Did we say that the Russian market is on the rebound with a vengeance? Nissan agrees. Nissan will raise its Russian auto sales target for fiscal 2010 to 100,000 units, up 120 percent from last fiscal year, COO Toshiyuki Shiga told The Nikkei [sub] today. Nissan’s SUVs are selling so briskly that Nissan has trouble keeping up with the demand. (Read More…)
The BRIC countries, Brazil, Russia, India, and China were long seen as the saviors of the world, especially when it comes to cars: large population, very few cars per head, a strong growth. Then 2008 came around, the oil prices dropped, and Russia nearly imploded. Russia was taken off the BRIC list, leaving a BIC behind. If you take a hard look at it, it’s a C, with a BI as future growth market. Now suddenly, the BRIC is back. (Read More…)
You take some of my rescued state-owned automaker, and I’ll take some of yours. That seems to be the cunning plan cooked up by presidents Putin and Sarkozy, as the two face the prospect of rescuing struggling firms in the midst of a weak European market. And actually, it seems that the idea was really Putin’s. French-owned automaker Renault is “more than happy” with its 25 percent stake in the moribund Russian automaker AvtoVAZ, reports Bloomberg, but Russia is offering to buy 15 percent of the French firm if France in turn takes on more AvtoVAZ equity. Considering that Reanult paid $1b for 25 percent of a firm that has been kept alive only by government intervention, a closer embrace of VAZ does not seem advisable. Nor, frankly, does any form of “Franco-Russian Leyland” sound like a good idea.
There’s no doubt that cars can be time machines… but so can cameras. These pictures of the LUC Chopard classic car rally in Moscow were taken a week ago today, but thanks to the impeccable cars, time-warp setting and old-school photo techniques, they somehow manage to capture the flavor of a lost era. Even when a blinged-out Infiniti QX intrudes, reminding the viewer that these are just a bunch of plutocrats playing with their expensive toys circa 2010. As is so often the case, the fantasy is far more satisfying than the reality. It’s Sunday… why not indulge a little?
[Courtesy: EnglishRussia, Hat Tip: commenter rodehardputupwet]
Designing a product for local tastes is a tricky affair. Just getting the name right is a hassle. Everyone remember the Toyota MR2? Not the French. They remember the Toyota MR. Why? Because “MR2” in French would have sounded like “Em-Ar-Deux” (“Deux” being French for “two”). And “Em-Ar-Deux” sounded very close to “merde” which is French for…..let’s not go into that. So, if getting the name right is a chore, you must do your car research with care if you want to pander to local needs. I mean, get that wrong and you could end up in deep Em-Ar-Deux. But Volkswagen reckons they’ve found what the Russians want … (Read More…)
What is it about former (or ostensible) communist leaders and retro limousines? China’s Hu Jintao got a tip of the hat from us last October for stepping out in style at the country’s National Day celebrations in a retro-fabulous Hongqi HQE. Now, The Guardian reports that
President Dmitry Medvedev has decided to trade in his Mercedes and bring back the ZiL, in what appears to be the latest attempt by Russia’s nostalgic leadership to turn the country into a Soviet theme park. Medvedev has asked aides to examine whether the austere and enduringly sinister limousine can be brought back into production.
And why not? After all, what’s more authentically Russian than being ferried through Red Square in an “enduringly sinister” vehicle made by a company that was at one time known as “Stalin’s Factory”? Is it too soon to ask about American-market availability?
To stay alive, Opel wants to scale down. The factory in Antwerp is being closed. With amazing results for Opel’s bottom line: Closing the factory costs GM around €400m ($532m) in termination benefits. GM and the unions reached an agreement on the termination benefits earlier this week, reports Reuters. There are 2,600 workers in Antwerp. Now do the math: $532m divvied up amongst 2600 workers is a little bit over $200,000 per worker. Ouch! Wait, there is more pain … (Read More…)
Have you ever done serious business in Russia? Nyet? If you want to keep your conscience pure, don’t. It’s a “gotta pay to play” country. If you don’t make regular payments, the best that can happen to you is that you are out of business. In more serious cases, you pay with your life – a common currency in that country.
Behind that backdrop, it’s humorous to read that “the Russian Prosecutor-General’s Office has asked the United States to provide information about corruption that reportedly accompanied the sale of Mercedes limousines by Russian law enforcement agencies, Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika told the Federation Council.” That according to Russia’s news agency ITAR-TASS. (It’s “sale to law enforcement agencies.” Someone with lesser English may have made a payment. See video.) (Read More…)
U.S. District Judge Richard Leon approved a $185m settlement between Daimler, the Department of Justice (DOJ,) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The Feds had alleged that Daimler violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) by drowning foreign government officials in money and gifts until they relented and ordered Daimler products. According to Reuters, Daimler’s German and Russian units each agreed to plead guilty to two minor counts of violating U.S. anti-bribery laws. Its China subsidiary will be subject to the two-year deferred prosecution agreement as well. That said, the bad boys from Sindelfingen may go forth and sin no more. Except for one niggling detail … (Read More…)
Quick: Which country will have the world’s toughest DUI laws? You won’t believe it. (Read More…)
From the “how did we miss this?” file comes this story of Russian police pulling motorists over and using them to create a human roadblock. This incident built on anger in the wake of another recent incident [via the NY Times] in which the vice president of Lukoil apparently bribed police to cover up an accident in which his Mercedes crashed into a Citroen, killing two passengers. That incident inspired Russian rapper Noize MC to make this song, cleverly named “Mercedes S666.” As we noted the last time we covered the messy confrontations between Russia’s motorists and police, these incidents put the political problems of American motorists into much-needed context. We still have a lot to be grateful for.
Over the daily Toyota runaway stories, it’s easy to forget the plight of GM and its children abroad. If you think that’s the idea, then you are a miserable conspiracy theorist, and you should stand in the corner. With that in mind, let’s check in with GM and its worldwide siblings to see how they are doing. (Read More…)
Vladimir Putin has announced that his government will spend $19.6b (584 billion rubles) on auto-sector stimulus, with spending planned on technology development, employee re-training, direct subsidies, and cash-for-clunker-style consumer stimulus. Another $20b of investment is expected from foreign automakers. These measures are aimed at a host of of ills besetting the Russian auto industry and market, ranging from what the government describes as a 4-7 year technological deficit, and a 50 percent drop in sales last year.
Yesterday, we wrote why Hyundai’s unions are unhappy about Hyundai global expansion plans which. For some reasons, the unions think production abroad will harm South Korean jobs.
The unions have reasons for heightened annoyance. Insideline reports that Avtotor may buy the closed down Izhavto plant (Izhavto filed for bankruptcy in August 2009) in Izhevsk, Udmurt Republic, to build Hyundai and Kia vehicles. Avtotor is one of Russia’s largest assemblers of cars that come as kits. And why would that be of concern to Korea’s metal workers? (Read More…)
In the confusion of the recent Saab-Spyker deal, an interesting tidbit has flown beneath the radar until recently. Most industry news outlets [ourselves included] had reported that Spyker’s backing from Russia’s Conversbank had given GM intellectual property nightmares, and that the deal had gone through with backing from other corners. Not so, it turns out. Bloomberg [via BusinessWeek] reports that Alexander Antonov confirms his bank supplied the first $25m in payments to GM. A strange turn of events, considering Russian backing for Magna’s failed Opel bid (and GM’s attendant IP paranoia) was said to have scuttled the deal (and that didn’t even have Convers’s bizarre Chechen blood feud connection).
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