In an announcement this week, Dongfeng, China’s second largest auto manufacturer, has announced the creation of a JV with Germany’s Getrag Group, the world’s largest independent manufacturer of transmissions. Based in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, the JV is a 50:50 arrangement between the 2 companies and will involve an investment of USD165 million to set up for the first phase alone.
Automology’s Philippines correspondent, HAROLD, takes a closer look at what once was the leading car brand in the country.
Nissan is a leading brand in many major markets around the world. It is the number 1 Japanese Brand in China with a projected 1.2 million vehicle sale this year (Toyota will get 900k). It is among the top selling brands in the USA. It used to be number 1 in the Philippines for passenger car sales (Nissan Sentra) and low end sedans (Nissan Exalta) in the 90s. Today, Nissan is at the bottom of the list of Top 10 Car Brands Sold in the Philippines. It has been overtaken by Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Honda, Isuzu and Ford (Toyota being the consistent number 1). What happened? And will it be able to regain its lost glory in the Philippines?
Guest writer, Lily, has her own take about what qualifies as a revolution and an evolution in the automobile industry.
News wires are buzzing.
The news services have been buzzing over the report of the third fire in the all-electric Tesla Model S in the past 6 weeks. For some, the news was seen as significant enough to interrupt the coverage of the largest ever typhoon to make landfall in the Philippines on CNN.
Elon Musk says, “Told you so.”
If you had bought Tesla shares at the start of the year, by the end of October you would have been sitting on a very tidy 400% profit over your original purchase price. But somewhat unusually, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, in a rare display of corporate honesty, has been telling investors that the price is too high and needs to come down.
Yes, we all know that hot men look hotter with hot cars (case in point, read our article on 007s and their Aston Martins). But what’s hotter than that? Hot women with hot cars, of course.