by Ken Zino | Jul 21, 2010
The Economic Monitoring Center of China National Bureau of Statistics and Sinotrust International Information & Consulting today said that even though the Chinese market was growing at a record 18-million unit rate for the first half of 2010, it can’t be sustained...
by Marty Bernstein | Jul 21, 2010
A few years ago in a sweeping change in positions that surprised the auto industry, Jack Pitney, then head of the new Mini division, switched jobs with Jim McDowell, who was serving as the British marque’s vice president of marketing. In the famous words of Yogi...
by Bryan Laviolette | Jul 21, 2010
Hey 007, Lotus might be developing a successor to your ride in “The Spy Who Loved Me.” Or, maybe not. The British sports and race car maker has issued a cryptically worded press release that says it expects to make a major announcement at the Paris Auto Show....
by Ken Zino | Jul 21, 2010
In an automotive world where the term “all-new” is frequently abused, the description actually applies to the 2011 version of Kia’s Sportage sport utility vehicle. This sub-compact “cute ute” has been around for three iterations going all the way back to 1995. Then...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jul 21, 2010
It was the first to launch a battery-powered vehicle in the U.S. market, but Honda Motor Co. has been surprisingly reluctant – until now – to embrace the evolving electrification of the auto industry. While its competitors have pushed into more advanced hybrids,...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jul 20, 2010
When Ford launches its all-new 2011 Explorer sport-utility vehicle, next week, it will stage a splashy unveiling in New York’s Herald Square and back it up with an aggressive marketing mix using social media and mainstream television. But unlike the automaker’s...
by Joseph Szczesny | Jul 20, 2010
Both the Ford Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. have signed off on settlement with Paice LLC in a contentious patent dispute over hybrid technology. Paice had charged both Ford and Toyota with violating a specific patent that it had owned since 1992. If the supplier’s...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jul 20, 2010
Once the most powerful American in the Japanese auto industry, Jim Press has resurfaced, this time working for the Renault/Nissan Alliance. The 63-year-old Press is serving as a consultant on sales, service and marketing issues for the Euro-Asian partnership, a...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jul 20, 2010
Toyota could be in trouble yet again, and the subpoena it has received from a U.S. federal grand jury in New York suggests that its latest setback could result in criminal charges relating to steering problems with its Corolla and other models. The newest subpoena was...
by Ken Zino | Jul 20, 2010
Jiangling Motors Corp (JMC) broke ground over the weekend for a new $300 million assembly plant in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province, 775 km southwest of Shanghai. The plant will have the capacity to produce up to 300,000 vehicles per year when it opens in 2012. Jinagling...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Jul 19, 2010
It’s been a decade since former Ford Motor Co. CEO Jacques Nasser pledged to increase the fuel economy of the maker’s trucks and sport-utility vehicles by “25-in-5.” But while Ford will be a little late in that pledge to boost mileage 25% in 5 years, it will actually...
by Bryan Laviolette | Jul 19, 2010
The gearbox wars continue to heat up. Mercedes-Benz engineers are trying to determine just how many transmission cogs are enough – and perhaps more importantly, how many the public will accept. Numbers always seem to matter in the auto industry. But in an era of...
