+++ The Pentastar V6 has been CHRYSLER 's magic bullet as of late, combining solid power and impressive fuel efficiency. The do-all powerplant has found its way into a just about any Chrysler Group vehicle with an engine bay to accept it. Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Journey (in Europe sold as Fiat Freemont) alike have enjoyed the benefits of the dual-overhead cam 3.6-liter mill. Chrysler is pondering an investment of $200 million into its Detroit Mack I facility to increase Pentastar production. Meanwhile, Chrysler plans to halt production of the aging 3.7-liter V6 at the Mack II facility. The 200 employees that were laid off by the idling of Mack II will be reemployed at other Chrysler Group facilities in the area. According to the Automotive News report, if an agreement can be reached with the local government, the Mack I plant would switch over from producing the 4.7-liter V8 to the popular 3.6-liter Pentastar engine. Currently, the Pentastar is also produced in Trenton, Michigan, and Saltillo, Mexico. If the proposal was approved, Chrysler will not only produce the 3.6-liter version of the Pentastar, but also intends on building variants with different displacements, including a blown 3.2-liter version. Chrysler canceled its usual summer shutdown, and the Trenton and Saltillo facilities have been working overtime to meet demand for the popular engine. +++ Toyota plans to expand production of the LEXUS RX in Canada with a $100 million investment at its plant in Cambridge, Ontario. The expansion will boost annual Lexus capacity at the plant by 30,000 vehicles to 104,000 units, the automaker said in a statement today. About 400 new jobs will be added at the operation. The expanded production (which will include 15,000 RX450h electric hybrid vehicles) is expected to begin in early 2014, Toyota said. "This is a big and ambitious project with new technology, exacting standards and tight timelines", Brian Krinock, president of Toyota's Canada manufacturing unit, said in the statement. +++ LOTUS has submitted a new business plan that significantly scales down its previous ambitions under sacked CEO Dany Bahar, according to media reports in Malaysia. Under Bahar, Lotus planned to launch 5 all-new sports cars powered by the company’s own engines and gearboxes. But the plan was put on hold when Lotus’s parent company, Proton, was sold to Malaysian automotive investor DRB-Hicom at the start of the year. DRB-Hicom has now taken over day-to-day running of Lotus following Bahar’s sacking last month, with Aslam Farikullah installed as chief operating officer. Citing banking sources, the business media in Malaysia claims that a new business plan has been submitted to Lotus’s six main creditors. Sources describe the plan as “much more realistic” than Bahar’s plan, which was described as “basically unworkable”. No details have been given of the plan’s contents, and neither Lotus nor DRB-Hicom would comment on the reports. It’s possible that the new Esprit supercar will survive the axe, given that it was the only one of the new models in development. But it’s unlikely to retain a costly Lotus-developed engine and gearbox. Launching a new Esprit but scrapping plans for the other 4 new models would still give Lotus’s recently overhauled range a flagship supercar. It is also a sector in which Lotus has experience, unlike luxury saloons and hybrid GTs, which Bahar’s plan contained. The first evidence of the scaling back of plans is Lotus’s laying off of 50 contractors, who were understood to be working on new projects rather than existing models. +++ Daimler has hired Finnish contract manufacturer Valmet Automotive to build more than 100,000 MERCEDES-BENZ A-class compact-premium cars from 2013 through 2016. Mercedes has received more than 40,000 orders for the new A class, which will launch in mid-September, the company said in a statement. Wolfgang Bernhard, Mercedes' head of manufacturing and procurement, said in the statement that Daimler's plants in Rastatt, Germany, and Kecskemet, Hungary, are completely utilized filling orders for the A- and B-class compacts. He said that outsourcing some A-class production to Valmet would "keep delivery times of our new A class as short as possible". +++ PSA (Peugeot, Citroen) vowed to press ahead with politically fraught restructuring plans as the troubled French automaker detailed mounting losses it has described as a threat to its future. Europe's second-largest car maker posted a 662 million euro first-half loss in its auto division, dragging its group bottom line into the red, as it had warned earlier this month when announcing 8,000 French job cuts and a plant closure. "The depth and persistence of the crisis impacting our business in Europe requires the launch of the reorganisation", Chief Executive Philippe Varin said in a statement on Wednesday. "We have a clear understanding of how hard this project is for a large number of our employees". Presenting the results as executives sought to push through a 10 percent French workforce reduction in talks with unions, Peugeot said the cutbacks would help generate 1.5 billion euros in savings by 2015. The company said it burned through 954 million euros of operating cash in the first six months as sales fell 5.1 percent to 29.55 billion. Its net loss of 819 million euros compared with a year-earlier profit of 806 million. Asset sales reduced net debt to 2.4 billion euros from 3.4 billion at the end of December. The redundancies, combined with the closure of the Aulnay plant near Paris and 6,000 European job cuts announced last year, will generate 600 million euros in savings for 2015, Peugeot said. The company also pledged to cut 550 million euros of investment and generate a further 350 million through cooperation with alliance partner General Motors. Unveiling the reorganisation on July 12, CEO Varin had said any further delay "would have put the group in great danger". But the Aulnay closure decision, a key part of the plan, had been leaked more than a year ago and denied at the time by Varin, sparking government accusations that he had lied to workers and the public. Peugeot shares took a 41 percent plunge so far this year, the biggest decline in the 15-member Stoxx Europe 600 autos and parts index. Unions were set to protest outside PSA headquarters in the west of Paris on Wednesday as Socialist President Francois Hollande's government prepared to unveil a broader auto-industry support plan. Arnaud Montebourg, the recovery minister heading the initiative, is expected to recommend measures including stronger tax incentives on smaller vehicle categories, where Peugeot, Citroen and Renault still lead the domestic market. The latest savings goal follows 4.7 billion euros of earnings improvements announced by Varin since he joined PSA in 2009, London-based Credit Suisse analyst Erich Hauser said. "If you're delivering on these and still losing money like there's no tomorrow, it doesn't really inspire a lot of confidence", Hauser said. "The ball is in the French government's court now". Europe's gloomy economic outlook does not bode well for PSA, which now expects the regional market to shrink by 8 percent in 2012, a bigger contraction than the 5 percent predicted at the start of the year. European car sales may not return to pre-crisis levels until 2017, Renault warned this month. The slump has already seen PSA lose ground to competitors including market leader Volkswagen and Hyundai. The Peugeot and Citroen brands' combined European car market share fell 1 point to 12 percent in the first half, when their global sales also tumbled 13 percent to 1.62 million vehicles. The French automaker has warned it will continue bleeding cash through 2014. To stem the losses, it has already cut some investments and sold its Paris headquarters on a lease-back deal. Other assets on the block include a large stake in logistics division Gefco. Among halted investments are an Indian plant, a dual-clutch gearbox and a rechargeable diesel-electric hybrid vehicle. Peugeot has said it hopes to fill some of those gaps through cooperation with GM under the broad-based alliance they unveiled in February. +++ RENAULT may launch its upscale Initiale Paris subbrand in 2 phases, Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares said. The first phase would see the French automaker adding premium content to its volume models and tweaking their design to sell them under the new subbrand. French rival Citroen does something similar with its upscale DS range. In the second phase, Renault would develop specific Initiale Paris models to make it a stand-alone brand, just as alliance partner Nissan did with its Infiniti luxury marque. "We plan to start with something that will be similar to Citroen's DS series that will eventually become something like Infiniti at Nissan", Tavares told. +++ The TOYOTA Motor Corporation (TMC) has reached an important milestone in its history as the Japanese automaker announced that in June, its worldwide cumulative vehicle production surpassed 200 million units, 76 years and 11 months after the introduction of its first vehicle, the Model G1 truck in August of 1935. The Model G1 was produced at Toyoda Automatic Loom Works' automotive department, which was spun off and later became what we know today as the Toyota Motor Corporation. Of the 200 million vehicles, 145.21 million were built in Japan and 55.12 million in overseas markets. The company pointed out from 1992 to the end of 2011, it has produced 7.44 million units at its European facilities in the Czech Republic, France, Portugal, Russia, Turkey and United Kingdom. TMC President Akio Toyoda commented: "I wish to express my heartfelt appreciation to our customers the world over who made it possible for us to reach this milestone. I also have the most profound respect and gratitude for the efforts of all persons who were involved in developing, manufacturing, and marketing Toyota and Lexus vehicles over the years. We are determined to make our cars even better, to continue to give our customers the best possible product. This is the common goal of our 300,000 Toyota staff members worldwide". And if you're wondering, the most popular and therefore bestselling nameplate in the Toyota group's lineup is the Corolla, production of which totaled 39.08 million units as of the end of June. +++