High inflation in Argentina is “worrying” Toyota’s local unit but the company is optimistic that concerns over energy shortages will ease in the medium term, said the firm’s president.

Investors are concerned about inflation and energy shortages in Argentina, where the red-hot economy has grown 8 percent a year for five years straight after a 2001-02 economic crisis.

“For us, inflation is a worrying issue,” said Anibal Borderes, president of Toyota Argentina, the local affiliate of Toyota Motor Co. ”I think it could be a key factor for anyone looking to export,” he told the Reuters Latin America Investment Summit in Buenos Aires.

  “Energy supplies worry us too, but … there are plans in place to increase supplies and I expect they will begin to show results,” he said, referring to government energy initiatives.

Manfred Wennemer, the chief executive of German car parts group Continental AG, told the Reuters Autos Summit in Frankfurt he was for a market solution to reducing CO2 emissions in cars and against mandatory steps.

Ford Motor Co acknowledges that it has a poor relationship with its U.S. suppliers and it plans to do something about it.

Global product chief Derrick Kuzak told the Reuters Autos Summit that he and purchasing boss Tony Brown will hold focus groups with chief executives from auto suppliers early next year in an attempt to improve relations, though he doesn’t expect change to come easily.

The auto company’s suppliers got hit by a slashing in its U.S. auto production by almost 30 percent at the end of last year and as a result were understandably not too happy with Ford, said Kuzak.

Not only that, but the suppliers have had to cope with Ford’s very complex platforms, technical strategies and different interfaces across the world. “We are working on every one of the issues,” Kuzak said. “Suppliers are partners. We are intertwined at the hip. We can only be successful if they are successful,” he added.

General Motors Vice-Chairman and head of global product development Bob Lutz said it is time the United States woke up to its lack of influence over the global economy and commodity prices in particular.

He told the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit on Tuesday that in the past when there was an economic downturn in the U.S., the prices of steel, aluminum, rubber and plastic, would fall and margins could begin to recover.

But now, demand from India and China is soaking up any excess.  ”We don’t have that clout anymore in the United States,” said Lutz.

“Whether our demand is up, down or sideways, the world little cares nor long remembers and China and India just suck it all in.”

He said that as a result a further interest rate cut might not be what the U.S. economy needs as it would likely lead to a further decline in the U.S. dollar and higher import costs.

Maria Bissinger, a credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s, said that while the car companies she follows are all investment grade or on the brink of returning to investment grade, she still had some worries.

One of these worries was about the costs of CO2 emission rules. But then, credit analysts are by nature pessimistic people, she told the Reuters Autos Summit in Frankfurt.

Germany’s ErlingKlinger may not be the world’s best-known car parts maker but it is a global power house in engine gaskets.

Chief Executive Officer Stefan Wolf told the Reuters Autos Summit in Frankfurt that the firm was working on products for fuel cells to prepare for the moment when there would be electric vehicles to replace the fossil fuel-burning internal combustion engine.

That, he said, would take another 15 to 20 years. In the meantime, he saw not much use for hybrid engines outside densily built-up areas such as Manhattan. 

United Auto Workers union chief Ron Gettelfinger still has difficulty in saying nice things about the private equity business.

Sure, he accepts that Cerberus kept its commitment to the union to largely stay out of labor talks over the new contract with Chrysler after buying the automaker and he is prepared to see subsequent job cuts as understandable adjustments given the weak U.S. autos market. But at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit on Tuesday, he still had time to rip into the behaviour of the buyout firms.

“Private equity firms, a lot of them, they’re vultures, a lot of them are strip and flip. I think that can be said as a matter of fact, there are some of those folks that I almost feel dirty when they leave a room after I have met with them,” said Gettelfinger.

Still, with Chrysler, he said, there really wasn’t a viable option to a private equity buyer. Gettelfinger, does though, understand the contradictory nature of his comments.

“People said I am talking out of both sides of my mouth, maybe I am, I don’t know,” he acknowledged.

West Coast Americans just love Italian luxury super sports cars, just as they like French luxury goods or Swiss watches.

Lamborghini President and Chief Executive Officer Stephan Winkelmann told the Reuters Autos Summit in Frankfurt that despite strict environmental rules, there was so much wealth in California that it would remain a big market for the top end sports carmaker.

Lamborghini is owned by Volkswagen Group’s Audi unit. Winkelmann added that for the owner of a Lamborghini car it was important to have an individualised vehicle so that it did not look like any other Lamborghini.

Guess what, owners of Ferrari sports cars use their vehicles more and more. The car is no longer a prized asset on the forecourt or in the garage, but people actually drive in them.

Amedeo Felisa, the general manager of the Italian firm majority-owned by Fiat, said the company was doing its best to make driving more comfortable as well.

Auto-parts maker Tenneco Inc expects that negative cash flow it suffered in the third quarter will be reversed in the current quarter. 

“From a cash point of view today I feel pretty doggone good about the fourth quarter,” the company’s CEO Gregg Sherrill told the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit. 

He said that the negative cashflow in the third quarter had been caused by excess inventory of its South African-made products destined for General Motors.

“It was not an out-of-control situation in the third quarter — it was a very clearly identified problem that we had,” said Sherrill, who described it as ”certainly disappointing.”