The Volkswagen Group is hitting on all available cylinders, and there are many: For the first time in recorded Volkswagen history, VW delivered more than 3 million units in the first five months, 3.37 million, to be exact. Compared to the same period last year, that is an increase of +14.6 percent. These gains are steady and continous. In May, VW sold 708,900 units worldwide, up 17.4 percent compared to May 2010.
Around the world, Volkswagen’s January-May sales were as follows: (Read More…)
Europeans are either tired of their old cars, or the effects of the cash for clunkers largesse are finally getting digested, or both. Whatever the reason, new passenger car registrations increased by 7.1 percent in the EU in May, as data released by the European Auto Manufacturers Association ACEA shows. (Read More…)
Mazda has confirmed [to Reuters via Automotive News [sub]] what has been rumored for a while (especially in the Mexican media): open a new plant in Guanajuato, Mexico, near VW and GM’s Silao facilities. Production starts this fall and the line starts rolling in 2013, according to “people familiar with the matter.” In the meantime, Mazda6 production at the Flat Rock, MI joint venture plant continues until mid-2012, at which point Mazda will make a decision that it’s still “studying,” but it won’t be building the Mazda6. Interestingly, Mazda’s new Mexican plant is only being built for “at least” 50k units of
compact cars, initially for sale in Mexico and South America, and eventually export to North America.
Could the next-generation of Mazda midsizers be hecho en Mexico as well? It’s possible, but we won’t know until Mazda announces more details about the new factory. Meanwhile, nobody’s expecting Mazda to hang around Flat Rock… least of all Ford.
What is there to say about this chart? Mustang had a shot… it coulda been a contender… but Camaro was just too busy building momentum, en route to what should be the nameplate’s best volume year since 1995. Challenger, meanwhile, just seems stuck spinning its wheels in third place. Oh, and since this chart has little in the way of controversy, let me just add this: if Hyundai starts breaking out its Genesis Coupe sales when it launches a muscle car-inspired facelift for the model, we would love to see how that underdog story plays out. In the meantime, though, Genesis coupe and sedan combined barely touch the Challenger’s volume… at this point pony cars are still very much an American game.
Bloomberg [via Automotive News [sub]] reports:
“We’ve now been able to secure production capacity to safely say that we will surpass 600,000 units,” Mike O’Brien, Hyundai’s vice president for U.S. corporate and product planning, told reporters here Tuesday.
The South Korea-based company said in January it didn’t have enough production capacity to meet that level of U.S. sales.
Since then, Hyundai has raised output at its Montgomery, Ala., plant that makes Sonatas and Elantras, and it will also have a larger supply of the new Accent subcompact from South Korea than initially planned
Reuters reports that Boston Consulting Group has revised its projections for EV market penetration downwards, concluding that plug-in electric vehicles (including EREV and PHEV models) will make up no more than five percent of the US market by 2020. And ironically, the recent increases in gas prices have actually driven the estimate downwards, as Xavier Mosquet, the global head of the group’s autos practice, tells The WSJ [sub]
Electric cars will undoubtedly play an increasingly large role in many countries’ plans in the decades ahead as energy independence and environmental concerns intensify, but they will gain only modest ground to 2020. Gas- and diesel-powered vehicles are improving faster than expected and will continue to dominate the global landscape.
Having kept a relatively low profile since the disastrous “My Tank Is Full” series of ads, Ram is fighting to help keep Chrysler profitable with a new series of ads highlighting the Ram’s connection to “Wild West” values. And like nearly every bit of advertising approved by Chrysler Group ad boss Olivier Francois, it’s heavy on the hyper-sincere schlock, which makes the spots end up feeling like they’re selling a political candidate rather than a truck. And this just as it seemed like truck ads were slowly moving away from some of their previous cliches. Does doubling down on sincerity and the mythical Western ethos make sense as a way for Ram to catch back up on volume it’s lost over the last few years? Or should Ford’s stunning 50%-ish take rate on EcoBoost V6 engines in F-Series be pointing towards a more pragmatic, consumer-needs-oriented marketing campaign? Watch as many of the ads as you like and be sure to let us know where you see the Ram brand and its marketing effort heading.
Honda and Toyota have been valiantly holding off an all-out assault on the compact segment thus far, and Civic and Corolla still lead the C-segment’s year-to-date sales race. FOr the month of May, however, the barbarians made it inside the gate, and turned the compact market on its head. Chevrolet’s Cruze, which was one of the first of new breed of compacts to launch, took advantage of its head-start in the marketplace to tear into first place, beating the new Focus by a mere 408 units. Elantra was about 2k units behind the Focus/Cruze leaders, but finished nearly 2k units ahead of Civic, which itself beat Corolla by nearly 1,500 units. Now that the Compact Wars are well and truly joined, we can expect more of this back-and-forth each month. In any given month this can be anyone’s segment… the question now is whether Honda and Toyota can possibly hang onto their YTD lead and finish 2011 with the volume win. It’s by no means a sure thing… hit the jump for a month-by-month breakdown of “big six” compact sales.
OK boys and girls, we’re working on our last month of the first half of 2011… and it’s time for a gut-check. Here are the studs of the light-duty vehicle sales world, the top 25 total volume sellers in the US through May. But remember, we have no fleet sales breakouts by model (data donations accepted at our contact form)… so this isn’t necessarily a measure of the cars that are selling best with private consumers. Still, it’s an interesting list of cars, with a surprise for everyone (RAV4 barely beating Prius, for starters). We hope you enjoy it.
OK, so it’s a somewhat facetious headline: as an auto manufacturer, Saab either builds and sells cars or it disappears. But in the aftermath of Saab CEO Victor Muller’s pledge that “We will definitely ensure that this [production stoppage] will not happen again,” Saab’s most recent shutdown sent shockwaves of concern through the Saab community. After all, Saab’s official line is that “we knew this would happen,” a position that’s more than a little at odds with Muller’s now-broken promise. And though the just-signed Youngman deal could mean more cash with which to get production at Trolhättan back up and running, there’s a bigger question that remains unanswered: why restart production at all?
Bloomberg’s running a lede that’s sure to ruffle a few feathers at Nissan’s communication and customer service organizations this morning: “Nissan Motor Co. is aggravating the customers it needs most.” How so? According to the report
Nissan, which wants to become the top seller of electric cars, repeatedly delayed deliveries to some U.S. buyers who reserved the first 20,000 Leaf plug-in hatchbacks, according to interviews with customers. They said Nissan unexpectedly dropped some from the waiting list temporarily, asking that they reapply if they couldn’t prove they’d arranged installation of home- charging units that can cost more than $2,000.
Nissan has long admitted that the Leaf rollout would be a challenge, and the recent tsunami-related chaos in Japan hasn’t helped. But Bloomberg doesn’t quantify how many customers have been dropped due to their lack of charging system installation, other than to report that 45% of the 20k customers who reserved Leafs by last September have continued the ordering process. And it turns out that the delays aren’t irritating so much because of Nissan’s intransigence or lack of transparency, but because certain buyers stand to lose their California tax credit before their Leaf arrives.
A lot has been said about the new car potential of populous India. This time, they mean it, says J.D. Power. India surpassed France, the United Kingdom and Italy to become the sixth-largest automotive market in the world in 2010. In 2020, India is expected to become the world’s third largest auto market. This according to a special report titled “India Automotive 2020: The Next Giant from Asia,” released by J.D. Power and Associates. (Read More…)
An Ohio judged has ruled [full ruling in PDF here] against Ford in a 2002 case alleging the automaker overcharged dealers by selling commercial trucks at unpublished prices between 1987 and 1998. According to the summary judgement, Ford’s “CPA” program violated its contract with dealers by publishing “unrealistically high” wholesale prices and using “secretive, unpublished discounts” on an uneven basis, thereby overcharging some 3,000 dealers by an average of $1,650 for each of the 474,289 medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold in the applicable time period (about $1.2b of the ruling is for unpaid interest). The story is intriguing in its illustration of the differences between consumer and dealer incentives: while consumer-end incentives can be applied on a market-by-market basis, dealer invoice prices must be evenly applied across all markets according to Ford’s contract with its dealers. The story is also of major significance considering Ford’s still-shaky financial position, with automotive gross cash exceeding total debt by a mere $1.4b. Ford will appeal the ruling, but because the damages awarded are material rather than punitive, an expert tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ford’s appeal could be “interesting.” Which doesn’t sound like great news to us…
In one of its latest SEC filings (a prospectus for an offering to fund development of the “Model X” CUV), the EV firm Tesla notes
We currently intend to end the production run of the Tesla Roadster in December 2011, but we will continue to sell the remaining inventory of Tesla Roadsters in the first half of 2012.
The Detroit News notes that, if Tesla keeps its “mid-2012” launch date for its Model S sedan (which was initially supposed to go on sale this year), it will have to endure a six month gap with no new production… and if more delays come, that “dead zone” could extend longer. And though Tesla plans on replacing the money-losing Roadster sometime during or after 2013, that won’t necessarily be easy…
(Read More…)
And finally in our series of Teutonic luxo-barges: the boys from Stuttgart. For long, Daimler used to look down their noses at the boorish upstarts from BMW, and even more so at – ach du mein Lieber – Audi.
Daimler better get used to looking up. Despite record sales in May, Mercedes-Benz takes the #3 step on the podium, both in May and YTD. The race is close, but Mercedes is getting a bit short-winded. In May, the starred brand delivered a total of 108,766 passenger vehicles to customers worldwide, up 7.3 percent. YTD, the tally stands 490,021 units, up 10.5 percent. (Read More…)
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