Carmaking: Brands to build on
German premium marques’ strong performance in the downturn offers lessons for manufacturers facing fresh economic turmoil
FT SERIES
Carmaking: the new normal
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Despite car production and sales rebounding strongly, there is little celebration. Car companies are unlikely to recover their pre-crisis output levels for many years, in what experts are calling ‘the new normal’ for the industry
Carmakers put the mobile into automobile
The industry is exploring ways of making car-sharing schemes profitable as a younger generation puts cars further down their shopping lists than their parents did
Carmakers tempt cellphone generation with pay-as-you-go
PSA Peugeot Citroën and Daimler are both piloting programmes allowing consumers to pay for individual trips either ahead of time or at the end of the month
Drive to succeed may mean lane sharing
There is increasing pressure to tie up, but some industry chiefs prefer to go it alone
Smaller vehicles take giant strides
Ford Motor’s Fiesta epitomises one of the strongest undercurrents in the global automotive industry – an ineluctable move towards smaller cars
Automotive industry sputters back to life
Honda’s return to assembling Civic compacts and CR-V sport utility vehicles at its plant in Swindon signals a revival of car manufacturing as a whole
Related content and features
Interactive
Carmaker alliances: a tangled web
Carmaking may be one of the world’s most competitive big industries, but rival producers have always been ready to cooperate on expensive new technologies and products when the cost or risk of going it alone was too high. Our graphic shows the complex relationships between the major manufacturers
Comment and analysis
Man in the News: John Elkann
Fiat’s cosmopolitan new chairman could mark a watershed at the carmaker as it prepares to split itself into two and embrace an even more multinational culture
A lighter touch in the auto industry
Carmakers face the end of taxpayer-funded incentive schemes to stimulate consumer demand but the groups that remain have announced ambitious plans to boost sales
Motoring ahead
European carmakers must focus on innovation and produce cars that people want to buy and drive, which means that they must also cut capacity by shutting plants producing unwanted cars
