Trade News

A consortium of some of the world's biggest automakers is investing in a holographic head-up display technology startup.

Hyundai Mobis, the parts and service affiilate of South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co., led a $50 million series C funding round valuing the United Kingdom's Envisics at $500 million.

Envisics develops augmented reality head-up displays or AR HUD, an advanced display technology that some automakers are planning to install in new models in the coming years.

The fresh funding will be used to speed up the product development and delivery of displays to automakers.

General Motors will be the first automaker to feature Envisics' second-generation AR-HUD technology in its electric Cadillac Lyriq 2024 model.

"Our collaboration with Envisics is moving into production this year, as we add AR-HUD technology to the all-electric 2024 Cadillac LYRIQ," Sandy Lipscomb, senior manager for Ultifi Design at General Motors, said in a ne…

Retail sales of new passenger vehicles such as sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles rose 10 percent from a year earlier to some 1.39 million in February, the China Automobile Dealers Association said Wednesday. 

The main reason for the market expansion is the timing of the Chinese New Year holiday, which resulted in more working days in February as compared with the same month last year, the trade group noted. 

The week-long Chinese New Year holiday began on January 21. Last year, it started on January 31. 

In February, electrified passenger vehicles continued to penetrate the market at a fast pace: some 439,000 full electrified vehicles were delivered across China, a jump of 61 percent from a year earlier. 

In January, the market skidded 38 percent to 1.29 million due to the lingering pandemic, the termination of government incentives at the end of 2022 and fewer working days. 

At the end of December…

Determining the results of the UAW's presidential runoff election will take at least a week longer than originally anticipated, according to the federally appointed monitor overseeing the process.

Ballot counting in the tight race has been halted since Saturday as the monitor's office works to resolve more than 1,600 challenged ballots. The monitor previously planned to resume the vote count Thursday but said this week it has delayed that re-start until March 16.

"Given the time-consuming nature of collecting information to resolve questions as to the eligibility status of the individuals who voted the challenged ballots, the monitor has determined that the vote count will not reconvene on March 9, 2023, as originally contemplated," the monitor's office said in a statement. "Instead, the monitor, UAW, and election vendor will continue the information gathering process until a sufficient number of challenged ballots have been resolved. In light of the remaining…

General Motors said it will offer buyouts to most of its U.S. salaried employees as it works to cut $2 billion in costs over the next two years.

Voluntary severance packages will be offered to U.S. employees who have been with the company for at least five years and global executives with at least two years of service, CEO Mary Barra said in a memo to employees Thursday.

The buyouts are "designed to accelerate attrition in the U.S.," Barra said in the memo, which was obtained by Automotive News and confirmed by GM.

"This voluntary program offers eligible employees an opportunity to make a career change or retire earlier. We are offering three packages based on level and service to the company. Employees are strongly encouraged to consider the program," GM spokesperson Maria Raynal said in an emailed statement. "By permanently bringing down structured costs, we can improve vehicle profitability and remain nimble in an increasingly competitive market." Read more

BEIJING -- BYD Co., the world's leading seller of battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, on Thursday announced discounts on some models, intensifying competition in the biggest auto market.

The discounts will be for buyers who place orders for the Song Plus and Seal models between March 10 and March 31, the company said on its social media account.

In return for an 88 yuan ($12.64) deposit, Seal EV buyers can get 8,888 yuan deducted from the price, while for Song Plus models, the discount is 6,888 yuan.

BYD, with its Dynasty and Ocean series of electrified models, was China's best-selling passenger vehicle brand in February, outselling Volkswagen for the second time in four months, retail sales data from China Merchants Bank International show.

BYD sold 34,621 Song Plus crossovers and 14,372 Seal sedans in the first two months, according to China Passenger Car Association.

The company's new discounts follow price cuts announced by T…

The most profit-rich, two-year-long blowout party in automotive retail history may finally be winding down.

So grab some aspirin, because here comes the inevitable hangover.

Bloomberg noted this month that an increasing number of consumers are showing up at dealerships carrying boatloads of negative equity and rolling it into longer and longer-term loans.

That trend, of course, isn't novel. It predates the COVID-19 breakout, though the number of U.S. customers with negative equity dipped temporarily because of rising values of supply-constrained used vehicles, plus many received government-issued stimulus checks while spending less money overall during the pandemic. But what is more concerning is what's coming.

At roughly this point in 2019, the average new-vehicle list price in the United States was $36,513, according to Cox Automotive. Now, it is $47,673, a difference of $11,160.

And then there's the int…

Honda Motor Co., which plans to launch a new U.S.-made fuel cell vehicle next year, now intends to use the technology on a second front: powering business offices and factories.

The Japanese automaker began operating a fuel cell backup power station last week for the data center at its U.S. corporate headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to demonstrate how the technology can serve as a cleaner alternative to diesel generators.

Honda said the California power station is a proof of concept that will help carve its path to zero emissions. The automaker wants to achieve carbon neutrality for all its products and corporate activities by 2050.

The use of fuel cell technology at the data center also represents Honda's expansion of its fuel cell business beyond passenger cars to embrace commercial vehicles, construction machinery and other stationary power systems, company officials said.

"We believe there is a potentially large market for this technology," …

A white hat hacker reported another cybersecurity vulnerability at Toyota Motor Corp., this time via its customer information operation in Mexico.

Eaton Zveare, a hobbyist white hat hacker in Sarasota, Fla., broke into the C360 customer relationship management web application used by the Japanese automaker to manage its Mexican customers' information. He penetrated the system in October and notified the automaker. Toyota closed the security breach. Zveare reported it publicly this week.

White hat hackers look for cybersecurity vulnerabilities at companies, notify them of the problem and hope to get a reward. The auto industry paid out more than $400,000 in hacking bounties last year, according to HackerOne, a San Francisco company that manages Toyota's "bug bounty" program.

Zveare accessed customers' names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and tax IDs as well as vehicle, service and ownership history for an unknown number of Toyota customers i…

Automakers are so worried about vehicle and software security gaps that they are paying hackers to uncover vulnerabilities.

These bug bounty programs reward friendly digital invaders, known as white hat hackers, who look for breaches and notify automakers and suppliers of the problems — although the auto industry pays them considerably less for their efforts than some other sectors do.

Cybersecurity has become a major issue for the industry as cars increasingly rely on software, sensors and computers for operation, infotainment, automated driving and safety systems. Moreover, automakers are loading connectivity and subscription features that add to the digital vulnerabilities.The number of publicly reported auto cyberattacks jumped 239 percent in 2022 compared with 2018, according to Israeli cybersecurity firm Upstream.

Automakers want to find problems before hostile hackers uncover vulnerabilities they can exploit, which could allow them to gain acces…