Auto News 5

Three Detroit pickups, a sport sedan from Hyundai's Genesis brand and a new electric vehicle from Jaguar have been named finalists for the 2019 North American Car, Truck and Utility of the Year Awards.

News 28 Nov, 2018

The GT2 RS Clubsport is the powerful 911 ever and gets full track trimmings plus £360,000 price tag

President Trump has asked federal agencies to look for ways to cut subsidies to GM following the automaker's plans to close factories and lay off thousands of workers, Bloomberg reported.

The 81st president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), George Gillespie, executive vice president, Horiba Automotive Test Systems (ATS) was named at SMMT's annual dinner.

Martinrea's factory in nearby Ajax, Ont., supplies GM's Oshawa plant with parts for the Cadillac XTS and the Chevrolet Impala, according to The Globe and Mail. Neither car will be made beyond 2019.

General Motors' plan to close up to five assembly plants in North America and slash its workforce will only partially close the gap between capacity and demand for the automaker's sedans.

The General Motors-owned Courtyard by Marriott hotel across from its Renaissance Center headquarters in downtown Detroit is for sale.

News 28 Nov, 2018

Revisions to the Mercedes-AMG GT range include interior, exterior and technology updates, with parts borrowed from the AMG GT 4-door Coupe

BMW is reportedly considering a second US manufacturing plant that would produce engines and transmissions, according to remarks attributed to its CEO.

Automobili Pininfarina says it plans to invest 'in excess of EUR20m' in Pininfarina SpA design services to support plans for a range of 'beautiful and innovative luxury electric cars'.

Knorr-Bremse, the commercial vehicle braking systems supplier, said the first nine months of 2018 revenues increased 9.5% year on year to EUR4.994bn.

General Motors plans to end one of its two truck assembly shifts in summer 2019, followed by the end of the other truck shift and its car assembly line at year's end.

News 28 Nov, 2018

Only 27 per cent of Britons believe driverless vehicles will reduce accidents, despite 90 per cent of crashes being caused by human error

The EU denied a report that the bloc's chief trade negotiator was headed to Washington to meet with her U.S. counterpart, in a last-ditch attempt to head off tariffs on car imports.

Ricardo will detail design of a novel e-motor offering up to a 50% increase in power density compared with current production electric machines as well as a new transverse DCT concept offering a highly compact package and ease of integration with an e-motor for effective hybridisation at an event in Berlin next week.

The latest in a series of articles which looks into the future model plans of TMC's divisions follows a recent look at what's coming for the Toyota brand. Now it's the turn of Daihatsu under the spotlight as well as Perodua, a firm in which it holds a minority stake and which bases its vehicles on Daihatsu designs.

Once little known outside North America, Lexus has steadily increased its rate of success in other regions. There is much more to do though, as sales in the USA and Japan are stuck behind Mercedes-Benz, while in Europe even Jaguar now outsells the brand - quite significantly too. The picture is far brighter in China, where Lexus sits at the top of the charts for imported models, and where local production will finally commence in 2019.

The Toyota brand has vast reach worldwide, particularly in Japan, where it controls half the market. Over the first ten months, production reached 8.8m vehicles, a gain of just one per cent. As ever though, the parent company Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has a game plan for growth, the key element of which is a new wave of replacement models and fresh entries to expanding segments.