The Motor Industry This Week 7/07/2010

Mini will return to rallying in 2011 with Prodrive.

Prodrive a Banbury based racing team will build and prepare the Mini Countryman WRC. The car is based on the standard model with BMW Motor sport providing the 1.6 litre turbo charged engine.

The car will return to the FIA Rally Championship next year, but only for selected races in the 2011 season, and then entered for the full 2012 season.

The good news is customers will be able to buy the new Mini rally car next year.

McLaren officially launches road car division

This week McLaren’s Ron Dennis will officially launch the MP4 super car and after five years of preparation is road car division. This will be the start of the £40m factory that will start building the first of its vehicles in 2011, with a new line up of sports cars to be released over the next 12 years.

Car makers reported a global increase in quarterly sales and profits.

There has been a strong increase in the domestic car sector with manufacturers reporting sales and profit increases.

BMW have reported an 18.3% rise in sales and a profit of $1.1bn in the quarter, this result impressed the markets on Tuesday and share prices rose by 3.1%.

The highest percentage of growth has been in the Asia markets, with a staggering 59.4% rise in quarterly sales. Over half of these sales came from China and Taiwan which is almost double that of 2009.

Chief executive Norbert Reithofer reported “this was due to improved economic conditions and had allowed it to charge more for its cars, which bolstered profits”.

Despite Toyota’s recent global recalls, and one it is currently seeking to implement, they have reported strong sales increases, with its biggest quarterly profit in two years.

Toyota made a net profit of $2.2bn (190.4bn yen) which is an improvement of last years loss. Group revenues increased to 4,872bn yen a rise of 27% compared to last year.

Already struggling from the recent economic crisis with previous recalls, and another one looming over their head, Toyota is working hard to build trust back into its brand.

Whilst in the US car makers GM and Ford both reported quarterly profits surprising Wall Street. This has been due to both companies cutting costs and releasing new models.

GM posted an $865m profit in the first three months of 2010 and Ford a $2.6bn profit.