Trade News

DETROIT -- General Motors' chief economist is optimistic about the health of the economy and Michigan's position to win more business — including from GM.

That's despite results of the Michigan Economic Outlook Survey, released last week, showing a declined sentiment among companies toward the business environment in Michigan.

"I think not only are we not in a recession now… but that we are seeing inflation declining and still strong economy and labor market and that the odds of a soft landing are looking better," Elaine Buckberg said during a Detroit Economic Club event.

Buckberg also indicated that Michigan is a prime contender for more battery plants as the automaker makes the mammoth transition to electric vehicles.

"We have more assembly plants here than anywhere else, so it would make sense that we should have more battery plants in or near Michigan," Buckberg told Crain's Detroit Business, an affiliate of Automotive News, after the event. "…

BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group wants to expand both its higher-end and lower-end offering in the Chinese market, China chief Ralf Brandstätter said, calling the country's high-paced, competitive market a "giant fitness center for the industry."

Volkswagen has long dominated the combustion engine car market in China but lags domestic competitors on electric vehicles - most notably BYD, which sold 40,046 EVs between Jan. 1-8 compared to VW brand's 1,962, according to Chinese brokerage CMBI.

"We do not want to give up this competition - we want to participate," Brandstätter said at a media roundtable.

Asked if the automaker aspired to remain the number 1 foreign automaker in China in the electric era, he said: "We want to play a leading role... the cards are being mixed anew."

The company aims to speed up its time to market for new models from four years closer to the 2.5-year average for its Chinese counterparts, in part by localizing research and devel…

Henry Ford installed his first assembly line on December 1, 1913, in an effort to streamline the vehicle manufacturing process and bring down operating expenses. As a result of this innovation, owning a car became obtainable for nearly every family in America. The key to Ford’s success? Automation. And that notion is perhaps even more true today in a world where millions of vehicles are bought and sold each year.

Ford was on to something huge, and the world saw it unfold over the decades, but it was bigger than automobile manufacturing. Automation would transcend the auto industry into just about every industry, helping America become a global economic superpower, churning out products of all shapes and sizes and driving the nation’s GDP to new heights.

Today, we find automation rooted to the auto industry, and in a form that may help fix a broken vehicle titling system.

Not long after Ford introduced the world to the assembly line, it became quite clear…

Brian MacDonald, President and Chief Executive Officer at CDK Global Inc, talks about recent changes in the automotive retail experience, including digital car buying, the EV transition and how CDK is assisting Dealers and OEMs in staying successful in automotive retail.

LAS VEGAS — Your commute starts with a greeting from your vehicle, which uses biometrics to identify you. The car's artificial intelligence-powered personal assistant helps map out the day because it has been synced with your schedule.

From there, the autonomous driving technology allows you to conduct a videoconference and then recommends lunch spots with convenient parking and charging options. Later, you select meditation mode, one of the sensory experiences that sets the mood in the vehicle. Before you return to your residence, the car links with your smart home technology to begin cooling your bedroom.

This could be a typical day for Chrysler customers in the future. Chrysler will be the first Stellantis brand in North America to deploy the automaker's next-generation cockpit technology.

Stellantis displayed its vision this month at CES in Las Vegas with its two-seat Chrysler Synthesis layout, a conceptual look at the cockpit of the future.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Treasury Department's attempt last month to clear up confusion on the Inflation Reduction Act's revised $7,500 tax credit for new electric vehicles has instead stirred up more questions than answers for car dealers seeking to better understand its maze of rules and timelines.

With new restrictions on sticker price and buyer income taking effect this month, several dealers told Automotive News that more guidance is still needed from the federal government and automakers to accurately and confidently assess vehicle and consumer eligibility.

Adding to the confusion, Treasury missed its year-end deadline for issuing proposed guidance on the tax credit's critical mineral and battery component requirements. Instead, the department said it will issue the guidance — and proposed rulemaking that further clarifies key provisions already in play, such as price caps and how vehicles are classified — in March.

The delay has left dealers, autom…

It's been at the top-of-mind for every dealer for at least the last 18 months.

It's been the single biggest thing holding back sales, regardless of brand.

It's kept millions of consumers from buying a new vehicle.

It's not the economy — it's inventory.

Now, thanks to an unwanted helping hand from high interest rates and low incentives that have slowed the sales rate, new vehicle inventory is climbing again, and picking up speed, as we explain in Monday's issue of Automotive News.

According to Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Date Center, new-vehicle inventories have topped 1.8 million again for the first time since May 2021, giving dealers who have spent much of the last two years finding creative ways to keep customers waiting an opportunity again to satisfy at least some of their desires for immediate delivery.

There is, of course, nothing magical about 1.8 mil…

Carl Hahn, who led Volkswagen Group's international expansion in the 1980s, died on Saturday. He was 96.

Hahn died in his sleep at his home in Wolfsburg, according to a spokeswoman from his charitable foundation. A ceremony is planned for Jan. 24.

Born in Chemnitz in eastern Germany in 1926, Carl Horst Hahn Jr studied business administration and economics, receiving a doctorate from the University of Bern.

He joined VW in 1954 and became its chief in 1982. During his decade-long tenure, VW built factories in China, acquired Seat in Spain and Skoda in the Czech Republic, and expanded into former communist East Germany.

"Until then we were too focused on Germany, we were a national company. Except for the Americans, there were no global brands," Hahn said in a 2020 interview with Automotive News Group's German language publication Automobilwoche.

"We started with Seat and were able to get Volkswagen out of a crisis when we were only losing …

The Emporia Energy CEO details how cars can pull double duty as energy storage devices in an EV era, the challenges ahead for the electric grid and how he’s building products for a “future that has yet to come.”

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DETROIT -- There is something broken at manufacturing plants across the auto industry, and it isn't just the supply chain.

Employee morale has suffered profoundly as industry troubles over the past three years, including staffing shortages, production volatility and recession fears, weigh on the workforce, according to labor leaders and experts.

The issue was brought to the forefront after a fatal shooting in the parking lot of a Forvia plant near Detroit last month, the day after it was reported the company planned to lay off 268 workers. Police say an argument between two employees over tools was the cause of the shooting.

It's impossible to ignore all of the other stressors that may have contributed to the violence, said Waymon Halty, vice president of UAW Local 155, which represents workers at the Forvia plant. It also remains to be seen what long-term impact the incident could have on employees.

"Obviously, with the history of manufacturing,…

The Dodge Dart has been dead since 2016 and the Chrysler 200 since 2017.

But Stellantis dealerships managed to find first owners for four Darts and two 200s in 2022.

They're among six examples found by Kelley Blue Book of what it called "zombie cars" — nameplates that had been killed by automakers but came back to life in last year's new-vehicle sales results.

For whatever reason — inventory shortages, soaring vehicle prices or perhaps the same thinking that makes people still buy flip phones — those buyers took home vehicles that former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Sergio Marchionne had happily buried.

"The Chrysler 200 and the Dodge Dart, as great products as they were," Marchionne said before his 2018 death, "were the least financially rewarding enterprises that we've carried out inside FCA in the last eight years."

Dodge had two other dead nameplates rise up — the Journey, discontinued in 2020, logged 194 sales, and the Viper, last m…