Aston Martin Cygnet in production.

Aston Martin is a well known English car brand that produces nice and expensive sport cars. Their cars are famous because of the James-bond movies. In these movies you always see James Bond driving in a nice Aston Martin. Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Nowadays Aston Martin is in hand of the investment group of David Richard.

As I said Aston Martin is well known about their nice sport cars like the Aston Martin DB9, Aston Martin V8 Vintage and many other cars like these. These cars are not very cheap. Aston Martin is a car brand that only rich people can afford. Aston Martin is coming with a new kind of car. It is a deferent kind of car than their other models. The new Aston Martin called the Cygnet is a compact city car. The car looks a lot like the Toyota IQ. But Aston Martin is proud about their new car and they think that is will be a success. So proud, that Aston Martin made two special launch additions cars called Black and White. The production of these cars will start in April. The White version is a car that has all kinds of bright colors in and outside the car, especially white of course, and the black version has all kind of black colors. There will be a limited amount of these special cars available. Because it is an Aston Martin the car will have enough luxury, if Aston Martin would not do that, they will lose their image as a luxury car brand. The Cygnet has a few standard features but besides that, Aston Martin will design the car to the standards of the costumers.

The new Aston Martin is not for everyone available. The car is only available for consumers who already have an Aston Martin. That is because the car is around 35.000 euro's and there are a lot more people who can afford that. But Aston Martin only wants rich people drive in the Cygnet and that is why you can only buy a Cygnet when you already possess an Aston Marin.

Ssangyong is back!

Ssangyong is a Korean car brand that is famous of their 4WD-SUV's and their cross country vehicles. They also manufacture trucks and buses. The car brand was established in 1954 in Korea.

In 2009 the car brand left the Dutch car market because their cars were not selling so good and they thought that, that was not going to happen in the future. That is why you have not heard a lot about them last year. But now the Ssongyong lovers can be happy again because the car brand is coming back on the Dutch car market. The cooperation with Indian Mahindra & Mahindra gave the company a lot of trust. That is why the company is coming back on the Dutch car market. The Belgian company called Alcopa will import the car for the whole Benelux and has opened an Ssangyong office called Ssangyong motors Netherlands. The company had contacted old business partners. By doing this the company hopes to open 25 Ssangyong shops in the near future. They hope that the sales of their cars will improve this time. The company should do a lot of marketing activities to be competitive against their competitors. These activities, especially research, will let the company know what the consumers are looking for in a car. So Ssangyong should develop a car that fits the wants of consumers. That is why the company has developed a new Korando. The car will immediately be introduced at their come back. The new Korando will look way better than the other models that the company had designed.

So by coming back on the Dutch car market Ssongyong hopes to be able to compete against their competitors by introducing better cars. It will not be easy for Ssongyong but when they do a lot of marketing activities they will be able to succeed and their market share will increase in the future. It will take some time but the company has to be patient.

Lancia builds first hybrid cars.

Lancia is an Italian truck and car brand. They are part of the Fiat group. The Lancia variant of the Chrysler 300 and the grand Voyager will be the first hybrid cars in the history of the car brand.

Next year chrysler will start the production of the hybrid Chrysler 300 in Canada. The car will be put on the market as Lancia. The hybrid version of the Chrysler Grand Voyager will be put into production in 2013, that is what the people at Chrysler said. The Grand Voyager will also be put on the market as Lancia. Even Dutch importers say that it is true that these models will be put on the market as Lancia. These two cars will be the first hybrid cars of Lancia. The hybrid technology that will be available in the car is made by Chrysler in their own factory. More details about these cars will be available later. That is because Chrysler is still trying to improve the car so that it will be a perfect innovation. The Lancia version of the Grand Voyager and the 300 will be presented on the car show in Genève. Both models will be produced in Canada en will be especially made with a 2.8 liter diesel engine for the European market. Chrysler will do this so that these new hybrid cars can compete against other hybrid cars that already exist. If they will not build hybrid cars in the near future, they will lose sales because nowadays a lot of consumers want hybrid cars that are good for the environment. 

In the near future Sergio Marchionne wants to build family models on a new platform in the windsor-factory, the factory where the Grand Voyager is build. This will deliver a classic mpv with sliding doors, which will probably be introduced on the European market as Fiat.

Porsche considers production line in China.

Porsche is a well known German car brand. It is a manufacturer of sport cars and was founded in1931 by Ferdinand Porsche. The head office and their factory are settled in Zuffenhauzen. There is another Porsche factory in Germany that is settled in Leipzig. In this factory the Porsche cayenne and Porsche Carrera CT are build. Almost every car that Porsche builds is built in Germany except a part of the Boxster production. That part of the Boxster production is done in Finland.

However almost all the production is done in Germany, Porsche is considering to start a production line in China. Porsche aspects that there will be more rich people in China in the near future and that those rich people will choose for Porsche. That is what the Porsche manager said against the German focus. Porsche does not really know yet if they are going to do this but they say that they will make a decision this year about the production line in China. A lot of people think that it is an easy decision to make but that is not true because it takes a lot of time to think about the chance to succeed or the chance to fail. The new canjun suv of Porsche is a bit the same as the Audi Q5 but the difference is that the Q5 has a production line in China and the Canjun suv not. So is may be a right choice for Porsche to start a production line in China, so that they can compete against the Q5. If they are able to compete better than the Q5, Porsche will see their market share increase in the Chinese automotive industry. But the management of Porsche are still hesitating because they think that there is a chance that there image will be damaged by starting a new production line in another country. The management has to research how much this image loss will affect their sales in other countries. If this image loss will be low, Porsche should start a production line in China because maybe the sales in China will compensate the sales in the other countries or they will maybe exceed the sales they lost.

As the Porsche manager said, they will make a decision this year about what they will do. So if they will or if they will not start a production line in China. If there is more information about this in the near future I will definitely inform you.

The Maserati SUV.

Maserati is an Italian car brand that designs sport cars. Maserati was founded in 1914 by the Maserati brothers. In the past Maserati also manufactured sport bikes. But that was not a real success when you compare it to the sport cars. Maserati cooperates with Alfa Romeo and is with Ferrari, Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo part of the Fiat-group.

A lot of manufacturers of cars that in the past only made sport cars now also manufacture other types of cars. Porsche is one of these brands. Porsche was a brand that usually only made sport cars as the Porsche 911 series. Nowadays Porsche also makes other types of cars as the Porsche cayenne and the newest car of Porsche is the Panamera. Especially SUV's are nowadays made by these manufacturers. These companies design these kind of cars for other target groups. Sport cars are mainly build for men who have enough money to buy them and who love race cars. By introducing SUV's they could also focus on other target groups. The SUV is a big car that is bought by consumers who have a family(husband, wife and children(s)). With these new target groups the company will have a bigger consuming market and will eventually also have a bigger market share. And that is why a lot of car brands nowadays also build these types of cars. So if sport cars manufacturers want to compete against there competitors, they have start building other types of cars other wise they will lose there market share.

Maserati is one of these car manufactures who is going to build an SUV in the near future. Jeep(part of Fiat-chrysler) is probably going to build the car. They will use one of the V8 engine of Ferrari. They think that the car will cost in between 70.000 and 90.000 euros. By introducing this SUV, Maserati wants to compete against other sport cars manufacturers who also manufactures SUV's. By doing that Maserati hopes to keep there market share en maybe extend it in the near future. A Maserati representative thinks that the car will be available in 2012.

The Fiat Uno Ecology studio

These days there are a lot of manufacturers in the automotive industry. These companies manufacture a lot of cars each year. Each company tries do design a car that is different than there competitors. That is why marketeers are so important these days. Marketeers try to research the wants of the consumers so that the company can design a car that fits these wants. If the company is not able to do that, there car will not sell good.  People are these days more aware of the pollution of the environment and that is why a lot of manufacturers design environmental friendly cars for consumers. These cars are also called hybrid cars. A lot of marketeers say that hybrid cars are green cars and that green cars sell good.

Fiat is also a company that tries to build the best car for the consumer and that is also Eco-friendly. The new Fiat UNO Ecology is a car with a lot of Eco-friendly innovations. People think that the new Fiat Uno is just the same as the old version but than in an other shape. But that is not true because the new Uno has a lot of innovation. This Uno concept car has a start-/stopsystem. This system will automatically turn of the car when it is standing still and will also automatically start when you want top drive away. The Fiat Uno also has solar panels on the roof that will extract energy from the sun. The energy can be used for certain function in the car. The inside of the cars is made of recycled materials. The Engine of the new Fiat Uno is an flex fuel engine. 

Fiat does not know yet if they are going to introduce the new Uno in Europe. If they eventually will introduce it in Europe they will only introduce it in east-Europe where the Fiat Uno will compete against Dacia. With these new innovation Fiat tries to get a better position in the automotive industry by introducing Eco-friendly cars. Fiat wants there costumers to see them as an company that is Eco-friendly.

BMW designs Car-2-X

Nowadays manufacturers have to manufacture cars that meet the demands of customers. Safety is one of the things that a lot of people want. BMW has designed a new system that will reduce the imminent danger of pedestrians. They did that in cooperation with several German researchers. A lot of accidents happen with pedestrians because motorists do not see them while driving. A research to the cause of fatal accidents tels us that almost 40 per cent of the accidents is caused because the motorist could not see the victim. Especially children's are casualties of these kind of accidents because these children's are small and that is why motorists can't see them when they are standing behind parked cars. The system created is mainly designed for the safety of children's but everyone will benefit from it. By introducing the 'car-2-x communication' BMW thinks that a lot of accidents will be prevented. 

The car-2-x is part of a research project called 'AMULET'. Volvo had already designed the City Safety but the car-2-x is better version of it. The car-2-X is a system that will sensor pedestrians before they cross the road, even when they are standing behind a car of other objects. It consists of a sensor in the car and a transponder for the pedestrian. The transponder is like an USB stick but in the future BMW wants to make the transponder smaller. The transponder should be placed in something that the pedestrian will always carry with him when he is walking outside. The transponder will send the car-2-X system a message with the position and the vulnerability of the transponder. When the pedestrian is vulnerable the system will give a signal to the driver so that he can anticipate en prevent an accident. BMW is still improving the system so that in the near future the car will automatically stop itself when the driver fails to anticipate.

As I said, BMW is not the only car brand that designed a system like this. Volvo is it's competitor and BMW is competing as good as possible. By introducing this system BMW is trying to create a better and safer image and by doing this they want to position them selfs as a company that manufactures cars that will improve the safety of other people on the road.