TOKYO--Sanyo Electric Co., already one of the world's largest makers of batteries for hybrid vehicles, sees rapid expansion next year after a $1 billion investment in green technology. It may start assembling battery systems in North America, Europe, and China as early as 2012.
The Japanese company brings its first lithium ion battery plant online in western Japan later this month to supply 15,000 to 25,000 Audi hybrid vehicles a year. It will add another lithium ion plant by the end of next year to manufacture more powerful batteries for plug-in hybrids.
At least two carmakers have lined up for the plug-in batteries. Spokesman Hiroyuki Okamoto declined to name them. "We are now in the final negotiations," Okamoto told Automotive News.
News reports in Japan indicate that one is Toyota Motor Corp., which will use the power packs in its plug-in Prius hybrid.
Sanyo can expect a lift from its impending acquisition by former rival Panasonic Corp. Panasonic's public offer to buy Sanyo shares closes Dec. 9. If the sale goes through, Sanyo will become a subsidiary of Panasonic in January, Okamoto said.
... Read moreLOS ANGELES--Lexus' LF-Ch hybrid concept should be turned into a production vehicle and sold in the United States, said division General Manager Mark Templin.
The compact five-door hatchback debuted at the Frankfurt auto show in September and was shown at the Los Angeles Auto Show last week. If approved for production, the LF-Ch would compete with such models as the BMW 1 series and Audi A3. Lexus said the concept is a response to the growing demand, especially from young urbanites, for smaller and more fuel-efficient cars.
"We're showing it in North America to see if it can compete," Templin said. "We'll survey people to see how they feel about it. I would love to see this car in the U.S." Templin did not say when a decision would be made.
(Source: Automotive News)
The Saab saga continues: Spyker Cars, a producer of expensive sports cars, and its Russian owner, Converse Bank, have submitted a bid to General Motors to buy Saab, a source said last week.
Saab is back in play after a bid by Koenigsegg Group AB, another tiny sports car maker, fell apart last month.
Last week the GM board was poised to kill Saab. But it said in a statement that it would accept bids through December. Lacking a good bid, "We will begin an orderly wind down of the global Saab business at that time," the board said.
Other potential bidders include a state-owned Chinese automaker, Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co., according to news reports.
Spyker is a publicly traded Netherlands maker of hand-built sports cars. Spyker built 21 cars in the first half of this year.
"People may wonder why a company that makes less than 100 cars a year can benefit from buying a company that makes more than 100,000," Spyker CEO Victor Muller said last week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. "Over time there are massive benefits. The main benefit is that it is not closed down."
(Source: Automotive News)
Utility company NRG wants to sell charging plans for the Nissan Leaf.
(Credit: Josh Miller/CNET)The CEO of one of America's biggest electric utility companies is putting his shoulder behind Nissan North America Inc.'s campaign to sell electric vehicles.
Among his ideas: sending marketing materials for the upcoming electric Nissan Leaf with customers' monthly electric bills.
"I think we can play a role in what Nissan is doing," said David Crane, CEO of NRG Energy Inc. of Princeton, N.J., which provides electricity in cities around the country.
"We send monthly statements out to 1.5 million customers in the Houston area," he told Automotive News. "That's a lot of marketing potential."
Houston is one of Nissan's biggest markets. NRG owns the Houston power company, Reliant Energy.
This month Reliant signed on to join a growing list of third-party partners helping Nissan launch Leaf sales in selected markets late next year. Nissan has been recruiting utilities, state governments, municipalities and others to help install highway recharging stations and address residential zoning rules to make home recharging easier.
Crane envisions doing more than that. He proposes that Reliant act as a Nissan retail service supplier in Houston. When customers buy an electric vehicle, they could buy a Reliant charger installation package from the Nissan dealer. The package, financed along with the car, would deploy Reliant staffers to do the necessary work on the customer's home.
Crane also wants to market recharging plans through Nissan dealerships, similar to cell phone plans. "We could have different plans available, depending on the customer's needs," he said. "It might guarantee you so many recharges a month at public stations or give you so many charges a month on a rapid-charge system."
Electric-vehicle chargers come primarily as a traditional 220-volt plug-in that takes up to six hours to recharge a vehicle's battery completely. A more expensive high-voltage charging system that takes less than an hour also will be installed around cities.
(Source: Automotive News)
LOS ANGELES -- The launch advertising declared the Honda Insight "the hybrid for everyone."
"We don't want a car for a sliver of the market," Steve Center, Honda vice president of advertising and public relations, said at the launch in March.
And in a transparent dig at the Toyota Prius, he added, "This is going to be a populist's car, not an elitist's car."
But so far, the Insight's sales look like a sliver.
Honda's initial 90,000-unit U.S. sales goal was revised to 60,000 because of the weak economy. But sales of the Insight since its March launch total just 17,530, for an annual sales rate of about 25,000, according to the Automotive News Data Center.
The conclusion after eight months: The Insight badly trails the segment-leading Prius, although the Insight is selling better than other rival hybrids.
... Read moreSAN DIEGO--Lexus has introduced its first sport package on the LS 460 to take aim at the Mercedes-Benz S class.
The flagship LS, redesigned for the 2007 model year, is getting long in the tooth. And Lexus wants younger BMW and Mercedes owners. The sport package, available only on the base rear-drive 2010 model, costs $71,755, including shipping, a $6,200 premium over the $65,555 base price.
The LS 460 will have paddle shifters, and other features include a heated leather steering wheel, 19-inch wheels and summer tires, front Brembo brakes, sport-tuned air suspension, a lower body kit with sport grille and sport seats.
The sport trim has the same 4.6-liter, 380-hp engine, but software on the eight-speed automatic has been tweaked to give it a throatier sound, like that of the IS-F sports sedan.
"We want to get some European conquests--particularly the S class," says Ben Mitchell, corporate product planning manager for Lexus.
He says the typical LS owner is near 60 years old. Lexus hopes the sport trim will attract those in the upper 40s to low 50s.
The Mercedes S550 has a 5.5-liter engine making 382 horsepower. It sells for $92,475, including shipping.
Through October, LS sales were down 53 percent to 8,192 units. S-class sales totaled 8,920, off 43 percent.
(Source: Automotive News)
The Kia Cadenza, Kia Motors replacement for its Amanti large sedan, could be the first car to get Kia's new direct-injection gasoline engine.
The Cadenza, which was unveiled last week in South Korea, goes on sale in North America in 2011.
Production of the Amanti ended this year. Once inventories run out, U.S. dealers will lack a large sedan until the Cadenza arrives, spokesman Michael Choo said. In the meantime, the midsize Optima will be Kia's biggest sedan, he said.
"The U.S. wants to grow into this model," Choo said. "The market isn't ready for it yet."
The four-door, five-seat Cadenza is shorter than the Amanti but has a longer wheelbase and more interior space, according to a Kia news release.
In Korea, the car has a 3.5-liter V-6 engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. Engine specifications of the North American version of the Cadenza still are being decided. But the car could get Kia's new direct-injection gasoline engine, Choo said.
The front-drive Cadenza is the first on the company's new Type N platform. A lighter, stronger body shell and new suspension help make the Cadenza 286 pounds lighter than the Amanti.
The Cadenza makes its global auto show debut Dec. 12 at the Riyadh Motor Show in Saudi Arabia, Kia said. The car will be built at Kia's Hwasung assembly plant in South Korea.
It goes on sale this year in South Korea. Exports to global markets other than the United States and Europe begin in January.
(Source: Automotive News)
The 2011 Mustang's new engine is designed to compete with the V-6 Camaro.
(Credit: Ford)Mustang fans have been nagging Ford Motors for a better V-6 engine in the base model of the long-running pony car--one with more horsepower and less hoarse power.
Next spring they'll get it when the old 4.0-liter V-6 is replaced by a 3.7-liter, 305 horsepower, 24-valve V- 6 with double overhead cams. It's the Mustang's first high-performance six-cylinder engine.
The old, rough, 210-hp V-6--which has been built in various displacements since the late 1960s--couldn't compete with the 3.6-liter V-6 in the new Chevrolet Camaro.
The base version of the 2011 Ford Mustang, due in the spring, noses ahead of the 2010 Camaro V-6--but not by much. The Mustang has one more horsepower and one more highway mile per gallon than the Camaro.
The 3.7-liter engine in the base 2011 Mustang is also being used in several front-wheel- and all-wheel-drive Lincolns. The Mustang is the first rear-wheel-drive application.
To boost horsepower, the intake areas of the engine's heads were ported and polished to increase the volume of the air-fuel mixture. The valve tappets were polished to reduce friction. A new intake manifold improves engine breathing. The changes helped raise horsepower from 273 in the Lincoln MKS to 305.
The Mustang also gets these upgrades:
- Two new six-speed transmissions, automatic and manual
- Stronger brakes and firmer suspension from the GT model
- A slightly revised interior with a new roof-storage system.
The updated engine includes such fuel-saving technology as variable valve timing and an advanced fuel injection system that cuts off the fuel supply when the car is decelerating.
The old engine was built in Cologne, Germany, and shipped to Flat Rock, Mich., where it was installed in the Mustang. The new engine is built in Ford's Cleveland, Ohio, plant.
Camaro sales have exceeded the Mustang's for six straight months. General Motors thinks the Camaro will outsell the Mustang for the entire year, although through October the Mustang still led, 56,469 to 47,233. The Camaro went on sale in April.
Ford plans to show the 2011 Mustang V-6 this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. Upgrades are also in store for the Mustang GT that, according to Ford, it plans to introduce in January at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit
(Source: Automotive News)
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)
Mitsubishi's i-Miev, which goes on sale next year, may get a gasoline counterpart.
(Credit: Mitsubishi)PALM SPRINGS, Calif.--Mitsubishi, which already plans to import its i-MiEV electric minicar, is considering giving U.S. dealers a gasoline version of the little car.
The four-passenger car would compete against the Smart minicar. The Smart is imported from Europe, where Daimler AG builds it using a Mitsubishi engine.
The gasoline-powered Mitsubishi i already sells in Japan and Europe with a small turbocharged 660cc gasoline engine--a powerplant smaller than those in many American motorcycles.
The gasoline engine probably would be replaced with a 1.0-liter three-cylinder engine without turbocharging for the United States, says John Koenig, executive vice president for operations at Mitsubishi Motors North America.
The Smart has the same 1.0-liter Mitsubishi engine.
The i is just 133.7 inches long--about 2 feet longer than the Smart ForTwo--and 5 feet 3 inches high. The i is surprisingly roomy, even for adults in the back seat.
Koenig estimates that a sales plan of 1,000 cars a month probably would be enough to sway Mitsubishi to re-engineer the minicar for U.S. customers. The expense of creating a left-hand-drive version of the i already has been covered for its introduction into Europe, where it sells for about $16,000.
Mitsubishi showed both the gasoline and electric versions of the car to journalists here last week.
The automaker will introduce its global electric car, the i-MiEV, to U.S. dealers in approximately 18 months.
(Source: Automotive News)
