Where would the automotive world be without China. From Daimler to Volkswagen, all send daily prayers east, in the general direction of the Middle Kingdom. (No much aiming precision is needed. It’s a big country.) Even Lamborghini has high expectations. This year, they will sell record numbers of Lambos to China. (Read More…)
Speaking of German car companies doing exceptionally well despite a tanking German car market, there is of course Volkswagen.
The Volkswagen group sold more than 3.5m units worldwide in the first six months of 2010, besting the pretty darn good numbers of the same period in 2009 by about 15 percent, Martin Winterkorn said to Reuters. He predicts (and that’s an easy call based on the half year results) that the Volkswagen group will see record car sales in 2010. What’s driving the new Wirtschaftswunder? The weak Euro, of course. And the strong position of Volkswagen in boom markets such as China.
Nevertheless, VW doesn’t want to rely on the vagaries of the foreign exchange. (Read More…)
I still remember when I accompanied a big cheese of Volkswagen to (then) Czechoslovakia in 1990, shortly after the iron curtain had rusted out. We went to Mladá Boleslav, near Prague, to inspect VW’s latest acquisition: Skoda. The place was pretty much empty.
“Where are the workers?” asked my guy. (Read More…)
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…)
Note to Volkswagen marketing: it’s important to know your competition. The Acura RDX is a compact SUV that comes with a standard turbocharged engine, a fact that makes your already-questionable marketing claim look just plain stupid. Alternatively, this is yet more proof that Acura is the most invisible brand in America. [Hat Tip:Alex Rashev]
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…)
What are Geely’s plans for Volvo? Which cars will be built? Where and when? How many? Who will run the show? Where is the money coming from? These are just some of the questions government regulators want to know before they put their stamp of approval under the deal. We are not just talking Chinese regulators. European regulators need to give their nod also. For that, they need Geely’s plans. Some of them were leaked. Some of the leakage is quite explosive. (Read More…)
Volkswagen’s Chinese joint venture with FAW will announce a China-made Volkswagen CC next month. Two notable items: The launch ceremony will be on July 15 in Shanghai, right in front of the nose of Volkswagen’s other joint venture partner, SAIC. And the car will cost the princely sum of 320,000 yuan ($47,000) in China, if Gasgoo is correctly informed. That’s what a well appointed Audi A4L goes for. Volkswagen had been showing the car at Chinese auto shows for a while, whetting the appetite for a China created CC. (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…)
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…)
Taiwan’s Premier Wu Den-proudly announced that a senior executive of Volkswagen met with him last week for a second time on the company’s plans to set up a plant in Taiwan. A little later, Wu Den Said that not one but several foreign carmakers have expressed interest in setting up factories in Taiwan. Why the sudden interest in the tiny island? (Read More…)
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…)
Apparently these press images were embargoed until tomorrow… and yet here they are. But who, you might ask, would risk being boarded by Volkswagen commandos in order to deliver these images to the huddled masses, yearning for a a glimpse of the new blandness? Oh right, it says Auto Express on the picture. According to the embargo-running Brits, this is the first Jetta to be more than a Golf with a trunk: thanks to VW’s new modular architecture, the wheelbase has been extended for more rear-seat legroom. More details when Volkswagen is good and ready, likely sometime tomorrow.
Polo players don’t drive German superminis, in the same way Dustin Hoffman never pulled over near a Hollywood studio in a Chevy Celebrity. So, who does drive a Polo? The same people who drive a Golf – only ten years younger, with a bank account ten grand shorter. And until last year, these people have been a little alienated from the VW customer circle – with a new Golf recently introduced and the older Polo getting a little long in the tooth.
(Read More…)
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