Indiana plant will be stopped for 30 days. Toyota had shut down some production lines in the U.S. for three months starting last August. Toyota hopes to reduce inventories from the current 80-90 days to the desirable level of about 40 days by the end of June.

Nissan shifting down in Japan, again: Nissan will reduce Japanese domestic output by 64,000 vehicles in February and March from its earlier output plan, prompted by an increasingly decelerating global auto demand, the Nikkei (sub) says. The company had already announced reduced production as sales at home and abroad tank. Nissan had decided to dismiss all non-full-time workers by the end of March. Although it has no plans to shed any full-timers, it does intend to reduce their base pay for February by designating some of the days the plants will be idled as non-work days.

Honda shifting down in Japan, again: Honda will cut production in Japan for this fiscal year by 56,000 vehicles on the continued slump in auto sales, the Nikkei (sub) writes. The latest production cutback follows a domestic output reduction by a combined 86,000 vehicles that Honda already had announced. Japan’s second biggest car maker by volume now expects its domestic output to total 1.168 million vehicles in the fiscal year ending March, down 10% on year.

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Sorry, it’s a bit infrequent for a few weeks while I’m in Europe hunting the elusive Euro: An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Berlin – when I’m in Berlin.

Take one for the team, Japan style: Department heads at Toyota are asking colleagues in management positions to buy new Toyota cars by the end of the fiscal year to boost the company’s sluggish sales, the Nikkei (sub) says. “The rare request is the result of a voluntary effort among a group of about 2,200 departmental chiefs and other managers. Employees are under no obligation to buy a car, and no specific models appear to have been singled out.” Hitori wa minna no tame, minna wa hitori no tame. Or: one for all, all for one, as they say in Japan.

Daihatsu may have to cut back: Toyota’s Daihatsu may do “a reorganization of its production structure if sales do not recover by March,” the Nikkei (sub) reports. Daihatus’s minicars had been relatively unscathed by the weak sales. Now they begin hurting too.

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An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing this week, from Berlin next week,

Chinese Buick: The Buick LaCrosse, set to debut at the North American International Auto Show next week, is a Chinese product. Due to Buick’s popularity in China, the company’s design team there took the lead in remodeling the LaCrosse, Gasgoo writes. Sales of Buicks in China reached 332,000 units in 2007, according to data supplied to IHS Global Insight, a consulting firm. The LaCrosse was the second-best seller there, with 71,500 cars sold. Figures for full-year 2008 year are not available yet. By comparison, GM sold 137,197 Buick branded cars and light trucks in the U.S. in 2008, down 26.4 percent from 2007. The company sold 36,873 LaCrosses in 2008, down 23 percent from 2007. In December alone, LaCrosse sales dipped 59 percent to 1,451 units.

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An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing this week, from Berlin next week.

Volkswagen makes its million in China: When Winfried Vahland, VW’s honcho in China, stuck to his guns and a 1m sales target months ago, people rolled their eyes. Well, he made it, Automobilwoche (sub) reports. VW sold 844,491 units in China, Audi contributed119,598, newcomer Skoda sold 59,284 – a total of 1,023,373 units. Growth for 2008 was 12.5 percent, above market trend. With this result, and the slight plus in the home market, VW could be the overall winner for 2008.

Audi sells a million worldwide: Audi defied gravity, motor malaise, and assorted other ailments, and closed out the year 2008 with a plus of 4.1 percent worldwide, for a total of 1,003,400 four-ringed units sold throughout the world. In Asia/Pacific, Audi sold 15.6 percent more for the year. Outlook for 2009 is even better, because in the disastrous December 2008, Audi sold 17.4 percent more than in the same month a year before.

SAIC lets Ssangyong fail: Ssangyong Motor Co. has filed for court receivership after if had failed to secure necessary funds to continue operations, the Nikkei (sub) reports. Ssangyong Motor is 51.3 percent owned by China’s SAIC. They only wanted to help if the unions would make significant concessions. Now they may have to. Ssangyong Motor’s board Friday called on management and the company’s union to closely cooperate on voluntary retirement, paid leave, wage cuts and a halt to certain benefits. Commenting on the filing, Ssangyong union spokesman Choi Hyung-gil said: “The decision is very disappointing. We will discuss how to react.”

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An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing this week, from Berlin next week,

Mitsubishi electrifies PSA: Mitsubishi will supply France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen with electric cars beginning as early as next year, the Nikkei (sub) reports. The French government is providing subsidies of up to 5K Euros, and tax breaks for consumers who purchase electric cars. “With the U.K. and Germany offering incentives as well, Europe is expected to soon become a leading electric-car market,” says the Nikkei. Mitsubishi Motors will provide its iMiEV passenger car on an OEM basis. This plug-in electric vehicle, which is powered by a high-performance lithium ion battery, is slated to debut in Japan this summer. It runs 160km on a single charge. The iMiEV is expected to be priced competitive with conventional gasoline-powered cars in France once the subsidies are taken into account. “Mitsubishi Motors Corp shares jumped 5 percent” on the news, Reuters reports.

Mazda saves cash in cats: Japan’s Mazda said on Thursday it would introduce technology that would slash the amount of precious metals used in catalytic converters by 70 percent in the new Mazda3 model, due for sales globally this year, Reuters says. Mazda said it would be the world’s first application of the single-nanocatalyst technology. The technology will be rolled out globally on certain models. Nissan last year introduced nanotechnology that would halve the amount of precious metals used in the new Cube.
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A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing.

Toyota asking workers to forego pay: In an unusual move, Toyota has begun negotiating with labor to treat some of the 11 additional days during which the company plans to suspend domestic operations as vacation days without pay, the Nikkei (sub) writes. Toyota aims to close all 12 of its domestic factories for six more days than planned in February and for five additional days in March. Extra factory closure days used to be treated as paid days off. Toyota seeks to stop this practice from next month to cut costs. Toyota hopes to reach an agreement with labor this month. The unions already balk.

Germany looks like bottoming out: Germany’s car buyers bought 6.6 percent less in last December than in the prior year. This is nowhere near the disaster called America. Germany’s November sales had been down 18 percent. Germany closes out the year 2008 with a minus of just 1.8 percent, Automobilwoche (sub) reports. Still, “Germany notched up yet another post-reunification low for the year, with just 3.09 million vehicles registered throughout 2008,”  Reuters writes. The big loser is Toyota with a loss of 27 percent for the year. Volkswagen sold 5.7 percent more than in 2007 and raised its market share to 19.9 percent. Opel lost 9.5 percent of sales, Porsche 8.2. The Smart gained 5.7 percent. Amazingly, SUVs gained 3 percent for the year, the high price of gas be damned. The share of diesel powered cars dropped 3.6 percent to now 44.1 percent.

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A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing.

Toyota Motor Corp halts production at Japanese plants: They’ll do that for 11 days in February and March, Reuters reports. A 37 percent slump in December sales in Toyota’s biggest market U.S.A. was its sharpest fall in more than a quarter of a century and worse than General Motors and Ford Motor.

Porsche owns more than half of VW: Porsche has raised its stake in Volkswagen to more than 50 percent, and as a result they may end up with a truck company they do not want, writes Reuters. A Porsche spokesman confirmed that the sports car maker still planned to increase its stake in VW to 75 percent at some point this year, given a favorable market environment. As a result of its stake hike on Monday, Porsche now has indirect control of Swedish truck maker Scania, in which Volkswagen holds about 69 percent of the voting rights. Porsche is required by Swedish law to make a mandatory takeover offer, but the German sports car maker said it had no strategic interest in Scania and was not interested in acquiring Scania shares. It said it was not bound by pre-acquisition prices and was only obliged to offer the minimum price prescribed by law.

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A – due to worldwide holiday inertia – very short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS is being filed from Tokyo.

Japan relieved that Chrysler got the money: The Nikkei (sub) brings its Japanese readership the happy news that “Chrysler LLC received its $4 billion low-interest federal government loan Friday, helping the auto maker continue funding its operations and paying its suppliers for parts.” This is registered with relief amongst JP automakers, as they worry about the health of their suppliers. The Nikkei also points out that “Cerberus is interested in finding a partner for Chrysler.” The search for suitors may be hampered by the fact that Chrysler “relies on North America for about 90% of its overall sales.”

Geely has big plans: China’s Geely aims to boost vehicle sales by 25 percent this year by way of new models and government incentives. Geely plans to sell 281,000 units this year, against nearly 225,000 units in 2008, a company official, Zhang Xiaodong, said according to Gasgoo. Geely is the only larger Chinese car maker that has not formed any alliances with foreign counterparts. They just received a $147m line of credit from China Everbright Bank.

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A – due to worldwide holiday inertia – very short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS is being filed from Tokyo

Suzuki down in India: Maruti Suzuki is India’s top carmaker. They own half of India’s car market. Like everybody in India, they got it on the chin. Their total vehicle sales in December fell 10 percent from a year ago. At least, their domestic sales rose from the previous month, after declining in November and October. Total December sales of Maruti Suzuki fell to 56,293 vehicles from 62,515 in the same month a year earlier, the Nikkei (sub) writes.

Tata WAY down in India: India’s Tata sold 23,894 units domestically in December, a decline of 44 percent compared to the corresponding month last year, India’s Economic Times reports. Including exports, Tata’s total sales for December 2008 stood at 25,219 vehicles, down by 47 percent. For the year 2008, their sales fell 11 percent.

Toyota nixes plans for Russia, Thailand: Toyota will freeze construction plans for new factories in Russia and Thailand, Bloomberg writes.

Ford sees further downside: Ford expects industry-wide December U.S. auto sales to drop by some 35 percent from a year earlier with no sign of a turnaround in the first quarter of this year, Reuters writes. Ford’s chief sales analyst George Pipas expects that full-year sales of light vehicles in the U.S.A. will drop to 13.2 million for 2008, down from 16.2 million in 2007. “The sales rates have declined like a lead balloon, really,” Pipas said. “I think when December comes in, every segment will be down. Not one segment will be up versus a year ago.” And there is no quick end in sight: “We’re not looking for the first quarter to be much different from what we saw in the fourth quarter,” Pipas said.
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A – due to worldwide holiday inertia – very short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS is being filed from Tokyo.

Hyundai sees trouble ahead: Hyundai’s Vice Chairman Choi Jae Kook gave employees an uplifting New Year’s speech, writes Bloomberg. Choi said, Hyundai expects global industrywide vehicle sales to fall at least 7.7 percent next year. Sales may fall below 60 million from an expected total of about 65 million this year, “Next year will be a critical time for all automakers as there could be a big industrywide shake-up” amid slowing sales and overcapacity, Choi said. Global industry capacity stands at about 90 million vehicles a year, Choi said. That is an untenable capacity utilization of 66 percent. Hyundai and Kia have a combined annual capacity of 5.3m vehicles. According to the Chinese news agency Xinhua, Hyundai’s “total global sales in 2008 reached 4.8 million vehicles, down from 3.96 million units in the previous year.” Of course, this doesn’t make any sense, but other news outlets print it anyway.
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A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS will be filed from Tokyo.

December possibly below 10m. Edmunds.com predicts the annually adjusted sales rate of light vehicles in the U.S. to come in at 9.8 million for December. J.D. Power and Associates now expects 10 million. The rate was 10.3 million in November. Sales results will be announced Monday, Jan. 5.

China expects 9.4m units for 2009: China’s total vehicle sales are expected to reach 9.41 million units for the full year of 2009, according to a State Information Center’s forecast, says Gasgoo. China’s GDP growth next year is expected to remain above 8 percent and its car market should see similar growth, says the forecast. Something is screwy about those numbers. January through November, China’s total vehicle sales were 8.63m. December is usually a strong month in China. The end of year number for 2008 (which is not out yet) is expected to be in the low 9m. If that’s true, then the forecast would not reflect increases in-line with expected GDP growth.
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For the last time this year, a short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. Until Jan 4, 2009, WAS will be filed from Tokyo.

Toyota has the biggest: Bruises and all, Toyota still stands proud. ToMoCo still has “the highest market capitalization among firms listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of the last trading day of 2008, even though its market value tumbled by more than half in the year,” reports a relieved Nikkei (sub.) The automaker’s market cap is 10.01 trillion yen ($111,110,999,987.77 at today’s rate,) down 54 percent from the end of 2007. The overall market, as measured by the Nikkei Stock Average closed at 8,859 on Tuesday, down 42 percent from a year earlier. GM, Ford, and Chrysler on the other hand – don’t even mention it.

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A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. For the next two weeks, WAS will be filed from Tokyo

Doh! Several automakers in China reduced or suspended the production of some vehicles. They already regret it, reports Gasgoo. Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen halted the Citroen production line. Now, dealers are out of stock on the C-Elysee. Many editions of the C-Quatre model are also nearly sold out. FAW started a two-week overhaul of its equipment. As a result the supply of its Besturn model is affected. Gasgoo: “Dongfeng Peugeot Citroen Auto, FAW VW and other automakers have decided to speed up the overhaul of the idled production lines and resume their operation for more output to meet the market demands.” Spending a lot of time writing production plans, and the customers simply ignore them.

Honda up. In China: Honda sold 45,090 vehicles in China during November, up 8.7 percent from the same month last year. Sales from January to November rose 18% to 421,060 vehicles from 356,730 in the same period last year, the Nikkei (sub) writes.

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A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. For the next two weeks, WAS will be filed from Tokyo.

GMAC to announce real soon now. GMAC “expects to soon announce the results of a debt exchange offer that is key to North America’s largest auto finance company’s capital levels,” says Reuters, citing a GMAC spokesperson. The successful swap is crucial for GMAC to become a bank, and to get under the TARP. The debt swap deadline expired Friday as planned, spokeswoman Gina Proia said, adding that the company expects to put out the results in “the near term.” Sounds like Farago’s Option A.

Charge! Carmakers worldwide are turning into Energizer bunnies, and enact plan B as in batteries. Nissan and NEC will invest 100 billion yen or more to manufacture enough large-capacity lithium ion batteries to equip a total of around 200,000 electric and hybrid vehicles a year in 2011 or later, The Nikkei (sub) writes. Honda and GS Yuasa Corp. plan to construct a factory in Kyoto for  lithium ion batteries. Toyota and Panasonic are working on a joint-venture mass production of lithium ion batteries at a Shizuoka factory in 2009. Mitsubishi will start manufacturing lithium ion batteries in partnership with GS Yuasa. Volkswagen plans to develop automobile lithium ion batteries with Sanyo.

Getting real about EV: Taking the contrarian view, Bosch chief Bernd Bohr borrowed a line from Greenspan and cautioned against “irrational exuberance” when it comes to electric vehicles. “We should not tell the consumer that there will be an electrical vehicle in 2010 which is affordable and meets market demands” he said according to Automobilwoche (sub.) He expects small production runs before 2015, “but all will be heavily subsidized, either by the government or by companies that sell below cost.” Bohr figures, 80m units will be built worldwide in 2015. Of those, only 2.5m to 3m will be hybrids, and only 800K pure plug-ins.

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A short overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. For the next two weeks, WAS will be filed from Tokyo.

Good news! Nothing, absolutely nothing newsworthy and car related happened while you slept. Europe is officially closed as of a week ago. Japan turned the key last Friday evening. Even the Chinese car industry took advantage of the fact that all the expats of the joint ventures are home with mother-in-law and apple pie – and did nothing.

What’s left to report? That in Japan “domestic prices for used cars are declining due to shrinking exports to such destinations as the vital Russian market,” as the Nikkei‘s only car story of the day is? That a company in Singapore bought a taxi company in Beijing, as Gasgoo has it? That BMW’s Mini brand “aims to grow next year in albeit deteriorating market conditions,” as Reuters reports? That Oman Air appoints GM customer service? Or that Eon Musk [sic] is featured in “a series of profiles on prominent business leaders in the Bay Area who are managing their way through the severe economic downturn,” which the SF Chronicle launched as a sign of utter desperation?

The only newsworthy story would be that Honda was rescued by a Mexican for a dollar. But that’s against TTAC editorial policy, and you know the story already anyway. Can’t miss it. It runs unopposed. These days, no news is good news. Enjoy it. Or go back to bed.