While America Slept. Friday, February 20th, 2009

by Bertel Schmitt

Published: February 20th, 2009

while america slept friday february 20th 2009

An overview of what happened in other parts of the world while you were in bed. TTAC provides round-the-clock coverage of everything that has wheels. Or has its wheels coming off. WAS is being filed from Beijing until further notice.

Opel needs more money: Up until now, Opel had mentioned that they may need €1.8b in loan guarantees “just in case.” Now Manager Magazin reports that Opel will definitely need twice the amount. There are mounting indications that the German government will only part with the money if Opel is spun off and totally separate from GM. States where Opel has plants have indicated that they would take a stake. Also, there is pressure from Berlin that GM finally transfers the €1b which it owes Opel. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is still waiting for a viability concept promised, but not delivered, by Opel.

Nissan’s Chinese CVT plans: Nissan plans to roll out vehicles with higher fuel economy in China, using a local venture to manufacture cars installed with continuously variable transmissions (CVT) the Nikkei [sub] writes. Nissan plans to equip (by 2012) 50 percent of the cars sold in China with a CVT. Affiliate firm Jatco Ltd. is set to open a CVT factory with an annual capacity of 140,000 units in China’s Guangzhou municipality at midyear.

Daimler imports hybrid to Japan: Daimler plans to import the hybrid version of the Mercedes S-Class to Japan, starting in October, the Nikkei [sub] reports. Daimler AG plans to release the hybrid S-Class in Europe during the first half of this year. The S-Class would become the first imported hybrid passenger car sold in Japan. It could also end up being the first imported car to take advantage of the tax breaks on eco-friendly cars coming into effect this April.

Plug-in Chery: China’s largest homegrown car maker, Chery Automobile, has rolled out its first own-brand plug-in electric car model, Gasgoo writes. Chery says the electric car can run up to 150 km (94 miles) on a single charge. The Chery S18 has a top speed of 120 kmh. It can be fully charged at a home electrical outlet within 4-6 hours and 80 percent charged in half an hour. The car uses iron-phosphate-based lithium-ion batteries. The Chery S18 electric model reportedly will come to the market within a year for less than 100,000 yuan ($14,600).

Taiwan gets cars from mainland China: As part of the cross-strait thaw, Taiwan’s Prince Motors plans to introduce cars made by China’s Chery, Gasgoo reports. As Taiwan doesn’t allow importation of completed cars from the mainland, the cars will be imported as kits and assembled in Taiwan.

Cerberus in the reds: The German Manager Magazin reports that Cerberus closed out 2008 with their first loss in history. Mostly due to Chrysler: Chrysler’s sales fell 16 percent in 2008. In previous years, investors enjoyed returns between 16 and 27 percent.

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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Runfromcheney on Feb 20, 2009

Wow, it seems that everybody who touches Chrysler is getting ill. Daimler lost 1.8 billion in Q4, 1.4 billion came from their stake in Chrysler.

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John Horner on Feb 20, 2009

GM has been parting itself out slow-motion style for about two decades. Now the pace is accelerating.

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Recent Comments

Jalop1991 In a manner similar to PHEV being the correct answer, I declare RPVs to be the correct answer here.We're doing it with certain aircraft; why not with cars on the ground, using hardware and tools like Telsa's "FSD" or GM's "SuperCruise" as the base?Take the local Uber driver out of the car, and put him in a professional centralized environment from where he drives me around. The system and the individual car can have awareness as well as gates, but he's responsible for the driving.Put the tech into my car, and let me buy it as needed. I need someone else to drive me home; hit the button and voila, I've hired a driver for the moment. I don't want to drive 11 hours to my vacation spot; hire the remote pilot for that. When I get there, I have my car and he's still at his normal location, piloting cars for other people.The system would allow for driver rest period, like what's required for truckers, so I might end up with multiple people driving me to the coast. I don't care. And they don't have to be physically with me, therefore they can be way cheaper.Charge taxi-type per-mile rates. For long drives, offer per-trip rates. Offer subscriptions, including miles/hours. Whatever.(And for grins, dress the remote pilots all as Johnnie.)Start this out with big rigs. Take the trucker away from the long haul driving, and let him be there for emergencies and the short haul parts of the trip.And in a manner similar to PHEVs being discredited, I fully expect to be razzed for this brilliant idea (not unlike how Alan Kay wasn't recognized until many many years later for his Dynabook vision).
B-BodyBuick84 Not afraid of AV's as I highly doubt they will ever be %100 viable for our roads. Stop-and-go downtown city or rush hour highway traffic? I can see that, but otherwise there's simply too many variables. Bad weather conditions, faded road lines or markings, reflective surfaces with glare, etc. There's also the issue of cultural norms. About a decade ago there was actually an online test called 'The Morality Machine' one could do online where you were in control of an AV and choose what action to take when a crash was inevitable. I think something like 2.5 million people across the world participated? For example, do you hit and most likely kill the elderly couple strolling across the crosswalk or crash the vehicle into a cement barrier and almost certainly cause the death of the vehicle occupants? What if it's a parent and child? In N. America 98% of people choose to hit the elderly couple and save themselves while in Asia, the exact opposite happened where 98% choose to hit the parent and child. Why? Cultural differences. Asia puts a lot of emphasis on respecting their elderly while N. America has a culture of 'save/ protect the children'. Are these AV's going to respect that culture? Is a VW Jetta or Buick Envision AV going to have different programming depending on whether it's sold in Canada or Taiwan? how's that going to effect legislation and legal battles when a crash inevitibly does happen? These are the true barriers to mass AV adoption, and in the 10 years since that test came out, there has been zero answers or progress on this matter. So no, I'm not afraid of AV's simply because with the exception of a few specific situations, most avenues are going to prove to be a dead-end for automakers.
Mike Bradley Autonomous cars were developed in Silicon Valley. For new products there, the standard business plan is to put a barely-functioning product on the market right away and wait for the early-adopter customers to find the flaws. That's exactly what's happened. Detroit's plan is pretty much the opposite, but Detroit isn't developing this product. That's why dealers, for instance, haven't been trained in the cars.
Dartman https://apnews.com/article/artificial-intelligence-fighter-jets-air-force-6a1100c96a73ca9b7f41cbd6a2753fdaAutonomous/Ai is here now. The question is implementation and acceptance.
FreedMike If Dodge were smart - and I don't think they are - they'd spend their money refreshing and reworking the Durango (which I think is entering model year 3,221), versus going down the same "stuff 'em full of motor and give 'em cool new paint options" path. That's the approach they used with the Charger and Challenger, and both those models are dead. The Durango is still a strong product in a strong market; why not keep it fresher?