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Crunch watch Mar 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Ben Pulman and Tim Pollard Motor Industry 31 March 2009 13:48 Tuesday 31 March 2009• Porsche said that its earnings before tax rose to €7.3 billion in the six months to the end of January – including a €6.8bn windfall from its VW share options (Financial Times)• Fritz Henderson, GM's president and chief operating officer, will step up to replace Rick Wagoner, who was ousted on Sunday as CEO of General Motors (Financial Times)• President Obama is essentially CEO-in-chief of GM – despite not owning a single cent of stock, says Detroit News commentator (Detroit News)• German chancellor Angela Merkel gives assurances that any would-be investors in GM's European arm will be given state support. Opel is asking for €3.3 billion in aid – and up to 25,000 jobs in Germany depend on it, with up to 300,000 jobs across Europe including Saab and Vauxhall (BBC News)Monday 30 March 2009• General Motors' chief executive Rick Wagoner has been ordered to resign by US president Barack Obama with immediate effect. It's part of Obama's administration's critique of GM and Chrysler's turnaround plans – he's understood to be unhappy with the plans submitted (BBC News)• New GM non-executive chairman Kent Kresa has admitted that at the company's next general meeting it will have 'a majority of new directors' (General Motors)• Chrysler will receive US government aid for the next 30 days, but the Obama administration has said that if the company cannot secure a tie-up with the Fiat Group within that time period it will not receive any more money from the taxpayers and could go into liquidation.

Bentley Hybrid Concept is a Mulsanne, but it’ll arrive in the new Bentley SUV

The Bentley Hybrid Concept (pictured) will debut in Beijing There’s been lots of talk of a Bentley Hybrid for a number of years now, and in 2011 Wolfgang Dürheimer confirmed that hybrid was in Bentley’s plans and that it would be a plug-in. Fast forward three years and we get the Bentley Hybrid Concept, Bentley’s first crack at a plug-in hybrid powertrain all wrapped up in the Mulsanne. But it won’t be the Mulsanne that sees a production version of the hybrid powertrain but, as expected, the new Bentley SUV.

De Tomaso sold by Rossignolo

De Tomaso sold to unknown investors De Tomaso – the ill-fated Italian supercar maker – has been sold by Gian Mario Rossignolo after a financially fraught revival attempt. De Tomaso seems fated to lurch from one financial crisis to another – as it has throughout its history – with the latest efforts by former Fiat executive Gian Mario Rossignolo to revive the marque floundering for investment. And it looks like Rossignolo has given up the fight and sold out to unnamed investors.