the auto industry in crisis

Monday 16 March 2009
• The UK's car trade body, the SMMT, claims that 76% of consumers want a scrappage scheme like in Europe. It's likely that the Government will launch a £2000 incentive for people scrapping a nine-year-old car for a newer, cleaner one. A similar scheme in Germany has prompted a 21% jump in sales
• Nissan today announced a series of management changes to beat the downturn – streamlining its business in Africa, Middle East, India and Europe (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)
• Ford is cutting production at its German, Spanish and Romanian factories in response to the 'unprecedented decline' in demand for new cars. Valencia will move from three to two shifts, while Saarlouis will continue its four-day week (Financial Times)
• The likelihood of leading hedge funds suing Porsche over the 2008 VW share price spike scandal is increasing. Trade body Aima, which represents hedge funds, is exploring a legal challenge after its members lost billions when the VW share price quadrupled in a few days – when they were betting it would fall (Financial Times)
• The price of oil fell by 5% this morning after Opec members voted not to cut production. A barrel traded at $44 today (The Guardian)

Friday 13 March 2009
• BMW's profits are down nearly 90%, to just £306m, thanks in part to €2.4bn of exceptional costs linked to bad debts, personnel costs and moves made to cover risks on the used car market (BBC)
• GM has admitted that it currently does not need £1.45bn of US government funding it had previously requested for March. The company claims that the development reflects the acceleration of its cost-cutting efforts. (BBC)
• Chinese car sales have jumped 25% in February, thanks to the government cutting tax on small-engined cars in an effort to boost the sale of fuel-efficient cars. Sales in February totalled 827,000, up 25% on February 2008 and a 12% increase on January 2009 (BBC)

Thursday 12 March 2009
• CAR learns that an update from Saab is due 'this week', as the car maker's Road to Independence team attempt to construct a business case for survival. We hear there are eight parties interested in investing in the Swedish car maker
• Opel dealers have agreed to pool levies from every vehicle they sell to raise a fund to help keep GM Europe afloat. Euroda, a trade body representing Opel and Vauxhall dealers, has pledged €400 million to save the European arm – €150 per vehicle sold for the next three years (Financial Times)
• Volkswagen chief exec Martin Winterkorn warns that the car market is far from rock bottom – forecasting a fall 'significantly' below 50 million global sales, compared with the 55m sold in 2008 (Financial Times)
• Business secretary Lord Mandelson claims that the Bank of England and the Treasury have dragged their heels over launching a substantial aid package to the UK's car industry (The Times)
• Don't believe the hype about Chinese brands snapping up failing western brands such as Hummer, Saturn, Saab or Volvo. They're struggling with their own brands and past experience of snapping up the Rover/MG remnants hasn't been a smash hit (The Detroit News)

Wednesday 11 March 2009
• Seat president Erich Schmitt is being replaced after less than three years. James Muir (who yesterday quit yesterday as Mazda Europe CEO) will take over the top job at the Spanish manufacturer from 1 September 2009.
• Toyota cuts working hours and base pay at its Burnaston, UK factory by 10%. The company says the move is designed to ensure it doesn't make redundancies yet, and comes into effect on 1 April 2009. A statement said: 'We believe the measures we have announced give us a greater opportunity to maintain employment through this difficult period' (Toyota)
• Ford's former components specialist Visteon has quelled speculation it was heading for bankruptcy by making a $16 million interest payment on $453 million of bond debt. Analysts had thought that it would miss the bond payment to save cash for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing (Automotive News, subscription required)
• Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne says he 'will fight like hell' to ensure his company makes money this year – and lays into car company bosses who've already rolled over and admitted they'll make a loss in 2009. 'I think the first duty of a leader is to keep his company in the black. To accept – and announce – at the beginning of the year that you will lose money is the worst sign of leadership you could give to your troops,' he tells ANE (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)
• BMW chief exec Norbert Reithofer reveals the financial crisis is accelerating the hunt for cooperative ventures. But he says the proposed alliance to work on the next-gen Minis with Alfa Romeo and Opel failed (Automobilwoche)
• Only two UK-based car makers have applied for European-backed funding, according to an FT analsysis. Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover have requested financing from the European Investment Bank (Financial Times)

Tuesday 10 March 2009
• Audi today announced record sales, revenues and profits for the 2008 tax year. It delivered 1,003,469 vehicles, posted €34 billion in revenues and made a €3.2 billion profit. 'These outstanding key figures – the best ever in the history of the company – provide Audi with a sound basis for funding capital investments in its ambitious model range from its own resources over the next few years,' said finance director Axel Strotbek (Audi)
• Mazda's European boss James Muir announced his sudden departure. CFO Jeffrey Guyton replaces Muir as chief executive officer of Mazda Motor Europe. Muir headed up Mazda's Euro operations since 2005 and will take up a new post outside Mazda, the company said (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)

Monday 9 March 2009
• The Swiss gigolo who blackmailed BMW heiress Susanne Klatten for €7 million is jailed for six years. Helg Sgarbi had wooed Klatten at various hotels but later claimed he had incriminating video evidence of their trysts. The married business tycoon owns a 12.5% stake in BMW (BBC News)
• UK business secretary Peter Mandelson concedes that Vauxhall is 'in terrible trouble'. He confirms he is in regular contact with his German counterpart, Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, as the two governments plan if and how they can rescue GM's European operations. 'Vauxhall is in terrible trouble because its owners, General Motors, are in danger of becoming insolvent,' Mandelson tells the BBC's Andrew Marr programme. He admits he has spoken to GM Europe president Carl-Peter Forster three times in the past week (Financial Times)
• US sales in February fell to the lowest annualised rate for 27 years – sparking a 41% drop in American car production to prevent over-supply (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)
• Sir Jackie Stewart has agreed to waive his sponsorship fees from RBS as the embattled British bank struggles to fix its finances. The bank, which lost £24 billion last year, said that Sir Jackie agreed to fulfil his obligations in 2009 without pay (BBC News)

Friday 6 March 2009
• Reports in the German media are suggesting that the country's MPs are saying (off the record) that they were 'shocked' to learn that Opel does not have any assets. All its factories are actually owned by GM in the USA, and there is also confusion as to whether Opel owns the intellectual property (IP) information of its vehicles (BBC)
• Honda confirms the sale of its F1 operations to former team boss Ross Brawn. The team will now be known as Brawn GP, and will use engines supplied by Mercedes-Benz in this year’s championship. Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button (who is reported to have taken a substantial pay cut) are being retained as the team's two drivers (BBC)
• JM Family Enterprises Inc, which owns Southeast Toyota (the distributor that accounts for 16% of Toyota sales in the USA) has dismissed 500 employees due to 'unprecedented challenges'. The cuts are amount to 11% of the workforce and also include JM Family's finance and insurance units (Automotive News Europe, subscription required)
• German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has told the newspaper Handelsblatt that Opel 'should seriously exercising insolvency law' to protect its assets, and as a better solution than the state taking control (Automotive News Europe)

Thursday 5 March 2009
• Renault-Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn has encouraged the European Union to play a stronger role in co-ordinating aid for car makers, but warned against individual governments intervening to save individual manufacturers. (Financial Times)
• Jaguar and Land Rover workers have voted to take a one-year pay freeze and switch to a four-day working week, in a move designed to save their jobs. The deal is expected to save JLR £70m in 2009 (BBC News)
• UK new car registrations were down 21.9% to 54,359 units in February 2009, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reports. The percentage of diesel-powered vehicles sold dropped from 45% in February 2008 to 44.1% in February 2009
• Porsche sales in North America for February 2009 were down 12% compared to the same period in 2008, a drop to 1622 units. And while the company remains bouyant, stating that new Cayman and Boxster were up 42% to 528 cars, Cayenne sales were down 41% to just 477 vehicles. 911 sales were down 6%, but actually up 33% on sales in January 2009

Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 March 2009
• Apologies for the lack of Crunchwatch stories on Tuesday and Wednesday – we were all a bit tied up at the Geneva motor show. Click here for our bountiful coverage of Europe's spring auto industry expo. There's plenty of industry news and comment

Monday 2 March 2009
• The Volkswagen Group announces a 5% rise in sales revenues in the 2008 tax year and a 3% increase in operating profits, up to €6.3 billion. Chairman Martin Winterkorn said the group's multi-brand strategy and low CO2 cars had helped sustain sales, although he admitted that 2009 would see a fall in demand and revenues (Volkswagen).