Month: May 2013

Reports confirm today that VW will be building a new plant in Changsa, Hunan province, China. The factory will have a 300,000 annual car capacity…

Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk seems to have the magic touch. Last week, Tesla’s stock price hit 8.8 billion, yes, billion with a b. That number…

  In the coming decades, new high-tech sensors will become ubiquitous—embedded in all devices and structures, constantly collecting data about things from earthquakes, to road…

One of the many people our Economics of the Auto Industry class met with was J Mays, Ford’s Chief Creative Officer. Part of the conversation we had with Mr. Mays, along with our trip to the Detroit Institute of the Arts, had me thinking about the intersection of the art and automotive industries.

Design sells cars. A car can be a complete disaster in many ways, but if it is designed well, it might still sell. Take the MG MGB, which was unbelievably unreliable, but gorgeous: the design was a large part of why the car sold so well. Put simply, the design of the car is very important and creating that design is creating an artwork. Car designers are artists and can be successful, as with almost every Aston Martin ever produced, or unsuccessful, as with the Pontiac Aztek.

GM recorded a 1.1 billion dollar profit last year and reduced losses in Europe despite a continued European recession. Car sales in Europe have sunk…

Associated Press today published an article on the deadly cars made in Brazil that cause thousands of auto accidents every year, even though the cars…

All full-size pickup truck manufacturers (Ford, GM, Chrysler, Nissan, & Toyota) offer luxury versions of their standard offerings. GM has two pickup truck brands, Chevrolet…

Tesla Motors has finally reported a quarterly profit, and its stock is up 40% this week. Despite the electric carmaker having sold just fewer than…

The whole-week trip to Detroit truly opened our eyes to the transformation of this city. Detroit was once America’s industrial symbol and a base for…