Workers agreed to a four-year deal that freezes wages for two years, and that allows only moderate rises of around 3 percent for the following two years, Reuters heard from a source. The source also said:

“It’s almost certain that one of GM’s German plants will now be closed, probably the plant in Bochum.”

Currently, some Astra production is at Opel’s Rüsselsheim plant in Germany. Beginning in 2015, this will shift to Ellesmere Port. The Polish plant in Gliwice most likely will continue Astra production. It is expected that production of other cars will be shifted from Bochum to Rüsselsheim, with Bochum to be shuttered.

According to a GM statement, the Ellesmere Port plant will run three-shifts at full capacity. GM committed to a minimum of 160,000 vehicles to be produced each year. The company will invest £125 million into the facility and expects to create circa 700 new direct jobs. The agreement comes into force in 2013 and runs through the life of the next-generation Astra, into the early 2020s. Production of the new Astra will begin in 2015. This is also when the current contracts with European unions run out. Until then, all plants must stay open, and all workers must remain working.

Ellesmere Port had been on GM’s target list, but survived again. This also means a continuation revival of the British car industry, this time with a British brand on German cars. Lately, the island has been a preferred location for production by Asian manufacturers, such as Nissan, Toyota, and Tata. Britain now exports more cars than it imports for the first time since 1976.

According to a report in the London Telegraph, workers at the Vauxhall plant voted on Wednesday on concessions. The results of the ballot are not announced yet, but British media treats it as a done deal.

 Reuters says that Opel presented a catalogue of demands “including wage cuts, more temporary workers and outsourcing.”

The Daily Mail already seems to know that “Ellesmere Port and Gliwice in Poland will now become the only two manufacturing centres of the next generation Vauxhall Astra which hits showrooms from 2015.” The paper also is certain that “Opel’s Bochum plant in Germany, which builds the Zafira, is set for closure.”

A Daily Mail source opined that “The German unions will go bonkers.”

The source is probably right. The German Metal Worker union demands pay hikes from all automakers. There already were widespread warning strikes at Audi, BMW, Daimler and parts suppliers. GM and Opel are contractually precluded from closing any Opel plants in Europe through 2014. Jobs are likewise secure. Once plant closures are announced, it will be very tough working with the doomed workforce.

GM has turned its Ellesmere Port plant into “a no-go area for media amid ongoing speculation over its future,” says The Guardian. Staff and suppliers have been told to avoid reporters. “Attempts to photograph Astras awaiting delivery at the site’s distribution centre prompt a visit from security guards who ask the Guardian to desist,” says the paper.

There are 2,800 workers in the plant itself and some 7,000 workers in the supply chain that would lose their jobs when Ellesmere Port closes. No wonder that media attention is high.

Vauxhall does not think that job losses are unsettling, media attention is. A statement by Vauxhall that explains the media shutdown says:

“To be and stay competitive is key in the automotive manufacturing environment, where a plant’s performance is tightly measured. The Ellesmere Port plant is very competitive and we need to make sure our employees are able to focus on the job in hand to maintain this. Negative media speculation perpetuating over the last weeks is far from helpful and we therefore do not welcome media speculating on the plant’s future on our premises.”

Meanwhile in Germany, the meeting of Opel’s supervisory board ended with a virtual lockout of the media. Reporters were fobbed-off with a non-statement that says:

“All involved agree that Opel must work in a profitable manner and must undertake efforts to increase sales, to improve margins and to reduce costs.“

Amen.

After years and years and years of rumors and premature announcements, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has finally, honestly, cross your heart and swear to fry, “finalized a joint venture agreement with Chery Automobile Co to manufacture and sell vehicles in China,” Reuters reports.

The never-ending story however is just beginning. As Reuters rightly points out, “JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors (TAMO.NS), and Chery are seeking regulatory approval for the 17.5 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) venture in eastern China.”

That regulatory approval never was easy, and now it is harder than it used to be. The fact that Chery is an independent maker and (at least not officially) tied to some government, won’t make the matter easier.

Chery has some experience with that. Previously, the maker of QQs had tried to forge a joint venture agreement with Japan’s Subaru. That had been turned down. Fuji Heavy was told the application was denied because Subaru “is an affiliate of Toyota Motor Corp.” Toyota already has two joint ventures in China, and a company can’t have more than two. Or so the tortured reasoning went.

Knowing this, JLR and Chery wisely put a Chinese research and development facility into their business plan. China has enough carmaking capacity. China wants more know-how.

After making rather disparaging remarks about the management culture at Jaguar Land Rover, Tata CEO Ratan Tata is attempting to do some major damage control after he criticized the Brits in a May, 2011 interview with The Times.

Although the article is hidden behind a pay wall, Tata is widely quoted as saying that “…nobody is willing to go the extra mile, nobody.” At the Delhi Auto Show, Tata essentially backtracked on his comments, saying his fairly explicit comments were misunderstood.

Tata is quoted as saying that what he really meant was that there was a culture gap. ”What I meant was the cultures are very different and British managers move in a different way to Indians,” said Tata. ”In India we tend to move from one crisis to another and so managers have to respond by working long hours and at weekends. In the UK there is not the need to operate in the same way. There was no intention to criticize the standard of engineering or management.”

It’s worth noting that Tata’s criticism did not extend to the rank and file workers at Jaguar Land Rover, whom he lauded for being willing to put in the long hours in a tight situation. The constant quality issues of Tata’s Nano were also addressed by the the company namesake, and plans are apparently still in motion to bring the car to Europe. Any exported Nano’s will have to be brought up to a certain standard of quality on par with JLR’s current offerings – as it stands now, the Indian market Nano, with its fire hazards and quality defects, mimics the reliability of another great Jaguar product, albeit with less panache and glamour.

The slow exodus from Japan continues. Driven out by the strong yen, which turns exports into a money loser, Toyota is building out capacities abroad. Toyota will invest €265 million ($354 million) into its existing plants in Turkey and the UK. 1,900 new jobs will be created, 400 in Turkey, 1,500 in the UK.

According to the plan,production of the C-segment hatchback Auris will be concentrated version of its European-produced C-segment vehicles (petrol, diesel and hybrid) will be consolidated at their Burnaston plant (TMUK) in Derbyshire. Currently, the Auris is produced both in Turkey and the UK.

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT) in Sakarya, will not lose work, in the contrary. Along the Toyota Verso, the plant will build a new, unnamed compact sedan.

This change of production strategy is set to take place within the next two years.

Advocates of diverting tax money raised from motorists on mass transit insist doing so is essential for protecting the environment. Data published in August by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show that buses outside London produced an average of 221 grams per kilometer of greenhouse gas emissions. This is more than the figure given for small gasoline-powered cars, 210. Small and medium diesel-powered cars also beat the bus with scores of 172 and 215.

“Perhaps those who criticize lone car drivers should turn their attention to empty off-peak buses instead,” Association of British Drivers environment spokesman Paul Biggs said in a statement. “Although buses provide an important public service, even London can only manage an average occupancy of around fifteen passengers. Modern efficient cars outperform buses not just for CO2 emissions, but for genuine pollutants as well.”

Greenhouse gas emission figures represent the output of carbon dioxide — the harmless gas emitted by all human beings as an essential part of the respiratory process — combined with nitrous oxide and methane. Government official in the UK and US maintain these substances are causing global warming.

DEFRA’s bus figures are based on actual fuel consumption by bus operators and ridership data. It is consistent with figures obtained from a 1999 test by the Los Angeles, California Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Diesel bus engines were tested on a central business district route simulation burning fuel at a rate of 4 miles per gallon with carbon dioxide emissions of 2571 grams per mile or 1597 grams per kilometer. Assuming the bus carries nine passengers on average, the carbon dioxide emissions were 174 grams per passenger kilometer (DEFRA’s figure was 184). A solo driver can beat that figure in a Toyota Yaris at 127, a Honda Civic diesel at 140. Even a large SUV like the Porsche Cayenne achieves a solo figure of 236, but with an average occupancy of 1.6 the Porsche still beats the per-passenger figure of the bus.

A March 2009 report by Transport and Travel Research Ltd found that on a per passenger kilometer basis, bus travel produced more particulate matter and other pollutants than automobiles.

“This report confirms that traveling by car is ‘greener’ than traveling by bus,” Biggs said on the report’s release. “Bus companies will have to invest heavily in fleet modernization and the retrofitting of emission abatement technology to even stand a chance of keeping up with increasingly cleaner cars. This is a ‘wake up’ call to politicians who persist with the transport and environmental mantras of, ‘The answer’s a bus, now what’s the question?’ Given that buses and coaches carry only 6.3 percent of passengers compared to the 86.5 percent who travel by car, van or taxi, should 6 percent of passengers be given up to 50 percent of the road via bus lanes?”

A copy of the DEFRA conversion report is available in a 1.8mb PDF file at the source link below.

Source:  GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting (UK DEFRA, 8/3/2011)

[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]

Earlier this year, when Tesla sued Top Gear for libel (allegedly committed way back in 2008), I argued that Tesla was likely to lose the case. And sure enough, The Guardian reports

Electric sports carmaker Tesla Motors has lost a major part of its high court libel claim against the BBC’s Top Gear programme, but is still suing the corporation for malicious falsehood over an episode that showed the company’s Roadster model running out of battery in a race.

Ruling at the high court in London on Wednesday, Mr Justice Tugendhat said that no Top Gear viewer would have reasonably compared the car’s performance on the show’s airfield track to its likely performance on a public road.

Judge Tugendhat ruled

In my judgment, the words complained of are wholly incapable of conveying any meaning at all to the effect that the claimant [Tesla] misled anyone.

This is because there is a contrast between the style of driving and the nature of the track as compared with the conditions on a public road […] are so great that no reasonable person could understand that the performance on the [Top Gear] track is capable of a direct comparison with a public road

Which is remarkably similar to the argument I forwarded earlier this year:

Since even Tesla has admitted that the first-gen Roadster wasn’t a track car, wouldn’t it have been even more misleading for Top Gear to depict it as a car that is capable of driving its entire claimed range in hot-lap driving?

Justice Tugendhat is expected to rule on the “malicious falsehood” complaint later this week, but don’t be surprised if it’s thrown out. And even if it isn’t, one wonders why Tesla went to all this trouble. Their claim in court is that the 2008 broadcast continues to impact their business because of its availability via download, DVD, and syndication. But really, that can’t be than the negative publicity generated by Tesla’s belated and highly-public attempt to sue the world’s most popular motoring show.

“We” being Nissan, and “this” being shortening a GT-R powertrain enough to fit a Juke bodyshell over it. It won’t ever make production, and it will probably spin dizzy, short-wheelbase circles every time it even thinks about a corner… but even the haters have to admit that this is a clever way to highlight the Juke’s unexpectedly sporty nature. But despite the argument that “there’s a history of Nissan engineers driving the business,” let’s be clear about one thing: Nissan’s involvement in this project is all on the marketing side. Once upon a time, Nissan’s engineers might have built a little monster like this out of sheer passion, in their spare time. Today, though, the work gets outsourced to specialty race engineering shops, RML in this case. It’s not a knock, that’s just how the world works anymore.

As the Saab/Spyker/Swedish Automobile mess falls deeper into chaos and hopelessness, Saab’s erstwhile knight-in-shining-armour, Vladimir Antonov has been slowly backing away from the ugly scene. Indeed, his firm CPP Holdings was supposed to buy Swedish Automobile’s Spyker Supercar division, but that deal has been on hold while Swedish Automobile concentrates on keeping Saab alive. And though the Birmingham Post reports that CPP still plans on buying Spyker eventually, it’s clear that having washed his hands of the Saab situation, Antonov is looking elsewhere in order to secure a Victor Muller-free future. But could Britain really offer a loaded young Russian an appealing sportscar brand to sink his hard-earned (or not, whatever) cash into? Anyone know what TVR is up to? Actually, it seems Antonov has gone one better than TVR, and has secured the right to make an “all-new” Jensen Interceptor from the ex-Jaguar plant at Browns Lane, Coventry. Does it get any more wealthy-Russian-trying-to-make-his-mark-on-the-British-sportscar-scene than that? According to Autocar, the new Interceptor will feature aluminum chassis and bodywork, with an attendant “ultra-exclusive” pricetag, and will be shown sometime next year ahead of a 2014 rollout. Because, oligarch.

Today might be the day the car industry loses its unconditional infatuation with social media. Like congressmen (especially half clothed congressmen), the auto industry could soon avoid social media like we avoid social diseases.

“This is all very annoying,” complains an exasperated Mark Carbery from London. “This Twitter matter turned into a real problem, for us and for other companies in the industry.”

Eterniti spokesman Carbery is a seasoned industry veteran. He started as the PR Manager for Toyota UK and worked for Daewoo and Michelin before hanging out the shingle for his own consultancy shop in bucolic Barnwell, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire PE8 5PS, UK.

Today he may be rethinking his career choice.

He had taken on the PR work for a new client, Eterniti Motors. We wrote a little about their background. While the story was up, Twitter burst into flames.  We wrote a follow-up.

The Twitterverse wasn’t concerned with who is behind the company, and how in the world will they make that G.D. car. Who cares, right? The 140 character limit starts to constrain the reasoning capacity of some: Twitterati alleged that Eterniti has something to do with Infiniti because they kind of sound the same, and – highly suspiciously – have their press conference at the Frankfurt Auto Show exactly at the same time. (Reaction at Infiniti: “Do we? I thought ours is at the same time as Lexus.”)

The story hit the blogs (we did not swallow it, we check sources the old-fashioned way), and being in the silly season with little news overall, the story went blog-ballistic.

Finally, an official @EternitiMotors appeared on the Twitter scene.

This account soon became a source of juicy information. Pictures allegedly “Copyright Eterniti Motors and F1 technology Partners 2011” were distributed from the account. They hinted that Eterniti had something to do with The Formula 1 team, Red Bull.

On hearing “Read Bull”, the synapses in any child or budding car blogger will pop like this: “champion (plop)”,”Vettel (plop)”, “Nissan (plop!)”  And bingo, the rumor was born.

If the depicted technologies had indeed been claimed by Eterniti, a battalion of patent lawyers would have been dropped on them to defend existing patents, for instance this one, from 2001, by Daewoo: “Device for controlling vehicle speed adaptive spoiler.”

The original Eterniti announcement was a bit short on information. The new @EternitiMotors served announcements. A 2 seater named “Hedone” was announced at around lunchtime.

Pouring even more gasoline in the fire, @EternitiMotors told James Hind, owner of the UK site Carbuzz, in private: “In Frankfurt, we will confirm details of the Asian Eterniti brand launch, to be known as ‘Eterniti Hóngniú’.  Even with my rudimentary Chinese, I don’t need Google to see that this is Red Bull. Hong as in “Dong Fang Hong” (The East is Red). “Niu” as in “niu shi” (bull shit).

However, it started to smell like niu shi: Whenever you see a civilian write Chinese words with diacritics (these are the little specs above the letters), assume that this was pulled from an on-line dictionary. The specs indicate the tone of the word. Us Westerners are tone-deaf and don’t know crap about the difference between shǐ  (shit) and shī (poetry).

While all this happened, a seriously disconcerted Mark Carbery became “very angry at people who have lots of time on their hands.” He does not. He answers his own phone. He emphatically denies that Eterniti has “anything to do with Formula 1, with Red Bull, or any other car company.”

Asked whether he sees the company as a customizer or as an automaker, he chooses his words carefully:

“We see ourselves as an auto manufacturer, while working towards becoming a full scale car producer.”

Manufacturing in the true sense the word:

Manufacture

Etymology

From Middle French manufacture, from Old French, from Medieval Latin manūfactūra (“a making by hand”), from manufactus, a compound of manu factus, manū being ablative of manus (“hand”), and factus past participle of faciō (“I do, make”).

The car will be based on a production car, the rest is semantics. Carbery confirmed that the donor car will be announced at the Frankfurt Auto Show, where all remaining questions will be answered, and bid a hasty adieu to tend to the blazing flames in the Twitterverse which already  had filled the blogosphere with deadly smoke.

Later in the afternoon, the Twitter account @RealEternitiMot appeared, claiming to be the “OFFICIAL Eterniti Motors account, manned by Eterniti. I’m Mark Carbery (MC).”

EternitiMotors promptly discredited RealEternitiMot as a fake and tweeted that “@RealEternitiMot is actually an MOT station in Cleveland.”

At some point, there were accusations flying around that there are three fake accounts for Eterniti, when a hapless Twitter member who had @Eterniti as a user name since 2009, found herself drawn into the fray.  The lady, a silk merchant in Bangalore, is probably still wondering what freight train hit her account. If she still checks it.

Finally, an exasperated Mark Carberry put a link to the RealEternitiMot Twitter account on the Eterniti website, thereby creating instant credibility. That was just in time, because some Twitterati already threatened they would register as  “#HerMajestyTheQueen and declare an imposter’s head removal.”

By tea time in London, @EternitiMotors threw in the towel and published his password wEEt4b1x, making the account available for anyone who was fastest on the keyboard. Another Twitterer grabbed it, and two hours later, @EternitiMotors was in the hands of Mark Carbery. Or so they say. If not, we will hear more tomorrow.

Bloggers and editors of car sites who had swallowed the hong niu shi,  said “ooops,” quietly removed the wildest claims from their stories, and inserted an “or maybe, it’s all just a hoax” at strategic points

So what’s the takeaway?

Lem Bingley, who carries the sharp title of Director of Content for Professional Services Division at Incisive Media, opines: “Object lesson is securing social media accounts before revealing a new brand.”

Well, yeah.

Maybe one should start with checking a domain name. “Eterniti.com” is taken, since 1998. It belongs to one Shawn Hogan of Rancho Santa Fe, CA. The site is not doing much, actually, it does nothing. But it could turn into a goldmine if Eterniti  turns into a goldmine, someday. I wouldn’t even think of registering a brand if it already is registered as an URL – anywhere in the world.

My takeaway is that episodes like these could seriously dampen the enthusiasm in the auto industry for social media. They like to play it safe, and the waters are becoming treacherous.

As long as I can set up a phony account, say “Daimler_CEO” (I just tried it, it worked, don’t worry, it’s deleted), and most of all, as long as tweets are taken as gospel, there are bigger trainwrecks waiting to happen.

Unnerved from a day of fighting the demons of the twitterverse, Mark Carbery sighed:” We are simply trying to launch a small car company.”

Wait until someone gets the same idea for a big car company.

Yesterday, we ran a story about that new mystery British supercar from Eterniti. We had to draw our own conclusions, because we could not reach the company. Today, I received an email from Mark Carbery, who is the spokesman for Eterniti. The mail isn’t really bursting with information, but here it is:

“The first car will be shown in Frankfurt.

We will be sending out more info over the coming few weeks, followed by the full press kit at Frankfurt. Current information and image available at our website www.eternitimotors.com or www.newspress.co.uk.

Meantime I can tell you that the car in the sketch is an indication of the first car, which will create a new niche above the most luxurious SUVs currently available, and will offer handmade interiors with any level of bespoke interior trim a customer requires, as will all future Eterniti products. We’re calling the first vehicle a Super-SUV, and it will be the first car in the space which Bentley and Lagonda are talking about going after, which will have appeal in major economic and hot-spots from London to the emerging Asian markets. The company is backed by an international group of investors. We’re based in London, which will be the firm’s hub for vehicle build, trim and retailing, and the team has experience of retailing luxury and high-performance car brands internationally, motor sport, vehicle engineering, and components development and production.”

O.k.

Just for the record, today we had a quick chat with Infiniti honchos in Yokohama, after Twitter had lit up yesterday with rumors that the two might be related. No relation. Infiniti had heard of Eterniti’s existence just yesterday. Infiniti did not want to comment further, which is the wise thing to do.

Now one would think that the British mainstream press would be just giddy about a possible British return to old automotive glory. They are conspicuously quiet. Apparently, they don’t know what to do with it. If in doubt, spike it. All, except for one …

Car (“the world’s best car magazine”) proudly announces that “a new British car company will launch at the 2011 Frankfurt motor show – Eterniti Motors.” Investigative journalism reaches all-time highs as Car continues: “No figureheads have been revealed yet … Sounds to us like Eterniti Motors will be powered by some former bigwigs from the industry. People of the calibre of Martin Leach, ex-Ford of Europe and Maserati boss, perhaps.”

Look, chaps, it’s not that hard: You run a Whois on eternitimotors.com. You find the administrative contact’s Name as “Joyce Wang”, who is using the email address of k.Chen at capital-alliance.net. If you know a little about China, you can stop right here. If you don’t, run a new whois on capital-alliance.net, and you will find a Kenny Chen with an email at gruppemplc.com. You can take this further, but you don’t have to, you already are an investigative journalist! If you don’t know how to run Whois, ask the good folks at Carbuzz, who have been following this story. They also read Twitter (I don’t have the time for that) and report a cryptic tweet by Eterniti:  “Joint development rights on “spoiler steering” that “bends” fast airflow, shared between Eterniti and a certain bullish (withheld) #f1 team.”  James Hind of Carbuzz speculates that could be “implying that it has a connection with the Red Bull/Infiniti F1 team.”  But if Infiniti’s never heard of them, how would that work?

Now, the team may have “experience of retailing luxury and high-performance car brands internationally,” (Porsche dealer, Shandong Province, Aston Martin Importer, check ) motor sport (has race team GruppeM-Eterniti racing, check,) vehicle engineering (might be a bit of a stretch), and components development and production (check)… but building a whole car?

UK’s Auto Express comes to an interesting conclusion:

“The car is apparently based on the platform of an existing crossover – a necessity to enable the fledgling company to get off the ground – thought to be the Porsche Cayenne. Once Eterniti has established itself in the market, it hopes to build its own vehicles from the ground up.”

Topgear has a slightly vaguer version, but it basically says the same:

“Of course, building a brand new car from scratch is an arduous, pain-staking and money-draining exercise. It also very rarely makes the leap from fantasmic concept to Actual Thing. Eterniti tells us “we’d like to create cars from the ground up, although drivetrain development is of course an enormous undertaking”. So the first car will feature bits from an existing vehicle that is best in its class. “Where we use elements of other vehicles”, says Eterniti, “we will always choose one that sets the benchmark.”

Hmmm. The last one I had met who converted Cayennes into  pricey super-duper cars was Uwe Gemballa. Last year, he was found in a garbage bag near Pretoria, South Africa, with a bullet in a badly decomposed head. He had exported Gemballa-ized Porsches to South Africa, stuffed with cash. Vehicular money laundering. One day, a car arrived sans money, the customer didn’t like it, and Gemballa was shot. Fugitive Czech crime boss Radovan Krejcir was implicated in Gemballa’s premature departure, but was never charged. Last we heard from Krejcir was that he had bought a controversial security firm in South Africa. It came with “50 sophisticated firearms,” and they are gone.  Well, cars are dangerous business.

Come to think of it, when I had talked to Uwe about his China experience, he had mentioned that he had been in touch with a Chinese Porsche dealer, but severed the relationship because “I thought that they only wanted a few body-kits, and then they would copy them.” Uwe did not like that. Uwe wanted to import cars to China, possibly filled with ill-gotten cash.

While on wild tangents: When I talked to the Infiniti people, they asked: “Does their logo look similar to ours?” I said: “Not even close. It’s kind of a knight’s shield kinda thing.”  However, if you compare it with Gemballa and Porsche, the similarities are striking, no? If you want to be like someone, the first thing you do is dress like him.

Does the world need another luxury car brand? Hold up, let me rephrase that: does the world need another $250k luxury crossover with a new brand that sounds like a bad Infiniti knockoff? Well, whether we need it or not, it’s coming… and from Britain, not China! Or maybe it does?

Spokesfolks from Eterniti Motors tell Autocar that their new brand will launch at the forthcoming Frankfurt auto show, and that their first product will be the squashed-roof CUV shown in this sketch. Tentatively named “Hamera,” this theoretical competitor to the forthcoming Bentley SUV will be built in tiny (100 per year) volume, and will be based on “elements of other vehicles.” Eterniti reps say that high-end luxury CUVs are “a new market niche,” and while the development of competitor model like the Bentley prove that the market exists for overpriced luxo-barges, “we will be first in the segment.” Meanwhile, just as the name sounds reminiscent of Infiniti, the vehicle itself sounds a lot like the Cadillac SRX-based DeTomaso “D’oh-ville.” But I’ll go out on a limb and guess that Eterniti will be even less successful than that doughy, confused-looking lump. Autocar somehow forgot to ask a few questions. Must we do the dirty work?

Now who’s behind that new miracle car? Should be a simple enough question to answer. Apparently it is not that easy. An email dispatched to Eterniti’s HQ somewhere in London asked:

“What cars will be shown in Frankfurt? Where are they produced? Who is Eterniti? Who owns Eterniti?”

We are still waiting for an answer.

Left to our own devices (such as Google and a few Whois queries), we had to draw our own conclusions. If we are wrong, talk to us.

The man behind Eterniti appears to be Kenny Chen, sometimes known as Kenny Jen-Te Chen.  He is the son of a Chinese real estate developer who became rich riding the Chinese real estate bull. Aspirational Kenny started a Porsche dealership in China’s resort city of Qingdao. Like many rich sons, he started a racing team.  Real money was made by floating the dealership at the London AIM (Alternative Investment Market). The stock had a nice pop after it was listed.

Probably due to Chen’s early childhood infatuation with Porsche, the company was given a German-sounding name, “GruppeM”. In 2008, the company delisted itself.  Then it gets a bit murky. Being a private company, there is no need for disclosure and all Bloomberg has is this.

At around the same time, GruppeM secured the importership for Aston Martin, and Kenny Chen henceforth called himself “CEO of Aston Martin China.” Aston Martin did not necessarily set the Chinese market on fire, a state of affairs that is reflected by its website, which looks like the world came to an end a few years ago.  Aston Martin still lists only two dealers ion all of China.

This being the silly season, the interwebs were aflutter today. Some twitterati think Nissan should sue for infringement of their Infiniti brand. Some think Nissan is somehow behind it. I reached a fairly highly placed contact at Nissan. He said he had never heard of Eterniti and found the story amusing. Who knows, if they take the ample Twitter traffic and use it as proof that there is the fabled “Likelihood of Confusion”, they might find a London judge in a wig and a funny outfit who sees it their way.

I’d save my money, and sit it out. From here to Eterniti is a rough road, and it ends at a cliff.

If Kenny wants to join the ranks of failed supercar makers (some names come to mind, I will not mention them in the name of a harmonious society), then all power to him. People can do with their money whatever they want. Especially when the company is private.

We have no wish to dampen enthusiasm for any new development in the light commercial vehicles sector but at this point the prospects for all-electric vans are fraught with difficulties, despite the clear operating advantages of using one for specific kinds of work

The Commercial Vehicle Monitor editor for the British residual value gurus at CAP, Tim Cattlin, tells Honest John that the new electric Azure Transit Connect has a few issues that fleet managers may want to look at before buying Britain’s first electric van. To wit:

The £39,999 van is expected to have a value of £8,000 after three years and 30,000 miles, with CAP explaining that uncertainty over the unproven technology and expensive batteries are the biggest issues.

That’s a 20% residual value after three years of driving 10,000 miles per year. Yikes! (Incidentally, if you drove the Transit for its entire 80 mile range every day for a year, you’d rack up about 30k miles in that year alone). The Azure Transit Connect is reportedly available in the US for $57,400, although Ford doesn’t list a price on its website and production is said to only be about 600-700 units this year. Meanwhile, Ford had better hope that the residual value issues aren’t linked to Azure’s technology (which uses Johnson Controls batteries), because it’s just announced a plug-in hybrid Super Duty Chassis Cab for 2013… with Azure as a partner and fleet businesses in mind. Better take a look at those projected residuals first, guys…

When asked by thenational.ae if he preferred to drive his McLaren F1 or Mclaren-Mercedes SLR to work everyday, the man who designed both legendary hypercars, Gordon Murray demurs:

I wouldn’t say the SLR is quite an everyday car but I certainly like to drive it to work. But for me, despite all those cars and my single-seater Rocket [a car he privately designed], it’s the [eight year-old Smart Roadster] I’m most taken with. For one, it’s a great-looking car. It has a power roof, heated seats and air con, and it all weighs just 830kg. In fact, it’s got all you’d want from a car. It nips around corners and it’s fun to drive.

So, other than proving that Murray has exquisite taste (I’d kill you all for a Brabus Smart Roadster Coupe), what’s the point? That, having been there and done that in the world of high performance, Murray’s taking on a less obviously sexy but ultimately significant project that first occurred to him in a traffic jam back in 1993: the T.25 and T.27 city cars. We’ve written about Murray’s T.25 before, but the real news today is the release of specs for the T.27, an all-electric version of the tiny three-seater. And yes, it weighs 1,500 lbs on the nose (including batteries), and ekes 100 miles of range out of just 12 kWh. That beats the efficiency of competitors like the Smart EV (by 29%), the Mitsubishi iMiEV (by 36%) and MINI E (by 86%). So, how does it do it?

The lightweight body is just one part of the equation, allowing not only high efficiency, but also a radically low-energy, low-capital assembly technique called iStream, which does away with the steel stamping-based manufacturing process that has dominated automaking since Henry Ford. Murray explains the process in the video above, clarifying that his firm is not interested in actually manufacturing these vehicles, but that they are talking to other firms who might be interested in licensing the iStream process and building the T.25 and T.27.

But one of the most fascinating developments that keeps the T.27 so light and efficient is its drivetrain, which was developed by a British firm called Zytek. GreenCarCongress explains some of the most salient features:

Minimizing the torque requirement of the motor (to allow it to be smaller, lighter and more efficient) while maintaining vehicle performance, requires a high motor speed. Zytek analyzed a wide variety of motor topologies and designs using 2D and 3D simulation tools, leading to a reliable maximum motor speed of 14,500 rpm. This high operating speed allowed motor torque to be reduced to 64 N·m (47 lb-ft) while maintaining vehicle based performance targets.

The peak motor power of 25 kW (available for 30 seconds) means vehicle performance is maintained in all expected usage conditions.

The second major powertrain component is the three-phase inverter. Zytek concluded that the inverter should also combine battery charging and high-voltage switching capabilities. This has the added benefit of reducing the weight of high-current copper cable and also avoiding any reliability issues associated with use of high voltage connectors.

The total weight of the motor, inverter and gearbox is less than 50 kg (110 lbs), approximately 45% of that of a comparative, current production, water-cooled drivetrain with its associated radiator, cooling fluid, pumps etc. This light weight contributes to the low overall vehicle weight while the highly compact size means that luggage space can be increased compared to the regular internal combustion engined vehicle.

Gordon Murray has long compared his T.25 project with his other great accomplishment, the McLaren F1, arguing that building this kind of tiny, efficient and affordable (estimated cost: $9k for the gas-powered T.25 and about double that for the electric T.27) car requires the same kind of innovative thinking, only the task is made even more challenging by the absence of unlimited budgets and the need for creature comfort. With the T.27′s tiny powerplant, it’s radical front-hinging door, unique manufacturing process (said to require 10% of the startup capital of a typical auto plant), and all-round funky uniqueness, the Murray City Car is proof that the coolest cars need not be limited to the insanely wealthy. An argument, in fact, that the Smart Roadster once made in a slightly less convincing manner. Now the question seems to be: who’s going to build this thing?

The UK government on Sunday officially terminated the policy of concealing safety and revenue information for individual speed camera locations. The Labour government had held this information secret, but Road Safety Minister Mike Penning, a member of the Conservative Party, insisted on making it readily available to the public online.

“We want to improve accountability and make sure that the public are able to make informed judgments about the decisions made on their behalf,” Penning said in a statement. “So if taxpayers’ money is being spent on speed cameras then it is right that information about their effectiveness is available to the public.”

Each local jurisdiction has until July 20 to provide a website address to the Department for Transport (DfT) where the information will eventually be uploaded. The DfT website will serve as a centralized index pointing to the data maintained by each local authority. The department requires posting of annual collision data for each fixed camera location dating back to 1990. The number of tickets and driver education courses generated by each device must also be reported.

“In relation to offense data the department considers there is a strong justification in terms of public transparency and accountability to publish this information site by site for fixed camera sites,” the department explained.

For mobile cameras, each local authority must release its strategy for deciding where to place cameras. Releasing collision data for mobile locations and red light cameras is considered optional.

A working group of parties with a stake in speed camera use determined that the collision information would be reported using “STATS19″ data with killed and seriously injured figures combined into one “KSI” statistic. DfTadmitted in 2009 that police undercounted serious injury accident after the installation of speed cameras in their STATS19 KSI figures. The revelation followed a British Medical Journal (BMJ) expose that showed injury accidents were not decreasing after cameras came into widespread use (view 2006 BMJ study).

A copy of Penning’s letter to local authorities is available in a 40k PDF file at the source link below.

Source: Letter from Transport Minister (UK Department for Transport, 6/26/2011)

[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]

When you have nothing else to do down the road and read Japanese car import statistics, and when you will see a small bump of imports from Europe to Japan, remember what you did read here. Toyota will start importing its UK-made Avensis to Japan, where it will go on sale on September 19 for 2.5 million yen ($31,000).

What will be shipped is the “estate” (wagon) version. Toyota exports 85 percent of the cars it makes at its UK plants in Burnaston and Deeside, and Japan will join the 47 countries worldwide that gets them.

The Avensis is a Volkswagen Passat / Opel Isignia / Ford Mondeo sized car. Japan will take it in the in the Xi trim with the 2 liter 3ZR-FAE Valvematic engine with 152 hp and a Super CVT-i (Super Continuously Variable Transmission-intelligent) transmission.

A previous gen Avensis had already been exported to Japan.

To buy a British pound takes only 128 Japanese yen today, half of what it did cost pre-2008. The only thing Toyota Japan and Toyota UK have to agree on is the volume. The European release says “the vehicles will be shipped from the UK at a rate of 750 vehicles a month”, whereas the Japanese release is a bit more conservative and estimates 300 units a month. As long as the yen stays high and the pound affordable, the Japanese estimate will remain conservative.

Still, Toyota has a lot of catching up to do. The number one importer to Japan is Nissan.

Hello? Hello? Part one:

It is 7:00 am on a Friday morning in Shanghai, where an obviously insomnia-suffering Carmen Lee posted the following two hours ago (says Google) at Gasgoo. Gasgoo’s reporting quality had slacked a bit recently, but here is hoping they still can translate alright:

“Pang Qinghua, CEO of the Pangda Automobile Trade Corporation, the company hailed as Saab’s savior, had a short interview with the Beijing Times where he answered questions regarding Pangda’s proposed partnership:

Beijing Times: “When the four-way cooperation (between Pangda, Spyker, Saab and Youngman) agreed upon, what work needs to be done now?”

Mr. Pang: “Currently surveys are still being conducted, [according to which] Saab is doing very well. After [that] is completed, the official signing ceremony will take place, [with the document] being sent to the National Development and Reform Committee. Pangda and Youngman will be very cautious about the application process.”

The charitable assumption is that this interview took place before the emails went out to the Saab workforce that payroll cannot be met. The also charitable assumption is that Saab’s Chinese savior Pangda had been kept in the dark about Saab’s dire straits. Any other assumptions would lack charity. In any case, major loss of face for Mr. Pang, and there will be hell to pay.

Hello? Hello? Part two:

To rally the troops (who frankly are in a defeatist mood) over at Saabsunited, the Victor Muller fanzine gives them the pin-up pictured above. It has little effect on the troops who see blondes all day.

I did a little research into the etymology of the slogan printed on the breasts of the blonde. The British site keepcalmandcarryon.com informs us that the history of the slogan goes back to World War II. At that time, posters were printed up sans blonde.

“The plan in place for this poster was to issue it only upon the invasion of Britain by Germany.” ‘

I’d say it’s totally appropriate for the situation.

The New York Times has a nice article on the poster and the riffs it had spawned. Which one do you think is better suited? The red original, or the blue variation?

Whenever I mention Daimler’s Über-Benz Maybach, even people in the know often remark: “Haven’t they stopped making them a while ago?” No, they have not. But they might. Or not.

By June 30, Daimler will decide what to do with Maybach, CEO Dieter Zetsche told Automotive News Europe. If they find a partner, they’ll keep Maybach. If not, Maybach will be history – again. Between 1921 and 1940, the company made the opulent cars favored by stars and dictators. The brand lingered on unused while owned by engine maker MTU. MTU was bought by Daimler. In 2002, the brand was revived.

Confirming longstanding rumors, Zetsche finally said that Daimler has been in talking to Aston Martin about development and production of a next-gen Maybach.

“There is a higher likelihood to come to a positive decision” for a second-generation Maybach sedan if a partner is involved, Zetsche said.

According to Automobilwoche, Zetsche opined that spending a billion dollar to develop the Maybach was “not a good investment for a low volume car.” And that’s putting it charitably. Automobilwoche pegs worldwide Maybach sales in 2010 at 157 units. Initial estimates had projected 1,500 units per year.

Ladies and gentlemen, today is a historic day for the Aston-Martin brand. Never in the rich and storied history of the British sportscar maker has there ever been a vehicle, and therefore a review, quite like this one. Autocar handles the burden of history with the soft touch that defines nearly every “first drive” review, demeaning its own readers’ inability to purchase this exclusive Aston rather than daring to question its point, purpose, performance or purchase price. So read on, dear reader… because what we have here is a piece of automotive history. And since you’ll never own one of these proud and noble machines, you might as well use this opportunity to bask in its reflected glory. To wit:

The 97bhp four-cylinder engine feels and sounds energetic up to 50-60 mph. The optional CVT transmission gives easy step-off at traffic lights. In this car it it’s a much better option in a city car than any fiddly five-speeder.

The [Aston-Martin] can produce a quite refined cruising performance on motorways if necessary, though passing performance isn’t its forte.

The steering is feather-light and nicely accurate. If you haven’t sampled [this Aston-Martin] you’ll be surprised by the sheer pleasure that flows from using its scooter-like turning circle, especially when it’s a viable three-seater, that can occasionally cope with four if you don’t mind having no boot space.

But wait… that’s not all! Hit the jump for the answer to the question you’re doubtless asking yourself at precisely this moment: Should I buy one?

According to Autocar, the answer to that question is as follows:

Depends who you are. If you’re rich and are open to the concept of a luxurious little city car that can be selected from options list of a new Aston supercar, you may love the Cygnet.
Around 400 people, nearly all big Aston owners, have already ordered one, and the company reckons it can sell 1500 a year. If you’re not one of these people, don’t worry about it. Just don’t give the Aston Martin Cygnet another thought.

When Lotus showed five new cars at the Paris Auto Show last summer, the British Sports Car brand raised a number of eyebrows amongst the motoring press. Not only was Lotus abandoning its lovable but hugely unprofitable enthusiast/trackday niche, but it was also reaching for Ferrari and Porsche-style brand recognition while offering an ambitious but underwhelming (on paper anyway) vision of its future product lineup. Five new vehicles (three mid-engine, two front-engine, four two-door coupes, one four-door sports sedan) is a lot of development work, and initial reports that Lotus would use Toyota power including hybrid drivetrains didn’t create much for enthusiasts to get worked up over. Lotus has since backed away from using Toyota power, but developing engines for five new vehicles creates a whole new set of challenges. And, as it turns out, Lotus has wuietly backed away from the most ambitious elements of its plan, and the firm now plans to launch only two cars at first. Has Lotus turned the corner from hype machine to credible competitor?

In stark contrast to its splashy, celebrity-driven re-launch, Lotus’s recent change of plans has occurred without much fanfare. In fact, the news seems not to have percolated through the internet yet, as word comes to us from the pages of the print edition of evo Magazine. According to evo’s reporting, Lotus’s first all-new car will be the Esprit, a Ferrari 458/McLaren MP4-12C competitor with a Spring 2013 launch date. Lotus wants its mid-engined supercar to hit a weight target of 3,300 lbs, which would make it only slightly heavier than the ultra-light-weight MP4-12C, and more importantly, Lotus wants to sell the Esprit for some 20 percent less than the 458 and MP4-12C’s $250k-ish MSRP.

The Esprit will be powered by a naturally-aspirated V8, which Lotus is developing in-house. Wolf Zimmerman, who formerly oversaw powertrain and then vehicle development at AMG before joining Lotus, will guide development of this all-new V8 that he says will emphasize light weight and high-revs. Zimmerman does not favor dual-clutch transmissions (especially with a weight limit like the Esprit’s), and he’s looking at “several alternatives.” But perhaps the most interesting design feature of Lotus’s next-gen sportscars involves the placement of the (still undefined) gearbox, namely in a transaxle layout. This will allow the engine to bolt directly to the gearbox for the mid-engined Esprit, or to connect to a front-mounted V8 via a torque tube for the front-engine Elite GT car (due later in 2013). In either application, the gearbox will be mounted in the same position, allowing engineers to share key components between the two cars, including suspension, driveshafts and hub assemblies. This is one of the first bits of news from the new Lotus that in any way reeks of pragmatism, and is accompanied by Zimmerman’s pledge that he wants to build Lotus’s brand as much on a reputation for “intelligent engineering solutions” as stripped-out trackday racers.

And there’s one other bit of pragmatic news coming out of Lotus: earlier plans called for an end to the recently-developed Evora, but instead Lotus has decided it will keep the Cayman competitor in the lineup and continue to develop the model. A mid-engined, V6-powered Elan which was part of Lotus’s five-car Paris lineup has been dropped from the company’s plans, as it competed too directly with both the Evora and the Esprit, and likely would have required the development of  a new engine. Instead, the Evora will likely receive convertible and targa variants, as well as a track-tuned Exige-style trackday version.

Speaking of which, a new Elise isn’t planned until 2014, and it’s not clear if Lotus plans to develop its own four-cylinder engine for that application or if it will continue to rely on Toyota power. Nor is it clear how radically different it will be: Lotus says fiberglass composite construction is out for its new, larger models, but won’t say whether the Elise will move to aluminum body panels as well. Meanwhile, “purist” sportscars are out going forward: Lotus will continue to offer track-tuned versions of its cars, but the company vows to make things like cabin ingress and interior space and comfort less compromised in future iterations. The emphasis is now on “everyday useability.”

By keeping and developing the Evora, while focusing on two jointly-developed sportscar models, Lotus has clearly taken a step back from its monstrously ambitious but poorly-defined Paris plans. The new strategy, though not without its pitfalls, seems considerably more evolutionary and pragmatic thananything else we’ve heard from Lotus thus far. But the firm’s not out of the woods yet: Lotus is waiting on a “derogation application” to the EU in Brussels, requesting the governing body grant it the right to produce cars with double its 2007 C02 output levels.

Lotus is arguing that it couldn’t stay afloat with its previous business model, and claims it will still be greener than Ferrari, Lamborghini and the rest of its high-end European competition. But the plans for high-revving, normally-aspirated engines, even as the competition moves towards downsized, forced-induction and even hybrid drivetrains, could spell trouble. And if, nine months or so from now, Brussels tells Lotus that it doesn’t want another high-carbon automaker in its jurisdiction, all the development work on that in-house V8 could be for naught. And if that happens, Lotus could find itself short a lot of development money and without a lot of options. Though exhibiting a decided turn towards the pragmatic, Lotus’s newplans are hardly without their risks…

The reboot at Lotus has been much discussed in the motoring press, but amidst all the talk of styling and strategy, one of the brand’s major competitive issues has been widely overlooked. Lotus’s strategy is, in essence, to build up its brand to the level of a Porsche or Ferrari… in other words, reviving the UK’s position in the brutally competitive world of European sportscars. But just as Lotus is eying a return to greatness, targeting the top-tier of the sportscar market, another UK competitor with (at least) equally-burnished credentials is making is own play for a slice of the high-performance road car market: McLaren. Unlike Lotus, McLaren’s racing roots aren’t just deep, but are recent as well; the brand is rebuilding its legacy on the strength of its Formula One racing heritage as much as its legendary F1 road car. And unlike Lotus, McLaren has already delivered one of the more intriguing road cars in recent memory, the MP4-12C, which is lighter and faster than Ferrari’s lauded 458, while breaking new technical ground with its carbon fiber monocoque and adaptive hydraulic suspension.

And now Autocar reports that McLaren is following up its Mp4-12C with a limited-edition flagship hypercar boasting 800 HP from a 5 liter V8 that should hit 100 MPH in 5.5 seconds. With a 2014 launch date, the “Mega Mac” should hit the market just after Lotus introduces its first, rapidly-developed sportscars… and make Lotus’s task of capturing the position of UK’s top sportscar brand much, much harder. Can Lotus make up the difference with branding alone? We’ll sure enjoy watching the battle unfold, as nerdy, product-led, race-tech-happy McLaren takes on splashy, branding-led, glamor-happy Lotus.

The UK new car market fell by 7.4 percent to 137,746 units. This was the 10th successive monthly decline in volumes and the UK’s Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) that keeps track of those things thinks its just cushty.

The society expected worse, and declared that “the market was 1.5 percent ahead of forecast and on par with the 2010 market” if one removes the effects to the “banger for cash” scrappage scheme. For the first four months of 2011, UK registrations are down 8.5 percent to 696,082 units. Undaunted, the SMMT thinks that the UK is good for 1.93 million units in whole year 2011 sales.

With 52.7 percent of the total market running on oil, the Brits are even more into diesel that the Germans, where 46.7 percent of new car registrations were oilburners in April. The VW Golf was the best selling diesel in April. The Ford Fiesta remains the top selling car overall in the month and year-to-date.

The South Norfolk Regional Growth Fund has denied Lotus’s request for a £27.5m loan intended for expansion at its Hethel headquarters, reports Autocar. In a statement the sportscar firm, which is in the midst of a major turnaround, said

Despite the clear synergies between Lotus’s growth plans and the fund’s objectives to enable private sector organisations to invest in projects that would create jobs and secure long-term growth, the bid team decided that the money was better invested elsewhere

Now why would that be? After all, even Lotus’s own adviser, Bob Lutz, gives the firm a 60% chance of success. What investment could possibly offer better odds than that? But don’t cry for Lotus. The firm’s parent company, Indonesian automaker Proton, has secured some £270m in private loans from six banks with which to fund the brand’s turnaround. The only question now: will the funding shift from British taxpayers to Asian bankers mean a shift in production away from the UK, as Lotus had threatened might happen if the RGF loan didn’t come through? There’s no word on that yet, and based on Lotus’s desire to loft its brand into Porsche/Ferrari territory, we’d have to argue against leaving the country that birthed the brand.