The dust, or maybe it’s tailpipe exhaust, is beginning to settle, and it seems likely that Congress will approve another $2 billion for the bankrupt Cash for Clunkers program. The House voted 316-109 to make that happen this afternoon. “Cash for Clunkers may have run out of cash, but America’s consumers haven’t run out of clunkers,” said Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA), who voted to...
Auto Industry Archive
July 2009
All sides in Washington – Republicans, Democrats, the Obama Administration, the House and the Senate – agree without exception that they don’t want to get involved in micromanaging the U.S. auto industry. “I don’t want to run auto companies,” President Obama has said. But inevitably, with U.S. taxpayers as major shareholders in Chrysler and GM, that’s exactly...
In just a few days, the unexpected success of the U.S. government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program helped boost the July sales rate to the highest level so far this year, according to an analyst’s report. “July industry sales of light vehicles appear to have received a nice boost over the past few days from the government’s CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System)...
The “Cash for Clunkers” program, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), is only four days into handing out money and—like GM and Chrysler—it is already basically bankrupt, putting the Obama Administration into an incredibly embarrassing situation. At presstime, the program was still in place as Congress sought more funding for it. Indeed, if Congress doesn’t add...
Can you start an EV company with 10 people and $5 million in private investor funding? Dan Russo thinks so. The 30-year veteran of auto suppliers has done just that as CEO of Green Go Tek, based in Milford, Michigan. It doesn’t quite operate out of a garage, but its headquarters is 3,300 square feet, and its tech center, where pilot testing is done, is 7,500 square feet. It would fit into a...
The message to the auto industry from consulting firm Booz & Company is similar to what cigarette companies were told just a few years ago: Your future may lie mostly in rapidly emerging economies (REEs) outside the strongholds of North America, Europe and Japan. Go east, the new analysis says. By combining expansion into these REEs, Booz says, “more than 370 million additional vehicles...
Nissan reported a small net loss of $170 million – small, considering revenue for the quarter ended June 30 fell 35.5 percent versus the year-ago quarter. Nissan President and CEO Carlos Ghosn said Nissan will stick with a program of belt-tightening. Nissan has reduced inventories of unsold cars and trucks, and cut spending nearly across the board, including a 20–percent cut in budgets for...
Investment capital is the holy grail during this recession, but Coda Automotive co-chairman Kevin Czinger has managed to raise $24 million in a Series B investment round for his new battery electric car, including some cash from prominent political players. Coda’s car is about the size of a Toyota Corolla, and is based on the Saibao sedan made by China’s Hafei Automobile Group. Coda has a...
Honda stayed in the black for the fiscal quarter that ended June 30, but just barely. Like other automakers, Honda is trying to cut production and expenses faster than the fall in demand. Earlier today, Germany’s Daimler reported a net loss of about $1.5 billion for the same quarter. Honda’s net income fell to about $79 million for the quarter, a drop of 95.6 percent. Honda blamed...
Daimler earnings fell to a net loss of about $1.5 billion in the second quarter, versus net income of close to $2 billion in the year-ago quarter. The company’s spinmeisters stressed that Daimler narrowed its loss versus the first quarter of 2009, and that the company expects passenger-car sales to improve in the second half. That’s because of greater availability and new variants...
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