Just-in-time auto industry news and analysis
Unknown hackers have robbed Toyota of its history. Go on Toyota’s main news website, and you will only find news from April 2013 to now. More than ten years of news before April are gone. Various other parts of the server are dark, and provide an error message. One of the world’s largest global companies received a direct hit into its main communication nexus. So far, the company has not been able to recover, and it may never be able to repair all of the damage. [ There is more … ]
A good friend of mine, a brilliant dev/ops guy with several successful startups under his belt, option-trades Tesla’s stock when he’s not developing cloud systems and social platforms. Like many successful tech workers, this friend has an unshakeable faith in technological progress which underpins his support for Tesla. “Look,” he tells me when I suggest that Tesla’s stock valuation is wholly unmoored from its fundamentals, “new technology takes over and transforms everything. We see it again and again in other sectors, why wouldn’t it be the case for cars?”
His favorite example: the transition from film to digital photography. “Sure, it was crazily expensive to develop… but it matured rapidly, took over the market and nobody looked back. Why wouldn’t electric cars be the same?” Attempting to answer his question got me thinking: what would it take to fundamentally revolutionize the auto industry to the extent that digital revolutionized film? More specifically, what would the “digital” car look like?
Daimler is (publicly) outraged about a viral video that shows its product in a positive light. In the clip, a new C-Class Mercedes kills a young Adolf Hitler. [ There is more … ]
When Toyota launched the Corolla Hybrid onto the Japanese market a few weeks ago, they discreetly pointed out to me that “unlike what we usually do,” this is simply marketed as an engine package, not as a separate model. Some may think this is because there is no shortage of separate Toyota models on the Japanese market. I see it as a step towards Toyota’s mainstreamification of the hybrid powertrain. On Friday, I went to Toyota’s plant in Ohira, Miyagi, to see the first Corolla Hybrid come off line. [ There is more … ]
Two weeks ago, a perfectly good Land Rover Defender ended in the claws of U.S. Customs. It died in front of running cameras. (Video after the jump.) The car’s crime: It was 30 years younger than stated. And we can’t have that in America. [ There is more … ]
Europe’s new car market saw a 4.9 percent increase in sales in July. 1,023,086 units were registered in the region, 48,202 more than in July 2012. Year-to-date, the market is down by 5.2 percent. This according to data supplied by London-based Jato Dynamics. JATO’s headline market analysis: [ There is more … ]
Execs of Detroit automakers opened their digital copy of Automotive News today, only to be told that they “need to stop whining about the weak yen.” If Automotive News says that, then it really is time to stop whining. [ There is more … ]
The fact that the battered European car market rose 4.8 percent in July is already feted by some as the long longed for turn-around. But as they say, one swallow does not a summer make, even in July. To begin with, it’s an unofficial swallow. [ There is more … ]
