Auto Industry Archive

The fight in Congress over mass dealer dismissals at Chrysler and General Motors is heating up, with opposing testimony expected today from the car companies, and from dealers. Politically, the auto dealer dispute has a strong Democrat-versus-Democrat aspect, as Democratic congressmen, especially in the House, are lined up against the Democratic Obama Administration, which oversaw fast-track...

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Having immersed myself in covering electric vehicle (EV) and plug-in hybrid startup companies for BNET Autos, I think I’m in as good a position as any to offer five things companies need to do right to make it in the shark-infested waters of the current highly stressed auto market. Don’t over-promise. Start-ups that talk about producing 20,000 cars annually (or even 10,000) in their first...

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So far, American car buyers seem happy with the ongoing switch to smaller cars with smaller, more fuel-efficient engines, according to a recent study by J.D. Power and Associates. That’s not a given, considering the nation’s obvious preference for big trucks with big engines, until fuel prices started climbing in 2004. After being punished by high fuel prices, it’s ironic that...

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The Honda Accord started rolling off the assembly line at Honda’s plant in Lincoln, Ala., which before now only manufactured truck models. The flexibility to build a car in a truck plant or vice versa is a big competitive advantage for Honda, since it allows Honda to shift production in response to consumer demand, without having to build a new factory.   In this particular case, Honda...

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The morning email contained a rather calculated solicitation: a “Russian scientist” and a University of Iowa student had cooked up a fungus that translated into inexpensive cellulosic ethanol—mandated by the federal government as part of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. What’s more, 21 billion gallons of the 36 billion gallons mandated had to be “advanced biofuels.”...

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Chrysler must be starting to worry about proposed legislation that would force Chrysler and also General Motors to reverse drastic cuts to their respective U.S. dealer networks. Chrysler’s vice president, network development and fleet, Peter Grady, yesterday posted an item on the Chrysler blog for journalists, thefirehouse.biz (which requires a password), defending Chrysler’s...

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Quick, what’s the largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries in the U.S.? If you answered, “Quallion,” congratulations—you’re in the tiny minority who knows something about America’s fledgling battery industry. “We’re privately held, profitable for the last five or six years, and we’re like a little secret,” says Paul Beach, president of Sylmar, California-based Quallion....

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Is the world ready for electric vehicles (EVs)? Yes, says a survey by Better Place, Shai Agassi’s aggressive EV-charging  station company. Of course, Better Place  has a vested interest in an affirmative response to that question, but EV interest does seem to be on the rise. According to a poll conducted by market research firm Ipsos for Palo Alto, California-based Better Place, 30 percent...

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BOULDER, Colo. — Crossover models are like the old joke where two hunters confront a bear, and one of them starts putting on a pair of running shoes. Hunter No. 1 says, “You can’t outrun that bear.” Hunter No. 2 says, “That’s OK, I only have to outrun you.” Crossovers may not be the best in any one attribute, but they do a lot of different things well...

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A group of General Motors white-collar retirees protested their reduced pension benefits outside a July 14 speaking engagement by President Barack Obama at a community college in Warren, Mich. Meanwhile, former GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner is quietly set to became one of the company’s newest retirees. Wagoner fought the idea of bankruptcy and was unceremoniously forced out by the...

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