LOSSES PREDICTED AT GM AND FORD: General Motors and Ford Motors will lose significant US market share in the coming years, the publisher of automotive research firm IntelliChoice said in an interview last week.
"I see General Motors at 18 per cent, and Ford at 13 per cent in about 10 years from now," predicted James Bell. "We are headed into a brutally competitive marketplace now."
GM's market share is 24 per cent while Ford's is just under 19 per cent, as of the end of March.
"They still have several points to lose, and it will be a painful process," he said. "But you look at it as correcting their market share, not lowering it. They have had over production for way too long."
He predicted GM and Ford would sell fewer cars in the United States even as the market expands and Japanese manufacturers' share increases.
RIGHT-HAND RETURN FOR LANCIA: Lancia is set for a return to right-hand drive markets by 2008. The Italian brand - owned by Fiat - announced in November that it was considering right-hand-drive models, but it has now confirmed plans. The first car will be the next generation of its mid-sized C-Segment hatchback, but this will quickly be followed by right-hand versions of every future model developed.
Lancia abandoned the Irish market and other right hand drive markets in 1994. The key driving force behind the move is attempts to conquer not just the British market but the likes of Japan and Australia and India.
BEIJING BUS BUMPS UP ITS ORDER: As part of its preparations for the Olympic Games, the Beijing Public Transport Company has placed an order with Fiat Powertrain Technologies, a company within the Fiat Group, for 1,000 natural gas engines to be used in buses in the Chinese capital.
This order arises as authorities attempt to combat air pollution. Beijing Public Transport Company employs 99,180 people, has 750 bus routes, operates 24,150 vehicles, and carries 4.36 billion passengers.