Ford CEO’s pay falls 37 percent

From Marketwatch (full text):

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Investors and employees burned by the fierce decline of the U.S. auto industry won’t be shedding any tears for Alan Mulally, but the Ford Motor Co. chief executive didn’t come out of the historically brutal year unscathed.

Mulally’s total compensation fell by 37% to $13.57 million in 2008, according to a proxy filing from Ford on Tuesday. He earned $2 million in salary but received no bonus. In 2009 and 2010, Mulally will also see a 30% cut while Ford eliminates merit increases and incentive bonuses for salaried workers.

Toyota may make cheaper hybrid

Hmmmmm. Might be a good fit for TMMMS. From MarketWatch (full story):

TOKYO (MarketWatch) — Toyota Motor Corp. is planning the development of a new, more affordable hybrid car that will sell for around 20% to 30% less than the automaker’s current hybrid offering, the Prius, according to a Japanese media report Friday.

The new hybrid car will sell for less than 2 million yen ($20,500). Toyota’s Prius has a starting cost of 2.33 million yen ($23,600).

Toyota plans to launch the new vehicle in Japan as early as 2011 under its own name, the Nikkei newspaper reported in its morning edition. The car would compete with Honda Motor Co.’s Insight, which was recently relaunched.

New plans for Toyota Mississippi?

11:50 a.m. update: We also have a response from Gov. Haley Barbour:

We’ve not been advised of any change in the Toyota model to be produced at Blue Springs. We know Toyota continues to keep a close eye on the market. We’ll keep working together on behalf of the state and company’s best interests.”

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11:40 a.m. update: Toyota spokeswoman Barbara McDaniel e-mailed the following response earlier this morning, regarding Mr. Lentz’s remarks he made yesterday as outlined by the Bloomberg story below:

There are no plans to make any vehicle change for Mississippi at this time.  As for any future decisions, Toyota always considers stability for its plants locally and viability for the company globally.

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Could another vehicle be built at the Blue Springs plant? This report from Bloomberg (full story):

March 12 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Corp., preparing to sell a revamped Prius hybrid later this year, may review plans to build the car in Mississippi and possibly make another model in the state, the company’s U.S. sales chief said.

Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, in December halted construction of an assembly plant in Blue Springs, Mississippi, amid plunging vehicle sales. The company is only completing the exterior for now, and hasn’t said when the factory may open.

“It’s conceivable that something else could go potentially in there,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota Motor Sales USA, told reporters in Washington yesterday. “It was originally designed for Highlander, then switched to Prius. “That decision can still be moved around.”

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We’ll try to find out more and keep you posted – Biz Buzz

Carlock Kia goes kaput?

1:30 p.m. update: DJ photographer Deste Lee is at Carlock Kia now and said there is a “closed” sign on the door.
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The number of vehicles at Carlock Kia in Tupelo have been dwindling in recent weeks, and now that there’s basically nothing left out there. Seems the dealership has gone out of business – again.

We had heard rumors in recent weeks that its closure was imminent, and a reader e-mailed me this morning to tell us that her husband had called out there to get service for their Kia Sedona, only to be told the place had closed.

I’ve made a couple of phone calls hoping to get an “official” explanation, but all signs point to the demise of another dealership in Northeast Mississippi.

Anybody out there got anything?

New hybrid selling like hotcakes

And it’s not the Toyota Prius. It’s Honda’s new Insight (or should we say old, since it was reintroduced this year). As we’ve mentioned earlier, this presents a challenge to the Prius because its cheaper. It’s smaller, too, and doesn’t do all that the new Prius – which comes out in a couple months – does. Still, a couple thousand bucks is a couple thousand bucks.

From the AP:

Orders for the hybrid Insight have totaled 18,000 since it hit the Japanese auto market about a month ago, outpacing Honda’s target and underlining the success of the new affordable and ecological vehicle, the company said Tuesday.

The brisk demand for the gas-electric hybrid is a rare piece of good news for Honda Motor Co. as the auto industry grapples with plunging global demand. Honda, Japan’s second biggest automaker, was hoping for the Insight’s monthly sales to reach 5,000 vehicles.

The Insight starts at 1.89 million yen ($19,000) in Japan and will sell for under $20,000 in the U.S., the cheapest hybrid on the commercial market. The Insight goes on sale in April in the U.S., and March in Europe.

Just say NO to more ethanol in gas

Alarming news from the AP:

Ethanol producers asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to boost the amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline, but automakers argued the increase could damage car engines and fuel lines.

The ethanol producers want the EPA to increase the amount of ethanol that refiners can blend with gasoline from a maximum of 10 percent to 15 percent, which could boost the demand for the renewable fuel additive by as much as 6 billion gallons a year.

“Increasing the ethanol blend up to E15 is a common sense solution to our economic, energy and environmental challenges,” said retired Gen. Wesley Clark, co-chairman of Growth Energy, a coalition of ethanol companies.

The group argued that a number of studies, including one by the Energy Department, has shown that a 15 percent ethanol blend “has no adverse effects on a car’s performance, maintenance, or emissions controls.”

EPA press secretary Adora Andy said in a statement that the agency will review the request and “will act based on the best available science.”

But automakers and the producers of outdoor power equipment say the science has not yet shown that the higher “midlevel” blend of ethanol will safeguard engines, fuel lines, emission controls and other components.

“There has not been sufficient testing of motor vehicles and non-road power equipment … to determine whether any midlevel ethanol blend would meet current federal air quality protection requirements or be safe for consumers to use,” said a coalition whose members included automakers, boat owners, motorcycle manufacturers and oil refiners.

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I’ve seen what it does to my vehicle gas mileage, and I’ve seen what it does to my riding mower. I don’t like more ethanol in my gasoline!!!!

Cuneo: Toyota’s still coming

From today’s Daily Journal:

FULTON – Pardon Dennis Cuneo when he scoffs at talk that Toyota plans to abandon its Blue Springs assembly plant.

The former senior vice president for Toyota Motor North America said Monday the automaker will open the plant when the economy gets better.

“The rumor that Toyota is trying to renegotiate its deal – there’s no truth to it at all,” said Cuneo, who spoke to students, school officials and business leaders at Itawamba Community College on Wednesday.

Nissan to expand Canton plant

From AP:

CANTON, Miss. (AP) — Nissan has formally announced an $118 million expansion and retooling of its plant in Canton to prepare for the manufacture of a commercial vehicle.

Wednesday’s announcement comes about a month after Japan’s third largest automaker said it would cut 20,000 jobs by March 2010 as the company deals with its first annual loss in nine years.

Officials say the renovations in Canton will include wider aisles, lengthened chassis carriages and a belt-loosening in the paint plant. At least one new building will be added. Nissan officials say production would being in 2010.

Nissan had earlier announced cutting production of its slow-selling Titan pickup in the middle of 2010, a couple of months after workers launch the first commercial vehicle.

Toyota looking for Japanese govt. help

Toyota’s finance unit is holding out its hand for some help from the government. But at least it’s not OUR government.

From the AP:

Toyota’s financing unit is in talks with a Japanese government-backed bank on possible lending, the automaker said Tuesday, underlining the serious woes facing the car industry amid plunging global sales.

Toyota Motor Corp. said no details had been decided. Kyodo News and NHK TV reported earlier in the day, without identifying sources, that Toyota’s auto loan unit, Toyota Financial Services, had asked for a 200 billion yen ($2 billion) government loan.

A spokesman for Toyota Financial Services said the talks with the Japan Bank for International Cooperation were among the various ways being studied to gain funding. The lender does 70 percent of its business in the U.S., where sales have been plunging and credit tightening.

The Japan Bank for International Cooperation, which started helping cash-strapped Japanese businesses last year as the global financial crisis unfolded, said it does not comment on individual company matters. Some companies have been struggling for cash ahead of the fiscal year end of March 31.

The Finance Ministry said Tuesday it will provide an additional $5 billion from its foreign reserves this month to the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, to make sure there is ample cash available for needy businesses. Tokyo has about $1 trillion in foreign reserves.

Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano also said the ministry stands ready to raise the money pool available for lending in yen from 800 billion yen now to 1.2 trillion yen to help companies ride out the deepening global slump.

Toyota is still faring better than General Motors and Chrysler, which together have received $17.4 billion in emergency loans from the U.S. government, and asked for an additional $21.6 billion in aid last month.

Nissan Motor Co. has said that it is considering various types of government aid, but it declined to say Tuesday whether it was requesting for Japan Bank for International Cooperation loans. Nissan has forecast a 265 billion yen net loss for the fiscal year through March.

Toyota may cut back Prius sales target

From Bloomberg (full text):

March 2 (Bloomberg) — Toyota Motor Corp. is poised to introduce its 2010 Prius, the world’s top-selling hybrid, into a shrinking U.S. auto market that now includes a cheaper, revamped competitor from Honda Motor Co.

With a pledge to “build to demand,” the goal of selling 180,000 units in the car’s first year starting in mid-2009 may have to be dialed back, Bob Carter, vice president for U.S. sales, said last week at a briefing in Yountville, California.

Fuel at less than half of last year’s peak and the weakest industry sales since the early 1980s are casting doubt on Toyota’s plan to revive the model after 2008 deliveries fell 12 percent.