More read-it-and-weep news for struggling European rivals from Volkswagen group this week as it chalked up another little milestone – selling over 3m vehicles in the first four months of a year.
Meanwhile, BMW announced more details of the dealer network that will sell and service its new i sub-brand of electric drive vehicles and offer ‘premium mobility services’.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Back in profit at last, Mazda has let slip a little of its future product plans and GM announced some spending on logistics at its Lansing River plant. And Ford announced that it is adding 200,000 units of capacity in North America.
Not so good – and devastating for the workers – was loss-making Ford Australia’s not-unexpected decision to axe local manufacturing and its long-running Falcon nameplate in 2016.
Australia’s local manufacturing and assembly existed largely over the years due to direct (tariffs) and indirect protection (the unique Australian Design Rules covering safety and emissions) and, as this has been whittled down in the recent decades by globalisation, assemblers and manufacturers have departed. Leaving just Holden and Toyota which both have far more export business than Ford due to the decision to build LHD models as well; Ford never did LHD Falcon. The reality is that the blue oval can bring in cars from Thailand under a free trade agreement at a quarter of the cost; local R&D, at which Australia is very good, will remain.
Back on this side of the world, Toyota’s Lexus launched its third generation IS – very well made and nice to drive but no ‘wow factor’, I thought. Having tried with diesel, the automaker is now determined to make hybrid the IS USP; it’ll be interesting to see if this works as well as it does further up the range.
Have a nice weekend – another long one here so we’ll see you again Tuesday.
Graeme Roberts – Deputy Editor – just-auto.com
