Volkswagen to Build Plant in China, Aims to Double Capacity There by 2014 (09/01/10)

Volkswagen has confirmed that it will double its production capacity in China with the help of a new factory.

The plant, which will be located in Foshan, Guangdong province in the south of the country, will commence operations in 2013 and is set to add 300,000 vehicles per year to the company's output.

Europe's largest automaker intends to take its annual production capacity in China to three million vehicles in the next four years after pledging to invest $7.2 billion to reach this target.

Volkswagen building its 10th auto plant in China (11/01/10)

Professor Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen's Chief Executive, welcomed the confirmation of the new 170-acre factory.

"China is the Volkswagen Group's largest and most important market worldwide. Here we want to grow in tandem with our partners," he said.

Volkswagen Sales Rise 8.6% in May on Higher U.S., China Demand

Volkswagen also revealed recently that its sales increased by 8.6 per cent in May, boosted by higher demand in both China and the US.

The company sold 604,200 vehicles during the month, while also recording year-to-date sales of 2.94 million, representing a rise of 18 per cent.

"Volkswagen sales keep growing across major markets, though the pace of gains is slowing as sales incentives expire," Christian Aust, an Analyst at UniCredit SpA in Munich, told Bloomberg.

China is most profitable market for Nissan - CEO (09/06/10)

Meanwhile, Nissan has announced that it enjoyed sales of more than 750,000 units in China last year, compared to about 10,000 ten years ago.

Chairman and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, who holds the same position at Renault - which has a 43.4 per cent stake in Nissan - said the country is now the Japanese automaker's most profitable market.

"There is going to be a colossal growth in the world car stock between now and 2050," he said in an interview with Reuters.

World auto sales expected to rise 7.0% (14/06/10)

Worldwide auto sales will climb by about seven per cent to 68 million units this year, according to a new study.

Research group AlixPartners suggested that the improvement will be achieved despite a ten per cent decline being expected in Europe.

The company also claimed that annual sales of new cars in China will surge to 20 million within the next five years, which would be two and half times higher than the 2007 total.

AlixPartners predicted that worldwide sales will reach 87 million units by 2014, but added that western Europe, North America and Japan will not have returned to 2007 levels by this time.

Suzuki to make more cars in India than in Japan (16/06/10)

Suzuki is looking to increase its annual passenger car production capacity in India to 1.45 million vehicles by 2012.

Maruti Suzuki India, the company's local unit, is investing between two and four billion yen to boost output by about 200,000 units to 1.2 million units, business daily Nikkei reports.

This will see the automaker producing more cars in India than Japan for the first time ever.

Ford: Electrics could be 25% of 2020 fleet (17/06/10)

Ford has revealed that it expects as many as a quarter of its global sales to be derived from electric vehicles in ten years' time.

Nancy Gioia, Director of Global Electrification at the US giant, announced that between ten and 25 per cent of its sold vehicles will run on batteries by 2020, compared to two per cent at present.

Speaking at the Automotive News Green Car Conference, she also suggested that 70 per cent of these vehicles will be hybrids, 20 to 25 per cent will be plug-in hybrids and the remainder will be all-electric.

Environment worries to lift electric car sales: report (18/06/10)

Global sales of electric cars should increase this year, according to new research by JD Power.

The UK consultancy claimed that 940,000 electric vehicles will be sold this year - up from 732,000 in 2009 - with an increase to three million likely by 2015.

In addition, the group said the US will account for about 55 per cent of the hybrid market in five years' time.

"We think Asia as a whole will account for about 30 percent of global hybrid sales in 2015, with Japan's volume at nearly 750,000 units, or about 25 percent of the global hybrid market," it said, according to Reuters.

JD Power said the increase in 2010 can be explained by concerns about the security of oil supply, the environment and rising fuel costs.

Germany's auto industry again thriving (22/06/10)

The German car industry, which is the largest in Europe, is recovering well after a difficult period during the economic downturn, the Associated Press reports.

Mercedes, Volkswagen, BMW and Audi all told the news provider that they have full order books and a number of plants operating at full capacity.

The improvement is being attributed to strong demand for German luxury cars in China and the declining euro, which has made European vehicles more attractive to foreign buyers.

German Luxury Carmakers Add Shifts, Cut Breaks to Meet Demand (24/06/10)

Indeed, Daimler has recruited 1,800 temporary workers and added two Saturday shifts at its two German plants making the SLS supercar and E-Class convertible.

BMW has hired 5,000 temporary staff after releasing the majority of its non-permanent employees during the financial crisis and is also considering expanding working hours.

Audi is also adding extra shifts at its Neckarsulm factory and will take on an extra 100 temporary workers next month to aid production of its A7 coupe and A6 sedan models, Reuters reports.

Russia Jan-May car production up 65 pct year/year (24/06/10)

Finally, in Russia, auto production increased by 65 per cent to 381,560 vehicles in the first five months of the year, according to consultants ASM Holding.

The industry has been boosted by a government scrappage scheme, which offers 50,000 roubles for buyers trading in locally-produced cars over ten years old and has been extended to 2011.

However, the company also told Reuters that sales between January and May this year reached 568,100, representing a seven per cent decline on a year-on-year basis.

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