A spot of M&A in the tyre business this week as Apollo swooped on Cooper with $2.5bn in cash changing hands. I could use a bit of that…
Assembly in emerging markets is often in our news these days. Just this day, Skoda kicked off generation three Octavia assembly in Russia and, earlier in the week, we reported on JLR mulling assembly in Malaysia.
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And that followed news the local BMW handlers had kicked off Mini Countryman assembly there as well – that’s the model BMW contracted Magna Steyr in Austria to build rather than doing it with the rest of the model line at Plant Oxford here in the UK.
Still in emerging markets, Ford this week opened a new, 400,000-unit engine factory in China. And we learned that ICKO isn’t too worried about western trade embargoes against Iran as it has ‘100% localised’ most of the models it makes.
An interesting career change – a long-time BMW manufacturing executive whose form includes time running BMW South Africa, which has its own extensive car plant, has jumped ship to run global JLR manufacturing for Tata.
Also new this week: a just-auto management briefing on active safety and driver assistance systems. Part one. Enjoy.
Have a nice weekend.
Graeme Roberts, Deputy Editor, just-auto.com
