Unless you plan a trip to Toyko, you probably aren’t concerned about the exchange rate of the yen. Is a Japanese car on the list of your possible purchases? Then you should be concerned. Those prices will go up. (Read More…)

The Germans were always a bit sceptic or downright hostile when it came to the great car electrification. Now they get jolted. Better late than never, says Audi and announces their first Plug-In Hybrid for 2014. Of course, the announcement can’t be done without the usual Volkswagen/Audi brand of heavy hubris. (Read More…)

Oh, to be a fly on the wall of the GM boardroom:

“Did you see the latest Opel numbers?”

“Jeez! Horrible!”

“What are these clowns thinking? We have an IPO to close.”

“Talk about timing. We should have sold them to the Russians. Who was the moron that cancelled that deal?”

“Whitacre.”

“I hope the next rattlesnake wins.”

Indeed, the news from Rüsselsheim aren’t good, and with the IPO closing this coming week, they could not have come at a more inopportune time. (Read More…)

Toyota will no longer stand on the sidelines and leave the huge (joke, joke) EV market to Mitsubishi and Nissan. The Nikkei [sub] has it that Toyota will start marketing an all-electric car in Japan in 2012. (Read More…)

When the all new GM share starts trading on 11/18, the bulk of the new issue will most likely not be owned by widows and orphans, but by foreign governments and their proxies. One of the largest new shareholders could be Chinese. GM is in the final negotiation stage to sell a good chunk of their new stock to their old pals and Chinese joint venture partners SAIC, reports Reuters, citing the usual “two people familiar with the matter.” And don’t think they are just talking percentages, there is much more on the table. (Read More…)

With all the intrigue around the Porsche-takes-over-Volkswagen and Volkswagen-takes-over-Porsche, there are the expected ups and downs. Recently, there have been voices it might not happen. Reason given: The lawsuits. I believe, this is just propaganda to demoralize the opposition and to force them to settle. In the meantime, facts are being created. And here is another fact: Volkswagen officially acquired the auto trading business of the Porsche Holding in Salzburg, Austria. The company changes hands for €3.3b ($4.5b), a sign that this is not your ordinary car dealership. (Read More…)

I came to China first in 2004 on a job for Volkswagen. Back when, and years thereafter, the foreigners at the joint ventures agreed (latest after the third beer at Paulaner) that eventually, their days will be numbered. “Once the Chinese have learned enough, they’ll kick us out,” was the lament. That was six years ago, and no sign of an expulsion from the Chinese paradise yet. On the contrary: The Chinese might invite the foreigners in for good. They are thinking about dropping the 50:50 joint venture requirement that forces foreign automakers to team up with local manufacturers. (Read More…)

This will disappoint those who were hoping for a cooling-off of the Chinese auto market. Chinese automakers in China shipped 1.2m passenger cars to dealers in October, up 27.1 percent from a year earlier, the official China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) told Reuters today. Overall vehicle sales, which also include buses and trucks, were 1.54 million units, up 25.5 percent from a year ago. (Read More…)

The worldwide auto industry is officially on the mend. Carmageddon is behind us. The future is bright and shiny. How do I know this? If Rolls Royce can have higher annual sales than in any of the 30 years before, life must be good again. And there still are 2 months to go, with some possible Rollers under some possible Christmas trees. (Read More…)

For decades, car dealers had nightmares about being put out of business by non-car dealers. Cars at Costco? S-Class at Sam’s Club? Except for occasional trials that always flopped, it never happened. As it turns out, not big box stores, but the manufacturers themselves are the dealers’ biggest nightmare. Instead of facing competition that tries to sell cars along with detergent and 2 for the price of 1 peanut butter, car dealers are being culled like mad cows. (Read More…)

It’s a done deal, says Sinocast via Trading Markets. Chen Hong, president of China’s SAIC has gone to the US. He’s not there to visit Niagara Falls and Yosemite. He’s there to negotiate how much of SAIC’s  $5.7b in cash and cash equivalents will be converted into GM stock on November 18. (Read More…)

Audi’s sales in Japan went down 20 percent in October. The macro-oriented crowd points at the fact that the domestic Japanese market was down 26.7 percent in October, and that Audi or its dealers have no reason to complain. And what are Japanese Audi dealers doing? They are complaining. They say that they have enough buyers, but not enough cars to meet the demand.

They all go to China. (Read More…)

One by one, automakers announce that China either is or will be their largest market in the world. First and foremost, there’s  GM. The General officially sells more cars in China than back home (some nitpicking caveats remain.) Volkswagen’s Audi said its China sales are expected to exceed German sales next year. If you want to sell luxury cars, you need to ship them to China. China already is the world’s largest market for the Mercedes-Benz S-Class , and China might soon outclass the Germans in all Mercedes classes. Nobody buys more Porsche Cayennes than the Chinese. With all these records by other makers, BMW can’t possibly remain on the sidelines. (Read More…)

The feared Chinese car exports so far have been a dud. The value of car imports beats exports 3:1. This doesn’t dissuade privately owned Chinese carmakers from trying. They are active at the soft underbelly of the world, in developing or emerging markets of South America and Africa. Now, they are getting a bit closer to Europe. (Read More…)

Except for a lot of green talk, my German compatriots are not known for enthusiastically embracing the EV idea. Japan, even China is way ahead of them. Despite high gasoline costs (taxes, taxes), even hybrids are everything but runaway successes in the Fatherland. If Germans want to save, they buy a Diesel, or take the train. But even the train isn’t the bargain it used to be. One car company bets big on Electric Vehicles. So big, that they built a whole new factory for them. You won’t believe who. (Read More…)