New Gti! One Of Last Manual 2 Door Gti Left! 0% Up To 72 Mo! Turbo 2.0 Engine. on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

Former Audi chief designer Wolfgang Egger leaves Italdesign

The latest word from the international community of automotive designers has it that Wolfgang Egger is leaving Italdesign, but just where the accomplished designer will land next and who will take his place remain big question marks. Egger is a designer who has bounced back and forth between Italy and Germany over the course of his career. He was born in Germany but studied in Milan. He began his career at Alfa Romeo in 1989 and was named its chief designer by 1993 before being head-hunted by the Volkswagen Group in 1998 to head up the design department at Seat. A few years later he went returned to Italy to run the Lancia design department, and was subsequently renamed to the same post at Alfa Romeo. In 2007 he went back to his native Germany to head up the Audi design office, over which he assumed complete responsibility by 2012, but left Audi in 2013 to run Italdesign. For those unfamiliar, Italdesign is the studio founded by Giorgetto Giugiaro (pictured at left next to Egger) back in 1968 but which, along with many other Italian design houses, fell on hard times in recent years. The Volkswagen Group swooped in to rescue the troubled studio in 2010, turning it into something of an in-house advanced design department to provide an alternative perspective on the direction in which the group and its various brands could take their respective designs moving forward. With Egger now leaving its helm, Italdesign and its German parent company will need to find his replacement, and we're sure they'll announce one in due course. The bigger question on our minds, however, is where Egger himself will head next. Given the path his career has taken to date, we wouldn't be surprised to see him land elsewhere in the Volkswagen Group or find a new role in the expanding Fiat Chrysler Automobiles empire. Then again, Egger could find it time to open an entirely new chapter. Watch this space. News Source: Car Design NewsImage Credit: Newspress Design/Style Hirings/Firings/Layoffs Audi Volkswagen designer italdesign giugiaro wolfgang egger

Winterkorn steps down as CEO of Porsche SE

Martin Winterkorn's departure from all things related to the Volkswagen Group is nearing completion. After having stepped down as chairman of the automaker's executive board nearly a month ago in the wake of the automaker's diesel emissions scandal, he's now leaving the direction of the company's principal shareholder, as well. After VW acquired Porsche (the automaker) several years ago, and in turn was principally acquired by Porsche (the holding company), the latter installed Winterkorn as its chief executive officer in order to cement ties between the parties. He's served as chairman of the executive board (German-speak for CEO) at Porsche Automobil Holding SE ever since, but he's now officially resigned from that position. In his place, the holding company has named Hans Dieter Potsch as its new chief exec. Potsch was also recently named as chairman of the supervisory board of the Volkswagen Group, having served until now as CFO of both VW AG and of Porsche SE. Winterkorn's principal successor at the helm of daily operations at VW is Matthias Muller, formerly CEO of the Porsche auto brand and now CEO of the entire VW group. The development brings Winterkorn's exit closer to completion. However the departing executive still, for the time being, remains at the head of group divisions Audi, Scania, and Truck & Bus GmbH. We don't expect it will be much longer, however, before he formally resigns from those chairmanships as well. Related Video: Porsche SE: Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn ceases function as member and chairman of the executive board Successor as chairman will be chief financial officer Hans Dieter Potsch Stuttgart, 17. October 2015. Porsche Automobil Holding SE, Stuttgart ("Porsche SE"), reached an agreement with Prof. Dr. Martin Winterkorn that he ceases his function as member and chairman of the executive board of Porsche SE by the end of October 31, 2015. Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of the supervisory board of Porsche SE, thanked Prof. Dr. Winterkorn for the successful work in previous years: "Prof. Dr. Winterkorn assumed office as chairman of the executive board of Porsche SE in a difficult situation. He played a significant role in transforming our company into a highly professional investment holding. I would like to express my gratitude on behalf of the entire supervisory board." Hans Dieter Potsch, chief financial officer of Porsche SE, was appointed by the supervisory board to succeed Prof. Dr.