DETROIT -- With federal mileage standards rising, automakers next week will show a fresh group of fuel-efficient vehicles at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.
Ford will unveil the redesigned production Focus, and Honda will show the production version of the CR-Z hybrid hatchback. Toyota and Volkswagen will roll out hybrid concepts; Audi, BMW and Fiat will display electric concepts.
Show organizers are arranging various electric cars, including one from China's BYD Auto, in a space on the show floor called Electric Avenue.
But high performance will get its due. Judging by vehicles at the show, performance cars and econoboxes will coexist happily in the 2016 model year, when automakers must reach fleet averages of 35.5 mpg.
At the Detroit show, Cadillac will unveil the high-performance CTS-V coupe, and Buick will show a performance sedan concept. General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group may have replenished treasuries after surviving U.S. Bankruptcy Court in 2009, but their fresh resolve won't be fully reflected on the show floor. Both automakers have modest unveilings.
GM will have one production car: the CTS-V. Chrysler will have none.
But Chrysler and partner Fiat are showing some concepts that explore their product planners' ideas for the next few years. They will show a concept version of the Lancia Delta mid-sized hatchback with a Chrysler grille. They also will show an electric concept of the Fiat 500 minicar.
Press days are Monday and Tuesday, Jan. 11 and 12.
(Source: Automotive News)
HILLSDALE, Mich. -- Chrysler Group dealer Tom Vann embraced the Internet as a sales tool nearly 15 years ago, when the technology was still a novelty.
He's sure glad he did.
Because nearly 70 percent of his car sales today come through the Internet, it doesn't matter that Vann's Team Hillsdale Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep is tucked into this small, predominantly farming hamlet deep in south central Michigan.
"We saw a long time ago that we couldn't just focus on our Main Street business," says Vann, 45, whose father, Bill Vann Sr., was a longtime dealer in nearby Albion, Mich.
The surrounding county has been losing automotive and tool-and-die jobs for the past decade. Unemployment in Hillsdale County, population 46,500, was 17 percent in September, according to the state of Michigan.
But Team Hillsdale has been largely immune to the slide. Vann's average online buyer comes from 120 miles away. His biggest market is the heavily dealered Detroit area, 100 miles away.
Vann's sales territory ranges approximately from the border with Ohio and Indiana to the south, Lansing to the north, Kalamazoo to the west and Ann Arbor-Detroit to the east.
... Read MoreHigh-performance cars will get a nod at the North American International Auto Show next week, but electrics and hybrids will get the buzz.
Volkswagen and Toyota will show hybrid concepts; Audi, BMW, and Fiat will unveil electric concepts. Honda will show the production version of the CR-Z hybrid hatchback.
The Detroit auto show will put together many electric cars and technology in one area called Electric Avenue.
Meanwhile, the high-performance crowd will get their due with the CTS-V coupe from Cadillac and a performance sedan concept from Buick.
Mercedes-Benz will take the wraps off of the fourth variant of its new E class--a production convertible that replaces the CLK.
... Read MoreI finally made it out to the 52nd Annual International Auto Show at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco yesterday, and I'm sure glad that I made the trip. Today is the final day of the show that started over this last Thanksgiving weekend, and in case you can't or didn't make it out to the Moscone to see it all in person, here's an in depth highlight reel to show some of what you may have missed.
Yes, I know the soundtrack to this clip is kinda annoying, but this web video is quite comprehensive in covering many vehicles and manufacturers who participated in this year's show in San Francisco including the Porsche 911, Lamborghini Murcielago, Audi R8, BMW, a few Chryslers (for whatever that's worth), auto racing vehicles and more. This video includes a few of my faves from this year's event and it also leaves out several personal highlights that I will be spotlighting for the next few or more blogs, so get ready
Sergio Marchionne's ambitious plan to revive Chrysler with a wave of new products divides the world into halves--one set of vehicles engineered by Chrysler for itself and Fiat and another set engineered by Fiat for itself and Chrysler.
The alliance starts to bear fruit in 2012 and gathers momentum with a spate of launches in 2013.
Marchionne said this month that the two automakers were now "inextricably intertwined."
The greatest cross-pollination of Chrysler and Fiat expertise will take place in the middle of the market. Chrysler engineers are taking a European Fiat platform called the C-Evo and re-engineering and widening it into a new platform called C/D that will spawn a fleet of vehicles.
If all goes according to plan, seven or eight new Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles will come off that C/D platform aimed squarely at the middle of the domestic market. There will be two compact sedans in 2012 to replace the Dodge Caliber and Chrysler PT Cruiser.
And in 2013 there will be a wave of vehicles, including a compact crossover to replace the Jeep Patriot; a midsized SUV to replace the Jeep Liberty; midsized sedans to replace the Chrysler Sebring and Dodge Avenger; a midsized crossover for Chrysler; and possibly a midsized crossover to replace the Dodge Nitro.
More than any other factor, it was the failure to field strong competitors to vehicles such as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Ford Escape, and Toyota RAV4 that led to Chrysler's sales collapse and eventual trip into bankruptcy last spring.
Cross-fertilization
The two partners will lean heavily on each other to engineer and manufacture products.
"From an architectural standpoint, we're going to end up with the world [divided] into two parts," said Marchionne at the Nov. 4 unveiling of Chrysler's five-year business plan. "A part will be handled by Fiat for itself and on behalf of Chrysler, and another one will be handled by Chrysler for itself and for Fiat."
All vehicles below the compact sedan segment for Fiat Auto and Chrysler Group brands will be engineered in Italy and built there or in Fiat factories elsewhere. All larger vehicles--starting with the replacements for the Caliber and PT Cruiser and including minivans, large SUVs, and pickups--will be engineered by the Chrysler team in Auburn Hills, and most will be made in North American factories.
That means, for example, that Fiat will drop out of its minivan alliance with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen. Future Fiat and Lancia minivans will be engineered in Auburn Hills and made in North American factories for export.
On the flip side, starting in 2013, Lancia could export to North America a subcompact five-door hatchback that would become the entry model for the Chrysler brand. Dodge also will get a subcompact engineered by Fiat and imported to the United States.
But it's in the midsized segment that Chrysler benefits--starting in 2013.
In July, Fiat handed over to Chrysler the C-Evo platform with European specifications to serve as the underpinnings of a new group of vehicles.
For the United States, Chrysler is widening the platform by 1.6 inches. By redoing the platform, Chrysler could avoid the mistakes made by other automakers. In the 1990s, Ford brought its European mainstream Mondeo sedan to North America and rebadged it as the Ford Contour and Mercury Mystique. But U.S. customers found the sedans too cramped.
Philippe Houchois, analyst for UBS in London, estimated that Chrysler and Fiat could produce a combined 750,000 units annually off the C/D platform.
A better fit than Daimler?
Dave Cole, head of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., said the Fiat-Chrysler alliance balances the needs of two carmakers in a way that Chrysler's merger with Daimler never did.
Such synergies weren't possible between Daimler and Chrysler because "what they were essentially doing is taking two companies with little product overlap and somehow sticking them together. It was just not in the cards that they would be able to pull that off."
Marchionne and his team face some big obstacles as he aims for U.S. market share in the 13-14 percent range. Chrysler is now hovering around 9 percent.
Houchois said, "Marchionne's plan is probably too ambitious on market share and extremely cautious on market assumptions."
If Chrysler can't hit Marchionne's market share target, he said, it could still achieve sustainable volume if the market itself grows.
John Wolkonowicz, analyst for IHS Global Insight in Lexington, Mass., said the plan sounds good, but Chrysler has to sell some vehicles between now and when the new products start arriving to pay for the planned new product assault.
"If they actually get to the new products," he said, "they have a fighting chance."
(Source: Automotive News)
DETROIT -- Chrysler brand CEO Olivier Francois startled an audience of more than 400 journalists and analysts last week by showing video footage of a couple passionately making out in the back seat of a Chrysler 300.
A voice says: "Let's design cars people want to make out in again, cars people want their pictures taken in." The clip shows such fashion icons as Coco Chanel and Giorgio Armani and lays out a bold new vision for the Chrysler brand.
The voice says: "What ever happened to style? It wasn't too long ago America had it. At Chrysler, we believe it's time to get it back, to regain the style."
Last week Francois was one in a parade of Chrysler Group brand bosses seeking to reclaim lost glory with daring plans. Group CEO Sergio Marchionne is betting Francois and his peers at Dodge, Jeep and Ram truck will redefine their brands for new customers with the help of fuel-efficient, Fiat-based vehicles.
The challenge is daunting. In recent years, General Motors gave Saturn highly regarded vehicles based on European Opels. The brand failed anyway.
On the other hand, the Mercedes-influenced Chrysler 300 was the biggest hit of the decade-long DaimlerChrysler alliance.
Observers were impressed by the plan unveiled by Marchionne and his team to reinvent its old brands for a new generation of customers.
Chrysler will spend up to $23 billion on new products, manufacturing and brand building over five years, hoping to push market share from its current 9 percent to more than 13 percent. Planned are about a dozen new vehicles underpinned by Fiat platforms and technology.
... Read MoreIn January, Nissan Motor will steer what has been mainly a luxury-car feature--the navigation screen--into new territory when it offers the standalone option in the Sentra compact for $400.
The color screen, supplied by Robert Bosch, provides navigation but also can be connected to an iPod or MP3 player and a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone.
The nav screen has become like the iPhone for cars--a gold mine for suppliers striving to provide applications such as traffic reports, parking-assist systems, and backup cameras.
This year automakers will install about 1.4 million navigation systems worth $2.6 billion in vehicles sold in North America, according to iSuppli, a Los Angeles consulting firm that tracks sales of consumer electronics. That's up from 890,000 systems worth $1.8 billion installed in 2004.
"By 2016, one in three cars will have a navigation system of some sort," says Phil Magney, vice president of iSuppli's automotive practice. If that prediction pans out, nav screens could be standard equipment in about 5.4 million vehicles sold annually in North America, he says.
| Lots of action |
|---|
| Functions are proliferating on navigation screens. |
| • Active parking assist on Ford and Toyota vehicles |
| • Telephone controls |
| • Traffic and points-of-interest information |
| • Controls for the radio and air conditioner |
| • Route guidance |
| • Fuel economy performance information for hybrids |
| • Live video from backup camera |
| • TV programs |
The normal subscription price for FLO TV in Chrysler vehicles is $119 a year.
(Credit: Automotive News)In December, Chrysler Group vehicles will offer as many as 20 channels of programming from channels such as CBS, CNBC, Comedy Central, FOX News, MSNBC, and MTV. The service, from FLO TV, receives digital TV signals through a small antenna on a vehicle's roof. The suggested retail price for the dealer-installed service is $629, plus installation. Buyers get a year of free programming. The normal price for a subscription is $119 a year. The screen's in the back seat; front-seat navigation screens get programming only when the vehicle is in park.
(Source: Automotive News)
Honda talks about bigger hybrids, Cash for Clunkers might have been a huge boondoggle, Infiniti will get an electric car, should DWT be punished harder than DUI? And we take you for a ride in the frustratingly fun Scion xB.
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EPISODE 142
SHOW NOTES• Should DWT being punished more severely than DUI?
• CNET drives the new 2010 VW GTI
• CNET review of the 2010 Scion xB
• World distance record claimed for driving an electric car on a single charge
TURIN, Italy--Fiat S.p.A. may turn to Chrysler for help in reviving its European lineup of prestige sedans.
The Italian group's upscale Lancia brand could get a replacement for its Thesis flagship from the next-generation Chrysler 300, due in 2011, a Fiat source said. It also may base a smaller Lancia sedan on the next-generation Chrysler Sebring.
Lancia stopped building the 7-year-old Thesis in the summer.
The source said Fiat aims to integrate the Chrysler brand more closely with the Lancia brand in Europe. He said Chrysler and Lancia will share distribution in Europe in the near future.
A version of the next generation of the Chrysler 300, due in 2011, could replace Lancia's Thesis, above. Thesis production ended this summer.
(Credit: Automotive News)Lancia could provide products for Chrysler, too. Chrysler could get a version of the next-generation Lancia Ypsilon small car, scheduled to arrive in Europe late next year.
Last week, in a step toward integrating the two brands, Fiat and Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne put Lancia CEO Olivier Francois in charge of the Chrysler brand. Francois will remain Lancia chief and remains head of marketing for Fiat S.p.A.'s Fiat, Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Abarth brands, and Fiat Professional light vans.
He also will coordinate worldwide marketing, brand development, and advertising for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge cars, and Dodge Ram trucks.
Lancia sold about 110,000 units a year from 2005 to 2008, all in western Europe. Through August, Lancia's sales were flat at 79,683 units in an overall market that declined 7 percent, according to ACEA, the European automakers association.
Francois, a marketing expert, is credited with keeping Lancia sales stable during the economic crisis, helped by advertising campaigns. The French native joined Fiat Group Automobiles in 2005 from Citroen, where he was the French brand's Italy chief.
(Source: Automotive News)
