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ROVER BID COLLAPSES
RENAULT SELLS ITS TRUCKS TO VOLVO, BUYS SAMSUNG
SATURN BOOSTER
FRANCIS: NOT A CAR GAL
ANYMORE
GM BUILDING EXCITEMENT IN PONTIAC
GM RECALLS SUVS
MITSUBISHI TRIMS
DOWN
BLIMEY! MORE BRITISH JOBS LOST?
FORD FINED BY EPA
36-VOLT
STANDARD?
ROVER BID
COLLAPSES The sale by BMW of Rover to venture-capital company Alchemy Partners has collapsed at the
eleventh hour. BMW had been working with a preferred deadline of Friday April 28 to complete the sale.
Earlier in the week the
company had dismissed a counter-proposal for Rover from an
organization called the Phoenix Group, lead by
former Rover CEO John Towers,
because it could not be finalized ahead of this cut-off point. The whole plan was wrecked, however, when
Alchemy Partners announced, on the morning of the final day, that it was withdrawing from the deal,
quoting disagreement on
"contractual matters."
RENAULT SELLS ITS TRUCKS TO
VOLVO, BUYS SAMSUNG AB Volvo, the second-biggest truck and bus maker in the world, will
immediately acquire Renault's
truck division, Renault Vehicles Industriels (RVI). RVI also
manufactures trucks and buses, and includes
U.S.-based Mack Trucks. Combined, the Renault-Volvo truckmaker could boast sales (based on
1999 figures) of $846
million. According to the New York Times, Renault opted
to pay an extra $470 million to up its stake in
Volvo to 20 percent to get approval from the French government, which owns 44 percent of Volvo.
With its 20 percent stake in
AB Volvo, Renault will be able to take two seats
on Volvo's board. Renault also this week
completed its pending purchase of Samsung Motors. Samsung's creditors have agreed to accept a $560
million deal that would give
Renault a 70.1 percent stake in Samsung. These moves
mark another step in Renault's refocusing, along
with Renault's purchase of
Romanian carmaker Dacia and investment in Japan's Nissan.
SATURN BOOSTER GM introduced a
$1.5-billion expansion plan for Saturn that will include a manufacturing complex expansion and a new
engine facility. According to
Automotive News, $500 million will go to an engine facility in Spring Hill, Tennessee, to produce a
new four-cylinder engine, code-named L850, that will power an upcoming SUV as well as the
S-Series. Along with the
engine-facility announcement, Saturn made an announcement
that it will use a Honda V-6 engine in an
upcoming model. The remaining approximately $1 billion will go to an expansion of the existing
Spring Hill manufacturing
complex.
FRANCIS: NOT A CAR GAL ANYMORE
Oldsmobile's general manager, Karen Francis, announced her resignation, effective April 30.
Francis has taken a position
as chief marketing officer and managing director of
business-to-business e-commerce company Internet
Capital Group. Francis joined
GM in 1996 after working at Proctor & Gamble and Empire pens.
GM BUILDING EXCITEMENT IN PONTIAC
GM has announced a new $193 million brand-rejuvenation investment in Pontiac's home turf. The plan,
which concentrates in a new
Pontiac North engine-design complex, is part of a
broader $2 billion plan to relocate scattered
workers to distinct "business
campuses."
GM RECALLS SUVS General
Motors has issued a safety-related recall of 1999
full-size sport-utility vehicles. In a February
1999 test conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a Chevrolet
Tahoe registered a higher
possibility of neck injury than that allowed by the
government. In the test, the crash dummy's chin
hit the dashboard because the
bag deflated too quickly. Although GM has insisted that the test was an anomaly, and even filed a petition
last summer to disregard the results, GM has since used a redesigned airbag that will deflate
more slowly. GM's fix for the
recalled vehicles involves the installation of a
foam strip on the dashboard. Approximately
279,000 Chevrolet Tahoes, GMC Yukons, and Cadillac Escalades built between September 1998 and May
1999 are affected by the
recall.
MITSUBISHI TRIMS DOWN
Mitsubishi has announced a new cost-cutting plan
that will consolidate production facilities and
purchasing. The automaker plans to make purchases with stakeholder DaimlerChrysler and
jointly develop a new small
car with DC. The cuts will affect a thousand Japan-based administrative jobs. It is expected that
Mitsubishi's assembly facilities in Adelaide, Australia, may also be on the list of cuts.
BLIMEY! MORE BRITISH JOBS
LOST? The Detroit News confirmed analysts'
belief in recent rumors that it is likely that
Ford Motor Company will completely end vehicle production at its Dagenham, England plant, which
is inefficient when compared
to Ford's other European assemblies. The Dagenham plant, which currently makes Fiestas, vans, and
engines, employs 6500
workers. Although it is likely that vehicle production will cease, some 1800 jobs in engine production
should be unaffected. The automaker may expand diesel engine output at the factory to soften the blow,
but even then it adds up to
3000 jobs cut.
FORD FINED BY EPA The
Environmental Protection Agency has revealed that
Ford will pay a $1.1 million fine for alleged
Clean Air Act violations. The
fines apply to Ford's Wayne Assembly, Michigan Truck Assembly, and Dearborn Assembly plants, for failure to
comply with emissions regulations. Ford has recently corrected the situation with
additional pollution control
equipment, including a $12-million environmental
compliance project at the Dearborn
plant.
36-VOLT STANDARD? An industry
consortium suggested this week that the industry make a move from 12-volt auto electrical systems
to higher-capacity 36-volt
(or 42-volt) ones. The SAE's Storage Battery Standards Committee suggests that using a 36-volt battery
would enable automakers to
design accessories such as power steering, power brakes, and
air conditioning to run directly from battery
power, rather than using belts and pulleys. This should in turn greatly reduce emissions and
fuel consumption, experts
say. With in-car multimedia and communications systems and other power-hungry accessories coming to the
market in the next few years,
the upgrade is warranted.
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