Trade News

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday said Chief Marketing Officer Suzy Deering, who joined the automaker in early 2021 from eBay, is leaving the company at the end of the week.

The automaker did not give a reason for her departure.

"We thank Suzy for her contributions to Ford and wish her all the best in the future," Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, said in a statement.

Deering, in a post on LinkedIn, said she still believes in the company’s mission and vision.

“I’ve made the decision that it is time for me to move on and let the team fly,” she wrote. “My respect for the team and what’s ahead as Ford evolves and lands the new brand positioning and the new brand design system will elevate the brand to greater heights… The shift to focusing on the customer and aligning all aspects of the business to exceed their expectations isn’t easy but I believe in what’s possible and what’s ahead. “While I may not be in ‘the building’ I will be root…

Brandon Steven Motors punctuated a bustling three-month dealership growth period with its Nov. 16 purchase of WIN Hyundai Carson in California from Jerry Heuer and Hani Nassif.

Company President Brandon Steven told Automotive News that the deal marked the Wichita, Kan., dealership group's fourth addition since late August. Also added were a Honda store, Jaguar-Land Rover dealership and an open-point Hyundai dealership, all in California.

Brandon Steven renamed the WIN store Hyundai Carson. Carson is south of Los Angeles.

Heuer and Nassif have sold their final two dealerships, according to Jesse Stopnitzky, a partner with Performance Brokerage Services Inc., a buy-sell firm in Irvine, Calif. Performance Brokerage co-founder Jason Stopnitzky brokered that transaction.

Heuer and Nassif also on Nov. 16 sold WIN Chevrolet in Carson to Bob Nouri and Pete Shaver of the newly formed Nouri/Shaver Automotive Group. Performance Brokerage co-founder Jason Sto…

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Many automakers and the South Korean government are urging the Biden administration to tap a commercial electric vehicle tax credit to boost consumer EV access, a plan that could help ease concerns over a climate bill approved in Congress.

The $430 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in August ended $7,500 consumer tax credits for electric vehicles assembled outside North America, sparking anger from South Korea, the European Union, Japan and others.

Some automakers say a lesser noticed IRA provision for "commercial clean vehicles" could be used to boost EV manufacturers and address foreign concerns.

Rivian Automotive, Hyundai Motor and Kia Corp. among others want the administration to let consumer vehicle leasing qualify for the commercial EV tax credit that could reduce monthly lease payments.

The South Korean government in comments made public Tuesday urged Treasury "interpret 'commercial clean vehicl…

Retail sales of new passenger vehicles declined 6 percent in China last month, ending a market recovery that hit five straight months, according to a preliminary tally from the China Automobile Dealers Association.

Some 1.7 million new sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles were delivered in November to customers across the country, the trade group said on Wednesday. 

Volume also skidded eight percent from the previous month, it added.

CADA blamed the decline on strict measures undertaken by local governments across China to counter spiking coronavirus infections.

More than 40 percent of new-car dealerships had to suspend operation for some time in November due to lockdowns, CADA noted.

In addition to government anti-pandemic measures, the prolonged shortage of semiconductor chips has continued to curb sales at carmakers. 

Nissan Motor Co. said its November retail sales in China tumbled 53 percent to 47,983, wi…

WASHINGTON -- The United Auto Workers union called on automakers to shift their entire supply chain out of China's Xinjiang region after a new report on Tuesday suggests that nearly every major automaker has significant exposure to products made with forced labor.

In June, a U.S. law took effect banning the import of forced labor goods from Xinjiang, in pushback against Beijing's treatment of China's Uyghur Muslim minority, which Washington has labeled genocide.

"The time is now for the auto industry to establish high-road supply chain models outside the Uyghur Region that protect labor and human rights and the environment," UAW President Ray Curry said.

The UAW cited a new report released by researchers at Britain's Sheffield Hallam University on the auto industry's use of steel, aluminum and copper, batteries, electronics, and other components produced in Xinjiang.

"Between raw materials mining/processing and auto parts manufacturing, we found t…

Toyota Motor North America has appointed Takefumi Shiga as the new head of production engineering and manufacturing for its operations in the region and handed him the leading role in developing its first battery manufacturing plant now under construction in North Carolina.

His new role is effective Jan. 1.

Shiga, 55, will have responsibility for all aspects of the Japanese automaker's production engineering operations and its 14 vehicle and unit plants across the U.S., Canada and Mexico. In addition, Shiga will oversee continued development of Toyota Battery Manufacturing North Carolina, the $3.8 billion battery plant under construction near Liberty, N.C., Toyota said.

He succeeds Toshio Niimi, who has been in the role since 2020 and will be returning to Toyota Motor Corp., in Japan, the automaker said.

Shiga, who has worked at Toyota since 1992 and held numerous executive positions, will report to North American CEO T…

Vietnam-based electric-vehicle maker VinFast said on Tuesday it has filed for an initial public offering in the United States and plans to list its ordinary shares on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "VFS".

For the IPO, the company said it will convert to a Singapore public limited company and will be known as VinFast Auto Ltd., while the number of shares to be offered and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined.

While no time frame was specified on Tuesday for the offering, the IPO was initially slated for the fourth quarter of this year, the company had previously said.

The company's parent, Vingroup conglomerate, said in May that the IPO maybe delayed to 2023 due to market uncertainty. 

VinFast, which began operations in 2019, is betting big on the U.S. market, where it hopes to compete with legacy automakers and startups with two all-electric SUVs and a battery leasing model that will reduce the vehicle …

Japan-based Envision AESC will plow $810 million into a new South Carolina battery factory to supply BMW Group's next-generation electric vehicles.

The planned 1.5-million-square-foot factory in Florence, S.C., will initially create 1,170 jobs and have an annual capacity of up to 30 gigawatt hours, the company said Tuesday. That volume can supply enough batteries for 300,000 EVs annually, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

The new plant will produce BMW's new energy-dense Gen 6 lithium ion cell.

The South Carolina investment is "another milestone on our journey to building an electrification network in the U.S.," Envision AESC Group CEO Shoichi Matsumoto said in a statement.

The investment is the latest in an ever-expanding constellation of battery factories in the southeast United States but also a critical weapon in BMW's U.S. manufacturing expansion.

The German automaker is undertaking a $1 billion retrofit of its Spartanburg plant, t…

From upcoming changes to FTC regulations including the Safeguard Rule, to the steady increase in fraud risk, to common compliance misconceptions, there's a lot to know about protecting your dealership and your customers. In this whitepaper, we'll talk about the compliance issues that should be top of mind for dealerships - and how a digital compliance solution can help.

The 2022 Automotive News All-Stars persevered during a challenging year for the industry, with the chip shortage improving somewhat but still lingering. These All-Stars delivered excellent products and services to their customers, introduced innovations and made other significant contributions to the industry.

Their successes were celebrated at a ceremony Dec. 5 at the Detroit Athletic Club.

Executive Editor Jamie Butters, Brand Executive All-Star Christian Meunier of Jeep, and Dennis Ephlin of Capgemeni.

Software Innovation All-Star Maria Anhalt of Elektrobit and Mike Robertson.

Automotive News Publisher KC Crain kicks off the night's program.

Vice President of Editorial Operations Chrissy Taylor, F&I All-Star Tina Miller and Capgemeni's Dennis Ephlin.

Michelle Maki, Kimberly Lark, Margaret Baxter and DEI All-Star Cheryl Thompson, CEO of the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement

Talent A…

About 270 workers at an Autoneum AG plant in Bloomsburg, Pa., went on strike last week against the key global automotive insulation systems supplier.

Contract negotiations between the company and its union have stalled following the company's latest contract offer being rejected by workers, according to media reports. Workers walked off the job Thursday afternoon, according to the reports.

Autoneum, based in Winterthur, Switzerland, focuses on internal and external sound and heat insulation systems. The supplier works with almost every major automaker, including General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis, according to its website.

For the Bloomsburg plant, its exact list of customers is unclear. However, the plant received awards from Toyota in 2011, Ford in 2014 and GM in 2021. Autoneum did not respond to calls from Automotive News' seeking comment on the strike.

Brian Heverly, president of Local 1700 Workers United, told FOX 56 that the rank-…