Good news for Lafayette, Indiana: Fuji Heavy will spend $230 million to increase the capacity of its Subaru of Indiana plant by about 30 percent, says The Nikkei [sub]. Subaru’s sole overseas plant currently works at full tilt, and about half of the 330,000 Subarus sold in the U.S. must be imported from Japan. (Read More…)

Auto sales are expected to have ended the year up by around 5 percent. This according to analysts at Scotiabank and elsewhere. China, where a quarter of the world’s automobiles are sold, is probably up 4 percent, Europe is expected to be down some 8 percent. Auto sales in the U.S.  on the other hand are seen to have risen some 14 percent for the year.  More precise data are expected  within hours or days, so let’s have a look forward. (Read More…)

The gang at TTAC wishes all its readers a happy and prosperous New Year. May it bring you all the new cars you wish, and may it have mercy on your old ones. (Read More…)

China is the land where you have a choice of two kinds of Red Bull, both equally fake.  The Austrian maker of the stuff has been in court for years, did win, and still can’t sell the original stuff in China, because the other party appealed. Now, Jaguar Land Rover is faced with starting its own arduous battle against the fakers: There is an energy drink called “Land Rover.”   (Read More…)

The team at TTAC, wherever it may be, wishes you the best of all holidays.

As we are often accused of being pro-import, we honor an age-old European tradition: “The bridge.”

In Europe, this is when you take only a handful working days off to turn Christmas and New Year into a two-week vacation, which you spend in the Maldives, or in Phuket (because of the ancient temples…) At TTAC, we make it a mini-bridge, taking it easy until New Year. If and when there are major news, we will cover them. In the new  year, we will be back in full force.

Last May I said that Toyota will end the year as the world’s largest automaker with around 10 million units produced. When I did that, some people gave me a look usually reserved for people who sadly lost it. Even the good folks at Toyota did not want to comment, at least not in my face.

Toyota will end the year with 9.92 million units produced, up 26 percent on 2011. (Read More…)

It’s beginning to look at lot like than unmentionable holiday period, except where I am at the moment. But even in heathen China, the restaurant was full with cute waitresses with even cuter Santa hats today. Air China treated me to the full panoply of You-Know-What carols, from “O Come All Ye Faithful” all the way to “Silent Night”. It’s a strange world where one must fly to a communist country to hear “O Christmas Tree” without recrimination.

This being an international site, with readers and editors in all corners of the world, we celebrate this occasion in our traditional nondenominational style. (Read More…)

Two things happen today, December 21: The world is coming to an end. And in Europe, insurance companies are no longer allowed to vary premiums according to a policyholder’s sex. The first thought that flashed through my caveman mind was: “Those accident-prone women drivers will get great deals, and us guys will pay for it.” Wrong on both counts. (Read More…)

We did not believe that EU regulators would let France’s government bailout of GM’s alliance partner PSA skate through unchallenged. State aid to companies is against EU rules, and refinancing of Banque PSA Finance is state aid EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia wrote in a letter to the French government. This according to a report in the French daily Les Echos. (Read More…)

Possibly a bigger scandal is following Hyundai’s MPG brouhaha: There is a stench of insider trading. “This smells pretty bad,” Robert Boxwell, director of consulting firm Opera Advisors in Kuala Lumpur who has studied insider dealing patterns, tells Reuters. (Read More…)

We have been saying it since May, but it took Bloomberg  (along with the rest of the copypasting media) until a few days ago to realize that GM’s reign as the World’s Largest Automaker is coming to an end. GM regained the title in 2011 from a tsunami-ravaged Toyota. Toyota has been bouncing back strongly ever since. Toyota’s worldwide production is up 30 percent for the year, while GM was seen treading water when they last published global numbers in October. (Read More…)

Sold!

GM’s Opel took another step towards a possible bankruptcy. Opel sold six European facilities to the American mother , says the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.  The real estate includes an engine plant in Hungary, a development center in Turin, Italy, a factory in Gliwice, Poland, a transmission plant in Austria, and other “activities” in the UK and Russia, the paper says. The FAZ received a “no comment” from Opel, but no denial. Opel is not rolling in money, despite the sale. (Read More…)

Those mysterious gas engines of course are gasoline-fed “three-cylinder engines, designed to comply with Euro VII emissions standards entering force around 2019,” says Reuters.  The wire heard from Peugeot that the engines “will bring big savings for both partners.”  Further details were not given. (Read More…)

The alliance between GM and PSA is beginning to show concrete results – not just yet, but at least they decided to work on them. In a joint press release, GM and PSA announced that they will jointly work on what they call “three common vehicle platform development projects.”  Meaning cars.  Finally. (Read More…)

It’s a new tradition at the storied Mini brand: Each car show gets its own dedicated Mini. Swatch tried it with the Swatch car, but could not pull it off.  Now, BMW’s Mini is doing it with great success: At the inside, the same movement. At the outside, ever changing designs. Collect all colors!. Of course, Mini won’t break tradition at the Detroit Auto Show, and it will bring you: The John Cooper Works Paceman.
(Read More…)