General Motors may be a long ways from getting back on its feet in the US, but in another country, the Detroit-based manufacturer is standing tall.
Despite a tenuous hold on the US auto market, GM can take comfort in the fact that they’re Chinese consumer base has more than picked up the slack, accounting for a whopping 814,442 vehicles in sales in the first six months of 2009.
It doesn’t come as the least bit surprising to us to see China establish themselves as the world’s leading auto market. After all, the country still comprises about 1/6th of the entire world’s population so naturally, that many people would entail a lot of customers too. GM also benefited through a number of stimulus policies the Chinese government has implemented, allowing foreign brands to import their products easier.
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General Motors and Toyota may have ended their 25-year run as production partners at the NUMMI plant in California. Yet despite the split, the two auto giants are still in the works on a new partnership. We’ve heard that Toyota is in talks with GM about the possibility of supplying a rendering of Toyota’s popular Prius hybrid vehicle to its Detroit-based counterpart.
While the plan has yet to be finalized, sources have said that the two heads of both companies - Toyota president Akio Toyoda and GM top dog Fritz Henderson - are expected to convene at the GM headquarters in Michigan sometime in August.
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As a boy, GM’s former global purchasing czar, Bo Andersson, snatched his neighbor’s cat and sold it for $5 in order to satisfy his sweet tooth. Now Russian carmaker GAZ has snatched Andersson from GM as it moves fast to take full advantage of its planned acquisition of Opel with partners Magna and Russia’s largest lender Sberbank.
GAZ announced on Monday that it has invited Andersson to head its board of directors. "The ex-vice president of GM, Bo Andersson, has expressed his agreement to take the post of the chairman of the board of directors of GAZ," the company said in a statement.
Andersson spent more than two decades at GM after earlier posts at Saab. Most recently, Andersson had been GM’s group vice president for purchasing and supply chain. Andersson’s resignation from GM was a surprise to many. Upon leaving GM, Andersson said in a brief e-mail to a new organization, "I have a new better job where I will work as CEO." At the time Andersson had declined to say exactly where he was headed.
Andersson was an aggressive cost cutter for GM and his knowledge of the GM system will help GAZ get up to speed quickly. GM has since announced that Bob Socia, currently executive vice president of Shanghai General Motors, will be appointed GM vice president, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain.
RIP Pontiac. General Motors announced today that Pontiac will not live to see its 85th birthday.
GM’s original plans for Pontiac were for it to become a niche brand under its new viability plan. Now the cuts have gone deeper, and Pontiac is completely cut off. All fans of GM’s performance division can do now is hope for a revival sometime in the future.
This will be a quick death. GM announced “The Pontiac brand will be phased out by the end of 2010”, which is the equivalent of a fire sale in the automotive world. But Pontiac is not the only one to be hurried out the door. The revised plan moves up the “resolution” of Saab, Saturn, and Hummer to the end of 2009, “at the latest”.
There is no word about if any of Pontiac’s car will be absorbed into other lines. The only cars that are unique to Pontiac in the U.S. are the G8 and Vibe. Disposing of the G8 should be as easy a stopping the boats from Australia, but the Vibe, which is joint venture with Toyota, may be harder to untangle.
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Instead of reinventing the wheel, General Motors decided to reinvent the automobile. It teamed up with Segway to create a two-wheeled, two-seat urban people mover. Called the P.U.M.A. (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility), it carries many of the design ideas that we once thought were pipe dreams coming out of design schools.
The PUMA is part of a vision of a vehicle network that is able to recognize outside objects, including other moving vehicles, so that they can all interact and avoid each other. The compact vehicle integrates a lithium-ion battery, digital smart energy management, two-wheel balancing, dual electric wheel motors, and a dockable user interface that allows off-board connectivity. If anyone is scared of two-wheeled motoring, there are two small wheels placed at the front and back of the concept for stability.
Each charge to the PUMA’s battery should be good for 35 miles (GM did not indicate recharge times.) Since this is designed as for urban areas, the top speed is 35 mph.
Press release after the jump.
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