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Crunch watch July 09: the auto industry in crisis

By Tim Pollard, Ben Pulman, Ben Whitworth and Alex Michaelides Motor Industry 31 July 2009 11:23 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  Friday 31 July 2009• Lamborghini today posted pre-tax profits of €5.4 million – despite a sales drop of 37% in the first six months of 2009. Sant'Agata said turnover hit €156.9m in the first half (down 43%) as it sold 825 cars globally (Lamborghini)• British motorists could have to pay £250 in tax to park at work from 2012.

Fioravanti expands into China in partnership with Eastone

Renowned Italian design house Fioravanti has formed a partnership with Shanghai-based design and engineering consultancy Eastone. The aim of this powerful duo is to deliver a wide range of design and build services directly to Chinese OEMs, with the first fruit of their labors being a concept car for Chinese manufacturer BAIC, to be unveiled at the Beijing auto show. For the first time in their own country, Chinese OEMs can now benefit from the time-served capabilities, knowledge and car culture typical of a leading Italian design house, while simultaneously gaining from the local knowledge, strong relationships and powerful commercial strength of a domestic design company.

Winners announced in Factory Five design competition

Earlier this year, we brought you news of an open-sourced design competition from American kit car manufacturer, Factory Five. The brief called for a compact, two-seat roadster that shared a drivetrain with the Subaru Impreza. The car would feature a bespoke space-frame chassis, but the mechanicals would be lifted from the Impreza to allow the car to sell for under $15,000.