Trade News

BEIJING - Baidu's electric vehicle arm Jidu Auto on Wednesday launched a "robot" concept car, the first vehicle to be revealed by a Chinese internet company.

The concept, which is free of door handles and can be fully controlled via voice recognition, was launched through an online press conference held on Baidu's metaverse-themed app Xirang.

Jidu, an EV venture controlled by Baidu and co-funded by Chinese automaker Geely, plans to mass produce the model, which would be 90 percent similar to the concept car, in 2023.

The 'robot' EVs will possess autonomous Level 4 capabilities that need no human intervention as well as utilize Qualcomm's 8295 chips, which will enable users to access voice assistance offline when internet connection is poor. 

Baidu's EV ambitions come as tech companies around the world race to develop smart cars after Tesla Inc.'s success in commercializing electric vehicles.

Besides equipping the vehicle with autonom…

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co., along with BMW Group, Honda, Volkswagen and Volvo Cars, on Tuesday filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit to support California and defend the EPA's reinstatement of a waiver that restored the state's authority to limit vehicle greenhouse gas emissions.

The action comes after a group of 17 Republican attorneys general last month sued the EPA over its decision to reissue the waiver allowing California to set its own auto tailpipe rules and zero-emission vehicle mandates that are more stringent than federal standards.

"Two years ago, after EPA relaxed federal greenhouse gas emission standards, Ford and four other automakers entered into settlement agreements with California to abide by GHG emission standards that were stricter than EPA's then-relaxed standards," Steven Croley, Ford's chief policy officer, said on a press call Tuesday. "We believe that was right then, and we think so today."

General Motors, which aspi…

PLANO, Texas — Toyota Motor Corp. believes that it can at least triple U.S. sales of its redesigned 2023 Sequoia three-row large SUV with a bevy of much-needed powertrain and technology improvements, better towing capacity and a starting price of $59,795, including shipping.

The Sequoia was redesigned — for the first time in 14 years — onto the automaker's new global F1 platform for body-on-frame vehicles and shares attributes with the redesigned Tundra full-size and the next-generation Land Cruiser SUV, which is no longer available in the U.S.

Toyota marketing manager Joe Moses told reporters here last week that the automaker "already has 100,000 hand-raisers" who have expressed interest in the redesigned Sequoia since its January reveal, adding that he believes U.S. sales would at least triple this year from just 8,070 in 2021.

The SUV comes standard with the same hybridized i-Force Max powertrain as the Tundra, featuring a 3.5-liter turbocharged V-6 …

Robert Bosch, the auto industry's largest supplier, said it will invest $420 million in its North American automotive business to gear up for electrification amid a barrage of supply chain challenges.

The spending is part of a $664 million investment across its North American business units and will go toward machinery and equipment for each of its automotive plants in North America, including its factory in Charleston, S.C., the company said Tuesday.

Bosch said it received about $11.8 billion in new electrification-related orders from customers worldwide last year.

"As those programs come into play in the next four to five years, we have to be ready for them," Paul Thomas, Bosch executive vice president of mobility solutions, said during a press conference Tuesday at which executives discussed the company's 2021 North American financial results.

The North American automotive business reported sales of $7.9 billion in 2021, up 5 percent from a ye…

Vehicle listings company TrueCar has acquired online dealer sales platform Digital Motors in a move to bolster the company's launch of its new digital retailing service, TrueCar+.

Digital Motors, a software company based in Irvine, Calif., that serves dealers looking for online retailing support, launched its flagship product earlier than planned, in March 2020. It soon caught on with dealers looking to take advantage of pandemic-fueled consumer interest in online automotive retailing.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Digital Motors CEO Andreas Hinrichs said in a news release Monday that his company's "transactional focus" will pair well with TrueCar+.

"We are excited to join TrueCar and help support the expansion of TrueCar+, making online car buying a delightful, empowering and efficient experience for all parties involved," Hinrichs said.

TrueCar said in May it was exploring acquisition options, touting funds to do so via the company…

BERLIN -- Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Kallenius ruled out the possibility that two major Chinese shareholders could increase their stakes and create a blocking minority in the automaker.

BAIC Group is the largest individual shareholder in Mercedes with 9.98 percent of voting rights. Geely Chairman Eric Li holds an equity interest of 9.69 percent, and the Kuwait Investment Authority holds 6.84 percent.

Geely, in particular, is quietly disrupting Europe's auto market. The Chinese conglomerate, founded by Li, now owns or collaborates with more than a dozen companies that do business in the region, including Volvo Cars, Polestar and Lotus.

Kaellenius and Winfried Kretschmann, the president of Baden-Wuerttemberg, the German state where Mercedes is headquartered, dismissed the possibility of a takeover by Chinese investors.

"We would not allow that at all," they told the business daily Handelsblatt in a joint interview.

In 2016 the purchase of …

Former Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein, now in prison after being convicted of sex crimes, on Tuesday sued the U.S. business of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles over a 2019 crash in which he flipped a Jeep Wrangler while trying to avoid a deer.

Weinstein is seeking $5 million in damages, saying the Aug. 17, 2019 accident in Bedford, New York, about 40 miles north of Manhattan, left him "catastrophically injured and rendered paralyzed" with "significant and continuing conscious pain and suffering" from what his lawyer called "severe spine and back injuries."

According to the complaint filed in a New York state court in Manhattan, Weinstein was wearing his seatbelt when the brakes on the 2017 Wrangler failed as he approached the deer, causing a rollover.

Weinstein said the defendant FCA US LLC, now owned by Stellantis, had provided him the "unreasonably dangerous" vehicle in exchange for product placement in one of his films.

"We intend to vigoro…

WASHINGTON — U.S. auto safety regulators are investigating potential safety issues with certain Honda Pilot midsize crossovers after reports alleging engine failure.

NHTSA's Office of Defects Investigation said it has received 221 complaints and several field reports alleging a defect with the auto stop-start feature on Pilot vehicles from the 2016-19 model years.

The safety probe covers an estimated 194,731 vehicles in the U.S. equipped with the 3.5-liter engine coupled with a nine-speed automatic transmission and includes Pilot vehicles from the 2020 model year, according to a NHTSA document posted Tuesday.

The complaints allege that the "engine fails to restart on its own from a complete stop at a traffic light or road intersection" when the auto stop-start function is engaged, the document states. Some of the complaints also allege a jump was required for the vehicle to restart.

Both Pilot Touring and Elite trim-lev…

Swedish automaker Polestar Cars will introduce what it says will be its highest-volume vehicle in the U.S. yet.

The Volvo affiliate will bring the Polestar 3, a Porsche Cayenne-sized crossover, to the U.S. in the first quarter of 2023.

Ahead of the launch, Polestar released a new film and the first undisguised image of the midsize crossover. Unlike the current Volvo-inspired Polestar 2 sedan, the Polestar 3 features new design elements that include a sloping silhouette and headlight and rear light styling that are distinct from other Polestar models.

"With this car, we bring the 'sport' back to the SUV, staying true to our performance roots," Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath said.

Polestar plans to equip the new model with hardware and electronics that would enable autonomous highway driving by mid-decade, including lidar sensors from Luminar Technologies and computer electronics components from Nvidia Corp. The sensors are packed into the so-called …

Self-driving truck startup Gatik will expand its operations through an agreement with new partners Georgia-Pacific and KBX to deliver paper goods to 34 Sam's Club hubs and stores in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.

For Gatik, which concentrates on traveling shorter "middle mile" truck routes and foregoing interstate travel, the new partnership represents substantial growth in both business opportunity and operational scale.

The company has existing partnerships with the likes of Walmart and Canadian grocery-store chain Loblaw. With Walmart, Gatik operates a driverless route in Bentonville, Ark.

For more coverage of autonomous vehicles, click here.

The Georgia-Pacific and KBX service is expected to begin next month, starting with six trucks in an overall operation that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. At least for now, human safety drivers will sit behind the wheel in the new deployment.

"Once proven, we believe autonomous de…