Another extraordinary week in the fascinating autobiz has whizzed by, helped a little by the fact that Monday was a public holiday here in the UK. Key topics these recent days: the post-Chapter-11-filing processes surrounding Chrysler, some grim Q1/full fiscal year results, ongoing GM restructuring and a certain Signor Marchionne.
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Let’s start with him. I can well imagine the reaction of people like Opel’s works councils chiefs – and their Fiat counterparts – when they read a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) report this week saying Fiat would want to cut 18,000 jobs, closing or scaling down 10 factories in Europe if it reached a deal with GM. The document was reportedly titled ‘Project Football’ and dated 3 April. Immediate denial by Fiat.
Next Handelsblatt, quoting from a proposal it said had been presented by Fiat to the German government, listed five factories that could be shut down and three others that would have their capacity reduced in Austria, Britain, Germany and Italy. Among the doomed: an Opel powertrain plant in Kaiserslautern in western Germany, the Vauxhall/Opel/Renault van JV plant in Luton here in Britain, and a factory in Graz in Austria, plus two Fiat plants in Italy.
Plants to have capacity reduced were Zaragoza, Spain (the main Opel/Vauxhall Corsa facility), the Saab facility in Trollhaettan, Sweden, and the large Opel plant in Antwerp, Belgium.
Not good. And, so far as we are aware, not denied by Fiat. Inevitably, as Marchionne had previously said publicly, some Opel plants might be reprieved but some jobs would have to go, and analysts clearly agree. But it’d be kinder to the workers if Sergio could firm up his ideas sooner rather than later so the affected people clearly know their destiny.
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By GlobalDataSimilar confusion has surrounded Saab’s future this week, as this report showed. And this one. Again, it’s hard not to feel sympathy for the automaker’s workers and hope Marchionne can finalise his plans soon. But it’s a complex mix, with automakers, financiers, unions and governments all playing a part, and will take time to sort.
On the other side of the pond, another group of autoworkers got better news from Ford: a US$500m spend at Michigan Assembly to build the next generation Focus as part of Alan Mulally’s ‘One Ford’ global strategy. This idea of a ‘global car’ has, of course, been tried before, notably by GM with its B-segment ‘T-car’ line in the 1970s and the later and larger ‘J-car’ C-segment line in the early 80s. Inevitably the North American, European, Australian, Asian and South American versions evolved more differently than originally envisaged but there was nonetheless considerable platform and some powertrain commonality that must have saved a few bucks/deutschmarks/yen/pounds along the way.
Ford’s North American Focus started out as a ‘US-ised’ version of the European model in ’99 but has gradually become more and more North America-unique, and is still on the original decade-old platform, while Ford Europe’s car is a second generation redesign on an all-new platform launched in ’03 and now shared with Volvo and Mazda (handy for building all three models in one JV plant in China).
However, as our interview with Ford’s Asia and Africa product chief shows, Ford is clearly planning to keep the new Fiesta’s commonality as close as possible in the various markets it sells, soon to include the US – subject to the usual powertrain/transmission/trim regional preferences – and I’d expect the new Focus (which will also be made in Australia) to again be much the same in North America as it is in Asia, Europe or Africa, and stay that way.
Across at GM, some grim Q1 numbers emerged this week – the seventh quarterly loss in a row – and full year financial news was no better from Toyota, either, albeit hardly unexpected. Suppliers continue to suffer – we had red-ink reports from Dana and Magna and TRW and ArvinMeritor, and the was not much joy for Chrysler suppliers, either.
Speaking of Chrysler, amongst the arcane post-Chapter 11 filing news came this gem, showing just what desperate straits they were in before the Marchionne cavalry rode in.
On the other hand, there were some bright spots at two Toyota outposts and Nissan’s UK plant said it was hiring again, albeit temps for just four months.
And Lexus boffins proved there can still be a place for large(ish) SUVs in a CO2 tax-based world.
Have a nice weekend,
Graeme Roberts
Deputy/News Editor
just-auto.com
