What we're reading this morning about upcoming Porsches, upcoming Buicks and upcoming forecasts from around the world:
Porsche 911 Cabrio coming to Detroit [Porsche] To keep the momentum going after a year where U.S. sales rose 15%, Porsche said this morning it would unveil the drop-top version of Motoramic's Sports Car of the Year at the Detroit auto show next week. That will go on sale a few months after the regular 911 hits our shores in February, followed by the 430-hp Panamera GTS, a diesel-powered Cayenne and in 2013, a new compact SUV named Cajun built with Audi.
Buick (mostly) reveals new Encore SUV [Buick] If you're a Buick aficionado who just couldn't wait to see what a small luxury SUV with portholes would look like, today's a big day. Buick's slow reveal of the 2013 Encore on its Facebook page pretty much gives the game away after three tiles, showing a squat body built off the same platform that underpins the Chevy Sonic. We'll snap some interior pics for the devoted in Detroit next week.
Lexus LF-LC unveiled [Road & Track] More pictures of the Lexus LF-LC concept. Huh. How about that?
Marchionne can't deliver 6M sales on EU slump [Bloomberg] Sergio Marchionne, chief of Fiat-Chrysler, has long said the company needed 6 million vehicle sales worldwide by 2014 to compete with the world's largest automakers. Analysts now say thanks to a European slump and no strong presence in China, Fiat-Chrysler will only make about 5.4 million vehicles that year. Don't blame Chrysler: its sales rose 26% in 2011, the largest gain among any Detroit brand.
Global auto sales to grow 6.7% in 2012 [Detroit Free Press] Speaking of European slumps, the mathletes at auto industry tracking firm Polk expect global auto sales to hit 77 million vehicles this year, up 6.7% from 2011's estimated total, driven by a 16% jump from China and a 7% increase in the United States.