If Sergio Marchionne weren’t the CEO of Fiat and Chrysler, globetrotting across three continents on a regular basis and running companies based on two of them, the man probably would have to make up a similar job just to contain his prodigious energy.

This week, he and the increasingly worldwide automotive operation he runs have made news in North America, Europe and Asia. And the charismatic, peripatetic Italian car mogul has displayed some of the inner edges of his famously expansive personality as well.

In the biggest news, Marchionne signed a deal in Michigan with Guangzhou Automobile Group to build Jeeps in China as Fiat, Chrysler and their brands try to play catch-up in the world’s biggest automotive market. Guangzhou will build at least 100,000 Jeeps there beginning in 2014, and output could double at some point, Marchionne said this week. Continue reading...

Talk all you want about German engineering, Japanese reliability and Korean ambition in the high-end automotive market. When it comes to getting the blood of car enthusiasts pumping, there's nothing quite like the Chevrolet Corvette.

Car aficionados continue to create buzz around Chevy's introduction of the seventh-generation Corvette at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, the so-called C7. GM is deliberately invoking some of the 60 years of the car's history by calling its new version the Stingray. It harkens back to a special version of the Corvette in 1963 that set the design standard for the overmuscled sports car for the last half century.

Corvette has been known as the life's aspiration of a plumber or a gym teacher — its typical buyer is a white male in his 50s. But automotive journalists this week are hailing the new Stingray as a revelation: a car that simultaneously remains worthy of the Corvette's heritage but that also introduces a sort of panache — and the kind of technology — that should broaden its appeal with other emographics that wish to buy expensive cars.Continue reading...

It's too early to determine whether the new Cadillac ELR truly will be a game-changer in the sluggish U.S. market for plug-in hybrids. But in unveiling the new vehicle to the world's automotive press at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, at least General Motors is bidding to change the dynamics of the segment in a significant way. Already, it's been deemed best production car of the show, as Cadillac proudly tweeted.

ELR isn't expected to go on sale until early 2014 ("winter" is what GM is promising) and at a price tag (before U.S.-government tax credits for a "green" car purchase) of more than $50,000. GM is relying on the same basic powertrain in Volt, a combination of powerful batteries that can take the car 25 or 30 miles on a charge and a small gasoline engine that takes over once the batteries are out of juice and provides an effective range for the vehicle of about 300 miles.Continue reading...

Over the past few years, fuel economy became the predominant theme of the Detroit Auto Show, as brands battled recession, $4-a-gallon gasoline, the heavy hand of the federal government and one another to lure American buyers into their increasingly "green" machines.

But at the 2013 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week, one of the clearly emergent themes is a return to more substantial and practical vehicles — specifically, to utility vehicles. Fuel economy isn't being ignored; it's more that decent mileage is a given for just about every new model these days.

One after another, brands at the first of two press-preview days at the show on Monday revealed new production models of mid-sized and compact sport-utility and "crossover" utility vehicles, plans to field more of them, or both.

"We're absent from the midsize-SUV segment" in the United States, Jonathan Browning, president and CEO of Volkswagen of America, said at a press conference where the brand introduced a new concept SUV called CrossBlue. That segment has "predicted growth of more than 20 percent by 2018, the biggest predicted for any segment," he said.Continue reading...

The annual North American car and truck of the year awards presented this morning at the Detroit auto show marked yet another step in the resurgence of the traditional American "Big Three" automakers.

The Cadillac ATS was named North American Car of the Year by a 49-member panel of U.S.-based journalists at the North American International Auto Show, beating out the other finalists, the Ford Fusion and Honda Accord (the latter of which also is built in the United States).

The Ram 1500 was named North American Truck/Utility of the Year, besting the new Ford C-Max and the Mazda CX-5, the other finalists. The organization of automotive journalists renamed this award for 2013 because of the dominance of sport-utility-vehicles in the segment, joining pickup trucks.

In some of the brand developments on the first day of the press preview included Chevrolet unveiling the 2014 Corvette Stinger, above, plus:Continue reading...

The Motor City is the hub of the global auto industry once more, and the North American International Auto Show that opens with a press preview on Monday in Detroit's Cobo Center will underscore that welcome returning reality. It's also expected that the U.S. market as a whole will pick up share versus other global markets in 2013.

Over the last decade, Detroit's traditional "Big Three" automakers have been transformed. Their shares of the market collapsed; then the Great Recession whacked the U.S. car market; then the federal government bailed out two of them.

But now, arguably, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are in their best shape collectively in a very long time.

Each is selling trucks at a healthy clip again, their most profitable segment. GM will finally shed the rest of the albatross of U.S.-government ownership soon and, with a slew of new-product launches ready for 2013, should enjoy a share uptick this year. Ford will be trying to build on its gains of the last few years with solid new models including a restyled Ford Fusion sedan, the hybrid-only C-Max and the new Escape. And Chrysler, now owned by Fiat, will attempt to keep building on its remarkable turnaround story.Continue reading...

Among the most popular attractions at auto shows are concept cars, those idealized takes on a not-so-distant future that spur the imagination and give glimpses of where vehicles might be headed. For those reasons, concept models are popular with industry attendees as well as consumers.

The problem for most auto suppliers is that it doesn’t make sense for them to come up with a concept car because they don’t deal with enough of the vehicle. But Johnson Controls is one of the few exceptions: As one of the biggest and most complete suppliers of car-interior components and systems, as well as batteries for under the hood, the Glendale,Wis.-based megasupplier can put together a pretty credible concept vehicle.Continue reading...

The Detroit Auto Show this week marked the North American coming out party for Venturi, which boasts the world's fastest electric car (breaking the record last August). The French brand highlighted two vehicles it's bringing to the US: the awesomely-named and newly updated Fetish, a two-seater electric sports car; and the brand new Venturi America, a dune buggy.