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Posts Tagged ‘Nick Reilly’

Detroit – first impressions

January 11th, 2011 | No Comments

Well, that’s the first day of my first Detroit show and as I write this, I have the slightly surreal experience of looking out of the hotel window across the river to what is Canada.

There’s still snow on the ground and the river is partly frozen, so it’s fair to say it’s a little chilly in these parts – minus 9 celsius or whatever that is in the farenheit the Americans resolutely insist on using.

Queuing on the 70th floor of the massive Renaissance Centre last night – right next to GM’s citadel – that is ‘seventy’ as the English football tickertape information used to make clear as teams beat each other ‘seven,’ nil, I found myself just in front of new GM CEO Dan Akerson.

I said to the GM boss it was my maiden trip to the event and he said it was his first Detroit show too in his new capacity. I later saw him today at the Chevrolet stand surrounded by a scrum of photographers and cameraman as he toured the show with a local congressman.

Interestingly, to continue the football theme, there’s been a rash of managerial comings and goings in the English Premier League as our American friends refer to it in the last few weeks, with Liverpool appointing club legend Kenny Dalglish as caretaker manager.

Akerson – probably completely unfamilar with the intricacies of the Premier League – gamely joined in with the lingo later, inisting: “I hope I don’t project I’m a caretaker manager” – an unlikely scenario given GM’s turnaround of late.

And a propos of nothing, I’m not sure I’ve seen a major city with fewer cars on the road – which for place nicknamed ‘motown’ certainly struck me as bizarre. Off to ‘Good Nite Gracie’ tonight – is it a retirement home? – where Opel boss Nick Reilly is due to make an appearance.

Are you there Chancellor?

June 10th, 2010 | No Comments

So finally, after what seems like months of wrangling the cat is out of the bag and Germany has finally turned down Opel’s request for loan guarantees.

I feel as if I’ve virtually been at the negotiations myself between Nick Reilly and the German economics ministry, having attempted to contact the mandarins with almost zero luck.

It’s become a template. I ring the ministry and we establish I’d like to speak about the Opel situation. The gatekeeper knows it’s me but bats me back with a mournful “they’re in meetings” reply.

I ask when anyone is free and then we go through the rigmarole of repeating my telephone number for a call back.

With a cheery assurance that someone will be in contact, we go our separate ways until the dance begins again either that afternoon or the following morning.

The economics ministry website isn’t much better. The last entry is for 25 May on the serious and worthy topic of: “Joint Eurobond sets wrong incentives – Germany lives up to its responsibility in Europe.”

Having established that Germany is living up to its responsibility – I have to say my Eurobond knowledge is sketchy – I look at economics minister Rainer Bruderle’s improbably smiling face – is economics that much fun? – in vain for any mention of what is the topic du jour for the country – i.e. Opel’s billion Euro loan guarantee request. Er, there’s nothing.

I try the finance ministry in an attempt to weasel my way through, but am firmly pointed back to economics. I was even startled this morning when talking to the German Federal Government office to be asked: “Would you like to talk to Chancellor Merkel?”

Well, yes I would and I dutifully leave contact details.

It appears Merkel and Bruderle – given their different political affiliations in Germany’s coalition – are not exactly singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to Opel.

The one, a liberal looking to distance himself from government intervention, the other, a Christian Democrat, acutely aware her administration is not exactly flavour of the month and eyeing all the potential affect on jobs and factories, seem to be coming at this from polar opposites.

So, if you are reading Angela, please give me a call.

Geneva leftovers

March 8th, 2010 | No Comments

I have been going through my Geneva notes and there are a few nuggets picked up in interviews that didn’t make it into articles that might be worth sharing anyway. So here they are, in no particular order:

Toyota’s Didier Leroy said that in Europe some 200,000 accelerator pedal recalls have been made out of 1.7m cars; also more than 16,000 of the Prius software changes have been made – out of 52,900.
Lexus is aiming for around 28,000 European sales in 2010 – versus 27,000 last year.
Bob Lutz pointed out that while General Motors the brand has attracted negative baggage, the brands underneath will often be viewed much more positively by the same people with negative views of GM. ‘Hate the parents, don’t blame the kids’ was the phrase he used.
I asked Lutz about the chances of a GM IPO this year. ‘It will be done at the appropriate time’ was his straight bat response.
Should GM have kept Saab? Is there a danger that it will now be successful and GM will have sold something that it should have held on to? Lutz pointed out that GM was under strict instructions from the Obama task force to halve the number of brands and had little alternative but to divest loss-making Saab.
Lutz said that the US market has changed in the sense that the formerly ‘impregnable membrane’ that appeared to divide the market into import and domestic brands has opened up with owners of cars in both categories now prepared to consider cars in the other category in a way that was not the case a few years ago.
Nick Reilly thinks that alliances have more mileage in them.
Allan Rushforth – who has worked in other OEMs – enjoys the speed and autonomy for Hyundai in Europe. ‘It’s not a culture based on endless committee meetings – we just get stuff done.’ He also sees only a ‘marginal business case’ for hybrids in Europe, acknowledging the marketing benefit for companies with hybrids right now but questioning whether that advantage will be as strong in 18 months’ time when there are many more hybrids around. He noted that there is still a lot to be done with clean diesel and improved performance of gasoline engines.

Geneva press day

March 1st, 2010 | No Comments

I have been looking at my schedule for the first press day at the Geneva Show tomorrow (March 2). There are a number of formal interviews that have been arranged in advance. I’m seeing Didier Leroy of Toyota at 10:15am, Bob Lutz on the Chevrolet stand at 11:00am and Nick Reilly CEO of Opel/Vauxhall at 2:00pm. At 4:00pm there’s Allan Rushforth at Hyundai. In between, there’s a list of people who said ‘let’s meet up in Geneva’, a few more stands to call in on and, lest we forget, some new automotive metal to have a good gander at.

It certainly won’t be dull.

Rationalising capacity in Europe

January 25th, 2010 | No Comments

Last week saw General Motors in Europe move to close its Antwerp plant. Announcements of plant closure are never happy events, but this is an important step in improving GM’s European manufacturing efficiency and raising its rate of capacity utilisation. We will know more about GM’s European plans by the middle of next month when a business plan is finally supposed to emerge.

As Nick Reilly has said, they would rather get that Opel/Vauxhall business plan right than rush it. That’s fair enough, but further delay will cause consternation for the workforce and GM’s suppliers. There comes a point at which you have to put stakes in the ground and say to the world: this is the plan. And while we are on the subject of things appearing to be a little drawn out, it would be good to know what’s happening to Saab. Maybe this week we will find out.

Also on the European production capacity front, last week saw some curious goings on at Renault. It was mooted that the next Clio (Clio 4 – due to enter production in 2013) might be made wholly in Turkey and not in France. Turkey is a low-cost place to make cars and, although it is not a member state of the EU, it enjoys a customs union with the EU and so is a particularly good place to source cars cheaply for sale in the EU area. A number of manufacturers, including Renault, have been quietly expanding operations there over the past decade.

This Clio 4-from-Turkey-only possibility did not go down too well with the French government. President Sarkozy duly hauled Messrs Ghosn and Pelata into a meeting. Afterwards, Ghosn declared that there would be dual sourcing on Clio 4 – some continuing to be made in France (at the Flins plant) and some in Turkey. What was less clear was the split between the two locations. The French production is presented as being dependent on capacity considerations concerning the Zoe electric vehicle – due in 2012 – at Flins. So, it’s still a bit murky as far as Clio 4 in France goes. All Renault is signed up for is to make some in France. Numbers and the time period are unspecified.

But Sarkozy could claim he’d got something out of the meeting – an assurance that Clio will continue to be made in France. There are French regional elections in March, so that may explain some of the heightened political interest in French car companies right now. But, as Opel’s failed sale last year also demonstrated, the political dimension to capacity rationalisation in Europe remains important and frequently runs counter to business logic.

Later this week (on Thursday) Ford releases its 2009 Q4 and full-year financial results. Will they be good results, Ford posting a decent profit? Quite possibly if Ford’s Q4 sales figures are anything to go by. If Ford does post good financials it is likely that Alan Mulally will bring forward the guidance on when Ford will be full-year profitable from 2011 to 2010.

Ford has been through some pretty painful restructuring in North America to get its cost base there down. Sooner or later, European-based car companies will probably have to bite that bullet, however politically unpalatable, in order to have a shot at long-term success. Productivity improvements – helpful though they are – can only take you so far.

Can Brussels broker a deal?

November 18th, 2009 | No Comments

I think I said just after GM had decided to hang on to Opel/Vauxhall rather than offload to Magna, that the politics is far from over.

GM’s acting head of European ops Nick Reilly is clearly doing the rounds with a begging bowl to see what state aid/loan guarantees are going to be forthcoming from national European governments where there are plants/jobs at stake.

He appears to have pressed the right buttons in the UK, but that was always a case of pushing at an open door given what went before when Magna was in the Opel frame.

Affable Nick, an ex-Vauxhall man, saves the day and gives a slightly desperate British government a small crumb of positive industrial/economic PR. Sounds like he knows how to choose his words very carefully. There’s ‘a chance’ to save more jobs at Vauxhall than under the Magna-led proposal. It’s all mights and maybes, the unions and workers no doubt wondering where it could yet all end up.

And no, he says, turning to a broader European audience, we don’t want an unseemly beggar-thy-neighbour ‘bidding war’ with national governments on state aid that could end up upsetting Brussels again. Well, actually maybe we do want that because we’re happy for European taxpayers to give us a helping hand and the bigger the better, but we don’t want Brussels then stamping all over it on competition grounds.

Hang about, maybe we can get Brussels to act as an honest broker for a collective deal that still gives us pretty much what we want? I’ll just carry on fanning the flames for a little while longer by emphasising the importance of state aid and stressing that nothing is yet cast in stone. Let’s keep those cheque-books nice and handy.

Yes, as the EU says, economic criteria is very important. But we seem to be very much in the realm of politics and there’s still a lot to be decided. Don’t be surprised to find that ‘affable Nick’ was not all that he seemed. Someone somewhere isn’t going to like that new Opel/Vauxhall business plan when it finally emerges. Will that plan adhere 100% to business principles or will there be signs of political fudging?

And can Brussels actually broker a deal of some sort next week? Maybe all sides should realise that now is the time for consensus and for GM’s European business to be given a chance to be run as a business.

EU: EU to host Opel/Vauxhall meeting