Trade News

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — Advanced driver-assistance systems are commonly seen as the building blocks of fully self-driving vehicles. However, industry executives increasingly consider advanced driver-assist and autonomous capabilities separate systems evolving at different speeds to serve different markets.

"They use a lot of the same sensors, but the difference is that on the Level 2 vehicle, the most capable sensor in the vehicle is a human," Nick Sitarski, Toyota vice president of integrated vehicle systems, said during a Tuesday panel at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars here.

Level 4 systems, by comparison, require far more technology because they allow the vehicle to drive itself under most conditions.

"You need to re-create what the human is doing ... and that's a very complex and costly thing to do," Sitarski said.

That's why the first autonomous vehicles deployed onto streets will b…

A giant Chinese supplier of EV batteries decided to push back announcing a multibillion-dollar North American plant to supply Tesla Inc. and Ford Motor Co. due to tensions raised by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan, according to people familiar with the matter.

Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., the world's biggest maker of batteries for electric vehicles, has been considering at least two locations in Mexico near the Texas border, as well as sites in the U.S., for the plant. China's CATL has been in an advanced stage of site selection and negotiating incentives, in anticipation of announcing its selection in the coming weeks.

CATL now plans to wait until September or October to make the announcement, the people familiar with the process said Tuesday, asking not to be identified as the information isn't public. The concern is that an announcement could stoke tensions at a sensitive time in U.S.-China ties amid the controversial…

Dealership technology company Cars.com reported a smaller profit in the second quarter but gains in revenue and dealership customers as it navigated an ongoing vehicle inventory shortage and an economy affected by inflation and higher interest rates.

Chicago-based Cars.com on Wednesday reported net income of $5.5 million in the quarter ended June 30, down 7 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Revenue increased 5 percent to $162.9 million, growth the company attributed largely to its dealership customer base and adoption of its digital software tools.

Revenue from automakers, including for advertising, fell 13 percent from the second quarter of 2021.

"Our platform strategy is working. Revenue is growing and diversifying, and margins are expanding. The business continues to prove resilient and sustainable," CEO Alex Vetter told analysts Wednesday. "Despite the challenges of the current environment, we have confidence in our a…

U.S. new-vehicle sales slump persists in July. General Motors tries to stop quick re-selling. Carvana is back at work in Illinois -- for now. Supercar brands are on a roll. Plus, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer discusses the importance of the Chips and Science Act to industrial employers in her state, including GM, Ford, and Stellantis.

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A revamped proposal in the U.S. Senate to extend the tax credit for new electric vehicle purchases is less about consumers and more about sourcing, said Jennifer Safavian, CEO of industry trade group Autos Drive America.

The EV tax credit proposal unveiled last week by U.S. Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin lifts the cap on the current $7,500 tax credit but adds increasingly stringent critical mineral and battery sourcing requirements for automakers, among other rules.

Safavian, whose group represents the U.S. operations of international automakers such as Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen, said the "clean vehicle" credit that is included in the latest iteration of the Democrats' reconciliation bill — now called the Inflation Reduction Act — is "no longer a credit for electric vehicles."

"It's really a sourcing credit," she said Tuesday during a hybrid version of the annual CAR Management Briefing Seminars in Traverse City, Mich. "It's not abou…

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Illinois’ biggest electric vehicle producer is complaining that pending federal legislation intended to incentivize people to buy electric cars and trucks actually would hurt it, putting it at a competitive disadvantage.

In a statement and an interview, James Chen, vice president of public policy for Rivian, said the pending climate change bill, the result of a political deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., would give most breaks to other producers like Tesla and General Motors that have had longer to ramp up production or do some manufacturing overseas.

While Rivian applauds the intention of the pending bill, “as currently drafted, this legislation will pull the rug out from consumers considering purchase of an American-made electric vehicle,” said Chen, whose company employs roughly 6,000 workers at an assembly plant in downstate Normal. Though the company last week announced it was laying off 50 nonmanufacturing …