by Bryan Laviolette | Oct 28, 2010
Vehicle weights have been going up for years as consumers demand more features, the government pushes stricter safety regulations and designers seek stiffer vehicle structures. So for this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show Design Challenge, organizers asked design studios...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 27, 2010
Its name is short for “Build Your Dreams,” but could the “B” in BYD soon stand for “bust”? It’s starting to look like that for the Chinese firm that started out as a cellphone battery supplier but has morphed into one of that country’s more ambitious, home-grown...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 27, 2010
It may be based there, but Fiat would be better off without Italy, suggests the automaker’s outspoken CEO Sergio Marchionne. Often critical of the country’s less-than-efficient bureaucracy and its demanding unions, Marchionne warned, on one of Italy’s leading TV...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 27, 2010
Confirming a corporate switch in direction, Honda Motor Co. President and CEO Takanobu Ito will pull the wraps off a pair of new battery cars at the upcoming Los Angeles Motor Show. While the maker is saving specific details for the November 17th unveiling, it has...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 27, 2010
More than a year after teasing a select group of media with a look at a proposed small car, tentatively dubbed the ATS, Cadillac will this week announce plans to put the new model into production at a plant near Lansing, Michigan. The sedan, smaller than the current...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 27, 2010
Even when combining conventional hybrids with more advanced plug-ins and pure battery-electric vehicles, or BEVs, Power’s new Drive Green study projects that demand for all forms of battery-based vehicles will account for only 7.3% of the total worldwide automotive...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 26, 2010
Detroit’s top two makers have scored significant gains in reliability and customer satisfaction, according to the latest annual automotive reliability survey by the influential Consumer Reports magazine. But while Ford and General Motors are starting to reach...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 26, 2010
BMW is recalling 150,000 recent models sold in the United States due to the potential failure of their fuel pumps, which could lead to trouble starting an impacted vehicle or reduced performance. The recall growing reports of problems with some of the maker’s...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 26, 2010
A variety of challenges, notably including its ongoing safety problems, are taking a toll on Toyota Motor Co., the maker reporting its production fell last month, even as its home-market rivals posted production increases. Even as Toyota struggles to overcome its...
by Joseph Szczesny | Oct 26, 2010
Ford Motor Co. plans to spend $850 million over the next two years to make six-speed transmissions standard across its product line while adding 1,200 jobs at transmission and axle plants in Michigan during the same timeframe. Mark Fields, Ford president of the...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 26, 2010
Ford Motor Co. has posted its best third-quarter profit in two decades, reporting earnings of $1.69 billion for the July-September quarter, or 43 cents per share. Yet again, the earnings ran ahead of what industry analysts had been forecasting, at least once special...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | Oct 25, 2010
Imagine getting a new 2011 Nissan Leaf for nearly two-thirds off the sticker price. That very well could happen for some buyers of the battery-electric vehicle if they live and work in the right places. Given the range of tax credits and other givebacks coming...
