Top News:
- Subaru’s secret: Low-paid foreign workers power an export boom – Reuters: Subaru’s boom is made possible in part by asylum seekers and other cheap foreign laborers from Asia and Africa.
- Youxia Ranger X – China’s Tesla Model S copycat revealed – Autocar: Youxia Ranger X looks almost identical to Tesla’s electric saloon and will go on sale in China later this year
- US: GM plans new family of emerging markets models – Just-auto: GM has announced that its Chevrolet brand is to be at the heart of a new investment plan to strengthen its emerging markets business with a family of new models.
- Howes: Marchionne’s merger mania lives, despite GM ‘no’ – Detroit News: FCA boss eyes UAW, health care trust’s 8.7-percent stake in GM as potential allies in any industry mega-deal.
- Ford Motor widely beats expectations on N. America profit – Reuters: Ford Motor Co second-quarter earnings widely beat Wall Street expectations, based on the continued strength of its North American sales.
- GM’s $5 billion plan to build a car for the developing world is overdue – Fortune:
- Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking think we should ban killer robots – Washington Post: You’d think some of the world’s greatest minds would be more into artificial intelligence. But not, at least, when it comes to arming it.
- JAPAN: Honda sets production records in June – Just-auto: Honda set a number of production records in June including the highest tally of overseas produced vehicles in any month.
- U.S. Forces Fiat Chrysler to Buy Back Trucks in Rarely Used Move – Bloomberg Business – Bloomberg: Forcing automakers to repurchase defective vehicles is a rarely used … handled fixes on 23 recalls involving more than 11 million cars and trucks.
- Iran Khodro Says It’s in Talks With Daimler on Truck Partnership – Bloomberg: Daimler AG is exploring a partnership with Iran Khodro Co. as it weighs a return to Iran’s market for trucks, vans and buses, Iran Khodro Chief…
- VW overtakes Toyota as world’s biggest carmaker – Reuters: Volkswagen overtook Toyota as the world’s largest carmaker by sales in the first half, achieving its long-held ambition three years ahead of target.
- US: GM to develop active safety at new Detroit proving ground – Just-auto: General Motors is to develop and test 22 active safety technologies across its 2016 model year US line-ups at its new US$14m proving ground near Detroit.
- TomTom and Bosch to produce highly accurate maps for autonomous cars – Ibtimes: TomTom was once a pioneer of the car satnav market, but it did not take long for Google and Apple to take a significant chunk of TomTom’s business…
- Toyota Reaffirms Commitment to Thailand – @ToyotaMotorCorp: Toyota has revised its 2015 sales forecast for Thailand, while making it clear that there will be no change to the status of the country as a key hub for production, engineering, and exports.
- Toyota’s global sales dip 1.5 pct in first-half of year – Reuters: Toyota, Japan’s biggest automaker, forecast global sales of 8.9 million cars for the … In its previous fiscal year, Toyota sold 8.97 million cars globally.
- Maruti Suzuki Q1 profit jumps 56 percent; lower costs, higher sales – Reuters: India is expected to become the world’s third-largest car market by 2020, … since January – the highest among major automobile companies in India.