Trade News

NEW YORK -- South Korean automaker Hyundai Motor Co. on Friday told shareholders that it would divest its controlling stake in a major Alabama auto parts plant where Reuters last year documented children as young as 12 were working.

In a Feb. 24 letter to shareholders from Hyundai CEO Jaehoon Chang, the company said recent audits at 29 of its direct suppliers across Alabama made it confident they are "now in full compliance with underage labor laws."

The audits began last August, after Reuters first reported on the issue, and were conducted by an outside law firm that reviewed documents and did on-site inspections.

Hyundai provided a copy of the letter to Reuters.

Hyundai also told investors it was implementing extensive new corporate measures, including a training program for its parts suppliers to begin next month in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), to prevent future child labor violations. DOL did not immediately respond …

For nearly as long as there have been warranties, automakers and auto dealers have battled over factory reimbursements for warranty work.

But now, it appears that dealers have opened up a successful new front in their decades-long struggle — this time on the terrain of accommodating state capitols, where friendly legislators in some states are introducing amendments to franchise laws that mandate much higher payments for covered repairs.

So far, dealers have been successful in a handful of states, including Illinois, Wisconsin and Montana, but already the impact has been dramatic: nearly $250 million in additional payments sent to dealers in just the first year after manufacturers in Illinois were required to pay retail labor rates for service, according to an automakers umbrella group.

Now additional states — Colorado, California, Texas and others — are lining up to introduce similar changes to their franchise laws to close the gap between factory-pay …

Gary Cowger was months into a stint as chairman of General Motors' Adam Opel unit in Germany in 1998 when GM Chairman Jack Smith tapped him to be the company's top labor negotiator.

A costly and bitter UAW strike in Flint, Mich., recently had ended and Cowger brought in Mary Barra — then an executive assistant to Smith — to lead internal communications. Cowger would be Barra's boss and mentor for nearly a decade.

"It was clear she had the intellect and the interpersonal skills that we needed during a pretty tense time," Cowger said in late 2013, shortly before Barra took over as the first female CEO of a global automaker.

Cowger, a former president of GM North America, died Feb. 17 at his home near Dallas. He was 75.

Cowger had battled cancer for two years before his death, Judy DeMars, his former secretary at GM, told Automotive News.

He retired from GM in 2009, almost 45 years after being hired as a co-op s…

An ownership change revived a town's only new-car dealership, a second-generation dealer entered New York state, two partners expanded to a third store and another group added a new brand, all in fourth-quarter transactions.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import brands and dealerships in Ohio, New York and Texas.

An Ohio village's only new-car dealership entered a revival era after an ownership change in October.

Bill Harris Dealerships on Oct. 31 purchased Cal Hans Ford in Loudonville, Ohio, a dealership that in recent years only operated a sales department, Bill Harris Dealerships President Aaron Harris said.

Seller Linda Hans, the longtime owner, purchased the store with her late husband Cal Hans and took it over after he died in 1997.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought challenges for Hans, including inventory shortages, Harris told Automotive News. And in the past few years, only her son Kevin Hans worked full time at th…

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Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., a major private Chinese automaker, said it started delivering its first full electric pickup model. 

The vehicle, the RD6, is the first domestically produced electric pickup sold in China, Geely Group said.

The compact RD6 truck is marketed under the Radar brand with a starting price of 178,800 yuan ($25,988). 

It was developed on Geely’s new-generation EV platform known as the Sustainable Experience Architecture and is 5,260 mm long, 1,690 mm wide and 1,900 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 1,830. The bed is 1,525 mm long. 

The RD6 is available with battery pack options of 63kW (400 km range), 86kW (550km range) and 100kW (632km range), with rear wheel drive powered by a 200kW electric motor generating 384Nm of torque. 

The pickup truck has a 430 kg maximum payload and can tow up to 2.5 tons.

Geely Group introduced the Radar brand of EVs including pickup trucks, SUVs and all-terrain v…

Nio, a leading electric-vehicle startup, is speeding up the expansion of its network of battery swap stations across China. 

The company will add 1,000 battery swap stations this year, rather than 400 stations under an original plan, Nio founder and Chairman William Li said in a blog posted online this week. 

Among the 1,000 new stations, around 600 will be built in urban areas, especially in Tier-3, Tier-4 and county-level cities where swap facilities are still lacking.

The remaining 400 will be set up along expressways, according to Li. 

In April, Nio will begin mass production of its third-generation battery swap station, which is more efficient and can store more battery packs than the second-generation station, Li said in the blog. 

That will allow Nio to install 120 to 150 battery swap stations per month starting in June and boost the cumulative number of such facilities to 2,300 by the end of 2023, he added. …

SAIC-General Motors, GM’s passenger-vehicle joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp., issued a statement Wednesday condemning rumors it is preparing to cut jobs amid weak sales by offering buyouts to veteran employees.

“The company does not have any plans to buy out employees above the age of 45 or any other layoff plan,” SAIC-GM said. 

“The negative impact caused by the online rumors has disrupted the normal production and operation order of the company and seriously damaged the company's business reputation,” it added.

SAIC-GM, a 50-50 partnership between SAIC and GM, builds and markets cars and light trucks for Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac.

In January, shipments at the company shrank 50 percent year on year to 55,000 due to a lingering coronavirus outbreak and fewer working days as a result of the Chinese New Year holiday.

In 2022, new-vehicle shipments at the joint venture dropped 12 percent to 1.17 million, according to numbers disclo…

Ram, GMC, Ford, Tesla and Dodge have the lowest female buyer representation of top brands in the U.S., new data from S&P Global Mobility shows.

An analysis of 2022 data by the market research firm found that only 17 percent of Ram's new personal vehicle registrations listed female owners. The four other bottom brands all had representation under 35 percent.

In contrast was Buick with the highest female buyer representation of 55 percent. Mitsubishi, Mini, Lexus, Infiniti, Mazda and Kia were also near the top with women listed in roughly half of their registrations — all above the industry average of 41 percent.

Toyota also had standout popularity among women. The brand's female buyer representation stood at 43 percent, but its volume of registrations among women surpassed all others at 606,985 personal registrations. The second-highest in volume was Honda at 363,799.

Female buyers have been shown to consistently demonstrate more brand loyalt…

TrueCar said its 2022 fourth-quarter net loss widened to $18.1 million from $15.8 million during the same quarter last year. Revenue fell 19 percent to $36.7 million.

Electric and hydrogen truck producer Nikola Corp. said Thursday its net loss widened during the fourth quarter after it delivered fewer vehicles to dealers than it produced.

The company said it posted a net loss of $222.1 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a loss of $158.9 million a year earlier. It generated $6.6 million in revenue, which was far below the $32 million in revenue expected by Wall Street.

The company produced 133 trucks and delivered 20 vehicles to dealerships.

It expects to deliver between 250 and 350 Tre battery electric trucks this year and at least 125 fuel-cell electric trucks in the fourth quarter.

Loss-making U.S. startups such as Nikola and Lordstown Motors Corp. have been battling costs associated with ramping up production as they seek to grab a share in the commercial vehicles market.

Electric-truck maker Lordstown Motors Corp. said on Thursday it would temporarily stop production and deliveries of its pickup truck Endurance due to performance and quality issues with some components.

In a statement the EV maker said has filed paperwork with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to voluntarily recall the Endurance to address an electrical connection issue that could result in a loss of propulsion while driving.

Shares of the company fell 8 percent in trading before the bell.

Lordstown also said it would voluntarily recall 19 vehicles delivered to customers or being used internally.

The company started commercial production of Endurance trucks in September, with a target to deliver 50 vehicles in 2022 and more in 2023 out of the planned first batch of 500 units.