Car-Parts Suppliers Fined $182 Million in Europe

BRUSSELS — European Union competition regulators said Wednesday they have fined several car parts makers a total of €141.8 million for taking part in cartels that affected automakers including Toyota Motor and Renault.

The sanctions from the European Commission are expected to be the first of several against car parts suppliers, which are under investigation for fixing prices for products ranging from thermal systems to seat belts and ball bearings.

American and Japanese antitrust regulators have already levied hefty fines on several parts producers, with more than 10 people jailed in the United States.

The European Commission said Wednesday that the companies took part in five cartels. It imposed the biggest fine — of €125.3 million, or $161 million — on Yazaki, the Japanese company that is the world’s number one maker of wire harnesses, which transmit electricity throughout a vehicle.

A Yazaki subsidiary, S-Y Systems, was fined €11 million. Furukawa Electric of Japan was fined €4 million. Leoni, a German company, was fined €1.38 million.

Sumitomo Electric was not fined because it alerted regulators to the existence of the cartel.

The commission said car parts affected by the cartels’ practices were sold to Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Renault. The cartels operating between 2000 and 2009, the regulator said.

“Such cartels may harm the competitiveness of the automotive industry and artificially inflate prices for final buyers of cars,” the competition commissioner, Joaquín Almunia, said.

Wheels: Insurance Group Says Toyota Crams for a Test, but the RAV4 Still Fails

Insurance Institute for Highway Safety The insurance organization says the dummy’s position in relation to the door frame, steering wheel and instrument panel after the crash test of the Toyota RAV4 indicates that the driver’s survival space was not maintained well.

When the results of the new small overlap crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety on 13 compact crossovers and S.U.V.’s were released in May, the group said the new 2013 Toyota RAV4 was missing from the tests because the automaker wanted time to make improvements.

So, according to the insurance group, Toyota made its changes, but in June when the new test was finally conducted, the RAV4 still failed. It got the lowest rating, Poor, in the overlap test.

Toyota had made changes to models built after April to better control the stability of the steering column and to provide extra padding under the footwell carpeting, according to a statement from the insurance group, which is funded by the insurance industry. RAV4s before that date do not have these improvements.

Still, those changes did not do enough to address a combination of poor structure and inadequate control of the test dummy’s movement, resulting in the Poor rating in the overlap test, the group’s newest, most severe frontal crash test.

In the RAV4, the dummy’s left foot “was trapped by crushed and buckled sheet metal in the footwell,” which indicated there was a high risk of injuries to the left lower leg in a crash this severe.
The dummy’s head hit the instrument panel. According to the test details, “the dummy’s head barely contacted the frontal air bag before sliding off the left side as the steering column moved” more than 7 inches to the right, resulting in little air bag cushioning for the chest.

Additionally, the safety belt allowed “excessive” forward movement of the dummy’s head and torso, which contributed to the dummy hitting the instrument panel.

“There is just no good reason that the head should be allowed to get so far forward,” said David Zuby, the group’s chief research officer.

Nonetheless, the group said the RAV4’s overall performance was good.

“The overall safety of the RAV4 is quite high,” as indicated by a Good rating in the institute’s other crash tests and its designation as a Top Safety Pick, Mr. Zuby said. “But we are trying to push crashworthiness even further than what’s represented by today’s Top Safety Pick. And with regard to the small overlap crash test, the RAV4 falls short.”

Toyota refused to confirm that it asked the insurance group to hold off on the small overlap crash test while it made improvements to the RAV4 or to answer questions about what changes it made and why they were unsuccessful.

In an e-mail statement, the company said, “The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (I.I.H.S.) periodically develops new, more severe or specialized tests that go beyond federal requirements. With the small overlap test, the institute has raised the bar again, and we are responding to the challenge. We are looking at a range of solutions to achieve greater crash performance in this area. Although the Toyota RAV4 did not achieve the I.I.H.S. “Top Safety Pick +” (Plus) rating, it remains an I.I.H.S. Top Safety Pick.”

A vehicle can be a Top Safety Pick if it gets a Good rating in the group’s four other crash tests, regardless of how it performs in the small overlap test. To receive the highest distinction of a Top Safety Pick+, the vehicle must receive Good ratings in at least four of the group’s tests and no less than an Acceptable in the fifth.

“The message to consumers is, if you want the very safest vehicles look for a Top Safety Pick+,” Mr. Zuby said. “But you don’t have to really worry if you are driving around in a Top Safety Pick because those vehicles have a very high level of safety. The message to Toyota is, if you want to remain on the I.I.H.S. list of safest cars, you have work to do on the small overlap crash test.”

Mr. Zuby said that despite advances in crash safety, people are still dying and being seriously injured in frontal crashes. And small overlap crashes account for about 25 percent of those fatalities and injuries.

The RAV4 was not the only small crossover to have difficulty with the new test. In May, when the insurance group released the small overlap test results for the other small crossovers, only the Subaru Forester received a rating of Good. The Mitsubishi Outlander Sport earned an Acceptable rating. Six others were rated Marginal, and five were rated Poor.

The small overlap test was designed to replicate what happens when the front corner of a vehicle collides with another vehicle or an object like a tree or a utility pole. In the test, 25 percent of a vehicle’s front on the driver’s side strikes a 5-foot-tall rigid barrier at 40 miles per hour. Because the edge of the vehicle hits the barrier, it misses the main crush-zone structures in the middle of the vehicle that reduce crash forces on the occupant compartment.

In these impacts, the left front wheel and tire can be forced back into the footwell, resulting in serious, debilitating leg and foot injuries, the group says. Vehicles also tend to rotate and slide sideways. This movement can fling the dummy to the left toward the windshield and front-door pillar. And it can push the steering wheel, which contains the air bag, so far to the right that the air bag offers little protection to the dummy.

Some Toyota and Lexus models had similar problems with structure and restraints in earlier rounds of small overlap tests. The Lexus ES 350 and IS 350/250, and the Toyota Camry and Prius V wagon all received overall ratings of Poor in that test.

Bits: The Money Side of Driverless Cars

Robert Stolarik for The New York Times Parking tickets generate millions of dollars in revenue for cities across America.

In Washington, an average of six parking tickets are issued every minute of a normal workday. That is about 5,300 tickets on each of those days. Those slips of paper have added up to $80 million in parking fines a year, according to a report by AAA Mid-Atlantic.

As I noted in my Disruptions column this week, ”How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities,” the parking ticket could vanish from the future city as cars park themselves and refill parking meters electronically. (If there even are meters in the future.)

This has municipalities concerned.

“Automation is challenging all sorts of traditional revenue sources for cities and states,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and a fellow of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford. “It’s challenging how states and federal agencies get their funds, and parking fees are clearly challenges that could be in the future.”

Mr. Walker Smith said that while traditional revenue sources from tickets, towing cars and gasoline taxes could dry up, cities and states will come up with new ways to make money on vehicles.

Of course cities probably wouldn’t be alone in losing revenue because of driverless cars.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 93 percent of all traffic accidents result from human error. If cars are smart enough to avoid accidents — and many researchers working on these cars believe they will be — the multibillion-dollar car insurance industry could completely change and be reimagined.

Then there are the workers that could lose a paycheck to automated cars. Taxi drivers, delivery trucks, parking enforcers, bus drivers and a long list of other people who drive cars for a living could find themselves out of a job, replaced by a computer chip and an algorithm.

When I spoke with Lawrence H. Summers, the economist, former Treasury secretary and former Harvard president, last year about these jobs possibly vanishing, he insisted that the decline in certain vocations would lead to a rise in jobs in new industries.

Mr. Summers likened the rise in autonomous vehicles and robots to the Industrial Revolution, which gave way to new types of jobs in the arts, manufacturing, technology and elsewhere. ”In reality, if people are freed up from one thing they are able to do something different,” he said.

Let’s hope Mr. Summers is right. And that the researchers who say the parking ticket could soon be a thing of the past are accurate with their prediction, too.

Dix usines automobiles de trop en Europe

Le Monde | 17.06.2013 à 11h25 • Mis ? jour le 18.06.2013 à 09h46 | Par Philippe Jacqu?

"Aujourd'hui, pr?s de deux tiers des usines tournent ? moins de 75 % de capacit?, le seuil de rentabilit? d'un site d'assemblage. Et l'avenir n'est pas rassurant, car nous ne pr?voyons pas de rebond du march? d'ici ? 2019, qui pourrait att?nuer ces surcapacit?s", assure Laurent Petizon, le directeur g?n?ral d'AlixPartners France. Depuis la crise de 2008, le march? en Europe de l'Ouest n'a cess? de chuter, passant de 16 ? 12 millions en 2013. Aujourd'hui, le Vieux Continent disposerait d'une surcapacit? de production de 3 millions de v?hicules soit l'?quivalent de dix usines de taille moyennes.

Contrairement aux Etats-Unis, o? les constructeurs ont sacrifi? au plus dur de la crise dix-huit usines, pour mieux rebondir, les constructeurs europ?ens n'ont que timidement agi. PSA Peugeot Citro?n fermera le 31 d?cembre son usine d'Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis) et r?duira les capacit?s de production de son site de Rennes, tandis qu'Opel baissera le rideau en 2014 sur son site allemand de Bochum (Rh?nanie-du-Nord-Westphalie). Ford va supprimer pour sa part trois sites en Belgique et au Royaume-Uni. Mais ce n'est pas suffisant, assure M. Petizon. "Si le march? reste aussi bas, il faudra agir de mani?re beaucoup plus importante", juge-t-il.

Tous les pays ne sont pas log?s ? la m?me enseigne. Les usines allemandes ou britanniques tournent ? plus de 80 %, car elles fabriquent en majorit? des v?hicules haut de gamme non seulement pour les march?s europ?ens, mais aussi pour chinois ou am?ricain, en pleine expansion. Les constructeurs g?n?ralistes des pays du sud de l'Europe sont beaucoup plus en difficult?. En Italie, l'utilisation moyenne des usines est de 46 %, en France elle atteint 62 % et en Espagne 67 %...

"RIEN N'EST FIG?"

Afin d'atteindre une capacit? minimale d'utilisation des usines de 80 %, seuil au-del? duquel les usines sont rentables, chacun de ces trois pays devrait d?truire les capacit?s de production de 600 000 v?hicules, soit l'?quivalent de deux usines moyennes.

En France, c'est plus que la production des cinq sites de Renault?en 2012 ! L'an dernier, l'ex-R?gie a assembl? 532 000 v?hicules dans l'Hexagone, tandis que PSA en a fabriqu? 1,1 million.

En 2000, la France ?tait le quatri?me pays producteur de v?hicules dans le monde, avec 3,3 millions de v?hicules assembl?s, juste derri?re l'Allemagne (3e avec 4,9 millions). Elle pointe d?sormais au 11e rang (2,1 millions). L'Allemagne, elle, n'a recul? que d'un rang, en 4e position (5,7 millions) d?pass?e par la Chine, tandis que l'Espagne (12e, 1,9 million) et le Royaume-Uni (13e, 1,56 million) pourraient d?passer la France ? moyen terme...

"Rien n'est fig?, pr?cise M. Petizon. Si le march? repart plus rapidement que pr?vu, les restructurations n?cessaires seront moins douloureuses." Les calculs d'AlixPartners ne tiennent pas compte des fermetures d'usines pr?vues en 2014 ni des r?organisations arr?t?es par certains constructeurs. Au printemps, Renault a ainsi annonc? que Flins assemblerait 82 000 citadines Micra apport?es par son alli? Nissan.

En Italie, les syndicats de Fiat esp?rent que le plan de relance annonc? fin 2012 par Sergio Marchionne, le PDG de l'entreprise, portera ses fruits. Il pr?voit notamment de fabriquer sur la P?ninsule des Jeep, propri?t? de la filiale Chrysler.

TOUTE LA FILI?RE AUTOMOBILE TOUCH?E

Enfin, en Espagne, tous les grands constructeurs (Volkswagen, PSA, Nissan, Ford, etc.), qui y disposent de sites de production comptent monter en puissance. "Avec la crise, l'Espagne retrouve son rang de pays low cost", indique M. Petizon.

PSA reste aujourd'hui le constructeur europ?en le plus vuln?rable. D'autant qu'il ne peut compter sur son partenaire General Motors, dont la filiale europ?enne Opel est en grande difficult?, pour faire tourner ses usines.

"Si vous avez de l'argent, vous pouvez investir dans vos futurs v?hicules et maintenir vos usines d?ficitaires. En revanche, quand vous en avez moins, il faut faire des choix plus prononc?s. PSA est face ? cette probl?matique", insiste M. Petizon.

La crise du march? automobile ne fragilise pas que les constructeurs. Elle touche toute la fili?re, rappelle AlixPartners. En amont, les ?quipementiers ont arr?t? d'investir dans leurs moyens productifs locaux afin de se concentrer sur l'Am?rique du Nord et l'Asie.

En aval, la distribution et les services apr?s-vente trinquent. Selon AlixPartners, en Italie, 75 % des concessionnaires sont dans le rouge. En temps "normal", seulement un quart des concessionnaires perdent de l'argent... M?me constat en France : depuis un an et demi, pr?s de 9 000 emplois (sur 300 000) auraient ?t? supprim?s en France dans ces m?tiers, selon le Conseil national des professions de l'automobile.

Et ce n'est que le d?but, juge AlixPartners. En Italie, "si la guerre des prix s'intensifie entre les diff?rents constructeurs, 41 % des 3 800 concessions italiennes pourraient mettre la cl? sous la porte d'ici ? 2014. Si les constructeurs sont moins agressifs, le nombre de concessions pourrait baisser de seulement 11 %", indique M. Petizon.

Disruptions: How Driverless Cars Could Reshape Cities

Jeff Swensen for The New York Times A self-driving car at Carnegie Mellon. Researchers have been contemplating how cities could change if our cars start driving for us, including having narrower streets because parking spots might not be necessary.

SAN FRANCISCO — By now, seeing one of Google’s experimental, driverless cars zipping down Silicon Valley’s Highway 101, or parking itself on a San Francisco street, is not all that unusual. Indeed, as automakers like Audi, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz make plans for self-driving vehicles, it is only a matter of time before such cars become a big part of the great American traffic jam.

While driverless cars might still seem like science fiction outside the Valley, the people working and thinking about these technologies are starting to ask what these autos could mean for the city of the future. The short answer is “a lot.”

Imagine a city where you don’t drive in loops looking for a parking spot because your car drops you off and scoots off to some location to wait, sort of like taxi holding pens at airports. Or maybe it is picked up by a robotic minder and carted off with other vehicles, like a row of shopping carts.

A test of Google’s self-driving car.

Inner-city parking lots could become parks. Traffic lights could be less common because hidden sensors in cars and streets coordinate traffic. And, yes, parking tickets could become a rarity since cars would be smart enough to know where they are not supposed to be.

As scientists and car companies forge ahead — many expect self-driving cars to become commonplace in the next decade — researchers, city planners and engineers are contemplating how city spaces could change if our cars start doing the driving for us. There are risks, of course: People might be more open to a longer daily commute, leading to even more urban sprawl.

That city of the future could have narrower streets because parking spots would no longer be necessary. And the air would be cleaner because people would drive less. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 30 percent of driving in business districts is spent in a hunt for a parking spot, and the agency estimates that almost one billion miles of driving is wasted that way every year.

“What automation is going to allow is repurposing, both of spaces in cities, and of the car itself,” said Ryan Calo, an assistant professor at the University of Washington School of Law, who specializes in robotics and drones.

Harvard University researchers note that as much as one-third of the land in some cities is devoted to parking spots. Some city planners expect that the cost of homes will fall as more space will become available in cities. If parking on city streets is reduced and other vehicles on roadways become smaller, homes and offices will take up that space. Today’s big-box stores and shopping malls require immense areas for parking, but without those needs, they could move further into cities.

The Autonomous Intersection Management project, created by the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the University of Texas at Austin, imagines cities where traffic lights no longer exist but sensors direct the flow of traffic. Although a video showing off the automated traffic intersection looks like total chaos, the researchers insist that such intersections will reduce congestion and fuel costs and can allow cars to drive through cities without stopping.

Of course, getting to a utopian city will take a little longer than circling the block looking for a spot. A spokesman for Audi said a fully automated car would not be available until the end of the decade. And the regulatory issues to be addressed before much of this could come true are, to put it mildly, forbidding.

But the pieces are starting to fall into place, at least enough to excite future-minded thinkers. Last year, Jerry Brown, the governor of California, signed legislation paving the way for driverless cars in California, making it the third state to explicitly allow the cars on the road. And federal agencies are starting to consider their impact. In May the Transportation Department made its first formal policy statement on autonomous vehicles, encouraging cities to allow testing of driverless cars.

But to some, this promise — or overpromise as the case may be — sounds familiar.

“The future city is not going to be a congestion-free environment. That same prediction was made that cars would free cities from the congestion of horses on the street,” said Bryant Walker Smith, a fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School and a member of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford. “You have to build the sewer system to accommodate the breaks during the Super Bowl; it won’t be as pretty as we’re envisioning.”

Mr. Smith has an alternative vision of the impact of automated cars, which he believes are inevitable. Never mind that nice city center. He says that driverless cars will allow people to live farther from their offices and that the car could become an extension of home.

“I could sleep in my driverless car, or have an exercise bike in the back of the car to work out on the way to work,” he said. “My time spent in my car will essentially be very different.”

“Driverless cars won’t appear in a vacuum,” Mr. Smith said. Other predictions for the future city imagine fewer traditional-looking cars. Taking their place will be drones and robots that deliver goods.

Oh, and that food-delivery car double-parked outside? That, Mr. Calo said, will be replaced by a delivery drone.

E-mail: bilton@nytimes.com

Wheels: Ford F-250 Replaces Cadillac Escalade as Thieves’ Favorite Target, Study Says

Sam Varnhagen/Ford Motor, via Associated Press Ford F-250 pickups, like this 2011 model, have supplanted the Cadillac Escalade as the vehicle most likely to be stolen.

Being toppled from the number one spot on a list isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Case in point: The Ford F-250 has replaced the Cadillac Escalade as the vehicle most likely to be stolen, according to the Highway Loss Data Institute.

“This list gives consumers an indication of the relative risk of their vehicle being stolen,” said Matt Moore, vice president of the organization.

The Highway Loss Data Institute is an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and both are financd by the insurance industry. This is the first year since 2003 that an Escalade variant has not been the vehicle with the highest theft claim rates. The Escalade is now sixth on the list. Possible reasons for the drop include new and improved antitheft technology as well as declining Escalade sales, according to a statement from the Highway Loss Data Institute.

According to National Highway Safety Administration statistics, a motor vehicle is stolen every 44 seconds. The agency also reported that only 52 percent of those vehicles are recovered and nearly half of those thefts resulted from driver error, like leaving keys in the ignition.

The report lists vehicles from the 2010-12 model years, and the top 10 vehicles on the list are all large pickups and S.U.V.’s. The Ford F-250 4-wheel-drive crew cab has a claim frequency of seven per 1,000 insured vehicle years. That means that for every 1,000 insured F-250 crew cabs on the road, seven – nearly six times the average for all passenger vehicles – are stolen each year. The average for all passenger vehicles is 1.2. The high number for trucks and S.U.V.’s could be partly explained by the fact that many pickup truck theft claims are filed because equipment has been stolen from the bed of the truck and the data does not differentiate between that and the theft of the entire vehicle.

Following the F-250 as vehicles most likely to be stolen are the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 crew cab (6.7 per 1,000), the Chevrolet Avalanche 1500 (6.1), the GMC Sierra 1500 crew cab (6.0), the Ford F-350 crew 4WD (5.6), the Cadillac Escalade 4WD (5.5), the Chevrolet Suburban 1500 (5.4), the GMC Sierra 1500 extended cab (4.7), the GMC Yukon (4.5) and the Chevrolet Tahoe (4.4).

Conversely, the vehicles least likely to be stolen are small and midsize vehicles. The vehicles on the bottom of the list, which is good in this case, are all tied with a claim frequency of 0.4 per 1,000, which means that fewer than 1 per 1,000 are being stolen annually. They are the Dodge Journey 4WD, the Volkswagen Tiguan 4WD, the Audi A4 sedan, the Acura RDX, the Toyota Matrix, the Lexus HS 250 hybrid 4-door, the Honda CR-V and the Hyundai Tucson 4WD.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 10, 2013

An earlier version of this post misstated the role of driver error in causing theft. Thefts resulted from driver error, not in driver error.

Wheels Blog: Shop While You Charge: Consumers and Retailers Are Plugging In

Ikea Ikea’s Portland, Ore., store is one of 16 locations where it offers E.V. charging in the parking lot.

Brian Wynne, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, recently drove his Chevrolet Volt to a dinner date with his wife at Stone’s Cove Kitbar in Herndon, Va. Nothing unusual about that, but Mr. Wynne was parked and on his way in when his wife pointed out that he could have plugged the Volt into the restaurant’s E.V. charger. It’s right out front.

“I think this kind of public charging, at restaurants, retail stores, malls, movie theaters and coffee shops, is going very well,” Mr. Wynne said in an interview. “Walgreens, Starbucks, Whole Foods, they’re all E.V.-friendly. The owners want to attract people to their stores, which is terrific. And you often encounter chargers in places that surprise you.”

On June 27, the Ikea retail chain announced it would add 24 additional ECOtality Blink chargers at seven stores in Georgia, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Texas, as well at its corporate office outside of Philadelphia. When the installations are done at the end of the summer, Ikea will have 55 charging stations at 16 of its 38 stores in the United States, Joseph Roth, a spokesman, said in an interview.

Mr. Roth said that Ikea stores draw customers from outside the immediate community, and the presence of chargers assures shoppers they can not only get to the store in their plug-in vehicle, but home, too. “Because of range anxiety, they might not otherwise have that comfort level,” he said.

Greg Fioriti, chief revenue officer at ECOtality, said in an interview that businesses featuring chargers, often right out front, “are making a statement that can be ‘we’re sustainable,’ ‘we’re leading edge’ or ‘we’re pro-consumer.’ Most of our customers are saying one of those things, and it leads to them deciding that E.V. charging is the right thing to do.”

The advantages go beyond image to the bottom line, supporters say. According to ECOtality, 79 percent of consumers will look for “green amenities” while shopping and 43 percent “are likely to return weekly to retail locations with E.V. chargers.” The Blink network can also provide retailers with useful demographic data, including how far charger users traveled to get to the store.

The relatively lengthy charge times of electric vehicles may keep their owners shopping for longer periods. “The fact is that E.V. consumers stay in the store longer and are more loyal,” said Mr. Fioriti. He cited a retailer he declined to identify whose Blink E.V. charging customers stayed in the business an average of an hour and 33 minutes, about double that of regular shoppers. “The company was blown away by those numbers,” Mr. Fioriti said.

John Gartner, who heads smart transportation research for Navigant, said in an e-mail that consumers have warmed to the idea of charging their cars while they shop. “Knowing that they will be adding miles to their driving range at little (or in some cases no) cost is a strong incentive to remain at a store,” he said.

Mr. Roth said that consumers using the Ikea chargers, even if they weren’t planning to shop, “could get something to eat, walk the floor and maybe end up purchasing something.” Ikea provides the parking spaces for E.V. charging, but for this customer and others, ECOtality installs the chargers and manages the Blink network, which charges members $1 an hour to plug in. Nonmembers can charge for $2 an hour, provided they arrange for prepayment.

Mr. Gartner said that kind of model works for many businesses. “The actual revenue from E.V. charging will often not be as significant as the other benefits to the property owner, so enabling a third party to manage the power delivery and account management makes sense,” he said.

According to the Electric Drive Transportation Association, other major retail companies that have either set up E.V. charging for their customers or are planning it include Macy’s, Walgreens, Whole Foods, Kroger, Tim Hortons, 7-Eleven, Cracker Barrel, Best Buy and Chili’s, as well as several major hotel chains. “Having a visible charger is a good thing,” said Mr. Wynne. “It sends a message about the company, and it provides an amenity in the process.”

Wheels: Wheelies: The Connecticut Coverage Edition

Tesla Motors Tesla Motors added one of its Supercharger stations (not pictured) in Darien, Conn.

In which we bring you motoring news from around the Web:

• Tesla Motors has added a Supercharger station in Darien, Conn., between the existing East Coast Superchargers in Newark, Del., and Milford, Conn. The distance between charging stations became a matter of considerable controversy in February when John M. Broder wrote in The Times about his experience in a Model S that barely reached Milford, on a trip from suburban Washington, in range-sapping freezing temperatures. (The car ended up on a flatbed truck the next day, after an overnight stop left the battery nearly depleted and an interim low-power charge failed to provide enough range to return to Milford.)

At the time, Elon Musk, the chairman of Tesla, said the company was building out its charging network and that additional stations would alleviate range issues. The Darien Supercharger is about 175 miles from the one in Delaware and about 26 miles from Milford. (Tesla Motors)

• In other Tesla-related news, the company will join the Nasdaq 100 index on Monday, filling the spot of the Oracle Corporation, which is moving to the New York Stock Exchange. Tesla’s ticker sympol is TSLA. The stock was trading at about $124 on Tuesday morning, up more than $2 a share.

Also, there’s another app for the Model S. Sahas Katta, a San Jose-based developer, has created an app for Google Glass that can help Model S owners control some functions remotely, as they can do with Apple and Android apps. With the new app, Glass Tesla, owners can use a smartphone to start and stop charging while keeping an eye on how much the car has been charged, lock and unlock the doors, open and close windows and sunroofs, start the car, control its lights, operate the climate control system and find the car’s location on a map, among other things.  (Bloomberg Businessweek and Fast Company)

• Moving another step closer to the complete acquisition of the Chrysler Corporation, Fiat bought another 3.3 percent of the company, raising its total share to nearly 70 percent. Fiat is still negotiating with the current owner of the remaining shares – the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, a medical benefits trust for retired U.A.W. workers – and hopes to buy the rest of Chrysler. Fiat and the association are in court over the possible merger; the medical trust wants $10.3 billion, but Fiat wants to pay $4.2 billion. (Automotive News)

• Nissan says it plans to build 100 direct current quick chargers at dealerships in 21 markets. In an effort to bolster Leaf sales by alleviating range anxiety, Nissan has invested in the fast charger network, following what it said was its success with a pilot program that tested the technology. Nissan says its DC quick chargers can recharge a depleted E.V. to 80 percent charge in about 30 minutes. (Nissan)

Bentley Motors The state limousine used by Queen Elizabeth II was presented in 2002, for the 50th anniversary of her coronation.

• Bentley will use Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation festival, from July 11-14, to show off the state limousine it presented to her in 2002, at the 50th anniversary of her coronation. The state limo will be the crown jewel, so to speak, in a collection of Bentleys that will be on display, along with demonstrations of how Bentley hand crafts its most luxurious vehicles. (Bentley)

Les salariés de Michelin crient leur colère dans les rues de Clermont-Ferrand

La manifestation a rassembl? environ 2 000 personnes, selon les syndicats, 750 selon la pr?fecture. Quelque 450 salari?s de l'usine de Jou?-les-Tours avaient fait le d?placement pour dire "non ? la fermeture de Tours" ? l'occasion de cette manifestation appel?e par la CGT et Sud, tandis qu'un mouvement de gr?ve ?tait observ? dans toutes les usines du groupe.

Lire (?dition abonn?s) : Michelin a pr?par? avec soin son plan de restructuration pour ?viter qu'il ne soit contest?

Des d?l?gations de Bourges, Troyes, Le Puy, Montlu?on, Cholet, Bourges ou encore Montceau-les Mines ?taient ?galement pr?sentes dans le cort?ge aux c?t?s de leurs coll?gues de Clermont. Elles manifestent contre contre l'annonce de Michelin d'arr?ter la production de pneus poids lourds dans l'usine de la banlieue tourangelle, pour la transf?rer en partie ? La Roche-sur-Yon, mais surtout dans d'autres usines europ?ennes.

"C'EST LA CASSE SOCIALE"

"On ne peut plus faire confiance ? Michelin, car depuis des ann?es c'est la casse sociale", assurait Olivier Coutin, le secr?taire du CE (Sud) de l'usine de Jou?, r?sumant un sentiment largement r?pandu. "Depuis des ann?es, les salari?s de Michelin ne vivent que des plans sociaux ? r?p?tition", rench?rissait son coll?gue de la CGT Claude Guillon, rappelant que le site tourangeau a d?j? fait l'objet d'une restructuration en 2009.

Pour tous, le d?part de l'activit? poids lourds et le maintien de 200 emplois seulement contre 930 aujourd'hui signifie ? terme la mort programm?e de l'usine, qui ne b?n?ficiera pas, selon eux, des 800 millions d'euros d'investissements annonc?s par le groupe en France.

"Les gars sont en col?re. Michelin a fait 2,4 milliards de b?n?fices en 2012 et nous on n'a rien et on ferme des usines comme celle de Jou? qui est viable. Notre priorit? c'est de dire non ? la fermeture et oui au maintien des emplois", assurait Jean-Michel Denis, secr?taire du syndicat CGT de Michelin ? Clermont. Quant aux mesures de mobilit? envisag?es pour les salari?s de l'usine tourangelle, la plupart les refusent. "Hors de question qu'on quitte Tours", affirmait Mike, un trentenaire, qui comme beaucoup "a sa vie" dans la r?gion et "vient de faire construire".

DISCUSSIONS JUSQU'? LA MI-NOVEMBRE

Alors, arriv?s devant le si?ge social du g?ant du pneumatique, o? se d?roulait le Comit? central d'entreprise extraordinaire, une partie des manifestants, souvent des jeunes, a laiss? ?clater sa col?re. Apr?s quelques jets d'oeufs sur la fa?ade, ils ont tent? d'arracher le rideau m?tallique prot?geant l'entr?e. De brefs incidents les ont oppos?s au service de s?curit? de l'entreprise, qui a fait refluer les manifestants par des jets de gaz lacrymog?nes. Un manifestant, l?g?rement bless?, a d? ?tre pris en charge par les pompiers.

Le CCE extraordinaire, qui avait commenc? le matin, a ?t? interrompu durant la manifestation ? la demande des syndicats et devait reprendre dans l'apr?s-midi. Il est destin?, selon la direction de Michelin, ? pr?senter les raisons ?conomiques de la r?organisation de l'activit? poids-lourds, ainsi que les premi?res mesures d'accompagnement social, notamment en ce qui concerne les d?parts anticip?s.

Lire aussi : La direction de Michelin cherche ? rassurer

Selon un accord de m?thode ?labor? entre la direction et les organisations syndicales, les discussions doivent se poursuivre, ? Clermont-Ferrand et ? Jou?-l?s-Tours, jusqu'? la deuxi?me quinzaine de novembre.

With Street-Hail Service Set to Expand, Some Drivers Are Skeptical

With each one, a passenger climbed inside one of the cars waiting below an elevated subway station in the Bronx, and the car drove away. Though these street pickups by livery cabs are illegal and can carry hefty fines for the drivers, they happen so often and in so many corners of the city that they are a familiar street ritual.

But it is a tradition that may soon be upended.

In a major reshaping of New York City’s for-hire transportation industry, the city this summer is rolling out a new fleet of green taxis to expand legal street-hail service beyond Manhattan.

Elected officials and many livery company owners and drivers say it will not only ensure service for poor and minority neighborhoods where yellow taxis are rarely seen, but will also benefit livery drivers who, by converting to green taxis, need no longer look in the rearview mirror every time they make a street pickup.

But in some lines of livery cars, the very drivers the expansion aims to help expressed anger and worry. The drivers said that they eked out a meager living as it was, in neighborhoods with spotty demand and few big tippers, and that converting to a green taxi would cost them thousands of dollars they do not have and subject them to more rules.

“I don’t want it,” Pablo Camilo, 57 and a father of three, said as he waited by his gray Toyota Camry in the Bronx. “I want it to be like it is. I can’t spend money I have to spend on my family.”

To make his point, Mr. Camilo said he earned about $120 a day but estimated it would cost as much as $5,000 to obtain a green-taxi permit and retrofit his car, including painting it apple-green and installing roof lights, a meter and credit card reader.

In the past month, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission issued 279 green-taxi permits to livery drivers or owners. Allan J. Fromberg, a spokesman for the commission, also said that it heard from thousands of other prospective applicants through its Web site and the city’s 311 line. In all, the city plans to issue up to 6,000 green-taxi permits in the first year, and up to 12,000 more in the next two years. Each regular permit, which is valid for three years, costs $1,500 for the first year and more in subsequent years.

The city’s expansion of street-hail service was upheld recently by a state appellate court over protests from the yellow-taxi industry and other critics, including Randy M. Mastro, a lawyer and former deputy mayor who warned that it would have a “profoundly destabilizing effect” on the city’s for-hire industry. Currently, there are 13,237 yellow cabs and more than 24,800 registered livery cabs, according to city records.

Mr. Mastro said there was not enough demand in northern Manhattan and in other boroughs to support the green taxis, and that they would inevitably end up heading into yellow-cab territory to vie for passengers. “Far from solving problems, it will create a host of new ones,” he said.

The expansion has also been criticized by some livery companies who say their drivers may be tempted to cancel prearranged pickups.

Avik Kabessa, chief executive officer of Carmel, said that he was able to guarantee service to his customers by temporarily cutting off calls to drivers who missed pickups. “With this new law, I’ve lost this muscle,” he said. “The drivers are going to say, ‘No problem, I’m just going to do a street hail.’ ”

Mr. Kabessa, a board member of the Livery Roundtable, which represents 240 companies citywide that are affiliated with 14,000 vehicles, said his group had urged the city to maintain the same clear boundaries between taxi and livery service as in most of Manhattan.

It had also asked for the city to issue medallions for the green taxis instead of permits so that drivers would have a direct stake in complying with rules while also being able to earn equity on their investment.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 10, 2013

An earlier version of a picture caption with this article misstated the date that the photograph was taken.  It was taken on Monday, June 10, not on Monday, July 8.

Wheels: James Bond’s Submersible Lotus Resurfaces

RM Auctions The Lotus Esprit built for “The Spy Who Loved Me” cost about $100,000 to build, more than $400,000 today.

James Bond’s gadget-laden, amphibious Lotus Esprit, from the 1977 film “The Spy Who Loved Me,” is about to enter the public eye after years in seclusion. RM Auctions will offer the submersible car for sale at its Battersea Park sale in London on Sept. 9.

“This particular Lotus is certainly up there amongst the most famous cars of all time,” said Max Girardo, RM’s managing director in Europe, in an e-mail. “Over the years, millions of moviegoers have stared in awe as the Lotus transformed itself into a submarine.” He described it as “the ultimate beach accessory.”

RM is gaining something of a reputation for selling iconic movie cars, especially those of 007. At a 2010 sale in London, the auction house offered a Aston Martin DB5 seen in “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball” – it brought a then-record $4.4 million. At the same sale, Don Rose, an RM valuation specialist, sold his personal Aston Martin, which would later, serendipitously, become the Aston Martin used in “Skyfall.”

The Lotus, when driven into the water, transforms into a submarine. Yes, it really does, in real life. RM says the vehicle is “the one and only fully functioning car especially designed and built for the famous underwater sequence.” RM also warrants that the auction vehicle has been “abundantly authenticated.”

RM said that the car was known on the set as Wet Nellie and was one of six Esprit body shells used in the film. It differs from the rest in that it was the only car to be built into a fully operational, self-propelled submersible – at a cost of about $100,000 (more than $400,000 in current dollars) – by Perry Oceanographic of Riviera Beach, Fla.

RM Auctions The Bond Lotus is a functional submarine.

Mr. Girardo said that the aqua-Lotus was driven in the film by Don Griffin, a retired Navy SEAL. Mr. Griffin, a test pilot for Perry, has been quoted as explaining that the vehicle was operated by using its motorized propellers and levered steering mechanisms. Its underwater scenes were filmed in the Atlantic Ocean, just off the Bahamas.

After filming wrapped, said Mr. Girardo, the vehicle was consigned to a container in a storage center on Long Island, N.Y., where it sat until its prepaid, 10-year rental ran out in 1989. Apparently forgotten by the filmmakers, the storage company auctioned the storage unit’s contents – sight unseen – at a public auction. The lucky high bidders, a local couple, were shocked to find during an appraisal the odd vehicle in the unit was actually the Lotus from the Bond movie.

Rarely shown since then, it has remained out of limelight. Aside from the storage unit auction, Mr. Girardo said, the car has never been offered for sale.

“It’s an amazing story,” he said. “Lost and found.”

RM Auctions James Bond’s submarine car will go up for auction in September.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 8, 2013

A previous version of this post misstated the original cost of the submersible Lotus. The expense would be more than $400,000 today, not in 1976 dollars.

Wheels: Go East, Old Man: Mired in the Primordial Ooze

Courtesy of Dexter Ford Dexter Ford, at the start of his journey, in Manhattan Beach, Calif.

Dexter Ford is traveling from Southern California to upstate New York along mostly obscure roads, on a motorcycle that, by American standards, is quite tiny. This is the first of his occasional reports from the paths less traveled.

Taking a solo coast-to-coast trip on a Honda CBR250R seemed like a good idea initially. But when my motorcycle was stuck in a place without a name in the middle of the Nevada desert, ankle-deep in the slipperiest, most evil mud into which I had ever sunk, I had to reconsider.

It was the second day of my journey: just me, my little Honda, some rain and camping gear and a brace of credit cards. I had fallen in love with the featherweight CBR when I tested it in 2011, and when Honda offered the 2013 model in nasty toenail-polish red, it had me. My family has an old lake house in the Adirondacks, so I wanted to to blast around the East Coast on it. The problem was that I live on the West Coast.

Oh well. Epic road trip. But I set some basic rules for myself: Avoid freeways; avoid straight roads; when in doubt, do something interesting and try not to die.

After weeks of agony as I finished a book about a friend who grew up in Nazi concentration camps, I was primed for a ride — a very long ride — that would have nothing to do with Nazi concentration camps. So on July 5, at 7:12 a.m., I had an early-morning dog walker shoot a picture of me and my bike on the Strand in Manhattan Beach, Calif., and I headed north as quickly as possible. Which is not very fast, given my CBR’s maximum speed of about 85 miles per hour, downhill with a tailwind.

If you draw a straight line between Los Angeles and Yellowstone National Park, one of my bucket-list waypoints, it goes straight through Death Valley, where temperatures had hit a record American high of 129 degrees the week before. So I curved my route in a clockwise orientation instead, escaping Death Valley’s withering heat through the Owens Valley, on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. In dodging the lowest, hottest part of the Lower 48, I rode past its highest point, Mount Whitney, rising above the valley in all its sawtoothed grayness.

With Whitney still in sight, I banged a right in Big Pine, Calif., twisting up Route 168 over Westgard Pass and then into Nevada, to Tonopah, then up Big Smoky Valley. The skies ahead were starting to look like bruises, and I could see mare’s-tails of hanging rain under the thunderheads, the rain evaporating in the high desert air before it hit the ground.

At Eureka, Nev., I called it a day. The next day, I would make my first big mistake.

Dexter Ford Alone on a tiny motorcycle in the middle of the desert, the sheer distance between nodes of civilization can be intimidating.

The sane way to ride a motorcycle alone in the desert entails traveling what we veteran motorcyclists call “paved roads.” The problem was that in northeastern Nevada — in particular, between Eureka and Wells — these tend to be straight, endless, mind-numbing affairs. Those long straightaways include soul-stirring vistas right out of “Bonanza” on either side, to be sure. But they definitely weren’t ideal for my mini-motored Honda.

Route 892, according to Google Maps, would save many miles and whisk me past the Diamond Mountains onto the Pony Express National Historic Trail, which would deliver me into the lush Ruby Valley, with the soaring Ruby Mountains on the left and soul-quenching Ruby Lake on the right. Would I also thump over a pair of dusty ruby slippers? There was only one way to find out.

I consulted the ultimate authority: the young woman, with just one visible piercing, behind the desk at the Eureka Best Western.

“The Diamond Mountains are my favorite mountains ever,” she said. “Just don’t hit a deer. My daddy has hit more deer on that road than he has fingers. There’s a dirt road you have to find, to get across to Ruby Valley, but a car can make it through.”

What could go wrong?

Route 892 transitioned from asphalt into a wonderful, graded gravel road. I was humming along at 50 m.p.h.; the bike was ideally suited for the road surface. Just as I started getting antsy — in a directional sense — another dirt road curved off to the east, about where I thought I wanted to go, with a sign marking the Pony Express National Historic Trail. Did I want to ride my tiny, heavily laden new street bike across the Nevada desert on a trail, however historically significant? Was this the road that what’s-her-name, my impromptu guide, had been talking about?

I peeled off east onto the Pony Express trail, which was great. My CBR, which looks more like a toy Ducati than a dirt bike, worked perfectly, even with my generous, manly form and 50 pounds of gear straddled atop its slight frame.

Then the mud started. At first, there were wet spots in the road at the bottom of each gully. Then longer stretches of mud sprang up, one of which practically had me paddling. I didn’t want to go back through that one, and the ground ahead seemed to be rising, so I kept going.

The last muddy patch I encountered was a good hundred feet long. Sometimes mud has dry traction an inch or so underneath. Sometimes it doesn’t. This bit didn’t. By the time I found this out, there was no turning back. The bike would slither a few feet forward, then stop against mud piled up against the front wheel. I would pull it back a few inches, take another little run, and gain two or three more feet. Or not. If I had tried to get off the bike, we both would have fallen in the mud, with not much real chance of getting back up.

I stopped, let my heart and the bike cool down, then tried for a few more feet. The light weight and low seat height of my brave new Honda were what saved me. I dimly realized that if I could dig my toes down into the mud and reach some terra firma somewhere underneath, I could use that tiny bit of grip to make halting, wheezing progress.

When I finally got there, muddied but not bloodied, Ruby Valley was gorgeous. No slippers, but lovely all the same. I’ll go back there someday and kayak down lush, meandering Ruby Lake. But I think I’ll take another route to get there.

PSA ouvre une troisième usine à Wuhan en Chine

PSA va y produire la nouvelle Citro?n C-Elys?e, un mod?le sp?cialement pens? pour les march?s ?mergents et que le constructeur d?finit comme "une nouvelle ?tape dans l'offensive commerciale de DPCA", puis son ?quivalent chez Peugeot, la 301. Le groupe fran?ais r?affirme son objectif de parvenir ? une part de march? de 5 % en Chine, le plus gros march? automobile mondial. Ses ventes ont progress? de 33 % au premier semestre de cette ann?e compar? ? 2012, ? 277 000 v?hicules, quand le march? chinois croissait de seulement 16 %.

MISE SUR LES PAYS ?MERGENTS

Son directeur pour l'Asie, Gr?goire Olivier, avait fait savoir en avril que PSA visait une croissance de 26 % cette ann?e dans ce pays, o? il poss?de aussi une autre coentreprise avec le chinois Changan, consacr?e ? la ligne DS de Citro?n. Cette derni?re sera fabriqu?e localement ? partir du mois d'octobre et PSA esp?re vendre 200 000 DS en Chine en 2015.

Le groupe traverse une passe tr?s difficile en Europe, son principal march?, o? il perd de l'argent. Il mise beaucoup sur les pays ?mergents et Philippe Varin, arriv? en 2009, a fait de la Chine une de ses priorit?s. Il arrive toutefois avec un temps de retard sur certains concurrents comme l'allemand Volkswagen ou l'am?ricain General Motors. Selon la presse, PSA aurait discut? r?cemment avec Dongfeng d'une entr?e ? son capital ou d'un renforcement de leur alliance.

Wheels Blog: How Much Will Juan Manuel Fangio’s ’54 Mercedes Racecar Bring at Auction?

Bonhams The 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 grand prix racecar driven by Juan Manuel Fangio.

The Bonhams auction on Friday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England has been highly anticipated, in particular because the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 grand prix racecar driven to victory by Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina will be crossing the block.

But beyond pure speculation, how much it will sell for is anyone’s guess.

The car has turned out to be the mother of all barn finds, found mouldering away in a warehouse this year. Yahoo’s Euro-focused motorsports blog has the W196’s value near $8 million. But The Telegraph says it will sell for more than $15 million.

A 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa that sold for $16.4 million in Pebble Beach, Calif., in 2011 holds the record for the highest public auction sale price.

What do you think Fangio’s Mercedes racecar will go for when the hammer falls? Please let us know in comments.

Plusieurs repreneurs intéressés par Heuliez

Le Monde | 11.06.2013 à 11h28 • Mis ? jour le 11.06.2013 à 18h12 | Par Denis Cosnard

Le dossier le plus avanc? est celui de Mia Electric, la soci?t? qui a r?cup?r? la petite voiture ?lectrique mise au point par Heuliez. En juin 2010, cette PME de 210 personnes avait ?t? reprise par Edwin Kohl, un industriel allemand sp?cialiste du m?dicament. Pour l'occasion, la r?gion Poitou-Charentes, pr?sid?e par Mme Royal, avait pris 11 % du capital.

Mais au bout de trois ans de difficult?s, M. Kohl a jet? l'?ponge, et cherch? un repreneur. Un accord de principe vient d'?tre trouv? avec une femme d'affaires d'origine cor?enne, qui vit en France depuis son enfance, a-t-on appris de sources concordantes. Elle passerait par une soci?t? de droit allemand, et garderait tout le personnel. Sa proposition a obtenu le soutien du conseil d'administration r?uni mercredi 5 juin, et du comit? d'entreprise, tenu lundi 10 juin.

UN PRODUIT TROP CHER

L'identit? de cette Franco-Cor?enne et celle des investisseurs europ?ens et asiatiques qui l'accompagnent devraient ?tre d?voil?es dans les prochains jours.

De son c?t?, la r?gion a accept? de rester au capital, sans remettre d'argent au pot. "Je me bats, j'y crois, explique Mme Royal. Sans notre signature, tout risquait de s'?crouler."

Il y avait urgence. Depuis son lancement, il y a un an et demi, seules 1 500 Mia ont ?t? ?coul?es, bien loin des 12 000 v?hicules annuels vis?s. En France, en mai, treize voitures ont ?t? immatricul?es en tout et pour tout ! Un ?chec retentissant.

?A 11 790 euros, bonus ?cologique d?duit, "c'est un beau petit produit, mais un peu trop cher, diagnostique Mme Royal. Et puis, on souffre du fait que la France n'a pas de vraie politique en mati?re de voiture ?lectrique. Le d?ploiement des bornes de recharge des batteries est beaucoup trop lent."

R?sultat : Mia Electric perd ?norm?ment d'argent (52 millions d'euros en 2011). Les commissaires aux comptes, inquiets, ont r?cemment d?clench? une proc?dure d'alerte. Sans les fonds apport?s par le nouveau propri?taire, la PME risquait la liquidation imm?diate.

EMBOUTISSAGE ET CARROSSERIE

Ce sauvetage in extremis laisse ouverte la question cl? : la Mia a-t-elle un avenir ? Kirsten Roennau, qui a repris la pr?sidence de l'entreprise en avril, y croit. Elle mise sur le march? des collectivit?s locales et sur l'exportation de la voiture, notamment en Grande-Bretagne. Mais le succ?s para?t tout sauf assur?.

L'activit? historique d'Heuliez, dans l'emboutissage et la carrosserie, se pr?pare elle aussi ? un nouveau d?part. Son actionnaire, le groupe fran?ais Baelen Gaillard Industrie (BGI), a d?pos? le bilan de cette filiale en avril, et renonc? ? poursuivre l'aventure. Les candidats ? la reprise avaient jusqu'au lundi 10 juin au soir pour d?poser leurs offres.

Quatre dossiers ont ?t? remis ? l'administrateur judiciaire. Deux sont fran?ais : le premier, Christian de L?otard, 65 ans, a pass? sa vie ? concevoir des voitures. Le second est Groupe M?canique D?coupage (GMD), qui a entre autres une activit? de d?coupage-emboutissage. Les autres ?manent de Grupo Cosmos XXI, un industriel espagnol, et de Matthias Bittner, un financier allemand pass? par Morgan Stanley. "On est un peu rassur?s que des repreneurs se pr?sentent", commente Jean-Emmanuel Vallade, repr?sentant CFE-CGC du personnel. Mais l? aussi, le sort des quelque 280 salari?s demeure tr?s incertain.

Les carburants ont beau co?ter cher, les ventes de voitures ?lectriques ne d?collent pas encore vraiment en France. En mai, seuls 688 exemplaires ont ?t? immatricul?s aupr?s de particuliers, selon les statistiques de l'Association nationale pour le d?veloppement de la mobilit? ?lectrique. C'est 21 % de plus qu'un an auparavant, mais cela repr?sente toujours moins de 0,5 % des ventes de voitures.

Avec 13 immatriculations, la Mia se situe au troisi?me rang national, loin derri?re la Renault Zo?, qui capte 70 % de ce micro-march?, et la Nissan Leaf.

Les ventes de v?hicules ?lectriques utilitaires l?gers ont progress?, elles, de 70 %, mais avec l? aussi des volumes marginaux.

Nouvelle chute des immatriculations de voitures neuves en mai

Profitant du lancement de nouveaux mod?les, le march? automobile fran?ais avait limit? son recul ? 5,2 % en avril. "L'ambiance n'est pas extraordinaire. Nous restons dans un march? sinistr?, m?me s'il ne s'effondre pas", a d?clar? Fran?ois Roudier, porte-parole du CCFA, pour qui le march? pourrait se stabiliser ? la baisse.

Ainsi PSA contient sa baisse ? 8,2 % en mai sur un an, ? 45 244 unit?s, gr?ce ? la bonne tenue de Peugeot (- 2,9 % seulement, contre - 14,5 % pour Citro?n). Mais le groupe Renault accuse pour sa part un plongeon de 16,5 % (- 20,3 % pour la seule marque au losange), ? 30 837 unit?s. Les constructeurs ?trangers sont en repli de 8,4 %, ? 72 406 unit?s. Les tendances sont identiques en tenant compte des jours ouvrables.

RENAULT COMPENSE LA BAISSE PAR UN BOND DE DACIA

Sur les cinq premiers mois de l'ann?e, le recul des immatriculations des voitures neuves atteint 11,9 % (- 11 % corrig? des jours ouvrables) par rapport ? la m?me p?riode de 2012, avec 740 185 immatriculations.

Le groupe PSA a enregistr? une chute de 15,4 % entre janvier et mai, ? 217 516 voitures neuves vendues, avec une baisse marqu?e ? la fois chez Peugeot (-?12,2?%) et chez Citro?n (- 19,2 %). Chez Renault (- 9,2 %, ? 171 976 v?hicules), la baisse de la marque au losange (- 14,7 %, ? 134 797 v?hicules) a ?t? partiellement compens?e par un bond de 18,1 % de Dacia (37 179 v?hicules).

Les groupes ?trangers ont ?galement vu leurs ventes reculer sur la p?riode de 10,6 %, affichant 350 325 immatriculations de voitures neuves. Ils se sont arrog? 47,33 % du march? fran?ais.

Les ventes de v?hicules utilitaires l?gers, un indicateur de l'activit? des entreprises, ont baiss? de 11,2 % en mai, ? 28? 298 immatriculations, et ont recul? de 9,3 % (- 8,4 % corrig? des jours ouvrables) entre janvier et mai, avec 153 488 v?hicules immatricul?s.

Wheels Blog: Mercedes-Benz Leases Huge Southern California Aircraft Plant

Steve Grayson/Reuters A 1996 photograph shows what was then a McDonnell Douglas Corporation aircraft production plant in its aviation heyday.

Mercedes-Benz USA has signed a long-term lease on a huge, historic but closed aircraft manufacturing plant in Long Beach, Calif., according to local government officials and agents for the property owner.

John Schumacher, an agent for CBRE, the commercial real estate company, representing the property owner Sares-Regis, said in a statement on Monday that Mercedes agreed to lease about 1.1 million square feet of the manufacturing and administrative facilities adjacent to Long Beach Airport.

Steve Cannon, chief executive of Mercedes-Benz USA, said in an interview that he would make an announcement with more details in the next few weeks.

Mr. Schumacher said the property was near freeway junctions and was only a few miles from the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles. Mercedes-Benz also has a large technical center a few miles away.

Mr. Schumacher said Mercedes was expected to occupy the 52.2-acre property as early as the first quarter of next year.

The site was the headquarters of the Douglas Aircraft Company, which merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967. McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997. The building is adorned with a “Fly DC Jets” neon sign and logos, which hark back to commercial airliners like the DC-3. A smaller sign declares, “Home of the Boeing 717,” the last commercial jet manufactured there.

“I am delighted Mercedes-Benz selected Long Beach, and has reimagined the former 717 site into a state-of-the-art facility that will complement the Douglas Park development under way across the street,” Mayor Bob Foster of Long Beach said in a statement.

Gerrie Schipske, a Long Beach councilwoman, noted on her blog that as part of an agreement with Boeing and Sares-Regis, the “Fly DC Jets” sign will remain.

This post has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: July 12, 2013

An earlier version of this post misstated the classification of the DC-3. It is an airliner, not a jet.

Wheels: N.H.T.S.A. Investigates Hyundai Santa Fe and the Adequacy of a G.M. Recall

Hyundai The 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe. 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating possible axle failures on 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe models, as well as whether a recent General Motors recall for a potential fire hazard in its eAssist fuel-economy system was adequate.

In a report posted on the agency’s Web site, investigators said they received two reports of front axle-shaft failures on the 2013 Santa Fe “resulting in a loss of motive power” within the first 5,000 miles. The investigation covers about 50,000 vehicles.

The General Motors investigation is called a recall query and shows that the safety agency is concerned about the adequacy of a recall. The recall this year covered about 43,000 vehicles with the eAssist system from the 2012-13 model years because the generator control module could cause engine stalling and a fire inside the trunk. The models affected are the 2012-13 Buick LaCrosse and Regal and the 2013 Chevrolet Malibu Eco.

In a new report posted on the agency Web site, N.H.T.S.A. investigators said they learned that General Motors had dealers conduct a test on unsold vehicles to see if the control module was working correctly. Vehicles that passed the test were not recalled, which would have involved replacing the generator control module.

But the investigators say they have learned that before the recall was announced G.M. knew of one fire on a vehicle that had passed the dealer test and was thought not to have a problem. The agency says that the fire draws “into question whether or not the procedure can effectively identify a defective Generator Control Module.”

Alan Adler, a G.M. spokesman, said in a statement that the automaker was cooperating with the agency. He said that the company was unaware of any injuries related to the problem. This is the fourth time this year that the agency has questioned the adequacy of a General Motors recall.

PSA recrute 200 personnes sur son site de Mulhouse

Pour suivre la demande, le groupe va donc augmenter la production ? Mulhouse ? compter du 2 septembre "pour passer progressivement de 310 v?hicules par jour actuellement ? 520 v?hicules par jour ? compter de mi-septembre, puis ? 615 v?hicules par jour ? compter de mi-octobre".

DES CDI ET DES INT?RIMAIRES

PSA avait d?j? annonc? fin mai le recrutement d'une centaine d'int?rimaires, ce ? quoi va s'ajouter l'arriv?e d'environ 200 personnes suppl?mentaires afin de monter une ?quipe compl?te. Les nouveaux postes seront propos?s "en priorit?" ? des salari?s volontaires des usines d'Aulnay et Rennes, en contrat ? dur?e ind?termin?e (CDI) dans le cadre d'une mutation, Aulnay devant fermer l'an prochain et les effectifs de Rennes devant ?tre fortement r?duits.

En fonction du nombre de mutations, le reste des emplois sera pourvu en int?rim dans le bassin local mulhousien, a ajout? M. Biondo. et, "en fonction du volume de mutations, par le recours ? des int?rimaires sur le bassin d'emploi mulhousien", pr?cise le constructeur.

Lire (?dition abonn?s) : "Luciano Biondo, un technicien pour relancer le site PSA Peugeot Citro?n de Mulhouse"

Les scénarios à l'étude pour sauver PSA

Le Monde | 28.06.2013 à 12h12 • Mis ? jour le 29.06.2013 à 07h19 | Par Denis Cosnard, Philippe Jacqu? et C?dric Pietralunga

Selon diff?rentes sources contact?es par Le Monde, des discussions seraient en cours avec plusieurs partenaires : l'am?ricain General Motors (GM), d?j? actionnaire du groupe, mais aussi le constructeur chinois Dongfeng, d?j? alli? de PSA via une coentreprise en Chine.

Confront? ? une chute de ses ventes en Europe, son march?-cl?, le groupe fran?ais continue ? perdre de l'argent : environ 200 millions d'euros par mois en 2012, moins cette ann?e, assure la direction, qui entend diviser par deux les sorties de cash en 2013. "Le plan est en marche, et avec plus de 10 milliards d'euros de lignes de cr?dit et de tr?sorerie, PSA n'est pas ? l'agonie, assure un proche de la direction. Il n'y a pas d'urgence ? une transfusion sanguine. Mais la question de la strat?gie et d'alliances ? terme reste pos?e."

2,8 MILLIONS DE VOITURES DANS LE MONDE

Selon nombre de professionnels, PSA n'a pas la taille suffisante pour survivre seul. Cette ann?e, le constructeur devrait vendre quelque 2,8 millions de voitures dans le monde, l? o? les leaders du secteur, Toyota et Volkswagen, en ?coulent trois fois plus au minimum.

Pour la direction, la piste privil?gi?e reste celle d'un renforcement du partenariat avec GM, qui est le deuxi?me actionnaire de PSA avec 7 % du capital, derri?re la famille Peugeot. L'alliance industrielle entre les deux groupes se poursuit. Un comit? de pilotage, charg? de plancher sur les projets de nouvelles voitures, a encore r?uni des repr?sentants des deux groupes jeudi.

Des dirigeants de General Motors sont aussi re?us "r?guli?rement" ? l'Elys?e, o? le dossier est pilot? par Emmanuel Macron, secr?taire g?n?ral adjoint de la pr?sidence de la R?publique.

"PAS DE PROJET AVEC GENERAL MOTORS ACTUELLEMENT"

Au moment de l'alliance avec GM, annonc?e d?but 2012, figurait d?j? en filigrane l'id?e d'aller vers une absorption d'Opel, la filiale europ?enne de GM, par PSA, dans un ensemble dont GM garderait un pourcentage important. "Ce sch?ma permettrait de cr?er un challenger s?rieux ? Volkswagen en Europe et de faire du nouveau groupe le premier au niveau mondial, avec plus de 11 millions de v?hicules pour l'alliance GM-PSA", indique une source.

Mais, avec la crise, les restructurations ? mener dans les deux groupes, et la faible valorisation en Bourse de PSA, un tel sch?ma ?tait impossible. "Il faut d'abord que les deux groupes assainissent leur propre situation avant de penser ? aller plus loin", explique un bon connaisseur du dossier.

"Des discussions existent avec General Motors, mais il n'y a pas de projet actuellement" sur une ?ventuelle mont?e au capital, confirme-t-on au sein de l'ex?cutif.

?"LES CHINOIS ONT DE L'ARGENT"

"Notre position est inchang?e : nous n'avons pas l'intention d'investir des fonds suppl?mentaires dans PSA en ce moment", a d?clar?, jeudi, un porte-parole du constructeur am?ricain.

En cons?quence, Philippe Varin, le pr?sident du directoire, s'est semble-t-il tourn? vers l'autre grand partenaire du groupe, Dongfeng. "C'est avec eux qu'on discute le plus en ce moment", confie un familier du groupe.

Num?ro trois de l'automobile en Chine, avec 3,2 millions de v?hicules produits en 2012, le constructeur de Wuhan exploite d?j? deux usines avec PSA. La troisi?me doit ?tre inaugur?e la semaine prochaine. Elle portera ? 600 000 unit?s la capacit? de production annuelle de PSA en Chine. "La relation avec Dongfeng est au beau fixe", se r?jouit-on dans l'entourage de M. Varin, "les Chinois ont de l'argent, et ils ont envie de sortir de Chine".

?PARTICIPATION DE LA FAMILLE PEUGEOT DILU?E

Muscler ce partenariat industriel et le doubler d'une participation chinoise au capital de PSA fait donc partie des hypoth?ses de travail. Mais, le sujet fait d?bat au sein du groupe comme de l'Etat. Certains s'inqui?tent notamment de l'acc?s aux technologies qui pourrait ?tre donn? ? un groupe chinois s'il prenait une part du capital, m?me minoritaire, de PSA.

La question ne para?t pas non plus faire l'unanimit? au sein de la famille Peugeot. Les cousins, qui d?tiennent 25 % du capital et 38 % des droits de vote du groupe, n'auraient pas les moyens de r?injecter beaucoup d'argent. Ils se pr?pareraient donc ? voir leur participation dilu?e en cas d'augmentation de capital. Mais de l? ? passer le volant ? des Chinois... "La famille n'a engag? aucune n?gociation pour vendre ses parts", indique-t-elle officiellement.

Mais que se passera-t-il si GM refuse d?finitivement de monter au capital, et si Dongfeng est bloqu? d'une fa?on ou d'une autre ? "Il faudra peut-?tre que l'Etat fran?ais entre provisoirement au capital, comme les Etats-Unis l'ont fait pour sauver GM", avance un professionnel.

Collecting: Driven on Sundays, but Never in Competition

It was a polished head-turner, and the Nascar driver Denny Hamlin, in town that early March weekend for a Sprint Cup race at Phoenix International Raceway, could not help noticing. He took a picture and posted it on Twitter.

“I knew it was the car that was the same body type and everything of the car in ‘Entourage,’ ” Hamlin said, referring to the suicide-door Continental used in the HBO television series. “I always liked that car.”

A few days — and about $50,000 — later, he owned it, having wrapped up a quick negotiation with the owner. Hamlin then piled in some friends for an impromptu 300-mile road trip to Las Vegas for the next race in the Sprint Cup series. Top-down all the way.

All of which suggests that Nascar drivers aren’t driven by speed alone. They’re car people, too. With his spur-of-the-moment purchase, Hamlin joined a select group of current drivers who also own classic cars.

Among the stalwart members of that group are Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman. It’s not only the veteran drivers who own vintage models, though — even 23-year-old Joey Logano has caught the bug.

Newman might be the leader among this pack of current Cup drivers.

He said that his collection was around 17 or 18 cars, including a ’31 Ford woody, a ’39 Hudson and breakthrough models like a 1949 Jaguar XK 120. He also has a 1949 Buick Roadmaster convertible that was a gift from his wife on his 30th birthday in 2007.

A standout among his holdings is a 1957 Dodge Super D 500, powered by a 325-cubic-inch Hemi V-8 with dual four-barrel carburetors, “which is pretty rare, because it’s a stick shift,” Newman said. “They were all push-button automatics back then.”

Unlike some of the other drivers who own classic cars, Newman likes to restore them, too.

“There are cars that I have that are 100 percent restored that I bought like that,” he said. “There are cars that I’ve bought that needed to be restored, and there’s cars that I have that need to be restored, and there’s cars that I have that never will be and they’re just originals.

“I just like ‘em because they’re cool and I can work on them,” Newman said.

Johnson, on the other hand, laughed when asked if he got under the hood of the 1949 Chevrolet pickup that he drives around Charlotte, N.C., where most of the drivers live during the season.

“It’s a ’49, still-original cab — it has the five windows,” Johnson said of the truck he uses most days.“I love that truck.

“Work on it? Come on, are you crazy? I put gas in it, put air in the tires.”

Logano said he didn’t do much work on his vehicles, either. He owns a 1972 Chevrolet Suburban, but he especially prizes his 1959 Cadillac convertible, white with a red interior.

“I just love ‘em, I love ‘em,” Logano said. “Huge wings on them. I feel like it’s an icon-type car.

“Everyone kind of recognizes that car,” he continued. “Late ’50s — it’s a boat. It’s heavy, it’s huge. You drive the thing, it’s rolling all over the place. It’s so much fun to drive.”

Logano said he learned to appreciate classic cars growing up in Connecticut. His father, Tom Logano, owned a 1962 Corvette that he let Joey drive when he was only 9 years old.

That turned out to be a mistake when Joey asked to move the car to the front of the house before they went out for ice cream one day.

“I’d driven it a million times — which was funny, I was 9 — but around the neighborhood,” Logano recalled. “And so I just parked it in front of the house, went and started shooting hoops. Came back like a half an hour later, the car’s gone. Where’s the car?”

The car had rolled off the side of the driveway, into a tree. “Totally destroyed, killed it,” Logano said, before reconsidering. “Well, I didn’t kill it, but it was pretty bad.

“I thought I had it in gear. But it wasn’t, like, actually in the gear. To this day, every time I park, the brake’s coming on, that thing’s definitely in gear. I learned my lesson that day.”

Logano’s collection is limited compared with some others. Stewart owns numerous cars, including several that were posted on Facebook as part of a promotion with Mobil 1 oil, one of his sponsors. Among them is a bright orange 1955 Chevrolet Nomad station wagon.

Earnhardt Jr. recently added a 1977 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442 to an extensive collection dominated by Chevrolets from as far back as 1948. It’s not just history that draws Earnhardt to classic cars; it’s personal history, too.

“I think I’m just really nostalgic about certain times,” Earnhardt said. “Certain cars remind me about a time in the sport or a time in my life. I thought it was unique to me that the first stock car that I drove was a street stock that was a ’79 Monte Carlo. That car meant a lot to me, because I remember when I lived with my mother, when I was about 5 or 6 years old, riding in the back seat of her ’79 Monte Carlo.

“You just sort of take a car,” he said, “and it puts you back in a place in time or reminds you of something.”