TOKYO, (AP) - A Nissan Motor Co. executive said Wednesday his company was still in talks with General Motors Corp. and Renault SA over a possible alliance. Speaking to reporters at an event to celebrate the production of Nissan’s 100 millionth vehicle, co-chairman Itaru Koeda also said the companies would soon enlist the help of advisers to help examine possible synergies from an alliance.”We don’t know if we will choose only one adviser or if each of us will choose (our own respective advisers),” Koeda said.

In July, the three car makers agreed to conduct a 90-day review of the potential benefits of an alliance that could create an automobile giant with a combined annual production of 15 million vehicles. The study came after GM shareholder Kirk Kerkorian, who owns a 9.9 percent stake in the company through his investment firm Tracinda Corp., called for the car makers to pursue an alliance.                                      Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Renault and Nissan, has said the benefits from an alliance would be similar to the gains from the Renault-Nissan alliance, which have included cost savings from joint purchases of auto parts.                       At the same event, Nissan Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said he doesn’t know yet exactly when the outcome of the study will be disclosed.                                        Renault has a 44.4 percent stake in Nissan, which has a 15 percent stake in the French auto maker. Discussions on the possible partnership by the three automakers are expected to conclude by mid-October.

The 2007 Nissan Versa has a secret.
It’s being marketed as one of a spate of new subcompact economy cars, arriving just as gasoline prices frighten the body politic.
But guess what? In the measurements that count, the Versa is a midsize car. The government certainly thinks so.
Now, there are different ways of taking the measure of an automobile. There’s the length from bumper to bumper. There’s wheelbase — the distance between the front and rear axles. There’s height. There’s width. Of course, there’s avoirdupois — the number of pounds when you put the car on a scale.
The United States government, however, classifies cars according to their interior volume. That seems reasonable, because what would be the point of having a car that stretched out to 20 feet and weighed 5,000 pounds, but could only seat two people?
The classifications, as determined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are largely unknown to most people, including professional automobile critics. So here they are:
    • Minicompact: Less than 85 cubic feet.
    • Subcompact: 85 to 99 cubic feet.
    • Compact: 100 to 109 cubic feet.
    • Midsize: 110 to 119 cubic feet.
    • Large: More than 120 cubic feet. 
That’s for total interior volume. It gets divided up   between the passenger and cargo space.

After a hiatus of 50 years, Fiat will resume car production in Iran. Beginning in the second half the 2005, the cars produced will be dual-fuel models: CNG and gasoline. In the initial phase more than 100,000 cars are to be manufactured, later increasing to 250,000.  

Fiat dubs its dual-fuel model range the “Natural Power” cars: these include versions of the Punto, Doblò, Ducato and Multipla. (Fiat last year announced it would be developing a quad-fuel vehicle for Brazil—earlier post.)  

Iran is making a push to implement CNG as a vehicle fuel—as the second-largest holder (behind Russia) of natural gas reserves, it makes economic and political sense. Better to sell the oil and not be dependent on refineries. (The country is also looking to fuels derived from natural gas, such as DME.)  

As of 20 December 2004, there were 22,058 NGVs (including 1,207 buses) and 40 refueling stations with 108 stations under construction, according to the Iran Fuel Conservation Organization.  The country will have 100 CNG fueling stations online by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 2005).  

Currently, 2,000 buses can be fueled per day in Tehran.  This will increase to 3,000 by late September 2005 and 5,000 by the end of November. The country’s current CNG fueling capacity can serve 36,500 sedan cars and 2,600 buses per day.  (Statistics from IANGV.)  

Around 800,000 vehicles were sold in Iran last year, and some industry watchers expect that number to increase by 50% in five years.  (AP) With such a baseline, the Fiat dual-fuel cars rapidly could become a significant presence in the new Iranian fleet.  

TRAVERSE CITY, MI - “Emerging Economic Realities of the International Automobile Industry-A Global Perspective” is the topic of a lecture on Thursday, May 25, at 6:00 p.m. in the Milliken Auditorium of the Dennos Museum Center, Northwestern Michigan College. This program is the seventh in a seven-part series sponsored by the International Affairs Forum; this year’s theme is “How Big Is Your World?”

The speaker for the May 25 lecture is G. Mustafa Mohatarem Ph.D., who has been chief economist of General Motors since March 1995. As such, he serves on GM’s Public Policy Center and its European advisory and corporate risk management committees. The economics team he heads assesses worldwide economic developments and provides advice on economic policy and competitive issues. Mohatarem is an expert on trade issues and heads the corporation’s Trade Team. He interacts regularly with officials from the U.S. and other countries on trade-related issues. He was the lead contact for GM with the United States and other governments during Uraguay Round General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotions, as well as the U.S.-Canada Free Trade Agreement, and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Mohatarem was born Oct. 15, 1953, in Quetta, Pakistan. He received an undergraduate degree in economics and mathematics from Denison University, Granville, Ohio, in 1976. He earned an M.B.A. and a doctorate degree in economics from the University of Chicago in 1979 and 1982, respectively.

The International Affairs presentations begin with a reception in the Sculpture Court of the Dennos Museum at 5:15 p.m. and are followed at 6:00 p.m. by the lecture and a discussion period in the Milliken Auditorium. Tickets are $10 per person and can be purchased in advance or at the door as available. All current educators and students are admitted free of charge. For tickets or information, call NMC Extended Education at 231-995-1700.

The Automobile Industry in Emerging Growth Markets annual study is a forecast and report for over 65 non-OECD* countries, 2004-2009. This study is conducted for automobile and parts manufacturers from Europe, Asia and the USA and provides comprehensive, reliable forecasts for those countries which are expected to show a rapid growth.

• An extensive team of analysts assessing the environment for business and the automotive industry country-by-country and an examination of their findings by senior staff.
• Updating and revising of statistics in past studies to allow for exports and imports, assembly from kits and production, scope of smuggling in both directions, and level of passenger cars being used as commercial vehicles and the reverse.
• Extensive research to relate the forecast to:
  
  1. Political trends and policies
  2. Social attitudes and conditions
  3. Economic outlook and purchasing power in the local currency
  4. Market constraints and regulations affecting vehicles
  5. Present and possible future obstacles to importing parts, components, kits, and finished vehicles such as duties, quotas, surcharges, etc.
• Quantitative experimentation to relate such independent variables as real disposable income, interest rates, ages of vehicles in operation, installment debt, consumer price escalation, and others to sales of personal and commercial units. A separate methodology was established for each major country, and a collective methodology was created for such minor markets as most African countries.

AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY [automobile industry] the business of producing and selling self-powered vehicles, including passenger cars, trucks, farm equipment, and other commercial vehicles. By allowing consumers to commute long distances for work, shopping, and entertainment, the auto industry has encouraged the development of an extensive road system, made possible the growth of suburbs and shopping centers around major cities, and played a key role in the growth of ancillary industries, such as the oil and travel businesses. The auto industry has become one of the largest purchasers of many key industrial products, such as steel. The large number of people the industry employs has made it a key determinant of economic growth.

Industry History

Although ancient Chinese writers described steam-powered vehicles, and both steam- and electric-powered cars competed with gas-powered vehicles in the late 19th cent. Frenchman Jean Joseph Étienne developed the first practical internal-combustion engine (1860), and later in the decade several inventors, most notably Karl Benz and Gottlieb Daimler, produced gas-powered vehicles that ultimately dominated the industry because they were lighter and less expensive to build. French companies set the design of the modern auto by placing the engine over the front axle in the 1890s and U.S. manufacturers made important advances in the mass production of the auto by introducing cars with interchangeable machine-produced parts (one such car was created by Ransom E. Olds in 1901).

In 1914 Henry Ford began to mass produce cars using assembly lines. In addition, his practice of providing loans to consumers to buy cars (1915) made the model-T affordable to the middle class. In the 1920s, General Motors further changed the industry by emphasizing car design. The company introduced new models each year, marketed different lines of cars to different income brackets (the Cadillac for the rich; the Chevrolet for the masses), and created a modern decentralized system of management. U.S. auto sales grew from 4,100 in 1900 to 895,900 in 1915, to 3.7 million in 1925. Sales dropped to only 1.1 million in 1932 and during World War II, the auto factories were converted to wartime production.

The Modern Industry

After 1945, sales once again took off, reaching 6.7 million in 1950 and 9.3 million in 1965. The U.S. auto industry dominated the global market with 83% of all sales, but as Europe and Japan rebuilt their economies, their auto industries grew and the U.S. share dropped to about 25%. Following the OPEC oil embargo in 1973, smaller, fuel-efficient imports increased their share of the U.S. market to 26% by 1980. In the early 1980s, U.S. auto makers cut costs with massive layoffs. Throughout the 1990s, imports—particularly from Japan—took an increasing share of the U.S. market.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Japanese and, later, German companies set up factories in the United States; by 1999, these were capable of producing about 3 million vehicles per year. As a result, the three big U.S. auto makers now produce less than two thirds of the cars sold in America. In the early 1990s, over $140 billion worth of motor vehicles and parts were produced in the United States by companies employing more than 210,000 workers. Complaints about auto pollution, traffic congestion, and auto safety led to the passage of government regulations beginning in the 1970s, forcing auto manufacturers to improve fuel efficiency and safety. Auto companies are now experimenting with cars powered by such alternative energy sources as natural gas, electricity, and solar power.

New Delhi: India’s automobile exports witnessed a robust 27.32 growth during the April-June quarter that saw the industry record an overall 19.96 percent rise in sales as compared to the same period last year.

“Overall the automobile industry witnessed a growth of 19.96 percent in April-June quarter as compared to the corresponding period in 2005,” data released Tuesday by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said.

“Automobile exports registered 27.32 percent growth rate in the first quarter of the year 2006-07 over the same period last year.”

In a break-up of exports, SIAM states that commercial vehicles led with 37.65 percent growth while passenger vehicles sales overseas grew at 28.66 percent, and two wheelers by 22 percent.

All was not rosy on the export front with demand for scooters dipping 42.89 percent and mopeds by 16.65 percent.

In the domestic market, the cumulative growth of different types of passenger vehicles was 20.40 percent with passenger car recording higher demand of 23.72 percent while utility vehicles registered a lower sales growth of 7.81 percent during the first quarter.

In the two-wheeler category there was overall 18.50 percent growth registered with motorcycles demand rising by 22.76 percent and mopeds around 2 percent while scooters sales dipped by about 1 percent, which is marginal compared to drop in overseas demand.

In the commercial vehicles segment, the three-wheelers’ sales grew at 25.45 percent, goods carriers by 23.04 percent and passenger carrier by 27.15 percent during the April-June quarter over the same period last year.

Overall the commercial vehicles segment grew at 47.18 percent, with medium and heavy commercial vehicle registering 52.27 percent rise in demand while light commercial vehicles also performed well with a growth of 39.84 percent, the data showed.