Industry

The latest findings from research conducted by UBS and Ricardo points to combined annual diesel and hybrid gasoline vehicle sales in the US of 2.7 million by 2012, 15% of the overall car market. The study goes further and purports that sales of diesels will outstrip gasoline hybrids by 1.5 million...

The Malaysian Proton car dealers may go bust if the government fails to develop a foreign alliance for the national car maker. Currently 180 Proton dealers have had losses over 20 million ringgit in the last financial year. This is due to the market share dropping from 60% to 30% with the arrival...

Germany’s largest independent carmaker and supplier, Karmann, has lost its contract to supply Audi with A4 Cabriolets. However, it will soon start building the smaller A3 drop-top. According to German publication Automobil Industrie, an Audi exec has revealed that Magna Steyr will supply...

Now that Daimler is on its own and no longer suffering the financial setback of the loss-making Chrysler brand, the luxury German carmaker will be very tempting as a possible takeover target in the eyes of cash-rich private equity investors. Until recently, most takeovers in the auto industry were...

Updated:China's Chery Auto has denied claims that its deal with DaimlerChrysler to supply a Chinese built minicar to the US and Europe was put on hold. A spokesman for Chery today told Reuters that the deal was progressing, although he failed to elaborate on its current status or whether Chery...

It’s hard to imagine that less than ten years ago Chrysler commanded a 16.1% share of the US market and was turning over billion dollar profits. In 1999 it reported a profit of $5 billion, which also happened to be the first year of its alliance with Daimler. Compare that with the $1.98...

MG branded cars will once again roll off the production line in Longbridge, ending the two year production halt after the collapse of MG Rover. Chinese company Nanjing Auto will begin building MG TF convertibles at the plant on May 29, with cars expected to be sold in the UK, as well as Germany and...

Victor Muller, the CEO and founder of Dutch sports car company Spyker Cars has officially retired from his post and will be replaced in the meantime by his colleague and Spyker’s F1 director Michiel Mol. This latest announcement ends months of speculation that Muller was preparing to leave...

After 23 years running his self-titled motorsports and tuning shop, Steve Saleen of Saleen Inc. has announced his official retirement. He leaves his position as vice chairman of the board but plans to stay on as a corporate spokesperson and ambassador for the brand. The company was made famous by...

Chrysler dropped its ties with its foreign parent this week but the future will see it seek out other global partners in a quest to build its international presence. The split from Daimler won’t have any effect on previous plans to co-develop a small car with China’s Chery Auto and...

The US will have to wait longer to see the introduction of some of Europe’s hot sellers because of a weakening in the US dollar against a strong euro. Ford bosses have had to drop plans to import a new European crossover to be sold under its premium Lincoln label because it simply became too...

To combat the ever continuing rise in gasoline prices, researchers in Japan are experimenting with an alternative biofuel based on the elements of traditional Sake fermented rice wine. The government-funded project will call upon local farmers from the Shinanomachi province to the north of Tokyo to...

Chrysler could have a possible savior in the form of Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska and the company he indirectly runs, Russian Machines. Magna International Inc., the last remaining bidder for the ailing carmaker, has announced that the Russians would invest close to $1.54 billion to help...

There’s no stopping Toyota. Less than a month after the Japanese giant was announced as the world’s number one carmaker, the superpower today reported that annual profits have risen 19.8% to a record $1.64 trillion yen ($14 billion). Revenues, which rose 13.8%, reached 23.94 trillion...

In what could prove a disastrous blow to the US auto industry, a Senate committee has approved a bill that would force carmakers to improve average fuel economy levels of their fleets by 4% a year starting in 2011. At that rate, fuel efficiency levels will average 35mpg by 2020 but no long-term...

The Ferrari brand is synonymous with desirability and exclusiveness, a combination that leaves buyers often waiting up to 24 months just to take delivery of one. Remember, people who can afford to spend a couple hundred thousand dollars on a car aren’t used to waiting more than five minutes...

Maserati is in desperate need of a sales boost following its 17th year of running at loss, and the lucrative US market is probably its best chance of reaching its goal of turning over a profit this year. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne boasted that "Maserati will finally return to profitability in...

After months of speculation and rumor surrounding possible buyers for the Chrysler Group, reports are now surfacing that Canada’s Magna is the sole remaining party interested in acquiring the company from its German parent. The news comes from Germany’s Automobilwoche, who reports that...

Volkswagen has posted a profit of €386 million for the first quarter of the year, a much better result than the €49 million loss it made last year over the same period. Analysts cite the introduction of new models, such as the Eos and CrossGolf, as well as an increase in demand from...

The auto industry limelight may not be shining on Jaguar at the moment, but the Coventry-based carmaker is still in major financial trouble. Its recent C-XF concept car managed to shift focus away from its loss making operations, but now the $715 million hole left in last year’s results has...