Auto Industry Archive

Now for the hard part: General Motors still needs to achieve a deal with its bondholders to accept GM stock instead of cash for $24 billion worth of GM debt, to avoid a GM bankruptcy filing effective June 1. GM cleared a significant hurdle on May 21, reaching a tentative with the UAW, to bring UAW wages in line with nonunion U.S. factories for Nissan, Honda and Toyota, and for the UAW to accept...

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The future of the auto industry, or at least a growing slice of the auto industry, sounds like a loud whine. That’s not a commentary on environmental zealots or the entrenched, gasoline-addicted auto industry — even though both sides whine loudly for or against tougher standards for emissions and fuel efficiency. The loud whine I’m thinking of comes from the Tesla Roadster,...

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All the talk about hybrids and battery electric vehicles (EVs) somewhat obscures the fact that the internal-combustion engine will be with us for quite a while to come. And it makes a lot of sense to optimize it for fuel economy and emissions. Ford has now done just that with its EcoBoost engines, which have just started production at the company’s venerable (it first opened in 1951, and had...

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 While most car companies are retrenching, Hyundai Motor America is keeping up a drumbeat of new product introductions and splashy advertising. Hyundai calls its product plan “24-7,” for seven new vehicles in 24 months, through 2011. The first two out of the box of seven are the Hyundai Elantra Touring station wagon, which went on sale in November 2008, and the Hyundai Genesis...

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A low-level production alliance between longtime luxury German automakers BMW and Mercedes is not as certain as it appeared earlier this year, with BMW showing signs of hitting the brakes. When the plan to share parts and components arose in March, analysts cheered and this low-level uber-luxury European marriage seemed imminent. But now BMW is having second and third thoughts about commitment...

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It’s a partnership that makes a lot of sense: Germany’s Daimler, one of the inventors of the automobile more than 100 years ago, is acquiring a “nearly” 10 percent stake in one of the newest and fastest-moving (in both senses of that) companies around: California-based Tesla Motors. The exact price for the stake wasn’t disclosed, but Dr. Thomas Weber, a member of Daimler’s board,...

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NEW YORK — The automotive engineers that deal with sound devote most of their time to eliminating NVH, for “noise, vibration and harshness” inside cars and trucks. But in some cases, especially with certain kinds of engine sounds, they may work instead to turn up the volume. “Noise is unwanted sound,” said Mark Vojtisek, Ford Motor Co. manager of integration, in a...

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As we move toward the Memorial Day weekend, who knows exactly what a gallon of gasoline will cost? As I write this, oil prices—after rising steadily for the last several weeks—have started to slide, based on data suggesting the economic recovery may take longer than previously thought. June delivery oil was at $59.08 a barrel (after rising as high as $60.48). A gallon that costs $2.31 today...

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The White House will announce tomorrow a broad new federal standard for regulating greenhouse gas from cars and trucks. Assuming my sources are correct, the standard will be 30 mpg for trucks and 39 mpg for cars by 2016—roughly equivalent to the California standards (known as “Pavley” after the sponsoring state assemblywoman) that were blocked by the Bush White House (and under...

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Car dealers are badly divided over the issue of deep cuts in the dealer ranks at Chrysler and General Motors. That’s going to make it difficult for the National Automobile Dealers Association to do much more than protest, as Chrysler and GM confirmed last week they intend to cut a total of about 1,900 dealerships between them, around 1,100 at GM and nearly 800 at Chrysler. “A rapid...

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