Toyota plans to halt output for 11 days
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS EUROPE
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Renault says reached stock reduction goal
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German billionaire investor Merckle commits suicide
Jan. 6, 2009 17:00 CET
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Japan's Toray expands carbon fiber production to Europe
Japan's Toray Industries Inc., the world's largest supplier of carbon fiber, has taken a 21 percent stake in a German rival to begin producing lightweight auto parts in Europe. Toray bought its share in ACE Advanced Composite Engineering GmbH last month, the Tokyo-based company said in a release. It did not disclose how much it paid. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 6, 2009 17:26 CET
Hyundai incentive includes job loss insurance
During a focus group meeting in late November, Joel Ewanick, Hyundai Motor America's vice president of marketing, realized no matter how much cash Hyundai piled on the fenders, it probably wasn't going to get buyers into showrooms. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 6, 2009 06:01 CET
Source: China's Dongfeng 2008 sales up 11%
Dongfeng Motor, China's third-largest automaker, sold 1.06 million vehicles in 2008, up 11.4 percent from a year earlier, an industry source said on Tuesday. Dongfeng's passenger vehicle sales increased 14.01 percent to 727,392 units during the period, while commercial vehicle sales were up 6.1 percent at 330,530 units. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 6, 2009 08:45 CET
GM China sales growth slows to 6.1% in 2008
General Motors said on Tuesday its China vehicle sales rose 6.1 percent in 2008, down sharply from 18.5 percent growth the previous year as a downturn in the economy hit automobile demand. GM and its joint ventures sold 1.09 million vehicles in the country last year, it said in a statement. » Read Article
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Jan. 6, 2009 06:01 CET
Porsche raises stake in VW to over 50%
Germany's Porsche Automobil Holding has raised its stake in Volkswagen to more than 50 percent, triggering a mandatory takeover offer for Sweden's Scania as a result. » Read Article
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Jan. 6, 2009 06:01 CET
ArvinMeritor cutting exec pay by 10%
ArvinMeritor is cutting base salaries of about 100 senior executives by 10 percent as it looks to conserve cash in response to "worsening economic conditions," the auto parts supplier said on Monday. The pay cuts come at a time when pressure is mounting on U.S. auto parts makers, reeling from sinking demand from automakers globally. » Read Article
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Jan. 6, 2009 06:01 CET
New Bentley gets more power, speed
Bentley today unveiled a more powerful version of its Continental GTC convertible aimed at attracting younger buyers to the luxury marque. The new Continental GTC Speed will debut at the Detroit auto show next week as the most powerful Bentley convertible ever. Its twin-turbocharged W12 engine delivers 600 bhp -- 9 percent more power and 15 percent more torque than the standard GTC -- and can reach 200 mph with the roof up. » Read Article
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Jan. 6, 2009 13:00 CET
CCFA: French December car sales fall 15.8%
French passenger car sales fell 15.8 percent in December, car manufacturers' association CCFA said on Monday, as the effects of the weakening economic environment shatter consumer confidence. The decline in sales in France came after Italy, Spain and Belgium last week published weaker data for December, as car sales have tumbled in recent months. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 5, 2009 12:00 CET | UPDATED: 01/05/09 14:48 CET
Report: Toyota to freeze Thailand, Russia factory plans
Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, will freeze plans to build new factories in Thailand and Russia due to sluggish demand worldwide, Japan's Sankei newspaper reported on Saturday. Toyota last month forecast a first-ever annual operating loss, blaming a relentless sales slide and a crippling rise in the yen. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 5, 2009 11:00 CET
Chrysler gets $4 billion U.S. government loan
Chrysler on Friday received an initial $4 billion emergency loan from the U.S. government, two days after the government completed a parallel payout to its larger rival General Motors. "This initial loan will allow the company to continue an orderly restructuring," Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli said in a statement. » Read Article
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Jan. 5, 2009 11:00 CET
SsangYong bailed out by Chinese top shareholder
Ailing South Korean automaker SsangYong Motor is to receive 45 million dollars from its Chinese top shareholder Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. (SAIC), the company said Monday. The measure showed SAIC's determination to keep the SUV maker going, SsangYong said. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 5, 2009 14:42 CET
Daimler denies interest in acquiring Volvo
Daimler has no interest in acquiring Ford Motor unit Volvo, a Daimler spokesman said on Saturday following a magazine report that the German carmaker had examined its Swedish rival. "We were never interested in Volvo," the spokesman said. German weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday that Daimler had carefully looked at a possible deal in recent weeks but had rejected the idea. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 5, 2009 11:00 CET
Report: Suzuki to shelve plans for large car
Suzuki Motor will shelve a plan to launch large-sized cars in 2010 and delay the start of overseas factories amid a sharp deterioration in the global auto market, the Nikkei business daily reported on Monday. Suzuki and other automakers are under growing pressure to cut output. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 5, 2009 12:00 CET | UPDATED: 01/05/09 14:35 CET
Sales collapse will change the industry
The sales collapse that started late last year will accelerate in 2009, leading to fewer carmakers and more factory closures, industry watchers say. New-car sales in western Europe will fall by 15 percent or 2.1 million unit this year to 13.5 million, investment bankers Goldman Sachs said December 17. » Read Article [SUB] Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
PSA wants payback from suppliers
Suppliers who squeezed money out of PSA/Peugeot-Citroen last year to compensate for high raw material costs should expect to give some back in 2009. “Prices are nowhere near where they were back in April, so we want to recover as quickly as possible what we lost” last year, PSA Vice President of Purchasing Jean-Christophe Quemard told Automotive News Europe. » Read Article
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Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
2008: Up, down and then …
In the first half of 2008, before things started to take a decisive turn for the worse, there was good news and bad news in the global auto industry. Here's a quarter-by-quarter review of a year that was a turning point for the industry. » Read Article
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Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
Amid crisis, the show must go on
New-car launches usually take center stage at the Detroit auto show, but this year much of the attention will be focused on the signals carmakers give about their prospects for 2009. In the weeks leading up to the annual event, the so-called Detroit 3 -- General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler -- were involved in a battle for their survival. » Read Article [SUB] Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
Human resources director to leave PSA
PARIS -- PSA/Peugeot-Citroen announced Monday that executive vice president human resources Jean-Luc Vergne will leave the group at the end of February. Vergne, 60, is the second member of PSA's 10-person executive committee to quit the French carmaker in the past three weeks. Gilles Michel resigned his post as managing director of the Citroen brand Dec. 19. » Read Article [REG] Jan. 5, 2009 22:01 CET
Mercedes considers end to clone suit
A Chinese car that looks similar to Mercedes-Benz's Smart ForTwo could be cleared for European sales as early as mid-January, people familiar with the matter told Automotive News Europe. Lawyers from Mercedes and Italian importer Martin Motors are close to settling legal actions that have blocked European sales of the Shuanghuan Bubble minicar for more than a year. Despite having four seats, the car's exterior strongly resembles the two-seat Smart minicar. » Read Article
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Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
Suppliers fear long slowdown
Suppliers expect at least two to three years of pain in western Europe, as the economic downturn cuts output by as much as 20 percent. According to a survey conducted by researchers SupplierBusiness and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, suppliers' main worry for 2009 is declining production volumes in North America. Concern over European production is a close second. » Read Article [SUB] Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
Edgy styling for new E class
Mercedes-Benz will unveil its new E class next week ahead of the sedan's March launch at the Geneva auto show. The next generation of the medium-premium car will arrive during difficult economic times, when even wealthy consumers are buying fewer cars. » Read Article
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Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
PSA wants more parts from low-cost countries
PSA/Peugeot-Citroen will boost its purchasing from low-cost countries during 2009 to cut costs. “We are moving toward another dimension in the process,” PSA Purchasing Director Jean-Christophe Quemard told Automotive News Europe. “Before we concentrated on local sourcing. Now we are doing global purchasing from low-cost countries." » Read Article [SUB] Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
New positions at ANE
Bettina Schmidt is a new sales manager at Automotive News Europe while Hurtej Kaur joins the newspaper as a staff reporter. Schmidt and Kaur are both based at ANE headquarters in Oberpfaffenhofen, just outside Munich. » Read Article Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
As Opel battles for survival, Vauxhall will play crucial role
Some observers in continental Europe think the British Vauxhall brand is a pointless irrelevance that should be subsumed into General Motors' German unit Opel. After all, they say, Vauxhalls are merely rebadged Opels and getting rid of the brand would lead to major cost-savings at a time when GM needs every penny. It's a view that is simplistic and ignores a few inconvenient truths Mark Appleton is copy editor for Automotive News Europe. » Read Article
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Jan. 5, 2009 06:01 CET
A reorganized General Motors can live without Vauxhall
Restructuring General Motors is crucial for the survival of the world's second largest carmaker. So it should be done thoroughly and not in a half-hearted manner. And that means Vauxhall will have to go Wim Oude Weernink is a correspondent of Automotive News Europe. » Read Article
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