The NRA, the Pope, Porsche and Piech, all eyes were on the Supreme Court for the last few days: Gun owners watched the Chicago case (right to arm bears upheld.) Accountants and CPAs monitored the treatment of their favorite boondoggle, a.k.a. Sarbanes-Oxley (upheld.) Rome said “oh my God” when they heard that a lawsuit that accuses the Vatican of conspiring with U.S. church officials to cover up sex abuse could proceed. Meanwhile, Germany’s attention, from Zuffenhausen to Wolfsburg, was fixated on Morrison v. National Australia Bank, No. 08-1191. The Supreme Court seriously frustrated attemps by overseas investors who want to drag non-American companies into American courts. Champagne corks popped at Volkswagen and Porsche. The Guardian: “America’s supreme court has told prospective European claimants to take their claims back to Europe.” So what does that have to do with Porsche? (Read More…)
Remember the miracle carburetor that would have halved the gasoline consumption, if the wicked oil companies would not have bought the patent and locked it away? As a matter of fact, the lowly ICE has made great strides when it comes to reducing consumption, a drive that has traditionally been championed in Europe and to some degree Japan. (Read More…)
Every day, German auto managers go on their knees and pray that the financial troubles in Greece, Spain and elsewhere continue. Why? The troubles keep the Euro low, and a low Euro is high octane fuel for German car exports. In May, German car exports rose 46 percent. For the first five months, German car exports are up 50 percent. Despite a lackluster home market, the German car industry is hitting on all cylinders: For the first five months, German production is up 26 percent to 2.3m units, driven mostly be strong demand from China and the U.S. However, red flags are going up. Literally. (Read More…)
American Audiphiles can rest assured that their future four-ringed purchases will be Made in Germany and not somewhere in what is sometimes euphemistically called “North America.” Plans to build an Audi plant over here have been put on ice for an indefinite period. Worries about a tainted Aryan Audi race (in the motorsports connotation, of course) can be put aside. “We don’t need an American plant to reach our goal of 1.5m Audis a year by 2015,” said Audi Boss Rupert Stadler to Automobilwoche [sub]. “We could build a car in the U.S. in six months,” said Stadler, referring to the VW plant in Chattanooga. “Building a plant somewhere in the boonies would take three years.” And what’s the real reason? (Read More…)
Germany’s Handelsblatt received rare access to the usually secretive Porsche patriarch Piech. The Chairman of the Volkswagen Supervisory Board has big plans for his family’s company once Porsche has been assimilated. Here is an excerpt from his list of Porsche Plans: (Read More…)
Daimler’s China business is getting increasingly important. Two series, the C-Klasse and the E-Klasse, are already being built in China at their joint venture with Beijing’s BAIC. Soon, there will be a third line, says Automobilwoche [sub]. Today, Daimler’s CFO Bodo Uebber did not want to deny that it will be the GLK compact SUV. Wait, there is more … (Read More…)
Management changes at Porsche. CEO Macht will be disempowered, or “entmachtet”, as the Germans say. „It becomes clear that Winterkorn will change out the top management at Porsche and will replace it step by step with confidantes from his inner circle,” writes Automobilwoche [sub]. (Read More…)
The car was the champ of the German Abwrackprämien-mania of 2009: Retire your clunker, collect €2000, and for just €5000 of pocket-change, you get a real car with a real trunk and 4 doors: The Dacia Logan. The car, built in Renault’s Romanian subsidiary sold more than 150,000 units ion Germany since its introduction. It drove car executives bonkers, and engineers to their workstations to design low-cost cars. Now, it’s being pulled off the market. The reason? (Read More…)
In the first nine months of the current fiscal year Porsche sold slighty fewer cars than in the same period of the previous year. But they made more money: They are looking at operating profits of €0.6b on sales of €5.2b. That’s a double digit operating profit, ladies and gentlemen, and none of the put and call hanky-panky is included. Now what do you think is the catalyst for the wunderbar numbers? Are you sitting down? (Read More…)
When Volkswagen CFO Hans Dieter Poetsch was asked to make some forward looking statements on April 29, he was reasonably confident that Veedub could improve sales and operating profit from the 2009 level, “but that’s it.” Now suddenly, Volkswagen throw caution to the wind and says that the company would “significantly” exceed last year’s results when 2010 is over, says Reuters. That assessment, made by a usually very cautious company, is bolstered by a forecast-beating performance in the first five months. (Read More…)
If you go back for what seems to be years, TTAC never gave Opel big odds for getting state aid. Ever since GM reneged on the Magna deal, their chances were pretty much nil. Since then, the German government had been subjecting Opel to water torture. A few days ago, Berlin made it obvious. They had to, because GM was like a psychiatric patient that was slowly going through all stages of the Kübler-Ross model: Denial (“They said they would help us”), anger (“Maybe this will make your chancellor happy”), bargaining, depression, now finally, acceptance. Today, GM and Opel officially threw in the towel. Opel officially gave up on state aid. They will turn to the entity that supposedly wasn’t allowed to help them: The GM mother-ship. In other words: You and me will pay to save Opel.
Jack Baruth’s favorite car (he was pretty much alone with that affliction) is coming back stateside: The Phaeton, Volkswagen’s hand-built ueber-mobil. Not a rumor. Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn said it to the Freie Presse in Chemnitz. A VW spokesperson in Dresden, where the Phaeton is handcrafted , said there is no exact timing. (Read More…)
Wired hit the proverbial nail on the proverbial head when it titled its recent review of the pure plug-in Smart ForTwo Electric Drive “Smart EV Would Be Smarter if It Were Cheaper.”
Well, it’s not. As a matter of fact, it’s insanely expensive. (Read More…)
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