Bankruptcy will delay Chrysler's 2010 model launches, exec says

Chrysler LLC will be late getting its 2010 vehicles to market because of the automaker's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Chrysler manufacturing chief Frank Ewasyshyn testified today. The current shutdown of plants and stresses on suppliers also threaten to delay the 2011 models next year, Ewasyshyn said. The changeover to 2010 models is delayed while Chrysler tries to emerge from bankruptcy within the next 30 to 60 days, he said.

Saab gets approval for voluntary reorganization on appeal

...and Victor Muller smiles Victor Muller never says die, and the news that Saab has, after all, been granted the right to court protection from its creditors for a period of reorganisation has vindicated his stubborn refusal to give up on Saab. The Court of Appeal in Gothenburg has this morning overturned an earlier judgement by the District Court in Vänersborg which rejected Saab’s application to get the court’s protection during a period of ‘reorganisation’, which you can read as ‘Waiting for the dosh to arrive from China’. The news last week that Rachel Pang – a director of Pang Da, one of Saab’s putative investors – has come out in a very bullish way about the prospects for the investment by Pang Da and Youngman getting the final rubber stamp from China’s NDRC in Beijing won’t have harmed Saab’s case one bit.

New Lotus Esprit still on schedule

The new Lotus Esprit - on schedule for launch in 2011 or 2012 The next Elise will probably be a development of the existing car, rather than anything radical and new. But the Esprit will be an all new V8 based on the new Evora chassis. It will be longer and wider than the Evora, but will still feature a mid-mounted engine and, in all probability, come as a convertible in time.