Editors Note: Related Tickers: Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA), Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F), General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM), Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC)
Tesla’s Steve Jobs Trade (Seeking Alpha)
It’s unfair to label anyone as the next Steve Jobs but we do it anyway. The allure is too compelling. My nomination goes to Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk. His electric car startup just sold over 4,750 premium Model S units with a starting price of $52,400 in Q1. The comparable BMW 7-series sold 2,338 units, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class sold 3,077, and the Audi A8 sold 1,462. Q1 is the first profitable quarter in Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s history. The Model S was the unanimous choice for Motor Trend’s 2013 car of the year.
We don’t normally start with the car’s bonus features, but in the case of the 2013 Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) Fusion Energi, it’s such a delicious one that we couldn’t resist: when you buy this car, the bonus feature is that the front end looks kind of like an Aston Martin. Not many midsize sedans – I can’t think of any offhand, save an echt Aston Martin and it’s not quite in the midsize sedan niche – get to clone one of England’s fabled grand touring cars. It’s the grille. With its five horizontal slats forming a shape that looks like an upside-down smile, it’s nearly identical to the one that personifies any number of Aston Martins over the years.
General Motors Company (GM): Three Reasons The Buick Riviera Matters (Insider MOnkey)
There’s a lot that’s interesting about General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) new Buick Riviera concept car, and I’m mostly not talking about the way it looks. Of course, there’s no doubt that it’s visually very striking. The Riviera Concept, which made its debut at an auto show in Shanghai on Friday night, is a coupe that combines sleek lines with an elegant evolution of the front grille that has become a Buick trademark in recent years. It’ll almost certainly never be put into production – at least not with all of its fanciful show-car details like the huge gull-wing doors. But there are (at least) three things that should make this Riviera quite interesting to those who follow General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s efforts closely.
Will Toyota Get Price Right for China Comeback? (Wall Street Journal)
The world’s biggest auto maker hopes a newly redesigned entry-level compact it is rolling out at the Shanghai international auto show will help the company get its zip back in the world’s biggest auto market–but one it has struggled to understand. Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) introduced two versions of the compact–the Yaris hatchback and the Vios sedan–at China’s premier auto show Sunday. Toyota hopes the new models will right some strategic missteps that have hurt sales in China, a situation that was exacerbated by a territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea claimed by both China and Japan, and which led to a boycott of Japanese-brand products last autumn.
Honda to roll out diesel versions of all upcoming cars (Hindustan Times)
Japanese auto maker Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC), which has recently entered India’s diesel vehicle segment with the launch of the entry-level sedan Amaze, Monday said it would continue to bring diesel versions of the cars along with petrol which would be rolled out in the next two-three years in the country. “We bring in the sedan for the dieselisation of the market. We have to go along with the market. And all the models…
…to be launched in the next two-three years will have petrol as well as diesel variants,” Honda Siel Cars India Ltd senior vice president Jnaneswar Sen told reporters after launching its new sedan Amaze here.
Electric carmaker, Tesla to push direct to sell at malls (domain-B)
Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) will approach top executives of US-based Natick Malls on Wednesday to ask for exception to zoning regulations that did not allow the manufacturer of upscale electric cars from selling to customers at its Natick Mall ”gallery” at present. According to BostonGlobe.com, the exception would allow Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) to consolidate its operations in Natick, where it currently has a showroom, where customers could see a car and get information, and a sales office on West Central Street, which actually handled sales. The request was part of the push by the California company to sell its cars directly to consumers rather than through independent dealerships, which was the traditional sales model required by statute in Massachusetts and across the country, the report said.
Ford Bridgend’s £24m new engine production secures jobs (BBC News)
Toyota SA’s Van Zyl takes charge of all of Africa (BDlive)
TOYOTA South Africa Motors president and CEO Johan van Zyl has been appointed the CEO of Toyota in Africa, as part of a major restructuring Toyota Motor Corporation (ADR) (NYSE:TM) announced on Friday. Toyota is the most-sold vehicle brand in South Africa. The position of CEO of Toyota in Africa gives Dr van Zyl executive responsibility of the African operations. It would cover all aspects of the company’s automotive business including product planning, sales, manufacturing and exports. Econometrix chief economist Azar Jammine said Dr van Zyl’s appointment was well deserved and that he was a “giant of the local motor industry”. Dr van Zyl would be one of two non-Japanese executives tasked with heading a region, along with Toyota America’s Jim Lentz.
Honda gets aggressive with range of new models (China Daily)
Japanese carmaker Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC) is hoping to achieve a jump in sales by introducing an unprecedented lineup tailor-made for the Chinese market through its two joint ventures at the ongoing Shanghai auto show. The company announced its intent to introduce more than 10 new models, including small-displacement cars and plug-in hybrids, before 2015 with the goal of doubling annual sales compared to 2011, when nearly 618,000 units were sold. Honda Motor Co Ltd (ADR) (NYSE:HMC)’s latest Earth Dreams powertrain technology will be applied for the first time in China to the all-new Accord, a popular mid-sized sedan that will be locally made by the automaker’s joint venture Guangqi Honda in the southern city of Guangzhou. The all-new Accord will go on sale in September.
General Motors Expands its Aftersales Support to Sub-Saharan Africa (3D Car Shows)
General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) recently introduced a brand new business model for the new Isuzu Pick-up for its Parts Dealers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) at its R250 million PDC, which boasts over 144 000 different part numbers, servicing key markets in Sub-Saharan Africa. GM has earmarked…
…600 square metres of floor space within the 38 000 square metre warehouse of its PDC facility located at Coega near Port Elizabeth. Up until recently General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s operations in South Africa exported Isuzu parts to four countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, which included Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. The company’s customer base has now increased to 25 countries across the SSA region.
Elon Musk doesn’t let up at Tesla and SpaceX (The News Journal)
If endless hours are a requirement to become a business icon, Elon Musk has put in his share. Nearly every week, he shuttles 400 miles between electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) in the San Francisco Bay Area and rocket maker Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) in this Los Angeles suburb. He is CEO of both. As fatiguing as his life may be, Musk is establishing himself as one of America’s pre-eminent high-tech entrepreneurs. Sure, Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and Sergey Brin and Larry Page introduced the world to Google. But Musk not only co-founded online payment service PayPal, he doubled, then tripled down by taking on two entirely unrelated, high-risk tech businesses.
GM board votes to close first Opel factory in decades (Autoblog)
Europe’s ailing economy has caused the supervisory board at General Motors Company (NYSE:GM), which includes four senior executives, to vote to end production of the Opel Zafira MPV at the 50-year-old Bochum plant in Germany. The closing of the car factory marks the first closure of a German automobile assembly plant in decades, and it will cost Buchum (a city with nearly 375,000 residents in the western part of the country) about 3,000 jobs.
Ford Motor Company (F): Can It Keep Riding The US’s Recovery Higher? (Insider Monkey)
On Wednesday, Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F) will release its latest quarterly results. The key to making smart investment decisions on stocks reporting earnings is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move. Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s comeback over recent years has been nothing short of spectacular, as the automaker managed to regain its footing without government assistance to turn the tables on its competitors both in the U.S. and abroad. But how can the company keep its momentum going forward?
