by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 9, 2014
BMW and its partner SGL Automotive plan to triple their production of carbon fiber, a lightweight, but traditional expensive, material that many believe could be crucial to meeting future emissions and mileage mandates – and to making battery-electric vehicles, such...
by Joseph Szczesny | May 9, 2014
Congressional investigators are asking if General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra and other senior executives knew more than they have admitted publicly about when the automaker considered how to deal with a faulty ignition switch issue linked to at least 13 deaths....
by Joseph Szczesny | May 9, 2014
General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. increased their sales in China during April: GM climbed 6.3% to a record 278,263 units, while Ford’s sales increased by 29% to 96,829 units. GM reported Shanghai GM and SAIC-GM-Wuling, as well as their Buick, Chevrolet,...
by Michael Strong | May 9, 2014
Since 2009, the production of new cars and trucks around the world has grown by nearly 25 million units, and one organization is predicting by 2021 it will rise by another 21 million units. In 2009, there were 61.8 million vehicles produced, which was a 12.4% drop...
by David Kiley | May 9, 2014
Ford CEO-designate Mark Fields is happy to have been tapped by Ford chairman Bill Ford and the Dearborn automaker’s board of directors to succeed CEO Alan Mulally this July. But it wasn’t always so. The day before Bill Ford announced that Alan Mullaly as CEO on Sept....
by Mike Brunker | May 9, 2014
The family of a 14-year-old Central California girl is suing BMW North America and a local school district over the teenager’s heat stroke death inside a locked vehicle from which there was allegedly no escape. While an average of 38 children left alone in cars die...
by Joseph Szczesny | May 9, 2014
Just two days after FCA’s marathon session where the company laid out its plans for the next five years, CEO Sergio Marchionne dropped a bombshell that was left out of the meeting: FCA’s headquarters will be in London. “My office will be in London. It has to be,”...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 8, 2014
Finally – but will anyone actually notice? That’s the question the folks at Smart, the microcar division of Daimler AG, have to be worrying about as, after much too long of a wait, they finally get ready to launch two all-new models. And a new video posted on Youtube...
by Michael Strong | May 8, 2014
Just after announcing a $1.8 billion share repurchase plan, Ford Motor Co. held its 59th annual shareholders meeting, which quickly became an Alan Mulally lovefest. The meeting, held in Wilmington, Del., began with a video memorial to William Clay Ford, gave...
by Joseph Szczesny | May 8, 2014
While sophisticated technology has become an essential tool in the modern automotive styling studio, it still requires a human touch to bring designs to life. “The artistic aspect is critical to car design,” stressed Tom Peters, the lead designers at...
by Michael Strong | May 8, 2014
Ford Motor Co. plans to spend $1.8 billion as part of a plan to buy back 116 million shares of stock. The repurchase plan is aimed at offsetting potential dilution of the stock. “These actions are consistent with our overall capital strategy to take anti-dilutive...
by Paul A. Eisenstein | May 8, 2014
Even after paying a $1.2 billion settlement to the U.S. Justice Department to settle a safety dispute, Toyota Motor Co. wrapped up its fiscal year with record annual profits and sales, Toyota becoming the world’s first maker to ever sell 10 million vehicles in a...
