Autoblog

More news from the advancing front of European carmakers expanding eastwards: PSA, Europe's second largest automaker and the French parent company of Peugeot and Citroën, is considering opening its new plant in Russia to partnerships with rival carmakers.

The new factory is located in Kaluga, some 180 km outside of the capital, Moscow. Russia is considered one of the fastest-growing markets worldwide, alongside India and China, where Western automakers have also been setting up factories, principally through joint ventures with local manufacturers. PSA's Kaluga plant, scheduled to begin production in 2010, will start out building only Peugeots and Citroens, principally mid-size automobiles which PSA says accounts for 60% of the Russian market for new cars.

If PSA did look to partner with another automaker for production at Kaluga, it could go even father east to Japan's Mitsubishi, which recently obtained financial incentives from the Russian government to assemble cars there and with which the French carmaker already partners on its SUVs.

[Source: Automotive News Europe – subscription required]

Israel develops and produces a lot of things, from microchips to cosmetics. But, discounting the odd dune-buggy or army jeep, cars aren't one of them. So it came as a bi t of a surprise when Quantum, an American subsidiary of (the imaginatively named) holding company Israel Corp., announced it was embarking on a joint venture with an unnamed Asian automaker back in the spring.

Israel Corp. has now won approval from China's still heavily centralized government to set up shop in partnership with Chery Automobile. The Israeli partner will take a 45% stake in the venture, worth about $225 million, with Chery presumably taking the other 55%. The news of the deal hit the wire shortly after the now-refuted

reports of an ambitious plan to put 10,000 electric cars on Israeli roads by 2010.

Chery was the first of a plethora of Chinese automakers that now manufactures outside of China, operating its own plants in Iran, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Argentina. While it's still not known where the new Sino-Israeli cars will be built, they could very well find their way to our shores as Chery gears up for its assault on the American market.

[Source: Detroit News]

Instead of beating each other's brains out and assuring that nobody wins, SAIC and Nanjing have decided to stand close to each other on the playground. While they may still avoid eye contact and kick pebbles instead of developing a friendship, they will be carrying out what they're terming a "comprehensive collaboration." Design, production and sales efforts will be pooled in an effort to make China's automakers competitive with outsiders like General Motors and Volkswagen, who currently dominate China's vehicle market. The weekend announcement of the effort was mum on a merger, but did mention an asset swap as the two state-controlled businesses go forward splitting resources. At the very least, it seems like the cooperative effort will quell the bickering over the carved up carcass of Rover Cars.

[Source: Detroit News]

What do you get for the automotive conglomerate that already owns almost every Italian marque in the industry? A legendary design house, of course. Fortunately for Fiat, independent coachbuilders like Bertone have been in a lot of financial trouble recently, as evidenced by Pininfarina's recent cuts.

At the Paris show, Bertone displayed the Suagna (pictured), an impressive coupe-cabriolet based on the Fiat Grande Punto platform. Now a rumored joint venture could see the Fiat group establishing a new company with Bertone to produce a car based on the Suagna concept. The reported idea would be for Bertone to supply "industrial assets" (i.e. the facilities) and the staff while Fiat pays for everything else.

[Source: Automotive News via Motor Authority]

Fiat and PSA Peugeot-Citroen have taken the wraps off their new jointly-produced compact utility vans this week. The new Peugeot Expert, Citroen Dispatch and Fiat Scudo will be officially launched in January to replace the three vans of the same names currently on the market.

As you can see from the picture, the vans are essentially identical, with only a slightly different nose to make them identifiable as belonging to their respective brands, making this joint venture an obvious exercise in badge engineering. The lightweight vans are available in a variety of configurations with various body styles and payload capacities. Although they're mainly commercial vehicles, a "combi-van" nine-passenger configuration is also available, which is likely to be popular with taxi and shuttle-bus services in Europe and elsewhere.

The vans are being built at the Sevel Nord plant in the north of France. Sevel is an acronym for Société Européenne de Véhicules Légers SpA (European Society of Lightweight Vehicles); the plant also builds a range of MPVs for Fiat and PSA, sold as the Citroën C8, Peugeot 807, Fiat Ulysse and Lancia Phedra.

The vans were unveiled at Sevel Nord together by Jean-Martin Folz and Sergio Marchionne, chief executives of PSA and Fiat respectively, both of whom recently revealed are leaving their posts.

Follow the jump for more pics and the full press release

[Source: PSA Peugeot Citroen]