While bullets fly in Bangkok, Toyota announced today that production at a Toyota plant near Bangkok will cease by the end of May. Toyota says the plant closure has nothing to do with the public unrest, it should be seen on the context of the reorganization of Toyota’s global operations, says The Nikkei [sub]. (Read More…)

Those Chinese sure are tenacious. After European Brilliance importer HSO went bankrupt last November, after Brilliance wrote a whopping loss for 2009 while the Chinese market went through the roof, after Brilliance announced that they had stopped all exports to Europe (there wasn’t much to stop,) one would have thought that China’s Brilliance thoroughly had it with exporting to Europe or any of the first world countries. But no … (Read More…)

Want to have bragging rights to the highest motorized street legal Porsche in Porsche’s recorded history? Don’t want to have a tuned one (Uwe Gemballa is still missing, Auto Bild has already written him off.) No problem! If you have the cash, Porsche will set you up with a 620 hp 911. But no dawdling around: If you want to be one of the 500 people who can drive to work in that brute, you better get in line right now. (Read More…)

Threesomes can get burdensome to keep together. Didn’t we report in January that Ford, Mazda, and China’s Changan want to end the ménage-a-la-trois and forge their individual joint ventures? It was quickly dismissed as “speculation.” Just because it’s a speculation doesn’t mean that it won’t come true. (Read More…)

Japan is the land of crazes. There is a small, but steady imported car craze developing in  the land of the supposedly closed car market. Imported car sales rose 2.6 percent year on year to 11,642 units in April, the sixth straight month of increase, says The Nikkei [sub], citing data by the Japan Automobile Importers Association. (Read More…)

As expected, the Loan Guarantee Committee decided not to decide anything in their meeting at the Economics Ministry in Berlin. Opel had requested €1.3b in state aid from Germany. They are making the rounds in Europe to collect another €500m. Countries that committed money, such as the U.K., will only pay if Germany pays. (Read More…)

Slowdown in Chinese car sales? Unheard of, as far as Beijing is concerned. In the beginning of the year, Beijing had 4m cars. By the end of the year, the Chinese capital is expected to have 5 million cars on the roads. That’s the educated guess of the government, as reported by Gasgoo. (Read More…)

Never has there been so much confusion over the closely watched Chinese car sales than this month. A relatively unknown China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATRC), anointed by a report in Xinhua, had 40 percent growth for April. Then, all kinds of numbers came out. Chinese numerology was in an April disarray. Even TTAC’s in-house sales oracle, GM China became confused. First, GM reported a gain of 50 percent. A week later, the number was revised to 41.1 percent. (Which would indicate a Chinese market growth in the mid 30s.) We recommended caution. The last word on Chinese auto sales has the China Association of Auto Manufactures (CAAM). And the CAAM has spoken. (Read More…)

Today could be a big day for Opel. Probably, it won’t. The Loan Guarantee Committee is meeting in the Economics Ministry in Berlin. On the agenda: Opel’s request for €1.5b in state aid. The timing is not coincidental: Last weekend, elections were held in the Opel state of North Rhine Westphalia, which ended in a mess. Coalition discussions are on-going with unsure results. So let’s move quickly while Berlin can make decisions? Not exactly … (Read More…)

Electronic doo-dads such as collision-avoidance systems used to be the realm of pricier models. Fuji Heavy, parent of Subaru, will change that. They are dead set to nannify all Subarus with their newly developed collision avoidance system, says The Nikkei [sub]. (Read More…)

The Chinese leader of the purchasing department of a very large Chinese car manufacturer once informed me: „Clutches? Don’t buy any Chinese clutches. They are all [expletive deleted]. We import all of our [expletive deleted] clutches.” Volkswagen is setting out to change that [expletive deleted] situation. (Read More…)

Ever since the late 90s, car manufacturers and especially car dealers were scared of the Internet. By the end of the 90s, it was agreed that the likes of Carpoint or Autobytel would turn into huge virtual showrooms and would put dealers out of business. It didn’t happen. The opposite happened. The many car shopping sites drove business to dealers. Ten years later, there it is again: The specter of the wicked disintermediation has returned. Direct sales to customers via electronic media are popping up in the world’s largest auto market. (Read More…)

Toyota has published its financials for the 2009 fiscal year that ended on March 31. The matter had been a center of speculations for months. First, a loss was predicted. Then, there were speculations that Toyota would report a slight gain, of $500m. Last weekend, Japan’s Yomiuri newspaper said the gain could be as large as $1.1b . They were all wrong. The official numbers are in. And the numbers are … (Read More…)

Talk about timing: While Trans Sec LaHood was in Japan yesterday, ostensibly to look a trainsets, while he toured Toyota instead and uttered dark “time will tell” threats, while he said that his people are still working on the evidence for a second $16.4m federal fine, back in Washington, the timer was set for yet another ticking 16.4 mega-tonne bomb. (Read More…)

Ford’s first hybrid models for European customers will be built in Valencia Spain. Valencia was the logical choice.

Valencia had been picked in 2009 as the European single source for all versions of the “compact multi-activity model” Ford C-MAX and Grand C-MAX . Powered by EcoBoost gasoline and Duratorq TDCi diesel engines, they will launch later this year. A gasoline-powered seven-seat version of the C-MAX model for North America will go into production in Valencia in late 2011. (Read More…)