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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.

Mercedes SLS AMG Gullwing Electric – Official

Mercedes has confirmed they are planning an SLS AMG eDrive for 2015 As we suggested the other day, it looks like this will be known as the Mercedes SLS AMG eDrive. It will feature an in-board electric motor for each wheel, generating the equivalent of  526bhp, which should give the SLS eDrive similar performance to its conventionally driven sibling. By putting a motor at each corner, Mercedes are effectively endowing the SLS eDrive with an intelligent four wheel drive system.

Silverstone is back – the Tag Heuer version

Tag Heuer is reissuing the classic Silverstone Chronograph It’s a bit of a boy thing, expensive watches. And if the emails we’ve had are anything to go by the love of watches seems closely linked to the love of cars. Not for everyone, but enough of you are inclined in that direction for us to run the odd watch story or two.