As always there’s some good news and some bad news for the automotive industry this week.

First of all let’s start with some bad news. The ongoing saga of Toyota continues this week as the company announced the recall of 270,000 cars worldwide due to an engine fault. According to a spokesperson several foreign materials have made their way into the manufacturing process, contaminating the valve springs and causing sporadic engine failure. Luckily for Toyota no accidents have occurred so far. The problem appears to only affect a number of new Lexus models and the popular Toyota Crown.

Some good news now as Volkswagen, Europe’s largest manufacturer of cars and vans, announced that US sales have increased by 8.6% in May. The company attributed the growth to higher demands from both Chinese and US markets. This year Volkswagen is ramping up its Asian operation, the company is allegedly pumping in over 6bn Euros worth of investment in order to eclipse Toyota as the world’s number 1 car producer. Volkswagen continue to do well both home and abroad. The company recently won the world Engine of the Year award for the second consecutive time. Volkswagen also recently finalised a £1.7m deal with Arcus Engineering to replace their old used vans fleet.    

In other news the new Business Secretary Vince Cable stated that the UK government will start to rein in financial support for the auto sector. In a speech to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Dr Cable reassured the sector that its work and productivity were “incredibly important to the UK economy”, but he also argued that the coalition would think twice before giving large scale support to individual companies like the previous government did. The one ray of hope for manufacturers was the suggestion that the government will look into providing subsidies for the electric vehicle market.