A roundup of this week's motoring news in brief
New X1 to start at €37,175
BMW HAS released the prices for its upcoming X1 SUV. The idea of the X1 is that it is a small, pseudo SUV that has low emissions and decent fuel economy, but it still comes with cache that the badge can bring. There will be a choice of all-wheel drive (xDrive) and rear-wheel drive (sDrive).
The 2.0-liltre range starts with 143bhp/320Nm 18d, then there’s the 177bhp/350Nm 20d and at the top is the 23d that uses a 204bhp/400Nm 3.0-litre straight six. The car is aimed at the premium-end of the small SUV market.
CO2 emissions will be as low as 136g/km in the sDrive 18d to 167g/km in the xDrive 23d. The X1 will go on sale in October. Prices start at €37,175 for the sDrive 18d and rise to €54,120 for the xDrive 23d.
PADDY COMYN
- See next week's Motors for a full review.
Spain reacts to Opel's restructuring plans
SPAIN IS stepping up the pressure on Brussels to intervene in the planned restructuring of General Motor’s Opel unit under the ownership of Canada’s Magna, calling on European commissioners to guarantee a rescue based on “financial and commercial” criteria.
Spanish industry minister Miguel Sebastián, in a letter addressed to EU industry commissioner Günter Verheugen, is insisting that any reorganisation of the car maker’s European operations must “make best possible use of the company’s most efficient assets”. This is a veiled reference to Opel’s plant in Zaragoza, northern Spain, which is supposedly among the most efficient of GM’s European operations.
A Financial Timesreport said that in December it took almost 14 hours more to produce a car at Rüsselsheim, Opel's hometown plant, than at the carmaker's plant in Spain.
Spanish workers, along with those in Belgium and the UK, would bear a disproportionate share of the 10,000 job cuts envisioned under a German government-backed reorganisation by Magna. MARK MULLIGANand DANIEL SCHAFER– FT service
Green shoots for Toyota
TOYOTA HAS raised its global sales forecast for the year to March 2010 by 3 per cent. This brings it to 6.7 million cars, the Tokyo Shimbundaily reported at the weekend, in the latest sign of a nascent recovery in motor industry demand.
Toyota, the world’s largest automaker, is also raising its global production by 8 per cent to 6.45 million vehicles for 2009/10, thanks to the impact of government subsidies and tax incentives on new fuel efficient cars, the paper said.
Officials at Toyota could not be reached for comment.
Toyota has been struggling with its worst downturn since it was founded in 1937, but its sales have picked up recently, climbing 9 per cent in August from the same month last year.
In April this year, Japan began offering subsidies on each purchase of a low-emission car, an iniatitive which forms part of the country’s largest-ever economic stimulus package.
Toyota has asked Japan's recently elected new government to extend the deadline for these subsidies by two years to the end of March 2012.
HUGH LAWASON