US auto giant General Motors Co (GM) announced on Wednesday it sold 9.92 million cars worldwide last year, setting a new record despite its recall of 30 million vehicles over faulty ignitions blamed for at least 42 deaths.
GM’s sales for last year, which bested the previous year’s record by 2 percent, still lag those of German giant Volkswagen AG, which logged 10.14 million cars last year.
A press report in Japan said Toyota Motor Corp surpassed both companies last year with sales of 10.22 million. The Japanese automaker has yet to release full-year sales figures.
Volkswagen is expected to pass Toyota this year. A Toyota executive at the Detroit auto show told reporters the Japanese maker is emphasizing quality of sales rather than volume.
The lofty GM sales are good news for a company badly bruised by the ignition-switch recall scandal. The automaker paid out nearly US$2 billion for the recalls and victims compensation last year, it said.
The company said on Wednesday it expects pretax earnings and profit margins to increase this year and predicts improved automotive results in all of its regions. It gave no specific numbers. GM is scheduled to release its fourth-quarter and last year earnings on Feb. 4.
GM also reiterated next year’s financial targets of 10 percent pretax profit margins in North America and a return to profitability in Europe. It also expects to maintain strong profit margins in China.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six