Official numbers for July sales in Germany are out now, and did we mention that the Verband der Importeure VDIK (German Association of Car Importers) is usually reliable? They said 237.500 cars in July. The official number, as reported by the Kraftfahrtbundesamt, is 237.428. The official drop is 30.2 percent. (Read More…)
Official numbers for July sales are not out yet (the Kraftfahrtbundesamt will report later today aor tomorrow), but Automobilwoche [sub] heard from the usually reliable Verband der Importeure VDIK (German Association of Car Importers) that new registrations dropped in July by 30 percent compared to July 2009. Germans bought 237.500 cars in July. This is bad, but not as bad as it sounds. (Read More…)
How things change: Last year, the death of the automobile was prognosticated. Maybe little cheap econoboxes. Luxury cars? Forget it, dead as dinosaurs. Don’t even mention dinosaurs. This year … just have a look at Audi. (Read More…)
Some folks are convinced that EVs are taking over the world. So convinced they are that they are already publicly worried about peak Lithium. Lithium is found in unstable places. An internal Pentagon memo states that Afghanistan could become the “Saudi Arabia of lithium,” writes the New York Times. Then there are distressing news that countries like Chile, Bolivia and China sit on piles of lithium. Should we be worried? Nein, says a study from Germany. (Read More…)
Did we mention that there is a remake of the economic miracle in Europe going on? Despite tanking car sales, despite daily stories about near bankrupt EU-countries, European manufacturers are in high gear. Did we mention that despite imploding sales at home, Volkswagen delivered 16 percent more units to customers in the first six months of 2010? One would think that might have some bearing on VeeDub’s financials. It sure did. (Read More…)
Today, Porsche decided what everybody thought they would decide: They will build the mid-engined plug-in hybrid 918 Spyder. After all the pomp and circumstance at the auto shows in Geneva and Beijing, it would have been a big let-down if they would have said: “Sorry, it was just an idea. We didn’t really mean it. How about that Cayenne?” (Read More…)
Where would we be without our breakfast cereal, fresh from the Chinese rumor mill? Two days ago, we wrote that Suzuki, Volkswagen, and SAIC are rumored to be working on a three-way tie-up. “Not so,” says SAIC according to Gasgoo. They denied a rumor that was spread by the competition at Suzuki’s Chinese partner Changan Auto. (Read More…)
With Audi’s A7 four-door coupe making waves at its release yesterday, the segment-defining Mercedes CLS just had to remind the world that its successor is on the way. Accordingly, these photos of the 2012 CLS have hit Autoexpress, granting the internet its first look at the redesigned not-quite-coupe. And though there’s definitely some Audi-inspired headlight gizmology going on with the new CLS, the overall design doesn’t seem to pop quite as dramatically as the A7. Perhaps it’s because the E-Class is already a quite handsome sedan (especially by recent M-B standards), or maybe Mercedes is saving the visual drama for a planned five-door coupe-wagon version. Either way, it’s difficult to see the CLS dominating the segment it invented going forward.
Again and again, the mucky-mucks of Daimler and BMW had sworn to do stuff together, buy parts, build engines, there are occasional rumors that the two will tie the knot. North and South Korea will unite and hell will turn into a glacier before that happens – which is not saying that it might not. Some day. In a galaxis far away. As long as Daimler and BMW employ engineers who make crusaders look like the Peace Corps, no jointness between the two luxury brands has any perspective. Every win-win so far has turned into a whine-whine. But it’s not for a lack of trying. (Read More…)
Recently, Opel’s boss Nick Reilly was asked by the Süddeutschen Zeitung how long it could be before GM’s top management decides that it doesn’t want to rescue its European division Opel after all. His answer [via Autobild]:
It’s not a question of two years, but rather six or nine months, before we need to have proven that we’ve made positive progress
Even then, Reilly admits that
We need four to five years before we’re able to get back to where we were
That doesn’t sound so good, does it?
China isn’t Porsche’s largest market quite yet (it’s only a matter of time, now they are #3), but China is now officially the world’s largest market for the Porsche Cayenne. Porsche China CEO Helmut Broeker said it himself to Gasgoo. The luxo-SUV is popular with China’s well-heeled and high-ranking military figures. (Read More…)
We’ve always suspected that there’s something bigger driving the (well..) tie-up between Volkswagen and Suzuki than little cars: Big markets. Volkswagen holds the keys to China, where they rule the roost, whatever numbers GM may conjure-up. Suzuki is nobody in China. Suzuki holds the keys to India. Volkswagen is nobody in India. It’s the perfect marriage. Even more perfect with some Chinese help …. (Read More…)
It’s a new Wirtschaftswunder, a new economic miracle: While sales in Germany and Europe nosedive, Volkswagen can’t make cars fast enough, and produces record results. In June, German car sales were down 28.7 percent. The European market was down 6.9 percent. That should hurt Volkswagen, by far Europe’s largest carmaker big, shouldn’t it? It should, but it didn’t. In the first half of 2010, the Volkswagen Group delivered more vehicles than they hoped in their wildest dreams. (Read More…)
“According to the Wolfsburg grapevine, the Volkswagen Group is set to increase its 19.9 percent share in Suzuki by ten percent annually over the next four to five years,” says Automobile Magazine in Ann Arbor, Michigan. And they immediately ask: “What for?” Right. (Read More…)
When you think Volkswagen and alternative powertrains, only one kind of springs to mind, and it’s no very alternative. Diesel. They are pretty good at it in Wolfsburg. But these days it isn’t enough. Nowadays, we have E85, fuel cells, hybrids, more efficient petrol engines and many more. Volkswagen can’t afford to bet their future on Diesel. So where do they go from here? I hear California is quite nice…? (Read More…)
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