Trade News

Mike Manley was the highest-paid Detroit 3 executive in 2022, even though he no longer worked for an automaker.

Manley, who has been CEO of AutoNation since November 2021, earned $56.2 million (€51.2 million) from Stellantis last year. The payment stemmed from an agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles prior to the January 2021 merger with PSA Group that formed Stellantis, according to a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing from February.

Manley was Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' CEO before the merger and stayed on as head of Americas for Stellantis until succeeding Mike Jackson at AutoNation.

For his work last year at AutoNation, Manley earned $13.5 million in total compensation, including salary, bonuses, incentives and stock awards, according to AutoNation's proxy statement released March 9. That brought Manley's total compensation from the two companies to nearly $70 million.

General Motors' CEO Mary Barra ranked second with a pay pac…

New regulations governing cybersecurity for software-defined vehicles will start in July 2024, but the automotive industry may not be prepared, according to Israel's Argus Cyber Security.

Argus, a subsidiary of Germany's Continental AG, found that 58 percent of small automakers and automotive suppliers are not prepared to create a management system focusing on vehicle cybersecurity that complies with Regulation 155 from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe.

Additionally, the commission's Regulation 156 governs cybersecurity protocols for software updates in new vehicles and will start that same month.

"No one's prepared and to be honest, the complete automotive chain is not prepared," Gulroz Singh, an executive at NXP Semiconductors, in Austin, Texas, told Automotive News.

The regulations provide standards for vehicle software and system security, personal data protection and cybersecurity incident management. They also spell out cyb…

General Motors Co. on Monday said it had cut several hundred full-time contract workers over the weekend including at its engineering hub in suburban Detroit, the latest effort by the U.S. automaker to streamline operations.

The contractors losing their jobs were within global product development at locations such as the company's Warren Tech Center. The Wall Street Journal reported the job cuts earlier.

GM shares were up 2 percent to $33.73.

GM said in April that about 5,000 salaried workers had opted for buyouts to leave the company. Reuters in February reported that GM cut hundreds of executive-level and salaried jobs.

CEO Mary Barra said in a memo to employees last month that the February job cuts and 5,000 buyouts "have provided approximately $1 billion towards" the $2 billion target.

Price hikes and demand for vehicles have helped automakers counter inflationary headwinds. GM posted higher-than-expected first-quarter earnings last w…

ANAHEIM, Calif. — Global supplier Bosch and trucking technology company Plus are working together to develop and deploy advanced driver-assistance features, the companies said Monday at the Advanced Clean Transportation Expo.

The new system combines Plus' predictive 360-degree sensors and assisted driving tools such as merge handling and suggested lane change with Bosch's hardware and steering system.

New mobility solutions require enhanced collaboration, said Paul Thomas, executive vice president of mobility solutions, Americas for Bosch. "Our agreement with Plus complements existing Bosch portfolio elements and is one of multiple ways we can work together to support our customers," he said.

This marks the second formalized collaboration between an automated technology provider and a major global supplier in as many weeks. Last week, Continental and Aurora detailed a new tie-up involving the industrialization of Aurora's self-driving systems.

Wh…

Group 1 Automotive Inc. is calling out some dealership sellers who it believes are pricing their businesses unrealistically high.

"There is a certain portion of sellers that have unrealistic expectations," Group 1 Automotive CEO Daryl Kenningham said during the company's first-quarter earnings call last week. "I always like to tell people, we will never win a bidding war, but we try to stick to discipline with what we will pay for a group of stores."

Group 1, of Houston, is pursuing acquisitions as a big part of its growth strategy. It's also using capital for share buybacks and investment in growth areas such as service and technology.

Its latest acquisition of Estero Bay Chevrolet in Estero, Fla.,  in the first quarter is expected to add an estimated $150 million in annual revenue.

More acquisitions are likely in the months ahead, but Group 1 is avoiding transactions in which sellers are asking exorbitant prices, Kenningham said. They're n…

Responsible citizens of the world have been talking for years now about reducing greenhouse gases and "decarbonizing."

But this week, we tell you that the global auto industry has leaped into that discussion — it has declared a kind of war on carbon, flipping over every rock to find ways to get carbon out of the equation of automaking.

In a lineup of stories from around the world, we point out that automakers and their supply chains are now reconsidering everything that might help them cut their output of greenhouse gas.

Hans Greimel tells us about the complexity of the attack on carbon now underway in Japan. The industry there is understandably anxious about the potential loss of millions of jobs and the economic hit Japan might take if automakers there suddenly switched wholesale to electric vehicles. And so companies are thinking as broadly as possible of solutions. A big one? Getting Japan's power plants off of coal.

Peter Sigal, from our sibl…

Automakers, suppliers leap ahead into reducing CO2

Responsible citizens of the world have been talking for years now about reducing greenhouse gases and "decarbonizing."

But this week, we tell you that the global auto industry has leaped into that discussion — it has declared a kind of war on carbon, flipping over every rock to find ways to get carbon out of the equation of automaking.

In a lineup of stories from around the world, we point out that automakers and their supply chains are now reconsidering everything that might help them cut their output of greenhouse gas.

Hans Greimel tells us about the complexity of the attack on carbon now underway in Japan. The industry there is understandably anxious about the potential loss of millions of jobs and the economic hit Japan might take if automakers there suddenly switched wholesale to electric vehicles. And so companies are thinking as broadly as possible of solutions. A big one? Getting Japan's…

Only a few years ago, terms like “carbon neutrality,” “greenhouse gas” and “carbon footprint” were relegated to the world of scientists, environmentalists and green-leaning merchants.

Now they are on the lips of virtually every company in the global auto industry.

In boardrooms and shareholder presentations, in auto plants and component manufacturing settings from Tokyo to Paris, automotive executives and factory leaders are pursuing a shared goal: reducing their companies’ carbon footprints in the pursuit of cutting their individual CO2 emissions.

Automotive News looks at how this worldwide industry phenomenon has quickly taken shape and where it will lead automaking in the decade ahead.

--Lindsay Chappell

The VP for automotive and smart mobility at research firm Gartner discusses how new functions-as-a-service business models and a Right To Repair Law are changing the way everyone thinks about car ownership.

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New-car smell can pose serious health risks, according to a new study.

Researchers at Harvard University and the Beijing Institute of Technology tested the air inside new vehicles and discovered high levels of chemicals linked to cancer.

The study, published last week in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, found formaldehyde levels 35 percent higher than Chinese national safety standards and acetaldehyde levels more than 60 percent higher than Chinese standards.

The familiar smell associated with newly built vehicles is produced by off-gassing of plastics and adhesives. Although many Americans enjoy it, the smell is disliked in China and many automakers take measures to neutralize the aroma before selling vehicles there.

The researchers tested vehicles that had been parked outside and sealed for 12 days "under varying environmental conditions." They found that warm weather resulted in a higher concentration of chem…

The Chinese have a new love: camping. And in many cases they want to make their outdoor experiences as comfortable and premium as possible, elevating to the level of "glamping," or glamorous camping.

Several automakers at the Shanghai auto show dedicated large swaths of space to equipment aimed at satisfying this growing passion — which has been a post-pandemic global hit because it's an activity that can be enjoyed while socially distancing.

Another benefit is that it provides the visuals that social media evangelists crave.

However, one brand with a long history of providing vehicles designed for outdoor adventures was absent from the show: Jeep.

Jeep, one of the first Western entrants into China in the 1980s, last year ended its stormy joint venture with Chinese automaker GAC, which had been producing the U.S. brand's SUVs.

Jeep's dwindling presence in China has left the door open for Chinese brands to defi…

HEKINAN, Japan — Below the looming No. 4 boiler tower at Hekinan Station, Japan's largest thermal power plant, black mountains of coal — the power source of the past are piled high.

But inside this massive facility, in an effort to help Japanese industry reduce carbon emissions, the utility's operator is experimenting with a fuel of the future.

JERA Co., which delivers half the electricity to the Japanese industrial heartland that Toyota Motor Corp. and its supplier network call home, is burning a 20 percent mix of carbon-free ammonia along with the usual pulverized coal. If all goes well, JERA hopes to completely replace coal with ammonia-fired electric energy at the plant by 2050 and go completely green.

The audacious bid is a key part of an effort to turn Japan's auto sector fully carbon neutral by midcentury.

Tapping next-generation energy sources such as ammonia and hydrogen will help Toyota and Japan's other automakers, including Nissan, H…