Auto Industry Archive

The tiny, $2,230 Tata Nano “People’s Car” was unveiled this week at Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Hotel, the same stately and venerable edifice, near the Gateway to India arch, which was horrendously invaded by terrorists last November. It was perhaps not the best setting to emphasize India’s stability, since Tata itself faced disquieting landowner unrest that required it to abandon the almost...

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Two Arab governments, the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the State of Kuwait, are now the biggest shareholders of Germany’s Daimler, best known as the maker of Mercedes-Benz. Aabar, an investment company headquartered in Abu Dhabi, this week announced the purchase of shares representing 9.1 percent of Daimler, for about $2.7 billion. Aabar’s largest stakeholder is the International...

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Paul B. Wilbur has 27 years experience in the auto business, including four years at Ford and 17 at Chrysler. Most recently, he was the CEO of major sunroof maker ASC. His latest venture, Aptera (the name means “wingless flight” in Greek), is definitely the biggest departure of his career. This year, he’s launching an electric car. Aptera’s partners in a 2008 Series C round include...

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NEW YORK — Audi has no plans to join the stampede to smaller, entry-level cars in the U.S. market any time soon, according to Johan de Nysschen, president of Audi of America. Audi has such a car in the global pipeline, the A1, which is slotted below Audi’s smallest car of today, the A3. But de Nysschen said in effect that if Audi were to import the A1 here, for American tastes it...

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I was stunned recently to be offered the loan of a Bentley Continental GT Speed. It was like winning the lottery. The car as tested costs $227,205. I didn’t think they lent them to mere mortals. With this Bentley Continental, virtually everything is oversized, not just the price. It has 600 horsepower from a twin-turbo Volkswagen-derived 12-cylinder engine and can reach 60 mph in just 4.3...

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Coming soon to a television near you, here’s a look at the Kia Soul “cool hamsters.” I mentioned them in a recent blog, but didn’t have the images before now. Kia’s ad agency, David&Goliath, El Segundo, Calif., employs simlar, nonconformist imagery with fish, with chess pawns, with sheep and with robots, in ads for the Kia Soul, which just went on sale. In TV...

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Auto parts suppliers got a welcome glimmer of good news on March 19 in the form of a $5 billion U.S. Treasury Department program to help suppliers get access to much-needed cash. The $5 billion program is only a glimmer, because on Feb. 16, the Washington-based Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association and its affiliate, the Original Equipment Suppliers Association, had asked Treasury...

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Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) have no more committed champion than Felix Kramer, founder of the nonprofit California Cars Initiative, also known as CalCars.org. Kramer was advocating for the commercialization of PHEVs when most carmakers were still denying that a business case could be made for them. Now, with PHEVs from both General Motors (the Chevy Volt) and Toyota (an adaptation...

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Automobile racing, the largest spectator sport in the U.S., is not immune to the sinking economy. Speedway Motorsports, which  owns such stockcar racetracks as Atlanta Motor Speedway, Bristol Motor Speedway, and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, said it expects to book revenue of $480 million to $520 million in 2009, significantly below 2008 sales of $611 million. Amid current economic woes,...

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In an idea with considerable synergy, Toyota is said to be considering a new version of the popular MR2 sports coupe with a version of the Prius’ drivetrain under the skin. As first reported in the UK-based Auto Express, the Prius-on-steroids will have rear-wheel drive, paddle shifters, a seven-second zero-to-60 time and 50 mpg. And it will be priced under $30,000. Toyota is no doubt taking...

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