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Volvo plans turbo four-cylinders, new design direction across its entire lineup "We lost our way," admitted Volvo North America CEO Tony Nicolosi in his New Jersey-honed Italianate accent. Never an easy thing for an executive to confess. "We gotta go back to our roots. Society is coming back to what we represent as a brand: environment, family, safety. We've just been poor at communicating it." By the end of this year, approximately 60,000 Volvos* will move out the proverbial door -- down 6 percent from 2011. The death of the C70 and C30 certainly hurt sales. Volvo hasn't had a U.S. product launch since 2010. Four years! After enough controversy and hand wringing, Volvo finally acquiesced and announced that the V60 wagon will come to America -- four years after it was first introduced, alongside the S60. Underinvested and undermarketed, Volvo seemed to lay dormant. Now, flush with cash from Geely -- to the tune of an $11 billion investment over t

Company to cease manufacturing in Australia by 2017 2013-12-10 DETROIT – As part of its ongoing actions to decisively address the performance of its global operations, General Motors today announced it would transition to a national sales company in Australia and New Zealand. The company also said it would discontinue vehicle and engine manufacturing and significantly reduce its engineering operations in Australia by the end of 2017. "We are completely dedicated to strengthening our global operations while meeting the needs of our customers," said GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson. "The decision to end manufacturing in Australia reflects the perfect storm of negative influences the automotive industry faces in the country, including the sustained strength of the Australian dollar, high cost of production, small domestic market and arguably the most competitive and fragmented auto market in the world." As a result of the company's actions, approx

Relish this number: $22,191, that's Porsche's net profit per vehicle. No other carmaker in the world comes close to such amazing margins. Porsche, however, is ambitiously seeking even greater returns. It plans to do so despite increased costs, chiefly due to manpower (employment has increased from 12,000 to 18,000 in the last five years); infrastructure (the Weissach think tank is currently undergoing a major expansion); production (the factories at Leipzig and Zuffenhausen in particular need to be brought up to speed); marketing (Porsche experience centers are mushrooming globally); and distribution (Korea, Russia, and Brazil require instant attention). Slow start for the 918 This fall, Porsche will roll out the mega-complex and mega-expensive, limited edition 918 Spyder. While the competing LaFerrari sold out instantly (and will be followed by a run of 500 drop-tops as well as by about 200 hardcore FXX variants in 2015 and 2016), the plug-in supercar from Stuttgart is still a