Chung Mong Koo, Chairman of South Korea’s Hyundai Motor, carefully scrutinizes a newly designed gearshift lever for the automaker’s Sonata sedan while his entire senior-management team hovers around, anxiously awaiting his approval. The execs are justifiably edgy
Tag Archives: automotive
Carmakers Hyundai and Kia See Gains in U.S. Market Share
While other automakers are closing plants in the U.S., Kia, which is controlled by South Korea’s Hyundai Automotive Group, is preparing to open a brand-new assembly plant in West Point, Ga., southwest of Atlanta. The $1.2 billion, 2.2 million–sq.-ft
GM and German Government Still Wrangling Over Opel
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s race to save automaker Opel — and the jobs of its 25,000 employees in Germany — is beginning to look like a high-speed pileup that could cost her at the polls. To get talks with Opel owners General Motors back on track, Merkel is reportedly ready to abandon her previous plan to force GM to sell a controlling stake in its European business to a consortium of Canadian-Austrian car-parts maker Magna International and Russia’s Sberbank
While Canada Spends Big to Save GM, Mexico Gets Free Ride
At time when the U.S.
What Fiat Could Do for Chrysler (and Vice Versa)
The reorganized Chrysler Group LLC postponed the annual press preview of new cars at its proving ground near Chelsea, Mich. — all part of the production stoppage while the company waited out bankruptcy proceedings
Flight 447 mystery likely to cast shadow over Paris Air Show
The world’s premier air show takes place in Paris next week, with the recent loss of Air France flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean likely to cast a shadow over the event. The annual Paris Air Show at Le Bourget, which this year celebrates its 100th anniversary, gives the air transport industry the chance to promote the latest innovations in aerospace technology and attract buyers for both commercial and military aircraft. Manufacturing giants Boeing and Airbus are two of the most high-profile organizations at the show as a result of their stranglehold over the commercial airliner market
Checkered flag for McLaren chief Dennis
McLaren chairman Ron Dennis ended his long-standing involvement in Formula One on Thursday when he announced a major restructuring of the British-based company.
Welch ‘would bet on’ U.S. auto comeback
Jack Welch "would bet on" a U.S. comeback in the automotive business if unions and other parties make appropriate concessions, the former General Electric chairman and CEO said on CNN’s "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Detroit Tries Muscle: The Return of the Camaro
Few General Motors Corp. cars have ever had the mystique of the Chevrolet Camaro. A macho machine if ever there was one, the Camaro was launched in the 1967 model year in response to Ford’s fabulous Mustang
Germany’s Solution to Big Auto’s Woes: Scrap That Clunker!
Amid the gruesome headlines generated by the world’s auto industry these days, it almost read like a typo: new car registrations in Germany rose 21% year-on-year in February, the country’s Association of the Automotive Industry announced March 3. This, though, was no error. The 278,000 cars put on the road, crowed Matthias Wissmann, VDA’s president, amounted to “the highest level of sales in the month of February for ten years.” Why the splurge German drivers have latched onto a juicy new deal