While America Slept. Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009
Here they come: China’s SAIC will sell its homegrown cars to Spain, UK, and Israel beginning in 2010, Gasgoo reports. Some of the cars will come directly from SAIC’s assembly plants in Shanghai and Nanjing, while others will come from the company’s UK assembly plants, which SAIC acquired from Rover. The UK will get domesticated Chinese. All cars will comply with EU Euro-5 emission standards.
Germany down 14 percent in January: Not quite 19 percent as feared yesterday, but close. Germany sold 14 percent fewer cars in January 2009 than in January 2007, Automobilwoche [sub] reports. If you are looking for a statistical savior: Adjusted for buying days, the drop is only 8 percent. All eyes on the clunker culling money, €2.5K. It was introduced 1/27, too late to save the first week of the year.
Sania rejects Porsche, Porsche happy: Much to the relief of Porsche, Sweden’s truckmaker, Scania, rejected a bid Porsche had to make after taking over VW, the Wall Street Journal [sub] writes.
Y’all come back now: Toyota wants to rekindle the flame with the man credited with its rapid growth in the U.S. market, Yoshimi Inaba, the Nikkei [sub] reports. Inaba is now the president of Central Japan International Airport Co. Inaba is expected to leave his current post in June, but his position at Toyota has not been determined. The highest position he held at the automaker was executive vice president.
Tata in the red: Tata Motors reported a loss of $53m in the October–December (Q3) 2008 period due to foreign exchange loss and a massive decline in sales, India Times reports. Net sales revenue for the company in Q3 fell 35 percent and sales volume dropped 32 percent.
Mitsubishi sees red: Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is likely to log a group net loss of around 20 billion yen for the year ending March 31, the Nikkei [sub] says. The red ink will be the carmaker’s first in three years. It could swell further depending on how sales in the January–March quarter pan out.
Red Maos for green cars: Consumers in 13 Chinese cities will receive a financial subsidy if they buy energy-saving and new energy cars, Gasgoo reports. No details on the subsidies were released.
Chinese profits down: Many Chinese automakers, including Changan Auto, SAIC, FAW Xiali and Jianghuai, have warned that their net profit for 2008 may have dropped by 50 to 100 percent due to sluggish demand and higher material costs, Gasgoo writes.
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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I can't wait to read the Top Gear review of the home-fried SAICs. They're going to be brutal.
What are the Euro-SAICs going to be called? Roewe, the name given to the Chinese Rovers after BMW asserted ownership over that brand or MG, since the Chinese own that brand and call some of their cars that too?