ISSUE 1003 Published - 16 February 2010
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LAST month’s new car sales in Western Europe
rose by an outwardly soothing 15.7 per cent.
With the sole exception of Germany, where
expectedly January sales fell 4.3 per cent from
already low 2009 levels, most other markets
reported healthy gains, albeit from last year’s
exceedingly poor levels. ...more



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Peugeot’s 5008 - a compact People-Carrier based on a stretched 308 platform is gunning not only for VW’s Golf based Touran, Opel Zafira, Renault Grand Scénic, but also its already well established stable mate Citroën C4 Grand Picasso - has been launched by the French brand currently roaring with confidence following a recent corporate marketing makeover  ..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

In what ranks as one of the global autoindustry’s worst years in post-war history, sending tremors through the ivory towers of most market participants, just a few major global markets effectively managed to sidestep last year’s all too obvious pitfalls ...more

USA  - US vehicle market gets off to a promising start
US market splutters back to life

The deeply recessionary US Light-vehicle market may be starting to splutter back to life, according to latest January sales figures, after tumbling last year to its lowest level since 1982  ..more

STOCK MARKET VIEW - "The axeman cometh" - Bernhard and Daimler
Bernhard handed Mercedes pruning knife

Could he lead Mercedes talks with Renault on small cars? - Bernhard now seen as heir apparent to CEO Zetsche ...more

Toyota sought to expand too quickly, forgetting key principles ...more

Early days yet, just one month into a year that is widely predicted to suffer a likely 10 per cent sales contraction, but when judged from a flying start, Renault appears determined to land back on its feet ...more

ISSUE 1002 Published - 02 February 2010
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LAST year’s global passenger car production looks considerably healthier than could have been expected during the early part of last year when something close to wild-eyed panic summed up the closely harboured real mood of most autoindustry thinkers. ...more


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At a time when the only certainty is uncertainty, Toyota has launched a new car that will defy all industry expectations if it fails to attract large numbers of willing buyers both in domestic Japan and abroad ..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

By any standards, China’s car market has experienced the most extraordinary year ...more

CHINA  - "Miraculous deathbed recovery"
China’s small domestics were last year’s big winners

If ever proof was needed that timely and well chosen government action can ride to the rescue of a clearly struggling domestic carmaker, China provides the evidence ..more

STOCK MARKET VIEW - Toyota’s sticky-throttle - hard stab on brakes
Factories shut, production of eight vehicles idled

Action linked to unintended acceleration recall - It’s a public relations nightmare for Toyota ...more

Marchionne wants to see more realism, less romance ...more

GM, following an eleventh hour decision to keep rather than sell its European offshoot, comprising both the Opel and Vauxhall vehicle brands, gave notice of its intention to close this year its Belgium Antwerp vehicle assembly site, resulting in the loss of some 2,600 jobs ...more

ISSUE 1001 Published - 15 January 2010
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IT could have been so much worse. With 13.6 million new cars sold in Western Europe last year, 2009 has indeed turned into a far, far better car sales year than feared, thanks in large measure to government sponsored scrappage incentives which acted like a life-preserving adrenalin shot to a seriously sick patient. ...more


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Audi, currently the world’s fastest gaining prestige brand and fully in keeping with its "Vorsprung durch Technik" motto, provided the first hands-on experience of the cutting-edge technology to be featured on its all-new A8 luxury car which is due to hit dealer showrooms this spring ..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

Volkswagen Group, made up of an assortment of brands such as Audi and Škoda, made most of last year’s favourable conditions on domestic soil ...more

USA  - Detroit show under bankruptcy shadow
"Electric Avenue" shows preoccupation with battery power

With two of the former Big Three US manufacturers GM and Chrysler emerging a little sheepishly from bankruptcy, the mood at the 2010 Detroit Car Show is understandably understated ..more

JAPAN - Toyota Prius is Japan’s 2009 top selling car
Prius, with 208,876 sales in Japan, takes last year’s car sales crown

Last year showed signs of things to come.
Toyota’s third generation Prius, the world’s way
and ahead most successful petrol-electric
hybrid car, has topped Japan’s best-seller
league with margin to spare ...more

Last week, Peugeot has made it obvious that it won’t stand idly by and simply watch ambitious and combative Volkswagen Group, Hyundai-Kia or anyone else carve up global market share ...more

Peugeot says that between now and 2015 it will unleash little less than a product blitz aimed not only at its traditional European markets, but like Fiat before, it plans to unleash a range of new models that are aimed chiefly at the specific tastes of buyers in China, Russia and South America ...more

ISSUE 0923 Published - 17 December 2009
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AUTOMATICS, after more than a decade of unbroken growth, took a record share of last year’s West European car production, marking the 11th successive year of unbroken growth ...more


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With a hitherto unfamiliar publicity drive for a forthcoming new small car, Ford is evidently keen to capture media headlines and create the image of an environmentally conscious company with a product many doubted could appeal to US consumers ..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

Suzuki likely to provide VW with useful springboard for Asian markets like India UK ...more

WESTERN EUROPE  - "What Slump?"
West Europe-November’s 30.6% car sales blitz cuts 11-months deficit to a mere 0.7%

November car sales figures in Western Europe were the sixth set in a row to show volumes at levels well above those recorded in the same month a year earlier, giving rise to the upbeat prospect that this year’s car sales remain on track to match the 13.5m cars sold during the whole of last year ..more

STOCK MARKET VIEW - "Wedding Bells?" - PSA/Mitsubishi
PSA seeks closer relationship with Mitsubishi

"There is no other alternative" hardly a ringing endorsement - Mitsubishi’s battery car expertise impresses though - Could this help Peugeot’s long promised return to the US? ...more

French carmakers, worried about Volkswagen’s perpetually strengthening leadership position even at the worst of times, stage last minute sales rally ...more

The huge shock following news that Britain’s November sales of trucks in the over 6t GVW class slumped almost 60 per cent might have been expected to trigger a severe downward revision of next year’s truck sales forecasts ...more

ISSUE 0922 Published - 02 December 2009
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Both Brazil and China in particular, two of the four BRIC countries, have fully lived up to upbeat earlier expectations by acting as powerful motors at a time when many other global automotive markets were dogged by persistent serious misfire ...more


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Volkswagen Group, buoyed by the promising market reception of its latest Golf VI, which headed West Europe’s model sales league during the nine months to September this year, has added a newly developed 1.6 litre diesel engine to its Golf range that thanks to its more appealing price is likely to appeal to growing numbers of fuel conscious buyers ..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

With this year’s passenger car sales total almost certain to set a new record, probably exceeding 2.3 million units, Brazil’s passenger car market, excluding all light commercials, will be bigger than major West European markets such as France, Italy or even the UK ...more

SOUTH KOREA  - "Car Export Juggernaut"
Importers are losing out in Korea’s re-energized car market

Korean consumer spending on cars rebounded in May, after falling in each of the previous months, as tempting scrappage incentives for cars nine year and older first enticed bargain hunters back to dealer showrooms ..more

WESTERN EUROPE - MAN CEO Samuelsson hands in resignation
Samuelsson’s decision to vacate MAN helm is tipped to clear path for speedy MAN-Scania integration

Notorious in Europe’s close-knit commercial vehicle industry for his uncompromising independence and plain speaking manner, after tendering his resignation as chief executive of MAN, Hakan Samuelsson has questioned the future independence of the truck and engineering group ...more

European car sales will slide at a slightly quicker rate in 2010, but forecasters are confused about the impact of the ending of government subsidised car scrapping schemes ...more

Peugeot-Citroën, the French vehicle maker, said late last month it had revised upwards its 2009 full year forecast" ...more

ISSUE 0921 Published - 17 November 2009
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ANOTHER good turnout in October, with West European car sales topping last year’s exceedingly poor levels by a healthy-looking 15.8 per cent, clearly supports the upbeat view that the governments’ potent autoindustry stimulus packages were evidently enough to reverse a nightmarish decline in sales that first began during last year’s second quarter...more





 



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Echoing Toyota’s courageous earlier decision to build and market in volume the world’s first full hybrid car - the first generation Prius - Renault also hopes to reap significant competitive advantage and associated green laurels with its no less pioneering intention to build and sell a purely electrically powered range of volume produced vehicles ..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

Truck market remains mired in deepest recession, and if anything, the market has further deteriorated as the year progressed, suggesting that it will be some time yet before the entrenched truck sales slump has finally bottomed out ...more

WESTERN EUROPE  - "Volkssturm"
From zero to hero - VW marque on course for new heights

The Volkswagen brand, the biggest of Europe’s volume car makers, turned in unexpectedly strong sales during this year, setting it on track this year to equal the record 11.6 per cent sales share in Western Europe it first recorded in 1992 on the back of Germany’s reunification sales bubble ..more

WESTERN EUROPE - Hyundai/Kia - "India ace card"
Europe’s 3rd quarter car production down 4.3% - lowest drop so far

Korean car maker Hyundai, turning on its head the idea that all car makers in this year’s autoindustry crisis were dogged by fast ebbing sales, has bucked the downward trend. ...more

Questions about Euro bias, Faurecia issue remains unanswered - Short-term profitability improves, but concerns mount about 2010 ...more

Tough to achieve it Chrysler must more than
double sales, make hefty profits by 2014 - Are
Fiat products good enough to make it in the US?
- "Execution on every play will have to be
flawless" ...more

ISSUE 0920 Published - 03 November 2009
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GLOBAL passenger car production continued to shrink in the third quarter, but the pace of contraction slowed significantly as substantial extra government spending allied to demand boosting car scrappage schemes started to loosen the grip of the autoindustry’s potentially deepest slump in post war history...more









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Toyota unveils new SAI petrol-electric hybrid, evidently cast from the same mould as latest Prius, while sharing much of the Prius’ unique hybrid driveline and structure..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

Market leader Volkswagen, testament to its
sharper competitive bite and determination to
press on when the going is good, already sold
more cars here than it did during the whole of
last year...more

JAPAN  - "Prius heads sales chart"
Japan - Government handouts spark hybrid sales boom

A package of government funded stimulants, anchored by familiar scrappage incentives and a tempting green car subsidy, kicked back to life
Japan’s sick looking car market...more

EUROPE - "Getting Better"
Europe’s 3rd quarter car production down 4.3% - lowest drop so far

Despite an extremely gloomy start to this year, with European car production missing year earlier levels by more than a third, a mere three months further into the current year, and thanks to earlier introduced car scrappage schemes in a number of markets, the picture had changed markedly for the better ...more

As Europe’s car manufacturers protested about the proposed easing of import taxes on South Korean car imports, Hyundai announced spectacular global profits, with more to come ...more

Investors expect action from Varin at November 12 meeting - Solid profitability not expected until second half of 2010 - "Eurocentricity", capacity use, Faurecia need sorting ...more

ISSUE 0919 Published - 15 October 2009
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SEPTEMBER saw the 4th successive and biggest rise to date in West European car sales, tempting optimists to the view that finally the market has found a safe and secure track out of the mire, thus pointing towards brighter skies on the immediate horizon ...more









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When the first of Opel’s new 5-door Astras rolled off Ellesmere Port, UK, assembly lines late last month, some market watchers were quick on the
draw..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

While the past few months of West European car sales and production data has sparked a cautious mood of optimism, thanks entirely to special factors such as scrappage incentives, contrasting truck data for the same spell - considered a bellwether of true underlying economic health - is telling an altogether less soothing tale ...more

WESTERN EUROPE  - Car sales recovery "Mirage"
Europe’s September car sales buzz is not what it seems

Hardnosed market watchers concede that latest numbers couldn’t fail but produce a climate of cautious optimism among Europe’s battered car industry that finally the worst was over...more

UNITED KINGDOM - Honda props up UK output with small Jazz
Tumbling CR-V and Civic sales tempt Honda to also build small Jazz in the UK

Honda’s UK Swindon car manufacturing plant, mothballed for four months earlier this year as a reaction to the mounting stockpiles of unsold new cars at both dealer and factory premises, first sprang back to life this June, but not with its usual vigour ...more

Morgan Stanley reckons US recovery will boost Chrysler, but lack of new Chrysler product could inhibit progress - Will management concentration in US hamper Fiat? ...more

Mercedes, one of the top league players in Europe’s medium van market together with Ford, Fiat and Volkswagen, to name but a few, has launched a topical fuel-sipper package for its Sprinter medium van range ...more

ISSUE 0918 Published - 02 October 2009
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WEST EUROPE’s previously flourishing car market, after hovering well above the 14m mark for the past half dozen years thanks to a perpetually inflating consumer debt bubble, has slipped to lows not seen for more than a decade...more









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Volkswagen’s notably younger and more dynamic-looking new Polo hits the scene at the best possible time..more

IN DEPTH AND OTHER ARTICLES

This year’s impressive sales rebound in Western Europe, by common consent, is not a sign of a strongly recovering new car market ...more

FRANCE  - Kiss of life
French government’s flowing cash taps prevent domestic car sales slump

Across the French market both carmakers and dealers were enjoying the fruits of the government’s car scrappage scheme, which clearly kept cheque-ready buyers flocking to showrooms...more

STOCK MARKET VIEW - Daimler - "Knives out"
Decks cleared for cost cutting at Mercedes

Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche did the rounds at Frankfurt, sounding optimistic here, lauding Mercedes new products there, but no word on where the expected axe will fall to slash costs and cut capacity. With the election now out of the way, action will not be long delayed.. ...more

Crisis? What crisis? One million fewer German sales might qualify - Renault battery gamble likely to stumble over cost, practicalities - Huge Electric, CO2 investment means only the strongest survive ...more

But electric gamble overshadows more prosaic
action - Investors embrace idea of asset sales
insurance - Electric market share of 10 per cent
by 2020 looks over-ambitious ...more