For manufacturers of engine timing chains, main bearings or any of the hundreds of unique components for engines and transmissions, EVs like the Nissan Leaf pose an enormous threat. Decades of investment in the manufacturing technologies and IP are potentially rendered irrelevant if the switch to battery-powered EVs progresses at the rate that its optimists

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EV Mode Creates Crisis Mode For Engine Parts Makers

Volkswagen wants to unseat Toyota as number one by 2018. When they announced that strategy, it was widely discounted as Wolfsburg hubris, and as a goal so far out that nobody will recall nine years down the road that the goal has ever been set. Or as the saying goes in Wolfsburg: “In 2018, I’ll

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Who’s On First? Toyota? VW? Or, Gasp, GM?

GM surprised more than a few observers when it announced it would build a police-only Caprice model, based on the global RWD Chevy Lumina/ Holden Statesman. “Why build a fleet-only model and miss out on some private volume?” we asked at the time. Well, it looks like Ford’s about to do the same thing. A

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Ford Announces “All New” Police Interceptor

Not long after Fortune’s long time auto writer Alex Taylor III finished his apology to Ford he went on to write a love letter to Sergio Marchionne. Taylor starts with parallels to Ghosn’s myth making success at Nissan, then ups the ante: “The other day in Auburn Hills, Mich., Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne took a

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Editorial: Sergio Marchionne: Savior or False Prophet?

Reuters reports that Japanese manufacturers are running scared from Hyundai-Kia. A combination of a rising Yen and South Korea sealing more and more free trade agreements with other countries has Hyundai-Kia immensely. Of course, copying Toyota’s business model of building reliable cars at affordable prices has helped greatly, too. All this momentum from South Korea

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Is South Korea The New Japan?

Although Toyota was a 50% stakeholder in the NUMMI facility in Freemont, California, it may end up carrying 100% of the closure costs. The LA Times reports that Liquidation Motors, the company which took over GM’s assets won’t fund any of the severance pay or other expenses to the closure of NUMMI. “Motors Liquidation is not

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Toyota Stuck With NUMMI Closure Costs

GM CEO Fritz Henderson’s promises of independence for Opel made the right noises, but they carefully avoided any discussion of the actual role GM envisions for its German division within its global strategy. The latest updates seem to indicate that GM will keep Opel for its engineering expertise, but that the brand will be subordinate

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GM: Opel Can Be Independent But Not Global

TTAC Commentator Volvo writes: Sajeev, today in a parking lot I was approaching a new Toyota Avalon from the side and at first thought I was seeing a recent Chrysler product. It had the bottom of the window about shoulder high to the passengers and the windows seemed rather short. As I walked through the lot

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Piston Slap: Design Week: Chop Top Talk

The New York Times has an update on Infiniti’s Essence concept car. Since the sexy little thing’s March coming out party in Geneva, Essence has been on a tour of Louis Vitton stores in high-end shopping malls for VIP visitors and the commoners. “Guests were invited by the automaker and were typically loyal customers, said

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Infiniti Blows Off LA Auto Show For China

Spiegel Online reports that Bob Lutz will be named Chairman of Opel. Car-Peter Forster, who threw in his hat with the Magna buy-out, resigned on the news that GM intends to keep Opel. Forster, the first German to head Opel in decades, was seen to be more independent of Detroit, and respected for his management

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Breaking: Bob Lutz To Be New Chairman of Opel