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Crunch watch June 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman and Peter Adams Motor Industry 30 June 2009 11:35 Welcome to CAR's news aggregator as we round up the seismic change in the auto industry. Top tip: news summaries are added from the top hour-by-hour  Tuesday 30 June 2009• Porsche says it is no longer applying to the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau central bank for a €1.75 billion bridging loan. This means it'll now have to seek finance elsewhere (Porsche) • Seat announces its best-ever month for used car sales; it sold 915 second-hand cars in May (Seat)Monday 29 June 2009• Jaguar Land Rover has opened its first showroom in India.

Jaguar XF CKD assembly starts in India

Jaguar Land Rover has started assembling the Jaguar XF at its plant in Pune, India, in a move to reduce XF retail prices in India. Lower taxes on cars assembled in India from CKD kits produced in the UK  (although not as low as they were), rather than importing complete cars from the UK, mean assembling the Jaguar XF in India will give the XF  - already Jaguar’s best-selling car in India – a more attractive headline price. That means the 3.0 litre Jaguar XF dropping in price from 5.8 million rupees (around £68k) to 5.1 million (around £60k) and the newly introduced 2.2 litre diesel XF will come to market at 4.5 million rupees (around £53k).

Tony Williams-Kenny announced as Design Director, SAIC Motor

Tony Williams-Kenny has been announced as the new global Design Director of Chinese automaker, SAIC Motor.  During his previous role as Design Director for SAIC Motor, UK, Williams-Kenny worked on various Roewe products, as well as being responsible for designing a new generation of MG models including the MG3, MG6 and MG Zero – the first concept car from the brand since 1985. When interviewed by CDN last year, we asked him how important design is in the company: "For me it's obvious SAIC gets the need for design and the need for a strong brand design relationship," he answered. "We have a really good review group at senior management level too, who actually want to be involved in design reviews and the decision making process." After gaining an MA in Automotive Design and a BA (Hons) in Transport Design from Coventry University in the UK in 1998, Kenny joined Mitsubishi Europe Design in Trebur, Germany as a designer.