Trade News

Renault CEO Luca de Meo worked for more than eight months to reboot the automaker’s alliance with Nissan Motor Co. to move beyond a "culture of compromise" that had been the status quo in recent years, he said.

In de Meo’s view, a merger was previosly seen as the ultimate goal of the alliance, and as a result many projects between Nissan and Renault were done with that in mind rather than for sound business reasons.

"It forced a culture of compromise, which is not the optimal solution," de Meo told Automotive News Europe in an interview late last year.

The two companies concluded negotiations last month to rebalance their cross-shareholdings, with each holding 15 percent of the other, and with 28 percent of Nissan that Renault holds put into a French trust. The trust can sell down that stake as market conditions warrant. 

In addition, the companies agreed to work on five new joint projects, and Nissan will take a stake of up to 15 percent in…

Renault-Nissan's reshaped alliance will include the following key projects:

Europe

Renault, Nissan to consider sharing 800-volt architecture for electric cars. Renault, Nissan to explore collaboration on the next-generation compact electric cars beyond 2026. Maintaining plans for a new Nissan small electric car (Micra successor) to be based on CMF-BEV platform and built at Renault's ElectriCity facility in France starting in 2026. Renault to launch on the LCV market starting in 2026 the FlexEVan as its first software-defined vehicle and share it with Nissan in Europe. Mitsubishi ASX and Colt will share CMF-B platform with new Renault Captur and Clio. Renault, Nissan considering joint charging infrastructure in Europe at Renault and Nissan dealerships. Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi to increase shared sales outlets in key markets.

Latin America

A new half-ton pickup, developed by Renault and shared with Nissan in Argentina. Continued collaboration on the Nis…

LONDON -- Renault and Nissan unveiled details of how they will reshape their troubled alliance to ease longstanding tensions and allow the partners to move forward as the industry shifts to electric, software-defined vehicles.

Under the agreement, which was announced in London on Monday, Nissan will to buy a stake of up to 15 percent in Renault's electric-vehicle business Ampere. The alliance's junior partner, Mitsubishi Motors, will also consider investing in Ampere.

The companies had already announced last month that Renault will reduce its stake in Nissan to 15 percent from about 43 percent now. Renault will transfer 28.4 percent of Nissan shares into a French trust, making the two more equal partners in the alliance.

The agreement includes new and existing joint ventur…

Demand is out there, but how much?

It used to be that analysts could refer to vehicle sales simply as "demand" — the vehicles were there, how many did people, governments and business choose to buy?

But in the extreme scarcity of this pandemic era, it's been harder to discern the true level of demand.

Now that the pace of production is getting closer to normal, the view should become clearer. In this week's issue of Automotive News, we examine some revealing developments.

The seasonally adjusted pace of light-vehicle sales last month was the fastest since the spring of 2021, before the full impact of the chip shortage became evident. But that's really a function of greater utilization of the industry's factories.

In fact, it appears that sales to individual consumers — those people who drive the economy — actually slowed in January, perhaps because interest rates are still rising and prices for new and used vehicles are at record highs, a…

A personal connection and an interest in cars were catalysts for an NFL team owner to enter automotive retail and quickly expand his dealership holdings via acquisitions.

Ed Glazer, an owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, founded US Auto Trust in Los Angeles in 2018 when he bought his first dealership, a rare Aston Martin store in Newport Beach, Calif.

"I've always liked cars," Glazer told Automotive News. "I'm not a classic car collector, but always buy a lot of new cars. I've always owned a bunch of Aston Martins over the years and I got to know some of the people down in Aston Martin. At the time, [former Aston Martin CEO] Andy Palmer was running the place. I was talking to him one day and I said 'You know, if you ever have anything for sale, let me know.' He said, 'Well, we may have something.' "

Pendragon, a large publicly traded auto retailer in the U.K., was in the midst of divesting its U.S. dealership portfolio, including Aston Martin Newpo…

Every maintenance and repair job tells a story. The quality and accuracy, however, varies greatly, depending on the storyteller.

That's because service technicians are trained to fix problems, not document what they do. But the details matter — a lot. Poorly written reports can cost dealerships time, money and customers, said industry veteran Joe McCue, who was determined to find a solution.

To help speed up the process and boost quality, McCue began developing a web-based software platform about 10 years ago. He's been refining the tool ever since, and now heads a 40-person team at Pencilwrench, the company he co-founded in 2019 to market the product.

Pencilwrench enables technicians to write a detailed 150- to 200-word story in as little as 30 to 40 seconds, according to McCue. By comparison, he said, some technicians can take up to a half-hour to compose a service report on their own.

"Technicians are incredible at their jobs, but they aren't…

Despite many lidar companies going public in recent years, via the special purpose acquisition company process, the industry has taken a hit with some companies shutting down or being acquired over the past year.

Lidar technology, which stands for "light detection and ranging," uses lasers to map the environment. The reliability and cost of the multifaceted systems, with their spinning mirrors and motors, have been questioned by some auto industry observers and lidar competitors. The argument: Lidar systems may break more easily because they are more complex than self-contained solid-state radar and cameras, lidar's main competitors, and could hinder their mass adoption by the industry.

"If I had to bet, the solid-state approach will eventually win out," said Michael Ramsey, transportation and mobility analyst at Gartner Inc., told Automotive News.

A solid-state lidar system promises lower costs to produce, install, repair and rep…

In the spring of 2021, $150,000 of Scott Robins' $1.6 million parts inventory was considered obsolete — meaning it had been sitting in inventory for at least 13 months without being sold.

"The chances of those parts selling are pretty slim when they get to that age with no sales and orders," said Robins, parts manager at Weld County Garage Buick-GMC in Greeley, Colo.

Obsolescence is a costly monthly expense that drains revenues. To address the problem, Robins turned to parts inventory and management service provider PartsEdge. After using the service last year, his dealership reported a 96 percent reduction in non-Retail Inventory Management obsolete inventory and an overall reduction of 87 percent in obsolescence.

RIM is GM's dealer inventory program, meaning the automaker will buy back unsold parts. Other purchased parts, such as special orders, are not protected.

According to the National Automobile Dealers Associ…

Lyten’s chief battery technology officer discusses the limits of conventional lithium ion technology, the arduous process of manufacturing battery cells and how she dreamed of batteries during her time at Tesla.

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Operating profit at Robert Bosch increased by 16 percent in 2022, as the supplier's Mobility Solutions division outperformed an auto market that was hurt by semiconductor shortages and the war in Ukraine.

Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) rose to 3.7 billion euros ($4.04 billion) from 3.2 billion euros in 2021. Profit margin was 4 percent.

Revenue increased 10 percent after adjustments for exchange-rate effects to 88.4 billion euros, Bosch said Friday.

Sales at Bosch’s Mobility Solutions business sector, its largest unit, rose by 17 percent to 56.2 billion euros, or 12 percent after adjusting for exchange rate effects, Bosch said. 

The supplier did not release separate profit or margin figures for the unit, but Bosch said in a release that it “cannot be satisfied with its profitability” and that margins were weighed down by supply chain cost increases and investments “in the transformation of the company’s mobility business.”

…

Toyota will use this month's Chicago Auto Show to introduce a long-promised larger three-row crossover to its U.S. lineup, while Volkswagen and Subaru will rely on the Windy City's massive McCormick Place to showcase updates to strong-selling crossovers on opposite ends of the size spectrum.

The Chicago show is in its 115th year, and with Detroit's move to the fall, now occupies the lead-off position among major metropolitan auto shows on the calendar. After consolidating into a smaller portion of McCormick Place during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chicago show has added floor space and will now occupy two halls of the south side convention center, including a large EV test track that's new this year. The EV ride joins several existing experiential ride displays inside the convention center.

"Chicago has been a show for facelifts and special editions for a number of years. Its impact for reveals has been pretty bare for a while. Three reveals is actually a prett…