By Tim Pollard and Sarah-Jayne Harrison
Motor Industry
04 November 2010 14:31
Welcome to CAR Magazine's news aggregator as we round up the daily stories in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour
Thursday 4 November 2010
• Car sales dropped dramatically last month. New figures from the Society of Motor Manufactrurers and Traders reveal a 22% drop in October registrations to 131,495. However, October 2009 was artificially high, riding on the scrappage scheme (SMMT)
• Better news if you look at the year-to-date. Up to the end of October, UK car sales are up 4.8% on 2009. They're forecasting just over 2m sales this year, up 1.5% on last (SMMT)
• Aston Martin CEO Ulrich Bez claims the company remained profitable throughout the recession. He said Aston would not seek a partner and was working well as an independent concern (Automotive News Europe)
• US car sales reached their highest level this year in October. Industry leaders Ford and Toyota fell short of some smaller rivals, including South Korea's Hyundai (FT.com)
• BMW third-quarter operating profit margin of 8.1% fell short of rivals Mercedes’ by 9.5% and 11.2% behind Volkswagen. BMW shares dipped 0.7% on their publication on Wednesday (FT.com)
• Panasonic has invested m into electric car specialist Tesla to develop battery tech; it joins Daimler and Toyota, who have both invested in Tesla already (Automotive News)
Wednesday 3 November 2010
• Volvo has pulled a U-turn and the new owners say they won't plan an S-class rival as was mooted a few weeks ago. New CEO Stefan Jacoby told ANE that no such car existed in the short or medium term (Automotive News Europe)
• GM will not have to pay US federal taxes on up to billion of profits for 20 years. With the standard federal corporate tax rate at 35%, the tax break could save GM .5bn, not factoring in tax deductions (Automotive news)
• The US government is tipped to sell at least 263.5 million GM shares, as it prepares its IPO this month (Detroit news)
• BMW is benefiting from sales in China as sales rise 36% for the third quarter of 2010 (BBC news)
Tuesday 2 November 2010
• Tata Motors’ total sales of cars and vans - including Jaguar Land Rover subsidiary - jumped 21% in October compared with the same month last year. The group sold 64,757 vehicles, up from 53,404 in October 2009 (Tata Motors)
• Oil giant BP has returned to profit in the last quarter after a record loss in the previous quarter in the wake of the oil spill in the US. BP posted a .85bn (£1.2bn) profit, up from the bn loss recorded from April to June (BBC News)
Monday 1 November 2010
• It's a big week for General Motors, as it prepares to announce third-quarter earnings, revise its IPO price and embark on a global marketing push (Detroit News)
• The Pontiac car brand is finally dead; it was killed off by the collapse of GM in the recession, one of the brands that had to be culled (BBC News)
• Mid-sized Japanese car makers are looking perilously placed, as larger car makers shy away from cross ownership. It points out that Ford is currently diluting its 11% stake in Mazda down to nearer 3% (Financial Times)
• Chrysler is in discussion with banks over loans ahead of a possible IPO flotation in 2011, according to trade title AN (Automotive News)
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