- US: Tesla loses $62m in second quarter – Just-auto: Tesla booked second quarter net income of US$16m and $0.11 per share on a non-GAAP accounting basis but a loss of $62m and $0.50 per share on a GAAP basis, the automaker said in a letter to shareholders.
- Nissan Marketer Tells of Social-Media Hits and Misses – Wards: Nissan marketing executive tells of hits and misses during the automaker’s ambitious social-media efforts.
- Agnellis keen to support Fiat Chrysler going forward -Elkann – Reuters: The Agnelli family, which controls Fiat via a 30 percent stake, will remain committed to the carmaker, John Elkann, Fiat’s chairman and the grandson of late Fiat patriarch Gianni Agnelli, told a shareholder meeting.
- Tesla: room to vroom? – FT: The electric carmaker’s recent ride appears to have been very smooth, but how long can its show stay on the road?
- U.K. Motorists Take Dark View of EU Black-Box Plan – Wards:Survey conductor Motorpoint says the telematics technology would keep track of how fast their customers drive, how hard they brake and how many journeys a year they take.
- People’s Bank of China owns 2 pct stake in Fiat Chrysler – Reuters: People’s Bank of China owns 2 percent of Fiat Chrysler, the carmaker’s chairman John Elkann told shareholders at the start of a shareholder meeting, making the Chinese central bank one of the Italian group’s key investors.
- Fiat says ciao to Italy as merger with Chrysler ends era – Automotive News: Fiat is leaving home after 115 years. The controlling Agnelli family and other investors meet today to seal the end of Fiat as an Italian company after it merges with Chrysler.
- Toyota says July China auto sales down 1.1% YoY – Via Google News: Toyota Motor Corp and its two Chinese joint ventures sold about 74,800 vehicles in China in July, down 1.1 percent from a year earlier, the …
- Tesla Loss Widens on Spending for Next Model – WSJ: Electric car maker Tesla Motors said its second-quarter loss doubled to $62 million on higher spending for overhead and R&D.
- China’s Chery to export 13.000 cars to Venezuela – CarNewsChina.com: Chinese independent car maker Chery Automobile will export 13,000 cars to Venezuela after signing an agreement with the country’s Ministry of Commerce, the company announced earlier this week. The deal, signed earlier this month, is Chery’s biggest with Venezuela since it entered the Venezuelan market in May 2006. Chery has exported 21,400 cars to the Latin […]
- China’s Baidu is developing a ‘self-driving’ car – CarNewsChina.com: Chinese search engine leader Baidu Inc, widely known as the Google of China, is following in the Western Internet giant’s footsteps by working on its own version of a self-driving car. The Beijing-based company confirmed it has initiated the project. But compared with Google’s innovation, which requires no driver at all, Baidu’s car will be […]
- In a Bid to Lift Sales of Its Smaller Cars, GM Bolsters Showroom Incentives – Via Google News: Yet most of GM’s gains have been in sport utility vehicles. By comparison, its mass-market car models have struggled, be it the negative publicity, …
- Japan’s Domestic Auto Sales Rise in July – Via Google News: Auto sales, as measured by registrations of vehicles with the government, are monitored by economists since they are the first consumer spending …
- Tesla Reports $16 million Profit or $62 million Loss – Via Google News:Answering a question on how Tesla can service all the cars it’s selling, … revenue from automotive sales, compared with $402 million for Q2 of 2013.
- Would you buy a self-driving car? – Via Google News:Not only are several mainstream car manufacturers working on either semi-autonomous or fully autonomous vehicles, but people are also warming to …
- Fiat investors vote on Chrysler merger to ease access to cash, U.S. investors – Reuters: Fiat shareholders are expected to approve the Italian carmaker’s merger with its U.S. unit Chrysler on Friday, a union aimed at boosting the world’s seventh-largest auto group’s appeal with foreign investors and paving the way for a U.S. share listing.
- Tesla expects to boost 2015 output to more than 60,000 – Reuters: Tesla Motors Inc, the California-based maker of luxury electric cars, said it expects to build more than 60,000 cars in 2015, after spending heavily this year to update and expand its Fremont assembly plant.
- Musk wants Tesla ‘elves’ to service cars – Via Google News: The company has already shaken up the automobile industry. Musk has introduced well-reviewed cars that run only on electricity. He’s changed the …
- Tesla’s Q2 net loss widens to $62 million as randd expenses soar – Automotive News: Tesla’s net loss widened to $61.9 million in the second quarter even though it assembled and delivered record numbers of Model S electric cars. Revenues surged nearly 90 percent.
- Tesla plans massive China expansion – FT: Elon Musk says as many as a third of the company’s global network of service centres would be located in China by the end of next year
- Rental Car Companies Warned GM about Airbag Problems – thedetroitbureau.com: One of the questions surrounding the faulty ignition switch controversy at General Motors is when did the automaker know there was a problem? It may have been at least seven years ago. Two rental car companies told GM to investigate fatal crashes where the airbags in the vehicles did not deploy. For more, go to TheDetroitBureau.com.
- Auto Sales Jumping as Banks Loosen Credit Reins – thedetroitbureau.com: It’s becoming clear that one of the primary reasons that new car sales are booming this year is that Americans are able to more easily get credit to finance their purchases. The total amount of outstanding auto loans has increased by 10% in 2014.
- Gen Y Now Buying More Cars than Gen Xers – thedetroitbureau.com: While a number of recent studies have suggested that Millennials would prefer to text rather than drive, but Gen Y now is generating a larger share of U.S. new vehicle sales than older Gen Xers, according to J.D. Power and Associates. But both groups still lag well behind Baby Boomers: the largest group of car buyers in the U.S.
- European groups warn on Russia sanctions – FT: Adidas, Metro, VW, Siemens, Shell and others say the European Union’s sanctions on Moscow are hitting their businesses
- GERMANY: VW Group posts 14.1% growth in net profit for Q2 – Just-auto: Volkswagen Group has reported an impressive 14.1% increase in net profit in the second quarter, despite acknowledging competitive pressures and difficulties in some emerging markets.