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Mark Fields Becomes New CEO of Ford
The deal is complete, Ford Named Mark Fields to replace Alan Mulally as CEO starting July 1st. Fields, currently Ford’s chief operating officer, had long been seen as Mulally’s heir apparent. He was centre stage at this year’s Detroit auto show unveiling the aluminium model of Ford’s best-selling F-150 pickup and a limited edition Mustang GT.
Fields, 53, is a Harvard Business School graduate who joined Ford in 1989 and ran its North American operations through the depth of the recession. Ford was the only major US automaker not to file for bankruptcy.
Mulally, 68, a long-time Boeing executive, was hired by Ford in 2006 to turn around a company making massive losses and facing declining market share. He slashed costs and mortgaged all of Ford’s assets in a move that allowed the company to steer clear of bankruptcy and government-ownership.
Fields becomes the second insider in recent months to take over one of the big American auto manufacturers. Last December General Motors named Mary Barra as its new chief executive, succeeding Dan Akerson, a turnaround specialist appointed by the US Treasury. Will Fields be able to complete the turn around that Mulally started, we will have to wait and see.
To read the full article checkout: www.thegurdian.com
Nascars Rating Struggle, Who Will Save the Day?
May 4th is one of the biggest stock car events, the Talladega Super Speedway, the problem? No one cares. It’s no secret that Nascar racing has had plenty of trouble recently holding on to its audience on a weekly basis. The series suffers from both an aging fan base and the lasting effects of a deep economic recession.
Television ratings are unequivocally down in the last decade—not surprisingly, major media partners including ESPN (DIS) and TNT (TWX) won’t be airing races next year. Stadium operators have even come to the realization that fans aren’t coming back, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce seating capacity at the tracks.
You’d think the success of a popular racer like Dale Earnhardt Jr. would correlate with the success of the sport. Not so. Yes, he’s a star with a loyal following, but Nascar needs to widen its audience. Earnhardt’s triumph at this year’s Daytona 500 hasn’t engaged the casual fan—TV ratings are down to levels not seen since 1997.
Despite fluctuations in the size of the household TV audience, a set of faithful fans will continue to watch. Such fans form the “minimum” audience number, those who watch no matter what. If anything, Earnhardt represents this group, the ones who love Nascar and aren’t going away. Will Earnhardt be the new Tiger Woods of Nascar?
To read the full article check out: www.businessweek.com
Increased Sales Tax in Japan will Drop Auto Demand
Japan has increased its sales tax for the first time in 17 years, which will greatly affect auto production.
Japanese auto deliveries will drop 16 percent in the year starting April 1 as a sales-tax increase damps demand, an industry group estimates.
Sales will probably fall to 4.75 million units in Japan, the world’s third-largest auto market, as the levy rises to 8 percent from the current 5 percent, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said in a statement today.
Japan’s first sale tax increase in 17 years, intended to help repay debt, is expected to dent consumption from cars to televisions, posing a challenge to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ambition to spur growth.
A rush of buying before the April 1 increase helped boost vehicle sales 15 percent from a year earlier in February, a sixth straight monthly increase.
Honda ramps up vehicle lines for higher volumes of sales in North America
The Fit may be Honda’s smallest (and, starting at under $15k, most cost-effective) model, but it has never sold in quantities that even approach those of the brand’s larger offerings – at least not in the Canada or the United States. Where Honda typically sells hundreds of thousands of Civic and Accord models in North America – even CR-V crossovers and Odyssey minivans – annual sales for the Fit typically amount to tens of thousands. But the Japanese automaker hopes to expand its sales in the segment with the introduction of the new 2015 Honda Fit.
Having launched the all-new model several months ago in the Japanese Domestic Market, Honda is presenting the new Fit to the North American market here at the Detroit Auto Show. By and large, it’s the same model that will be sold around the world, having been redesigned with more aggressive styling, a larger footprint on the road and more interior space.