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Sebastien Loeb and Peugeot targeting Goodwood hillclimb record

Sebastien Loeb and the more motorsport-obsessed elements of the PSA Peugeot Citroën group seem hellbent with breaking records. Together they've accumulated an unprecedented nine World Rally Championship titles, 78 rally wins and the all-time record for climbing Pikes Peak. And this season they'll be taking on the World Touring Car Championship together as well, hoping to apply their winning form to another racing discipline. But before they do, they'll be going for another trophy: the lap record for the famous hill-climb course at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The record currently belongs to Nick Heidfeld, who drove a McLaren MP4/13 - the car that won both the drivers' and constructors' titles in the 1998 Formula One World Championship with Mika Hakkinen behind the wheel - up the hill in a blistering 41.6 seconds back in '99. The accomplishment sets Heidfeld apart after a dozen seasons on the F1 grid but not a single grand prix victory to his name. But that's just what Loeb and Peugeot aim to strip him of when this year's festival kicks off in late June.
Loeb's weapon of choice will be the same Peugeot 208 T16 with which he took the Pikes Peak record. With 875 horsepower on tap, just as many kilos to motivate and bigger wings than an Airbus A380, the T16 is one of the only cars out there capable of beating a modern F1 machine, and Loeb is just the man to drive it. There are plenty more drivers lined up for Goodwood, and you can read about some of them below.

France unveils green incentive to rescue auto industry

PSA Peugeot Citroën and the French goverment have been negotiating how to repair the company's business position without ruining the new government's promises to the electorate. At last count, Peugeot wants to send 14,000 workers home for good, close a factory in Aulnay, and trim some of its 25% overcapacity. The automaker desperately wants to sell more cars to help it stop losing €200 million ($246M U.S.) per month. The government has already nixed the most drastic plans, but it needs to keep Peugeot from drowning at the same time as doing so saves jobs, encourages domestic car sales, and balances a nasty state budget. In addition, any maneuver needs to keep the EU's competition watchdog from intervening.
Dow Jones reports that the solution involves increasing cash incentives for EV and hybrid purchases and raising taxes on "high emission vehicles." France already provides a €5,000 subsidy for EVs and €2,000 for hybrids, but those will see a €2,000 bump to €7,000 and €4,000, respectively. The CO2 output or engine displacement that would qualify a vehicle as "high emission" isn't stated. Supplemental and longer-term plans include asking the EU to examine a free-trade agreement with South Korea that France says has resulted in a glut of South Korean cars, and providing €600 million in lifelines to smaller, struggling automaker suppliers.
From our perspective, the measures look like more of the same largely-useless pussyfooting that has kept Europe staring at the economic apocalypse for more than two years. In a New York Times article about Europe's "day of reckoning," Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said, "I've never seen it this bad. All the unresolved issues that have been plaguing the industry for a number of years have all come forward."

EU formally questions French government assistance of Peugeot's finance arm

Recently, the finance arm of PSA/Peugeot-Citroën was in such debt trouble that it was pricing itself out of the car loan market. The rates it was paying to service its debt, which was rated one step above junk, were so high that it was forced to charge car-buying customers higher rates than they could find elsewhere. This was adding to Peugeot's already impressive woes by sending revenue out the door to competitors.
Two months ago a deal was worked out with the French government whereby the state would provide 7 billion euro ($9 billion USD) in bonds to guarantee the finance arm's loans. The French government could nominate someone to join the Peugeot board, Peugeot would guarantee more French jobs, and on top of that deal, other banks would provide non-guaranteed loans. The government would take no equity stake in the car company.
Although not yet finalized, the arrangement is meant to create some breathing room for Peugeot Finance to lower its interest rates for customers, and a government-nominated board member, Louis Gallois, was recently named to Peugeot's supervisory board. The arrangement was also openly questioned by at least three competitors: Ford, Renault - which is 15-percent owned by the French government after it received state aid - and the German state of Lower Saxony, itself a 15-percent shareholder in Volkswagen.