Autoblog

So, just what is a 19.9% stake in America's third largest automaker worth? Um, nothing. So says Daimler, which owns exactly that amount. The German company claims that, for accounting purposes at least, there is absolutely no value in its part-ownership of Chrysler. Just about a year ago, Daimler estimated that its share of Chrysler was worth some $1.17 billion. The remaining 80.1% was sold to Cerberus Capital Management last August for $7.4 billion.

According to Chrysler, Daimler's idea of its stake in the company is a totally different animal than its own. The two companies use different accounting techniques to arrive at earnings figures and net worth, and the privately-held American automaker doesn't release its internal figures. As we've covered, Daimler is currently in talks with Cerberus to rid itself of any attachment to its former partner by selling its remaining shares of Chrysler to the American company, which it would need if it were to make any sort of deal with General Motors, Renault or any other automaker for that matter. So, just how much is Chrysler worth as a whole? We could soon find out.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Cars represent freedom, right? Sure, but shouldn't that same freedom be available to those who can't justify purchasing their own car? Daimler thinks so, and has created a new pilot program called car2go that allows subscribers to rent a smart fortwo for just 19-cents a minute or less, depending on how long you need the car. The initial roll-out is taking place in Ulm, Germany and begins October 24. The cars can be reserved at a moment's notice from the internet, a mobile phone or in passing using an electronic chip that's given to the user upon the account's creation. There are no limits as to how far the car car be driven, and it can be parked and relocked wherever the driver's trip ends as long as it's within the city limits.

At the outset, there will be 50 smart fortwo's in use by car2go. For a trial period, only Daimler employees will be able to use the service, but the automaker hopes to expand to all Ulm citizens in the spring of 2009. We imagine the car2go service will expand into other locations based on how successful this pilot program proves to be, but don't hold your breath for smart rentals in the U.S. anytime soon.


[Source: Daimler]

The automotive industry is reeling under serious financial woes, plant closings and job cuts, so news that Daimler AG will be adding 1,000 new people to its payroll next year comes as a bit of a shock. The new jobs will be added globally, with 500 positions going to Daimler's headquarters in Stuttgart, and the rest being distributed around the world. These new positions will reportedly train the automaker's next generation of workers, which are entering the industry at a time when expertise in complex developing technologies are essential for survival. Even with the added jobs, Daimler can't cut any positions until 2012 because of an agreement already in place with its employees. Just like every other automaker, it's hoping to weather the rough time in between by focusing on efficiencies and flexibility wherever possible. So that's one piece of good automotive news, now let's get to work on those stock prices.

[Source: CNN Money]

Both Cerberus and Daimler have announced plans for the German automaker to sell the remaining 19.9-percent stake in Chrysler to the private equity firm. According to reports coming out of Germany, that relatively small stake in the American automaker is still weighing down Daimler's stock price. Perhaps the Germans aren't so sure that Chrysler's new electric vehicles will ever see the light of day? In any case, both sides suggest that all the rest of the two company's relationships would continue, so technology sharing and diesel engines could still be made available to Chrysler from its former German parents.

Note that the first 80-percent of Chrysler was sold to Cerberus for $7.4 billion. We wonder what the other 20-percent is worth.

[Source: Detroit Free Press]

It's lonely at the top. If you've got a big budget to buy a big luxury sedan, you're typically looking at a Bentley Arnage or a Rolls-Royce Phantom (Mercedes tried to make a go of it with Maybach, but never really managed to establish itself outside the Persian Gulf and hip-hop videos). Now Jaguar's new owners at Tata want to take on the establishment with a storied name of its own: Daimler.

Not to be confused with the Mercedes parent company, Daimler has the same roots as the British subsidiary of Gottlieb Daimler's operation. Between 1896 and 1960, Daimler made a range of elegant limousines. After being acquired by Jaguar, the brand was relegated to becoming the top trim level of Jaguar XJ saloons. When Tata bought Jaguar, it also acquired the rights to the Daimler name (which the German company shares under license). Tata is now considering reviving the Daimler brand with a new luxury range, but it'll have quite a job on its hands distinguishing itself in name from the Mercedes parent company and in essence from the known quantities of Rolls-Royce and Bentley.

[Source: Auto Motor & Sport (Sweden) via The Truth About Cars]

Normally the privately owned Chrysler LLC is under no obligation to reveal its financial performance to Wall Street, but yesterday the Cerberus-owned automaker was forced to show a few pages from its accounting books thanks to one of its largest stakeholders and former owner, Daimler AG. The German automaker revealed that in the last six months, its 19.9% stake in Chrysler has cost it $585 million. To clarify Daimler's numbers, Chrysler also revealed yesterday that the loss being attributed to it, all of which was incurred in Daimler's first fiscal quarter of the year, is around 65 million euro, or $103 million, using American accounting standards. Perhaps realizing that all analysts had to do was multiply Daimler's loss by five to arrive at Chrysler's total loss for the last quarter, the automaker just came right out and said it lost about $515 million. While a mere pittance to the $8.7 billion worth of red ink Ford spilled during Q2, it was enough to drag down Daimler's numbers halfway around the world.

[Source: The Detroit News, Photo: Fire Monkey Fish | Licensed under Creative Commons 2.0]

When it comes to increasing fuel economy, turbochargers are the replacement for displacement. The combination of highly efficient snails and smaller engines provides the power people expect, while reducing the overall weight of the vehicle. Like other automakers that have realized that forced induction is a suitable stop-gap for improving fuel economy, Mercedes-Benz is in the process of developing turbo'd engines that will proliferate throughout its lineup in the next two and a half years.

Thomas Weber, a Daimler board member in charge of research and development told Automotive News, "All our vehicles will have turbocharged engines in series production by the end of 2010 at the latest."

Mercedes is joining BMW and Audi by investing heavily into forced induction, primarily to cope with new fuel economy standards in the U.S. and Europe. But turbos are only going to take them so far. Mercedes plans to introduce hybrids into its lineup towards the close of the decade, beginning with the S-class sedan in 2009. According to Weber, zero-emission vehicles are the automaker's long-term goal and Daimler intends to push heavily towards fuel-cells and electric-powered vehicle in the future, including an electric smart fortwo which will go into production sometime in 2010.

[Source: Automotive News – Sub. Req.]

With sales of the Mercedes-Benz S-Class down 23 percent in the United States, and off nearly 12 percent worldwide, Daimler officials are showing concern. The luxurious S-Class is the most profitable model in the lineup, contributing up to an estimated 25 percent of Daimler's pre-tax profits, the drop is getting painful. With the exception of the new C-Class (up 38 percent), overall sales for the German automaker have fallen in the first six months of the year. In response, Daimler is diverting shipments of vehicles to China and Russia as those emerging markets have yet to see a slowdown.

[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]

Click above for a high-res gallery of the Maybach Exelero

Big-bucks enthusiasts annoyed that they're not the only ones at the club with a Veyron can now ensure that they arrive in total exclusivity. That's because the one-off Maybach Exelero, commissioned by Fulda to act as a high-profile demonstrator for its tire line of the same name, is now for sale. The Exelero isn't some delicate flower of a show car. Based on the Maybach 57 and powered by a 700-horsepower version of that car's turbocharged V12, the Exelero reached 218 mph at Nardo. In many ways, Exelero represents what Maybach could have and should have been -- a place where daring styling and incredible performance could merge with extreme luxury to compete with Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Instead, while the marque's sedans clearly get the luxury part of the equation right, in terms of styling, they basically work in anonymity, looking like peculiar old S-Class sedans. There's nothing anonymous about the Exelero, though, and for €5,000,000 (around $7.8 million USD), you can drive the sybaritic supercar that Daimler should have given Maybach all along.


[Anamera via eGMCarTech]

A few months back, Tesla Motors revealed that its upcoming WhiteStar sedan would be available in two variants, a pure battery electric like the Roadster and a range-extended electric more like the Chevy Volt. We still don't have many details on the car, although we do know that lessons learned while working on the drivetrain for the heavier sedan have been fed back into the Roadster for its updated 2.0 drivetrain.

As a small start-up with limited resources, developing a new engine for the WhiteStar would obviously be problematic. Tesla Chairman Elon Musk let slip in an interview with Fox Business News that the company has reached a technology deal with German giant Daimler (formerly of DaimlerChrysler infamy). Without any official comment from Tesla yet (we'll update you when we here something), one possible scenario for the deal is that Daimler will provide engines for the range extended WhiteStar. Daimler has always struggled to make money from Smart and the micro-car builder has a 1.0L three cylinder engine that might make a good range extender. If Daimler supplied 10,000 or so of those engines to Tesla, it could help drive down Daimler's costs. The other possibility is that Tesla might be licensing battery management technology to Daimler, but that scenario seems less likely.

Update: Tesla VP Darryl Siry declined comment on the matter.

[Source: Just-Auto - sub. req'd]