Trade News

Florida dealership associations described retailers as relatively unscathed after Hurricane Ian soaked and whipped the state last week, while auto plants and dealerships in the Carolinas closed in anticipation of being the storm's next target.

Volvo's S60 sedan plant near Charleston, S.C., shut down Thursday and Friday, Volvo Cars USA said in a statement. Mercedes idled its Sprinter and Metris van plant about 15 miles closer to the Atlantic coast on Friday. The plants employ about 3,100 people combined.

The storm weakened to a tropical storm as it churned across Florida but regained hurricane strength after reaching the Atlantic Ocean on Thursday. A hurricane warning was issued for nearly 300 miles of coastline from the South Carolina-Georgia border to Cape Fear, N.C. Ian made landfall again at 2:05 p.m. Friday near Georgetown, S.C., as a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph sustained winds.

North Carolina Automobile Dealers Association President Robert Glas…

Nissan's Nismo racing division has retuned the Z sports car's twin-turbo V-6 engine and optimized the chassis and suspension for track duty, creating the Z GT4 race car.

Nismo engineers added a modest aerodynamics package, including a front splitter with canards and a GT-style strut-supported wing. Specifications will be released during the SEMA Show that runs Nov. 1-4, with deliveries slated to begin in the first half of 2023. No word on pricing, but Nissan says the race car will be "accessible to enthusiast drivers and hard-core professionals."

A large piece of General Motors' history is moving closer to where it all started for the company in Flint, Mich.

GM Heritage Center will move from Sterling Heights, Mich., in Macomb County, to Genesee County — home to Factory One and the birthplace of General Motors, the company announced Thursday in a press release.

The Heritage Center, which opened in 2004 to preserve GM's history, houses an archives and historic vehicle collection in a leased facility, according to the company. The archives consists of around 600 cars and trucks, 8 million photos, 250,000 video masters and films, 1.5 million digital files and more than 1 million pieces of microfilm available by public request.

Searching for a permanent alternative, GM moved the Heritage Center to its former Customer Care and Aftersales headquarters, which was set to relocate in 2021. The new location sits on 34 acres of land, providing more space for vehicle displays and progr…

Toyota's CEO says California and U.S. EV targets will be hard to achieve. South Carolina plants are closed with the arrival of Hurricane Ian. CarMax used-car sales fall and shares take a tumble. Plus, a conversation about what it would mean for banks if auto lending is made part of the Community Reinvestment Act.

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Tesla Inc. plans to push global production of its top-selling Model Y and Model 3 electric vehicles sharply higher in the fourth quarter and build on that growth in 2023 as newer factories in Austin and Berlin ramp production, internal plans reviewed by Reuters show.

Tesla's production forecast, if achieved, would put the EV maker on track to meet Elon Musk's goal for production in the coming quarter and put the automaker close to the scale of BMW by the end of 2023.

Musk and Tesla have a record of pointing to stretch targets the company has not always met.

In April, for instance, Musk had said Tesla could hit 60 percent growth in deliveries. By July, the company had walked that target back to 50 percent for this year.

The ambitious goal came despite lingering supply chain risks, a slowing economy and rising competition and falling Tesla order backlogs. But its forecast, which covers the next four consecutive quarters, sets an ambitious target to…

Mercedes-Benz and Volvo, heeding Hurricane Ian's potential impact, are idling their South Carolina plants ahead of the deadly storm's predicted return to landfall.

The Mercedes plant, near Charleston, S.C., has about 1,600 employees who build the Mercedes Sprinter and Metris vans. It will idle operations on Friday, Reuters reported.

Volvo's plant near Charleston in Ridgeville, S.C., was idled at 11 a.m. EDT Thursday and will remain closed through Friday, Volvo Cars USA said in a statement. The 2.3 million-square-foot plant employs about 1,500 people and produces the Volvo S60 midsize sedan. Next year, the factory will begin building two electric crossovers.

"Hurricane Ian has the potential to impact our U.S. operations," the statement said. "The safety of our employees and their families is our highest priority. Therefore, our Ridgeville plant halted operations at 11 a.m. and will remain closed through Friday."

Hurricane Ian on Thursday was down…

LAS VEGAS – Ambitious targets for electric vehicle sales – in California or nationwide – will be hard to achieve by 2030 or 2035, Akio Toyoda told reporters Thursday. 

Regarding California’s rule calling for a ban on the sale of gasoline-burning vehicles by 2035, the Toyota Motor Corp. CEO said: “Realistically speaking, it seems rather difficult to really achieve that.” 

He added that a potential national goal of 50 percent zero-emission vehicles by 2030 would be “very difficult.” 

As a global automaker serving 200 countries, Toyota must take into account the wide variety of conditions in those various markets, including the needs of the 1 billion or so people who don’t have reliable access to electricity.

Through a translator, he cautioned that regulations “tend to narrow the options available for solutions toward carbon neutrality.”

Longer term, he sees hydrogen combustion as a compelling offering. In the short term, hybrid…

What’s inside? Why high-quality data is everything in autonomous driving How multiple workforces tackle bottlenecks in the AV data pipeline Critical questions to ask a prospective workforce partner How CloudFactory’s AV-centric workforce approach can work for you

Porsche’s landmark initial public offering will raise over $9 billion for Volkswagen Group. Toyota’s output rises for the first time in five months. Pent-up consumer demand may be disappearing. Plus, a conversation with Autotech Council Executive Director Liz Kerton from the MOVE America mobility conference in Austin, Texas.

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New York state plans to adopt California's rules approved in August that would require all new vehicles sold in the state by 2035 to be either electric or plug-in electric hybrids, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday.Hochul said in a statement that she has directed a state environmental agency to propose and finalize rules adopting California's plan setting yearly rising zero-emission vehicle rules starting in 2026 that phases out gasoline-only new car sales by 2035.The agency will hold a public hearing before the rules are finalized.The California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted its rules after Governor Gavin Newsom issued a 2020 executive order directing the move. CARB said the rules will reduce smog-causing pollution from light-duty vehicles by 25 percent by 2037 and result in 9.5 million fewer conventional vehicles sold by 2035.Automakers must sell 68 percent of sales by 2030 as EVs or plug-ins and by 2035 can sell no more than 20 percent of models as plug-in hybrids.…

Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday appointed Zhu Meijun president of the company’s Lincoln brand in China.

Zhu was previously Lincoln’s executive vice president for China. She has worked for the Ford and Lincoln brands in mainland China and Taiwan for 27 years.

Lincoln’s current China president, Mao Jingbo, is resigning from the post for “personal reasons”, Ford China said. 

Mao was hired as Lincoln’s China head in 2018. Prior to that, she was a sales executive at Mercedes-Benz’s China unit.

Lincoln builds four models – the Nautilus, Aviator and Corsair and Zephyr -- at Ford’s Chinese joint venture with Changan Motor Co.  

In 2021, the brand’s China sales surged 48 percent to 91,621, with most of that volume mainly generated by locally produced models, according to Ford China. 

In the first half of 2022, Lincoln’s deliveries dropped 11 percent to 37,686.

Used-vehicle retail giant CarMax Inc. said Thursday it sold fewer used vehicles in its second fiscal quarter as ongoing financial pressures affecting retailers in the used-vehicle market stuck around.

CarMax reported a slimmed net income of $125.9 million in the quarter ended Aug. 31, down 56 percent year-over-year. The company's net revenue in the quarter was $8.1 billion, up 2 percent from the year-earlier period.

It retailed a total of 216,939 used vehicles in the quarter, down 6.4 percent from the year-earlier period. Comparable store used-vehicle sales fell 8.3 percent. CarMax said vehicle affordability challenges in the period stemmed from more inflationary pressures, climbing interest rates and low consumer confidence, conditions which also beset the retailer in its first quarter.

The company said it bought 342,731 vehicles from consumers and dealers, down 8.1 percent year-over-year. It said 322,543 of those vehicles were purchased from consumers,…