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Crunch watch October 09: the auto industry in crisis

Tuesday 20 October 2009• Honda's CEO said he would consider launching electric vehicles for sale in Europe, Japan and the USA in a possible change of strategy for the Japanese car manufacturer (Automotive News, subscription required)• Ford 59-plate car sales up by 22% in September ‘09 compared to the same month last year. Ford claims a 14.8% share of total new car sales for the same period (Ford)• Porsche, VW and Daimler all sent top executives to the Shanghai motor show in April, but chose to snub the Tokyo motor show this week. The news comes as China’s automotive market is set to become the world’s largest (Bloomberg)• Toyota enters the Korean car market, challenging the 72% market share owned by Hyundai Motor Co (Bloomberg)  Monday 19 October 2009 • The organisers of the Geneva motor show claim that 'all of the major manufacturers have already confirmed their participation' for the March 2010 event (Geneva Palexpo)• Jaguar is auctioning off the first XJ off the line to raise £1m for the NSPCC children's charity.

Vauxhall Insignia facelift stars at the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show

Ten years on from the very first Insignia concept, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show back in 2003, Vauxhall is showcasing a new, facelifted Insignia here at Frankfurt 2013. Part of the update to the Insignia is a new internet connectivity feature, which should make life on the road for travelling professionals a bit easier – now you can locate your nearest non-VAT qualifying hot food snack retailer in next to no time… We’re also fans of the rationalised trim range, down from 14 grades to eight for the new car. While the Insignia’s updated engine range boasts impressive efficiency (as we’ll see in a minute), we can’t help wondering if this might have been a good time to introduce a hybrid or range-extender powertrain, trumping Ford and its forthcoming Mondeo Hybrid in the process.

Lamborghini LM00X SUV on the way?

The Lamborghini Conquisto SUV Concept (by Belgian designer David Cardoso) This is an old chestnut that crops up every month or four – Lamborghini to make new SUV – probably because Lamborghini already has an SUV in its history with the frankly other-world LMoo2. Still, with Lamborghini now very much a part of the VW Group (what happened to the revival of Auto Union as a group name?) there’s starting to be more credence to the guesswork. This time it’s Auto Express doing some guesswork (industry insider said…) and they reckon that Lamborghini are going to take the underpinnings of the Porsche Cajun (which is basically the same as the Q5), shove in the new 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 currently being developed jointly by Audi and Bentley and call it the Lamborghini LM00X (or LM003 or LM004 or LM005…).