 | //03-10-2009 YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- It was fun while it lasted, but General Motors Co. woke up to a harsh reality check in September. Sales for the giant automaker plunged 45% during the month compared to the same period last year, a signal that demand for autos collapsed as the federal government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program came to an end in August. |
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| //03-10-2009 DETROIT (Reuters) - U.S. auto sales tumbled by 23 percent in September as showrooms emptied after the government-funded boom from the "cash for clunkers" program, with General Motors Co and Chrysler hardest-hit.
Sales for General Motors Co and Chrysler -- the two U.S. automakers struggling to regain momentum after emerging from bankruptcy -- dropped by 45 percent and 42 percent, respectively.
Ford -- the only U.S. automaker to have avoided bankruptcy -- managed to hold its sales decline to 5 percent from a year earlier despite low inventories and reduced incentives for car shoppers |
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| //03-10-2009 Exhibitors pledged are ahead of schedule, repairs under way, expansion is planned... |
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| //02-10-2009 TOKYO South Korea's Hyundai Motor Co. said this week it's skipping the Tokyo Motor Show, joining a string of foreign automakers that have decided to miss one of Asia's major auto shows.
Hyundai's decision comes just three weeks before the biennial event opens to the media Oct. 21. The show opens to the public three days later. The organizers had already included Hyundai in a diagram of the booths.
Hyundai Motor Co. will not be an official exhibitor at the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show because of the global economic downturn, which has forced a more careful allocation of resources, Hyundai said in a statement. |
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| //28-09-2009 Ford Motor Co. plans to build a new assembly plant in China while Toyota Motor Co. will start selling an entry-level family car, as the world's automakers pour more resources into the growing Chinese car market.
Ford said Friday it plans to spend $490 million on a third assembly plant in China. It will make the Focus compact car, which Ford plans to sell globally. The announcement from the city of Chongqing comes the day after Ford unveiled a made-in-India compact car — part of a plan to boost sales in Asia, a region the automaker is counting on to drive growth. |
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| //28-09-2009 Toyota Motor Corp., the largest automaker in China, will develop a mini family car targeted at China, one of the biggest auto markets worldwide, said sources. |
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| //28-09-2009 The future, as they say, is now, and it revolves around gas prices and fuel economy standards that require vehicle fleets to get 35 mpg by 2016.
"Gas prices will stay stable in 2010 but increase as the global recession ends in about a year and demand builds again for small cars," said Steve Hill, general manager for retail sales support at General Motors. "That gives us time to adjust our product portfolio and bring out our Volt, other hybrids, and other small vehicles with better mileage." |
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| //27-09-2009 STUART, FL -- Major automakers are now endorsing a texting while driving ban ahead of a Transportation Department summit next week on distracted driving.
Members of an auto industry trade group representing 11 automakers including General Motors, Ford, and Toyota are expressing concern about highway safety risks.
The group supports allowing certain hands-free devices.
However, experts from the Safety Council of Palm Beach County say hands-free devices really don't make a difference because motorists full concentration is not entirely on the road. |
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| //27-09-2009 The auto industry for decades worked to make cars as quiet as possible. With electric cars the near ultimate has been achieved — virtually no noise at all.
But we may have a problem. To be more specific, pedestrians may have a problem. And if you’re a blind pedestrian used to hearing cars coming, there may really be a problem. |
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 | //18-09-2009 Hybrid automakers build new cars equipped with alternative fuel components that extend mileage. It is part of a growing movement around the world where vehicles with better fuel economy are in high demand. It is also a movement that is saving automakers from a total economic collapse.
This is a list of the current companies that make hybrid cars. Each section also provides information on each automaker and the hybrid electric vehicles they sell. We update this page regularly as new automobiles and companies enter the market. |
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| //18-09-2009 Affected by the global economic crises, China's automobile sales fell for several months in the second half of 2008, and the downtrend continued even to the first one or two months of 2009. Many automakers didn't dare to expect high in forecasting the 2009 China auto market, and didn't prepare more output for a possible boom. So when the sales have been accelerating in recent months, they rush to increase capacity to fulfill the rising demand, but their Tier-1,-2 or-3 suppliers may not have enough capacity to follow. |
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 | //14-09-2009 The automaker says it is launching its ambitious 'May the Best Car Win' campaign to reverse its sinking market share. The program begins Monday and lasts through November. |
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 | //14-09-2009 The world's on-again, off-again commitment to commercialize the hydrogen car appears to be on again, with the announcement this week by eight major automakers that they anticipate "a few hundred thousand" of them on the world's roads by 2015.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said it will no longer attempt to kill federal funding for hydrogen car technology. |
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| //12-09-2009 DETROIT — Can a straight-talking Texan and a money-back guarantee persuade American consumers to buy a car from General Motors?
In its first major marketing campaign since emerging from bankruptcy, G.M. is putting its new chairman, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., in the spotlight as the spokesman for its offer to give customers a full refund within 60 days on any G.M. car or truck.
The campaign, called “May the Best Car Win,” is part of G.M.’s effort to change its lingering image as a financially struggling company with substandard products. The first television ads will begin Sunday, featuring Mr. Whitacre, the 67-year-old former AT&T chief who was recruited by the federal government to lead G.M.’s reconstituted board. |
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| //12-09-2009 Anyone who has spent any time on roadways in the last several years has no doubt witnessed several near misses caused by drivers distracted by trying to use text messaging on their mobile phones or respond to email using a mobile device—and, unfortunately, many of us have also witnessed or been victims of outright accidents caused by "texting while driving." Last July, New York Senator Charles Schumer and Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy (both Democrats) introduced legislation that would ban texting and emailing while driving. Verizon Wireless quickly jumped on board, declaring their support for the plan, and now Ford Motor Company has became the first automaker to support a ban on driving while texting. |
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| //12-09-2009 Analysts say it's only a matter of time before Chinese automakers locate operations in the United States.
And officials in Indiana are trying to make sure the state is at the top of the site selection list.
Chinese automaker Geely Group has been courted twice in three years by Indiana trade delegations and each time expressed interest in the state, most recently in a meeting this week with Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Officials at Geely, which is attempting to buy Volvo from Ford, showed specific interest in the state, as did auto-parts maker Wanxiang Group and about eight suppliers, Daniels said in a telephone interview from China. The eight were not identified. |
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| //07-09-2009 Canada's consumer car market is changing dramatically as Toyota and Honda pull away from long-time leader General Motors, whose share excluding fleet business has now plunged by almost half since 2005.
Meanwhile, Ford and Chrysler, the other two Big Three North American-based automakers, have fallen out of the top five passenger-car sellers to consumers in the country this year, according to statistics from DesRosiers Automotive Consultants.
Chrysler, which held 7.8 per cent of the car market in 2005, has slid to less than 3 per cent and dropped to 10th place behind Mazda, Nissan, Volkswagen, Hyundai and even its South Korean cousin, Kia, during the first six months of this year. |
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| //07-09-2009 Ford Motor Co.’s credit rating was raised for the first time since 1995 by Moody’s Investors Service, which cited the automaker’s cost cuts, available funds and “robust” vehicle lineup.
The corporate rating was revised two steps higher to Caa1 from Caa3, Moody’s said in a statement today. The new grade, which affects about $25 billion in debt, is seven levels below investment status. Moody’s also changed its outlook for the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker to stable from negative. |
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| //06-09-2009 Toyota and Honda might have been among the biggest winners from the monthlong cash-for-clunkers stimulus, but in order to close those sales, they spent more than twice as much in August as they did a year ago on cash-back rebates, discounted financing and other incentives for cars. |
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| //06-09-2009 Indian stocks rose, led by commodities suppliers and consumer goods makers, after metals rose on speculation that an economic recovery will increase demand and a government agency said monsoon rainfall increased.
Sterlite Industries (India) Ltd., the nation’s biggest copper producer, rose 4 percent as the metal climbed. Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., India’s largest maker of tractors, jumped 6.7 percent after a soybean processors group said widespread monsoon showers in July aided sowing. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., the maker of half the cars sold in the nation, climbed to a record on the expectation that the company will sell more cars in the festival season starting this month. |
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