Ford Motor Company’s new factory in China began operations today. The new joint-venture factory will produce both Ford and Mazda small cars for the Chinese market.
The factory reportedly cost $510 million to build and is located in the eastern city of Nanjing. Production capacity will be around 160,000 vehicles per year bringing Ford’s annual production capacity in China to 410,000 vehicles.
In addition, Ford CEO Alan Mulally said the company may also consider exporting the Chinese manufactured automobiles to other countries outside of China…but only after Chinese demand is met.
I wonder if Mattel CEO Bob Eckert called and told him to make sure they’re not using lead paint. Read.
The Finanical Times Deutschland is reporting that Bavarian Motor Werks’ (BMW) CEO Norbert Reithofer is considering revamping his company’s car models more frequently to keep customers from jumping ship and buying more up-to-date vehicles from the competition.
“More freshening-up of models could make sense”, Reithofer told the newspaper at the IAA car show.
“We are thinking about revamping our models twice during their lifetime instead of only once as we have done until now.”
Currently, BMW models have an average lifetime of 7 years. Under the CEO’s new plan, they would see updates and model changes every 3 years. This would start to approach the short lifecycle of computers and other electronics.
Mercedes Benz vehicles have always had more of a timeless appeal compared to BMW. For a while it looked like BMW had finally started to figure out how to create and stick with timeless design. However it looks like they’re about to head in the opposite direction.
There goes timelessness.
New Chrysler CEO, Bob Nardelli says that problems in the housing market are hurting car and truck sales, and he wants his company to draft a plan to respond.
With experience in the home building industry as former CEO of Home Improvement retailer Home Depot, Nardelli is probably better qualified than most Auto Industry insiders to make such a correlation.
Nardelli said he can see a connection between housing woes and the automobile market and that Chrysler is trying to anticipate what might await the industry.
“There is a direct coupling there,” Mr. Nardelli said in a speech to the Automotive Press Association, “and some negative spill from housing into the auto industry.” Read.
Volkswagen AG’sNorth American CEO Stefa Jacoby said Thursday that his company is studying the possibility of opening a U.S. production plant.
Currently both Volkswagen and its luxury counterpart Audi are struggling to stay above water in the U.S. The possible move to create a U.S. plant would be designed to help boost U.S. sales. Importing cars from Europe to the U.S. is quite expensive.
The high import cost caused both Mercedes Benz and BMW to open U.S. plants years ago. Mercedes has a plant in Alabama and BMW has a plant in South Carolina.
We wouldn’t be surprised if the Volkswagen plant ended up in one of the low cost-of-living south eastern states as well.
Hopefully they will try and keep quality standards high. The move by Mercedes and BMW to a U.S. manufacturing model has caused many buyers to complain of an erosion of quality over the years…and that’s the last thing Volkswagen needs.
When the most recent James Bond flick Casino Royale came out last year, Americans wanted desperately to get their hands on the sleek new Ford Mondeo Bond was seen driving in one of the movie’s early scenes. However they quickly found out that car was only available overseas and instead they would have to settle for the less inspiring U.S. version of the car, the Ford Fusion.
Many Americans were puzzled as to why this was the case.
New Ford CEO Alan Mulally recently pointed out at a press briefing on the state of Ford Motor Company, that the company has been a worldwide company that operates regionally, with each region having its own products. And that isn’t efficient or smart.
In Mulally’s own words he say, “We Won’t Be Doing That Again”.
What he’s referring to is the fact that Ford makes vehicles such as the Focus that is not the same depending on where you go in the world. The Focus sold in Europe is not the same as the one sold in the U.S.
Then you have vehicles like the Fusion and the Mondeo. While they have similar specs, the Mondeo sold in Europe looks different from the Fusion sold in the U.S
On September 11 at the Frankfurt Auto Show, Ford Motor Company will take the first step towards erasing this annoying problem when it unveils the Ford Verve concept car. The Verve is CEO Alan Mulally’s first visible attempt to make Ford a true a global company.
Mulally says he wants to ”Leverage Ford worldwide”.
Starting with the Verve, Ford vehicles will become more global, declares Mulally. Exceptions will be market-specific models, such as the full-size F-Series pickup truck sold mostly in the U.S. But for the most part if you see a new Ford vehicle in London, you will be able to have that same vehicle in Los Angeles.
The easiest way for a company to get screwed is to get into bed with Apple Computer. Volkswagen AG is the latest company considering this tempting proposition.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Martin Winterkorn, CEO of Volkswagen AG have reportedly met to discuss a possible computer/automobile collaboration. Volkswagen has said that it would like to embed ultra-mobile PCs inside its VWs. And Steve Jobs is planning to be the beneficiary of such ambition.
It looks like Jobs is up to his old self…refusing to play second fiddle to anyone. Early reports say that Jobs is already calling the collaboration with Volkswagen the iCar. The same way Apple managed to keep AT&T’s name off the iPhone, the iCar could turn Volkswagen into another generic manufacturer just happy to be in the same room with an Apple product.
This new partnership would be the latest Apple venture outside of the computer making business in the past year. In September of last year, the company showcased its first set-top box, the AppleTV. Then earlier this year Steve Jobs put the fear of god into mobile phone manufacturers when he released the iPhone.
