Trade News

Not everyone in Marshall, Mich., where Ford Motor Co. is building a $3.5 billion battery plant, is thrilled about the plan.

"I think their idea that we need 2,500 jobs here is just nuts," 72-year-old Dale Borders, who lives in a log cabin several miles from the Ford site, told The Detroit News last week, "because we don't."

The newspaper found others anxious about how much the plant, scheduled to open in 2026, will change life in the city its headline called "quaint." Some of Marshall's 7,000 residents have put up signs pleading "Stop the megasite" and consulted with lawyers about fighting the project.

"I feel like the guy in Tiananmen Square standing in front of the tanks," said Fred Chapman, 62.

A Ford spokesperson said the automaker is "committed to ongoing engagement with the community to share updates on our plans." Officials don't expect the opposition to slow construction on the 1,900-acre site.

Frank Brownell, 63, lamented that his …

BMW's newest and most powerful M model, a plug-in hybrid crossover introduced for the 2023 model year, is getting more oomph with an exclusive performance package.

The 2024 XM Label Red will crank out a maximum 748 hp and peak torque of 737 pound-feet from a twin-turbo V-8-powered hybrid drivetrain. The extra power comes from new tuning on the 4.4-liter engine.

That's enough for it to rip from 0 to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds — 0.4 second quicker than the standard XM, BMW says. Top speed is electronically capped at 155 mph, BMW says, or 175 mph with the optional M Driver's Package.

U.S. sales of the XM tallied 409 in the first quarter. It is the first standalone vehicle from the M performance brand since the M1 launched five decades ago.

BMW said the XM Label Red will debut at the Shanghai auto show that starts this week, with only 500 to be produced at its factory in Spartanburg, S.C. The U.S., China and Middle East are ex…

Applications are open for the 2023 Automotive News PACE Awards and PACEpilot program.

The PACE Awards recognize traditional and nontraditional suppliers around the world for new product, process and business model innovations. Entries must be innovations that have been commercialized by a sale to an automaker.

PACEpilot recognizes post-pilot pre-commercial innovations in automotive and future mobility. These represent product, software/IT system or process and idea incubators that have the potential to revolutionize an automaker's business and products.

Entries will be reviewed by an independent panel of judges.

The deadline for applications is June 16. Visit autonews.com/pace for more information.

New-vehicle inventories rose slightly last month to their highest point in nearly two years as production constraints continue to ease, according to data compiled by Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Cox's most recent estimate of the U.S. inventory is 1,893,855 vehicles, a 56-day supply. That is up from the 1,828,290, or a 58-day supply, in the previous month, and about 70 percent above where inventory was a year earlier. Still, it remains down roughly 540,000 vehicles compared with the same point in 2021, when inventories began shrinking quickly.

Cox computes days' supply based on the selling rate of the previous 30-day period.

Cox said midsize, compact and subcompact cars continued to have the tightest supplies among volume segments, while full-size cars and full-size pickups had the highest days' supply among nonluxury vehicles.

Inventory levels for Detroit 3 brands were returning to…

WASHINGTON — In contrast to President Joe Biden's nonbinding zero-emission vehicle goal, the EPA's aggressive new campaign would have the legal authority to force the automotive industry to make some tough decisions as it hastens its electrification strategies.

The agency last week unveiled its strictest-ever vehicle pollution standards for cars and light trucks for the 2027-32 model years, requiring 13 percent fleetwide average emissions reductions each year and a 56 percent reduction in average emission target levels from the 2026 model year.

If finalized, the proposed standards could mean electric vehicles would make up more than half of new-vehicle sales by the 2030 model year and two-thirds by 2032. It would mark a massive leap from the current market, with EVs accounting for 5.6 percent of U.S. light-vehicle registrations, according to Automotive News data.

"This is a big step toward the sunset of the combustion engine," sa…

Rivian is shifting to an internally developed electric drive unit to help boost factory throughput. Lucid’s production and deliveries fall. The Jeep Wrangler’s dominance of the plug-in hybrid market keeps growing. Plus, founder of the popular Fixed Ops Roundtable Ted Ings joins the show to talk about shining a light on automotive service and parts.

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Lidar maker Luminar Technologies' new contract manufacturing facility is up and running ahead of schedule.

Expected to open later in the second quarter of this year, Luminar's Monterrey, Mexico, factory is producing and shipping its Iris sensors to Volvo, company spokesperson Milin Mehta told Automotive News. They will be installed in the Swedish automaker's EX90 electric crossover, expected to be available as a new model in 2024.

Luminar's Mexico factory is owned and operated by Celestica, a Canadian multinational firm that provides companies with supply chain electronics manufacturing services. Luminar owns the factory's equipment and automated line.

Celestica operates another low-volume production facility for Luminar in Monterrey.

The new factory is 118,000 square feet. It has the capacity to produce 250,000 sensors a year, but that can be increased to 500,000 annually. The facility features 40,000 square feet of clean room space that meets In…

WASHINGTON — The Inflation Reduction Act signed into law last August revised a consumer tax credit for new electric vehicle purchases while creating two other credits for used and commercial or leased EVs.

Here's a brief explainer on the differences between them.

Buyers who meet certain income thresholds can get a tax credit of up to $7,500 for North American-assembled new EVs that meet sticker price restrictions. Starting Tuesday, April 18, the credit will be split in two, with $3,750 for EVs that meet increasingly stringent battery component requirements and another $3,750 for those that meet escalating critical mineral requirements. Starting in 2024, the credit will be transferable to dealers at the point of sale.

Buyers who meet certain income thresholds can get a tax credit that's equal to 30 percent of the total cost of a used EV and capped at $4,000. Vehicles must be at least two model years old with a sale price at or below $25,000. Used vehic…

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Wednesday affirmed a lower court's decision that bundling Guaranteed Asset Protection coverage does not make an auto loan subject to the Military Lending Act, or MLA.

Two of the three appellate judges at the Richmond, Va., court ruled that based on the MLA's language, a retail installment contract that finances the vehicle purchase and GAP coverage "is for the express purpose of financing the car purchase" and therefore does not fall within the definition of consumer credit covered by the MLA.

Lawyers for defendant United Auto of Fort Worth, Texas, had argued the lower court correctly ruled under the "plain language" of the statute. The guaranteed asset protection loan was secured by the car and was for the purpose of financing it.

The U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Defense had argued a car loan that includes GAP financing would not receive the exemption Military Lending Act regulations allow…

In the wake of a quarter in which CarMax kept per-vehicle profits steady despite widespread affordability and economic concerns, the used-vehicle giant is pledging to focus on improving both its efficiency and customers' and employees' experiences.

CarMax executives said this week that the retailer continued trimming costs in its fiscal fourth quarter that ended Feb. 28, a period in which persisting vehicle affordability challenges amid increased interest rates, tightened lending standards and shrunken consumer confidence dinged sales. But even though the company's retail sales tumbled 13 percent to 169,884 vehicles compared with the same period a year earlier, CarMax took in gross profit of $2,277 per used vehicle it retailed, up $82 from the year-ago period.

The profit preservation came at the expense of volume. CarMax CEO Bill Nash noted that external title data showed market share gains the retailer made in the first half of its fiscal year were offset by …

SHANGHAI -- China's Zeekr brand has hired a former Lexus executive to steer its operations in Europe, as the electric vehicle maker owned by Geely plans to enter the market later this year.

Spiros Fotinos, who spent 24 years with Toyota Motor and led brand management at Lexus globally, joined Zeekr in September as CEO of Zeekr Europe to oversee the brand's operation in the region, a memo seen by Reuters showed. He was head of Lexus Europe from December 2019 until September 2022.

A Zeekr representative confirmed the appointment of Fotinos, and on his LinkedIn page he is listed as a vice president at Zeekr, based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Fotinos was named an Automotive News Europe Rising Star in 2012, when he was head of marketing, sales planning and logistics at Toyota Spain.

The previously unreported move underscores Zeekr's efforts to establish a foothold in the premium EV segment in the home markets of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi.

Zeekr on …

Hyundai Motor Co. is making the most out a provision in the Inflation Reduction Act that allows automakers to pass along a $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit to buyers if they opt to lease an electric vehicle.

The law, enacted in August, immediately disqualified EVs assembled outside North America from credit eligibility. And Hyundai's three EVs — the Ioniq 5 and Kona crossovers and Ioniq 6 sedan — are all built in South Korea.

Jose Muñoz, CEO of Hyundai and Genesis North America, told Automotive News the impact of that rule was "significant," and Hyundai's EV market share dropped "the moment" the law was put in place.

To remain competitive, Hyundai is leaning on a section of the act, called 45W, that lets the tax benefit reach consumers if they lease their EV instead of buy it.

"We've tried to maximize the utilization of the so-called 45W paragraph, which allows for sales through the lease channel to benefit from the $7,500 tax advantage," Muñoz sa…