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EDWARD LAPHAM Iraq: Does Daimler know something that we ... »
The long and winding road to premium »
WIM OUDE WEERNINK Dealers need to play role in selling more ... »
ARJEN BONGARD What I learned at the Beijing auto show »
WIM OUDE WEERNINK Toyota, beware of Volkswagen! »
ALYSHA WEBB Chinese automakers make giant leap forward... »
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Toyota feels bite of U.S. downturnToyota Motor Corp. racked up record results for the just-ended fiscal year. But the good news ends there. Now the world's biggest, most profitable car company is warning that earnings for the current year are poised to fall for the first time in nearly a decade. What's more, Toyota backed off its optimistic outlook for a 2008 sales increase in North America. CEO Katsuaki Watanabe said today his company's volume is likely to decline instead. It's a dramatic reversal from the year ended March 31,... [REG] May 8 08:10 CET | UPDATED: 5/8/08 8:10 a.m. EDT |
Hundreds of BMW staff take buyoutsBMW, the world's largest premium carmaker, said several hundred permanent staff had agreed to redundancy packages as it seeks to cut thousands of jobs to improve profitability. BMW also reaffirmed its forecasts for the full year, which include record sales volumes for all three brands. [REG] May 8 13:21 CET |
Lexus tops J.D. Power ranking in UKLexus is the UK's leader in customer satisfaction, according to consultancy J.D. Power. Toyota's premium brand topped the firm's annual poll for the eighth consecutive year. The 2008 survey results were based on interviews with more than 16,000 UK car owners after two years of ownership. Measurements used include quality and reliability, vehicle appeal, dealer service satisfaction and ownership costs. The best score an automaker can achieve is 1,000 points. [REG] May 8 15:55 CET |
Daimler will open office in Iraq this yearDaimler will open an office in Baghdad by the end of the year. Ursula Mertzig-Stein, a Daimler spokeswoman, said the company sees strong potential in the country for its truck division. “We think the greatest demand will be for our commercial vehicles there,” Mertzig-Stein said. She declined to give further details. [REG] May 8 12:09 CET |
Daimler CFO: No hostile takeoverDaimler does not need a white knight to protect itself from any hostile takeovers, CFO Bodo Uebber said in a prerelease of his interview with Die Welt newspaper. "Daimler does not need a shareholder who will protect us," he said. [REG] May 8 08:49 CET |
Toyota to post record operating profit todayJapan's Toyota Motor, which is set to replace General Motors as the world's number one automaker this year, is expected to report today a record operating profit for the fiscal year ended March 31, lifted by brisk sales to emerging markets. [REG] May 8 08:38 CET |
Fiat sets up central sourcing center in IndiaFiat is setting up a group purchasing office in India, the Italian carmaker said today, as part of its strategy to cut costs by buying more components from low-cost centers such as India and China. Fiat, which has a joint venture with India's Tata Motors for manufacture and distribution of cars, engines and commercial vehicles, said the move would help ensure greater competitiveness and better margins. [REG] May 8 09:35 CET |
Faurecia to expand Czech operationsFrench supplier Faurecia is expanding its operations in the Czech Republic to keep up with booming demand from European automakers in central Europe. Faurecia has announced plans to open a new exhaust system plant in early-2009 in the eastern Czech city of Karvina. [REG] May 7 14:40 CET |
John Elkann to be named president of IfilJohn Elkann, the grandson of legendary Fiat boss Giovanni Agnelli, will become president next Tuesday of Ifil Investments, the Agnelli family's holding company, current Ifil president Gianluigi Gabetti told the Corriere della Sera and La Stampa today. [REG] May 7 15:01 CET |
Jointly made PSA engines for BMW brandsBMW will use the four-cylinder engines it has jointly developed with French carmaker PSA in BMW brand cars, chief executive Norbert Reithofer said in a pre-release of his interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. He said the future generation of the BMW 1 Series will be fitted with these four-cylinder engines. [REG] May 7 07:46 CET |
Rieter CEO says company no takeover targetRieter Holding CEO Hartmut Reuter said he does not expect the company to become a takeover target following its profit warning late last night, and subsequent plunge on the Swiss Market on Tuesday. "We had expected a negative share market reaction," Reuter said in a preview of an interview with Swiss finance newspaper HandelsZeitung to be published tomorrow. [REG] May 7 08:02 CET |
Audi CEO signals plans to build U.S. plantVolkswagen's premium brand Audi stands to benefit "tremendously" from a U.S. production plant as the carmaker struggles to cope with stiffer external headwinds including the strong euro. "There are no signs right now of this situation letting up," CEO Rupert Stadler said in remarks to be delivered to shareholders at Audi's annual general meeting today. [REG] May 7 10:15 CET | UPDATED: 05/07/2008 10:54 CET |
Dupont to spend millions expandingDupont said Tuesday it is investing about $150 million (96.9 million euros) to expand and upgrade its plants to meet growing demand from solar cell, packaging and automotive customers. The chemical company said is expanding and upgrading facilities in Europe, the U.S. and Asia to meet strong demand. [REG] May 7 08:09 CET |
Pardus to seek 2 more Valeo board seatsA key official of investment fund Pardus said it will seek approval from Valeo shareholders for two more board seats, adding that the fund doesn't want to declare war on the auto partsmaker but feels insulted by Valeo CEO Thierry Morin. [REG] May 7 10:27 CET |
Audi to make electric cars within 10 yearsAudi, the luxury unit of Volkswagen, will make cars with no exhaust emissions within ten years, its top executive has told a German weekly. CEO Rupert Stadler told Welt am Sonntag in an interview published on Sunday that he saw great opportunities in electric cars and expected diesel and battery technology to dominate in the coming five to ten years. [REG] May 6 12:00 CET |
Volkswagen's small platform gets AWDVW's small car architecture, which today underpins the VW Polo, Seat Ibiza and Skoda Fabia, will offer the possibility of all-wheel drive for the next generation of VW group small cars. “The new small-car platform architecture includes an all-wheel drive option,” Erich Schmitt, president of Seat said. “Seat won't offer awd for its new Ibiza, but other group models could use it.” [REG] May 6 15:55 CET |
Chinese drivers get away with speedingBEIJING (Reuters) -- Speeding drivers in south China are getting clear away thanks to machines which switch the numbers on their licence plates in seconds, state media said today. "More than 50 percent of cars caught on camera for speeding and other offences either cover up their plates or use a fake licence plate," a traffic policeman in the Guangdong city of Yangjiang was quoted by the Beijing Youth Daily as saying. "Our chances of capturing them is next to nil." [REG] May 6 06:01 CET |
BASF to build plastics plant in India
MUMBAI (Reuters) -- Germany's BASF will build a new engineering plastics plant near Mumbai to service the rapidly growing automotive industry, an official said today. "Automotive is one of the BASF's most important target industry segments and our second-largest revenue source," Wolfgang Hapke, president for business development in Asia Pacific, said in a statement. [REG] May 6 11:15 CET
Microsoft and Hyundai partner for technologyMicrosoft and South Korea's top carmaker Hyundai Motor have agreed to build a music and information system to debut in cars sold in North America in 2010, the companies said today. Microsoft and Hyundai said the first product under the partnership would be a voice-controlled system linking mobile devices to car stereo systems. [REG] May 6 08:05 CET |
ArvinMeritor to split off light vehicle parts businessArvinMeritor Inc. said early today it plans to spin off its Light Vehicle Systems business into a separate company -- and will name Phil Martens as CEO. The new company, with $2.2 billion in sales last year, will be named Arvin Innovation Inc., and will be created via a pro rata tax-free dividend to ArvinMeritor shareholders within the next 12 months. That means ArvinMeritor shareholders would own 100 percent of Arvin Innovation, the company said. [REG] May 6 13:00 CET |
Audi sales in April boosted by China, RussiaDouble-digit growth in demand from wealthy customers in China and Russia helped boost sales of Volkswagen's luxury brand Audi by 2.9 percent to 86,700 vehicles in April, the company said today. "The April figure is just a taste of the considerable sales growth that we expect will come in the second half," Audi CEO Rupert Stadler said in a statement. [REG] May 6 11:45 CET |
AvtoVAZ car sales grow 30% in AprilRussia's largest car maker, AvtoVAZ, in which Renault is acquiring a 25 percent stake, saw sales grow 30 percent year-on-year in April 2008 to 67,000 cars, the company said in a statement today. France's Renault, which is to pay $1.17 billion for its blocking stake, plans almost to double car production at AvtoVAZ to 1.5 million units by 2014, including Lada and Renault models. [REG] May 5 10:30 CET |
Ferrari to open first retail store in LondonItaly's Ferrari, the luxury sports car maker of Formula One fame owned by Fiat, plans to open a store in London this autumn, the latest to join a lucrative retail network that stretches the globe. Ferrari, which also reported higher results for the quarter, said in a statement last Thursday it had signed a franchising agreement with Italian retail group Percassi to open a two-level store on Regent Street. [REG] May 5 15:00 CET |
Pininfarina to set aside San Giorgio plant for electric carsPininfarina said it will convert its San Giorgio plant to produce an electric car in a joint venture with French conglomerate Bollore group. The car will be sold as a Pininfarina model in Europe, the US and Japan starting in 2010. [REG] May 5 12:23 CET |
