Trade News

Nikola Corp. has hired a new chief operating officer to lead the company's engineering, product and manufacturing teams, among others, the company said Monday.

Mary Chan will start her new role Oct. 9. She's a former president of the global connected consumer group at General Motors and a former senior vice president at Dell.

"My career has been dedicated to pioneering smart transportation and wireless communications across automotive, telecommunications and high-tech industries," Chan said in a written statement. "Joining Nikola represents the culmination of this journey, and I'm excited to be part of the team that will drive trucking to a zero-emissions future, encompassing trucking products, customer solutions and the corresponding energy infrastructure."

At GM, Chan led the automaker's launch of 4G LTE connectivity across brands in the U.S., China, Europe and Mexico. She has been named the "Top Woman in Wireless" by Fierce Wireless, an industry ne…

A contract manufacturing supplier is planning to lay off 293 employees in Shiawassee and Lapeer counties, about 60 miles north of Detroit, due to the United Auto Workers strike against the Detroit 3 automakers, signaling the first supplier to detail its layoff plans to the state since the union walkout began Friday.

CIE Newcor, a subsidiary of Spain-based CIE Automotive, said it tentatively anticipates a one-month layoff starting Oct. 2, according to a WARN notice filed with the state Thursday, just hours ahead of the UAW calling a strike at a trio of auto plants.

The impacted jobs include mostly machine operators at four company plants: CIE Newcorp and Machine Tool and Gear Inc. Plant 1 in Corunna, as well as Machine Tool and Gear Inc. Plant 2 in Owosso. Each is about 90 miles Northwest of Detroit. Rochester Gear in Clifford, about 80 miles North of Detroit, is also impacted.

The plants could close indefinitely depending on how long the strike lasts…

I've heard that there's a term for the anxiety and dread that some people feel before the work week resumes: the "Sunday scaries."

Heading into this next work week, the industry may be feeling a bit more stress and worry than usual as UAW President Shawn Fain threatens to broaden his historic "stand-up strike" against the Detroit 3.

Is it really historic? You bet it is. This is the first time Ford Motor Co. has faced a national strike since 1970. And it appears to be the first strike at Toledo Jeep over a national contract in more than a century of automaking and 90 years of UAW representation.

Auto dealers — especially loyal readers of Automotive News — knew that a work stoppage was a possibility, if not a likelihood. So as the UAW prepared to walk out, they mobilized their own strike plans, stockpiling inventory and replacement parts.

Suppliers were already weakened by the pandemic economy that benefited automakers and dealers, and some of the s…

Anxiety grows as no strike end yet in sight

I've heard that there's a term for the anxiety and dread that some people feel before the work week resumes: the "Sunday scaries."

Heading into this next work week, the industry may be feeling a bit more stress and worry than usual as UAW President Shawn Fain threatens to broaden his historic "stand-up strike" against the Detroit 3.

Is it really historic? You bet it is. This is the first time Ford Motor Co. has faced a national strike since 1970. And it appears to be the first strike at Toledo Jeep over a national contract in more than a century of automaking and 90 years of UAW representation.

Auto dealers — especially loyal readers of Automotive News — knew that a work stoppage was a possibility, if not a likelihood. So as the UAW prepared to walk out, they mobilized their own strike plans, stockpiling inventory and replacement parts.

Suppliers were already weakened by the pandemic economy tha…

TOLEDO — The UAW's first simultaneous strike against all of the Detroit 3 is certainly historic, but here in the town where Jeep was born and helped win a World War — where 5,800 workers walked off their jobs at midnight Friday — it is doubly so.

Why? Because Friday's walkout appears to have marked the first time that the men and women building Jeeps and their predecessor vehicles in union-friendly Toledo over more than a century have ever gone on strike as part of a national contract.

It's not that UAW members in Toledo have never struck; they have, frequently, including members of nearby Local 14 who went on strike against General Motors in 2019 during the UAW's last round of national bargaining.

And members of UAW Local 12 — an amalgamated local now with more than 10,000 members, including the 5,800 at Toledo Jeep Assembly, that is among the largest UAW locals in the country — have frequently called job actions.

Former Jeep unit Chairman Ron…

UAW President Shawn Fain on Sunday said the union and the Detroit 3 remain far apart on contract agreements to end a historic strike, although the two sides were continuing to negotiate. 

“Progress is slow,” Fain said on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart.” “I don’t really want to say we’re closer.”

Fain declined to say when he might announce a second wave of plants to join the strike that is now in its third day.

In a Friday press conference, he said “it could be in a day, it could be in a week.”

Later Sunday morning, on CBS’s “Face The Nation,” Fain said the automakers’ most recent offers were insufficient. On Saturday, Stellantis released details of its most recent offer, which matched the 20 percent raises offered by GM and Ford.

“It’s definitely a no-go; we’ve made that very clear to the companies,” Fain said.

On both shows, Fain blasted recent comments by General Motors CEO Mary Barra that a majority of her…

Automakers are introducing more sophisticated driving systems that complicate determining who or what may be held liable in the event of incidents. ZF board member Martin Fischer, attorney Jennifer Dukarski and Carnegie Mellon professor Phil Koopman scrutinize the details in a discussion pulled from last week’s Automotive News Congress in Detroit.

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Chrysler plans to go all-electric by 2028, but its first EV is still a couple of years away.

In the meantime, it's saying goodbye this year to a staple, the 300 sedan, nearly two decades after it returned to its rear-wheel-drive performance roots.

Electric crossover: Chrysler has said it will release its first electric vehicle, a crossover, in 2025. The production vehicle will go beyond what the public saw with the Airflow electric concept unveiled in 2022.

"Airflow is, in fact, a concept," Chrysler CEO Christine Feuell told Automotive News at the Chicago Auto Show in February. "It's not intended to be a vehicle that will launch in 2025."

The brand said in May that the Airflow was developed to preview Chrysler's "brand revitalization and future direction toward delivering Harmony in Motion through seamlessly connected, clean mobility and industry- leading customer experiences."

Chrysler has not confirmed a name or any other details about…

Unlike last year, the 2023 Detroit auto show has no giant rubber duck or monster trucks.

The show, which runs through Sunday, Sept. 24, features 35 brands. Organizers said 16 of the brands have corporate-sponsored displays; the rest were put together by dealers.

"The thing we learned last year is we had a whole bunch of cool displays and, I don't want to say gimmicky, but [we had] non-automobile-related activities going on, and we learned that the cars are really the stars," said Thad Szott, chairman of the show, which is owned and produced by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.

Rod Alberts, executive director of the association, said he was hoping to attract 250,000 to 300,000 visitors this year. Organizers did not disclose attendance figures from 2022, though Alberts said the latest iteration will be far superior.

"This show is, by far, 100-fold better than last year," Alberts told Crain's Detroit Business, an aff…

Jeep is getting several electrified additions in 2024.

The Recon and Wagoneer EVs are coming, while a Wagoneer 4xe plug-in hybrid joins the lineup next year as well.

The lineup will offer a diverse range of powertrain options.

Wagoneer S: The Wagoneer S EV is an upscale midsize entry with a design language that separates it from its larger three-row counterparts. Jeep is targeting a range of 400 miles and aims to have 600 hp and a 0-to-60 mph time of around 3.5 seconds. Production will start in 2024. It will be sold in major markets around the world, including Europe.

Recon: The electric Recon is an eco-friendly off-roader inspired by the Wrangler that will have removable doors and glass to offer open-air experiences. Production begins in 2024.

Gladiator: The midsize pickup is getting freshened this fall for the 2024 model year. Updates unveiled at last week's Detroit auto show mirror the 2024 Wrangler, including the new grille and the i…