While America Slept. Wednesday, December 10, 2008

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: December 10th, 2008

while america slept wednesday december 10 2008

German VeeDub dealers want Wolfsburg bail-out: Most of VW’s dealers in Germany are in dire straits. They are looking to Wolfsburg for financial help. “Others can ask for government help, we need the help of Volkswagen and the Volkswagen Bank,” said Michael Lamlé, head of the VW/Audi dealer council to Automobnilwoche (sub.)

Stimulus, Russian style: To protect the nascent Russian car production, and to lure/blackmail more manufacturers into building in Russia, the country has raised its import duty on new cars to 30 percent, reports Automobilwoche (sub.)

Chinese VW workers get German Christmas holidays: Volkswagen’s two joint ventures in China are planning to give their workers 15 working days of vacation from mid-December until the beginning of January, Gasgoo reports. SAIC will make approximately 20,000 units less. VW’s second venture FAW-VW has similar plans. VW has already sold 931,000 cars in China through to the beginning of December this year and is determined to hit the 1m mark.

Chinese car sales in reverse gear. China’s Car sales in China dropped 8.1 percent in November compared to the same month in the prior year, Gasgoo reports. According to the National Passenger Car Association (NPCA,) the economic slowdown hit the consumer’s pocketbook. The top ten automakers in November by sales are FAW-VW, Shanghai VW, Dongfeng Nissan, Shanghai GM, FAW-Toyota, Guangzhou Honda, Beijing Hyundai, Chery, BYD and Geely. Dongfeng Nissan made the top three for the first time. Shanghai GM, down to No.4, saw November sales plummet by 30 percent.

Great Wall goes to Bulgaria: China’s largest SUV maker Great Wall has plans to manufacture in Bulgaria, Gasgoo says. Great Wall plans to invest 80 million Euros in a new car plant at Lovech, about 170 km northeast of Sofia. Last month, Great Wall had given up on a joint venture in Russia. Russia’s loss, Bulgaria’s gain.

Re-badged Cherys selling in Europe: Italian DR Motor will sell rebadged versions of Chery cars by mid-2009, a Automotive News report said Monday. Last month, Munich-based car importer China Automobile Deutschland (CAD) began selling Chery A1, Easter CROSS and Tiggo in Germany, with the name of each of the imported models changed, says a report by Gasgoo.

A reminder of what can happen to discretionary purchases in a saturated market: Mobile phone shipments in mobile phone crazy Japan dropped 57.8 percent in October to 1m units, The Nikkei (sub) reports. Japan, a country of 128m people, has more than 100 million mobile contracts. Suddenly, they don’t want the latest gadget anymore and keep using the very serviceable older model. Sound familier?

Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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BlueBrat on Dec 10, 2008

The cel-market in Japan is surprising considering their legendary affection for theri (superior) cel phones. Nokia pulled out recently, except for their [s]snobby[/s] concierge line.

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