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AUTOMAKERS NEWS * USA
* Michigan - CEO Marchionne may still buy all of Chrysler
Auburn Hills, MICH,USA -The Detroit News, by Bryce G. Hoffman -November 14, 2012: -- Fiat-Chrysler CEO, Sergio Marchionne, has conceded that he no longer has enough money to buy the rest of Chrysler Group LLC — but he may still have ways of coming up with it, including taking luxury carmaker Ferrari public... And he has time to figure it out. While the United Auto Workers, or at least the union-run retiree health care trust that currently owns 41.5 percent of Chrysler, can begin the process of taking the Auburn Hills automaker public again after Jan. 1, experts say the process of preparing the initial public stock offering would likely take most of next year... Fiat SpA owns the other 58.5 percent of Chrysler, and Marchionne has made no secret of his interest in buying out the union trust. But on Oct. 30, he announced a bold investment plan for Europe that will require him to spend the money he had set aside to do that... Like other automakers, Fiat is struggling in the economically troubled European market. But while other companies are responding by closing factories and cutting jobs, Marchionne is doubling down in the hope of passing the competition...
* Michigan / USA - Marchionne: Chrysler's $250M investment a 'milestone'
Auburn Hills,MICH,USA -The Detroit News, by Bryce G. Hoffman -November 15, 2012: -- Chrysler Group LLC announced nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in new investments Thursday and said it would add about 1,250 jobs at three of its Michigan plants to boost production of engines and pickup trucks... The automaker confirmed previously reported plans to invest $198 million to add production of its Pentastar V-6 motor at its Mack I Engine Plant in Detroit — a move that is expected to create 250 new jobs at the factory... Chrysler also said it will add a third shift at its Warren Truck Assembly Plant in March of next year. That will mean the addition of about 1,000 new jobs at that factory, which produces the Ram 1500 pickup... Finally, the company said it would invest $40 million in its Trenton North Engine Plant to install a flexible assembly line capable of building both the Pentastar and four-cylinder Tigershark motor...
* Michigan - Ford wagon to be built in Spain
Dearborn,MICH,USA -The Detroit News, by Karl Henkel -November 14, 2012: -- Ford Motor Co.'s new Transit Connect Wagon is headed to showrooms in the United States late next year, but the family vehicle won't be manufactured here in North America... Instead, the automaker will make its Valencia, Spain assembly plant a hub for Transit Connect Wagons. That will help to solve two of the company's biggest conundrums: a lack of manufacturing capacity in North America and excess capacity in struggling Europe... Here in North America, Ford is operating at 114 percent capacity, vice president of North American manufacturing, Jim Tetreault, told reporters last week. But in Europe, capacity is at just about 50 percent of maximum output, according to analysts. Ford has desperately tried to match European production to meet demand, much like it did in its North America restructuring following the recent auto crisis...
* California - Pathfinder crosses over
* California - GM: Build 500K electrics annually by '17
Sausalito,CAL,USA -The Detroit News, by Melissa Burden -November 15, 2012: -- General Motors Co. plans to build 500,000 vehicles a year by 2017 that would be powered in some way by electricity, the automaker's head of global product development said Wednesday... If GM meets that goal, it would account for about 5.5 percent of the automaker's total annual sales... GM plans to expand its global electrified-vehicle sales through a variety of technologies including plug-in electrics, pure electrics and hybrids that use the company's eAssist technology, said Mary Barra, GM's senior vice president of global product development. She spoke via satellite feed from Detroit to media gathered at GM's Electrification Experience press event here... The company is on track to sell more than 50,000 vehicles equipped with the company's electrification technologies in the U.S. this year, Barra said...
* California - Volt batteries could light homes during power failures
Sausalito,CAL,USA -The Detroit News, by Melissa Burden -November 15, 2012: -- General Motors Co. and ABB Group on Wednesday showed off a second use for old electric-vehicle batteries: Using them as a way to store electricity that can then light homes in the event of a power failure. Or, they could store electricity from a time of day when power is cheaper, and then deliver that electricity during more expensive peak-demand times... The companies teamed up with Duke Energy to package five Chevrolet Volt lithium-ion batteries into a unit which could provide about two hours of electricity for three to five average U.S. homes. The unit can provide 25 kilowatt hours of power and 50 kilowatt hours of energy...
* DC - Nissan's Ghosn: U.S. must back alternative vehicles
Washington,DC,USA -The Detroit News, By David Shepardson -November 14, 2012: -- Renault-Nissan CEO, Carlos Ghosn, who has bet more than $5.6 billion on electric vehicles, said Tuesday that the United States must diversify away from gasoline-powered vehicles and support alternative vehicles... At the Wall Street Journal CEO forum here, Ghosn noted that transportation accounts for more than 70 percent of all worldwide oil use... He also said the United States needs a coordinated energy policy between federal, state and local governments, and called for further tax incentives and public-private partnerships to boost alternative technologies... Ghosn didn't comment on whether Nissan will meet its sales target of selling 20,000 all-electric Nissan Leafs in 2012, which would be twice its sales in 2011. Sales are off 16 percent this year, and through the first 10 months Nissan has sold just 6,791 Leaf EVs. But Leaf sales were up 86 percent in October to 1,579...Ghosn has vowed to cumulatively sell 1.5 million EVs by 2015...
* California - Toyota to pay $25.5 million to settle shareholder suits
Los Angeles,CAL,USA -The Detroit News, by David Shepardson -November 14, 2012: -- Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle claims from shareholders who said they were harmed by the Japanese automaker's recall for unintended acceleration of millions of vehicles in 2009-10, court documents filed Tuesday show... The proposed settlement, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, covers all U.S. Toyota shareholders who bought stock between May 2005 and Feb. 2, 2010. The settlement said there are "tens of thousands" of people who purchased stock during the nearly five year period. The company did not admit wrongdoing... The negative publicity initially wiped out $30 billion in Toyota's market capitalization, lawyers for the shareholders said... The shareholders claimed the automaker concealed problems with the vehicles and that they would not have purchased the automaker's stock had they known. Toyota stock, known as American Depository Shares, trades on the New York Stock Exchange...
- AUTOS RECALLS -
* DC - GM recalls Cadillac XTS to fix head restraints
Washington,DC,USA -The Detroit News, by David Shepardson -November 14, 2012: -- General Motors Co. is recalling 12,425 of its new 2013 Cadillac XTS sedans to replace the rear-seat head restraints that may not lock in place... The Detroit automaker said in a notice posted Wednesday the recall covers XTS sedans built from Oct. 12, 2011, through Aug. 30... The recall covers 12,626 XTS models in the United States, 181 sold in Canada and 19 exported to other markets. No injuries or crashes have been reported... GM said the vehicles may not comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards on head restraints...
Labels: automakers news USA and Canada
posted by Unknown @ 9:30 AM
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