Category: Industry News

GM unveils its restructuring plan
GM has announced its plan to close four factories and maybe lay off 10,000 people in an attempt to restructure its business.
The American carmaker has decided to go bold to restructure its business as quick as possible and adapt to the growing demands for more fuel efficient vehicles. The carmaker will close four factories by the end of 2010. The concerned facilities are Oshawa, Moraine, Janesville and Toluca.
Located in Canada,. Oshawa builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. Production will end next year. The plant in Moraine, Ohio builds the Chevrolet TrailBlazer, GMC Envoy and Saab 9-7x and will cease production in 2010. The Janesville facility located in Wisconsin will be closed by 2010. This plant builds the Chevrolet Tahoe, Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon. Production of the Chevrolet Kodiak will be ceased in the Toluca factory located in Mexico.
In the meantime, the carmaker will continue its switch to smaller models by launching a new global compact car and a new more efficient engine range for the American market. The new compact model will be powered by a turbocharged 1.4-litre engine.
June 5, 2008
Future BMW X1 SUV to be produced in Germany
BMW has announced it will build the future X1 in Germany.
Building models in regions where they sell the most is part of the ambitious plan BMW is readying to increase its profit margin. The carmaker doesn’t expect its small SUV to be a top-seller on the American market, so its production won’t be moved to the US like the other models. It will stay in Europe, its potential largest market, at the carmaker’s Leipzig facility.
The current X5 and new X6 crossover coupé are being built at Spartanburg, located in South Carolina. They will be joined by the next-generation X3 model. The current X3 is currently produced by Magna Steyr in Austria.
The X1 will share its underpinnings with the next-generation 1-Series compact model.
June 3, 2008
Mercedes moves into its new design studio
Mercedes has strong ambition on the American market and its recent acquisition of the Chrysler Pacifica Advanced Product Design Center proves that carmaker isn’t ready to leave the market to Lexus, Audi or even Hyundai.
The former Chrysler design center will enable the carmaker to increase its current design capacity in the US With three times the space of its current facility. Located in Carlsbad, California, the new facility offers 35,000 square feet of space which will be more than enough for the current team of 25 people. The new company’s head of design Gorden Wagener manged this design studio which created the latest F700 concept car.
The new facility will join the two other facilities located in Tokyo and Sindelfingen. The new facility will likely boost the carmaker’s efforts to develop a global design operation. However, the three design centers are located in developed countries. Will Mercedes join other carmakers in building future design centers in China or India, future largest markets in the world?
June 3, 2008
Mercedes-Benz sells 300,000th new C-Class
The 300,000th C-Class has rolled off the production line since it has been launched on the market.
More than 300,000 people have acquired a new C-Class Mercedes. Internally known as 204 Series, the family saloon and estate are a major success for the German carmaker which suffered from the comparison with the inevitable rival BMW 3-Series. The company has delivered 290,000 saloons and 25,000 estates.
The most important market for the C-Class is Germany which accounts for 25 percent of total sales, followed by the U.S., UK, Italy, and South Africa. Despite a wide engine range including six four-cylinder and seven six-cylinder engine variants for the C-Class, as well as the C 63 AMG, about one-third of the saloon model’s customers worldwide have opted for the C 220 CDI, while 20 percent have purchased a C 200 Kompressor. The C 220 CDI is also the vehicle of choice for around half of the estate model’s customers. 75 percent of all C-Class station wagons sold around the world are diesel engine versions.
The C-Class is available with three trim levels, Classic, Elegance and Avantgarde. One out of every two C-Class customers in Germany chose the Avantgarde line and in other core markets the share of total sales sometimes is even higher according to the carmaker. This result proves that Mercedes succeeded in building a sportier brand image appealing to younger people despite selling mainly diesel-powered C-Class models.
With the estate released in last December, the sales will likely rise. However the awaited facelifted 3-Series will also be a tough competitor.
June 3, 2008
New British Sportscar to be unveiled on June 9th
A small British carmaker Breckland will unveil an all-new sports car, called Beira, at the London’s Canary Wharf motor show. The future model tries to reinvent what British small carmakers are doing for years, building a sports car based on high-volume models.
The Beira is a hand-built, two-seat roadster with unique styling cues, based on GM Kappa platform and powered by GM’s LS2, 6-litre V8 engine, tuned to produce just below 400bhp. Tipping the scales at some 1,400kg, the Beira’s impressive power-to-weight ratio ensures a sub-five second sprint to 62mph and a governed top speed of 155mph. Stopping power is provided by 325mm ventilated discs on all four corners, the fronts being grasped by six-pot callipers, with four-pot at the rear, both from UK specialists, HiSpec. Steering is via power-assisted rack and pinion, whilst the dramatically styled 18” cast alloy wheels are 8.5” front and 9.5” rears, shod with Bridgestone ultra-low profile tyres.
The Beira features a custom-built interior, including electric windows, air conditioning, twin airbags – in the steering wheel and in the passenger dash – combined with clear, concise instrumentation, and hand-stitched leather/Alcantara seats and trim. Breckland stresses that the Beira’s interior can be customised to specific buyer requirements in terms of materials and equipment – one significant benefit of the company’s inherent flexibility as a low-volume producer. The central instrument cluster incorporates a double DIN showcase of mobile entertainment from in-car specialists, Clarion. Its equipment includes a 7” TFT colour touch screen, DVD player, direct iPod and Bluetooth connectivity, and an in-built 30Gb hard disk drive (HDD) navigation system with full European mapping. Beira buyers can also opt for the rear reversing camera.
The Breckland Beira on-the-road price will be confirmed shortly but is expected to be in the region of £55,000 in the UK.
June 3, 2008
Honda number 3 in the US
After being overtaken by Toyota, Ford leaves the Top 3 on the American market as Honda has sold more cars than Ford.
Honda is taking profit of its lineup by increasing its sales on the American market in April and overtaking Ford there. Honda sold 437,102 vehicles last month, While Ford delivered 421,000 units. This trend will likely be confirmed next month and in the future as long as gas prices are rising.
Honda lineup features small vehciles such as the Fit, CR-V and Civic will enables the carmaker to increase its sales by 3.6 per cent since the beginning of the year, while the market has decreased by 9.2%. Ford suffers from a lineup focused on large vehicles. Often criticized for not selling V8-powered models, Honda might be the winner of the economic downturn. Chevrolet only sells 30,000 units more than the Japanese carmaker. At this pace, Honda will likely become the second brand in the US by the end of this year.
May 30, 2008
Karmann won’t build the future VW Golf Cabriolet
For the German coachbuilder, the future looks rather gloomy. After the end of the Chrysler Crossfire last year and the planned termination of the Audi A4 at the end of the year and the Mercedes-Benz CLK convertible next year, Volkswagen has decided to keep in-house the production of the next Golf convertible.
This news is a major blow for Karmann which has built 675,000 Golf convertibles since its first launch in 1979. Fortunately, the company will still build the BMW 1-Series convertible until 2013. However, current production capacities need to be used. Karmann isn’t the only coachbuilder that struggles to find replacement business. Heuliez, Bertone and Pininfarina have a tough time since the carmaker have decided to build niche vehicles in their own hands.
One opportunity for the coachbuilders might be to provide their production site to Indian and Chinese carmakers which have to buy expertise in order to compete with the Western major players.
May 28, 2008
Toyota Camry to take over the F-150?
This might be the worst nightmare for the American carmaker. Will the Camry take over the F-150?
This is pure speculation as the F-150 still outsells by far the Toyota saloon. For the first time, the Camry took the second place in April just in front the Chevrolet Silverado which has been the second best-seller in the US for years. Toyota sold 40,016 Camrys, while Chevrolet sold 37,231 Silverados. The Chevrolet Silverado recorded a 24.7% decrease over the previous month. However, it still remains the number two on the market since the beginning of the year.
If gas prices hiked again, the Silverado would record another blow. The Ford F-150 wouldn’t be immune to higher gas prices too. Maybe one day, the Camry will end the 31 years of the F-150 as the best-selling vehicle in the US?
May 20, 2008
PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi set up a joint venture in Russia
PSA Peugeot Citroen and Mitsubishi have signed a joint venture agreement to produce vehicles for 3 brands, Peugeot, Citroën and Mitsubishi in Russia.
The assembly plant will be located on the site of Kaluga, 180 km South-West of Moscow. It will produce mid-range SUVs for Mitsubishi, Peugeot and Citroën brands as well as medium size Peugeot and Citroen vehicles, with an overall installed capacity of 160,000 vehicles. The foundation stone of this future plant will be laid on June 10th 2008 in Kaluga. Production is currently planned for 2011 start-up.
The joint venture agreement marks the deepening of relations between the two carmakers for whom Russia constitutes a priority growth region. PSA Peugeot Citroen continues signing partnerships to cut cost and expand its current lineup, which is a smart move. For the two carmakers, the new factory enables them to debut on a growing market without bearing all the costs alone.
In comparison, Renault has bought a stake in a local carmaker, AvtoVaz. Future will say which way is the best. Partnership or alliance?
May 20, 2008
Chrysler kills rebadge of Dodge Journey to work on small car
As Petrol-Head reported in a previous post, Chryler is reshuffling its portfolio in an attempt to distinguish its brand from each other. The Dodge Journey won’t sport the Chrysler label.
After stopping the production of four models, the troubled Chrysler continues on modifying its plans in an attempt to cut cost. The Chrysler-branded Dodge Journey has been cancelled to free resources. The American group wants its engineers to focus on the future compact model developed in collaboration with Nissan and expected to be launched in 2010.
The forthcoming lineup looks rather empty in terms of new models and dealers will have to be patient until 2010 when the company unveils the redesigned 300 saloon, the Jeep Grand Cherokee in addition to the compact models. Future will tell if Chrysler took the right decisions.
May 14, 2008