Trade News

EcoMotion highlights GM tie-up, battery tech

TEL AVIV, Israel — When General Motors opened its Israeli R&D center in 2008, it was a lonely outpost on the automotive landscape.

Today, more than 30 automakers and major suppliers have permanent offices and major tech centers in the country, and they are just a part of the auto-tech realm that includes hundreds of companies.

According to organizers of EcoMotion, an annual mobility event that marked its 10th anniversary last week, there are 670 transportation companies active in Israel, 27 of which have raised approximately $5.5 billion in initial public offerings over the past decade.

EcoMotion, a joint venture of the Israel Innovation Institute and government agencies, returned to its in-person roots last week after a COVID-19-related hiatus. More than 100 companies exhibited their technologies for about 3,000 people from 40 countries.

Topics ranged fro…

Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land is building customer loyalty and making roads safer at the same time.

Since 2014, the Texas dealership has sent more than 260 teenagers through a driving safety school that uses an array of Mercedes vehicles to teach various maneuvers.

The initiative started as a perk for dealership clients' children as part of a VIP benefits program, but it was expanded in 2019 to include the local Clements High School as the store made the experience available to those outside its customer base for the first time.

The training has been a hit with Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land clients in the dealership's "First. Class. Access." program, which is built around a package of lifestyle sweeteners. Besides the teen driving school, these customers get offers through businesses such as travel concierge services, member pricing at a spa and special rates at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas, to name a few.

"We pitch it as taking care of o…

Volkswagen dealers were left angry, shocked and suspicious by surprise news last week that the brand's German parent plans to build a new company in the U.S. to sell an electric pickup and SUV under the Scout name, not least because Volkswagen AG was silent on how it intends to retail the vehicles.

The lack of information from Wolfsburg immediately after the Wednesday, May 11, announcement left some dealers wondering whether VW CEO Herbert Diess — who often speaks glowingly of Tesla and Elon Musk — might be looking to emulate Tesla's direct-sales model for Scout vehicles or set up new franchises that would bypass their stores.

"That's what it feels like to me," one VW dealer told Automotive News after the announcement, on condition of anonymity. "If we were going to have any involvement, they would have told us something. But they haven't said a word to us, either before or after the announcement."

VW Group said it will build a "separat…

Volkswagen dealers were left angry, shocked and suspicious by surprise news that the brand's German parent plans to build a new company in the U.S. to sell an electric pickup and SUV under the Scout name, not least because Volkswagen AG was silent on how it intends to retail the vehicles.

The lack of information from Wolfsburg immediately after the May 11, announcement left some dealers wondering whether VW CEO Herbert Diess — who often speaks glowingly of Tesla and Elon Musk — might be looking to emulate Tesla's direct-sales model for Scout vehicles or set up new franchises that would bypass their stores.

"That's what it feels like to me," one VW dealer told Automotive News after the announcement, on condition of anonymity. "If we were going to have any involvement, they would have told us something. But they haven't said a word to us, either before or after the announcement."

VW Group said it will build a "separate, independent company" to resurrect …

Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land is building customer loyalty and making roads safer at the same time.

Since 2014, the Texas dealership has sent more than 260 teenagers through a driving safety school that uses an array of Mercedes vehicles to teach various maneuvers.

The initiative started as a perk for dealership clients' children as part of a VIP benefits program, but it was expanded in 2019 to include the local Clements High School as the store made the experience available to those outside its customer base for the first time.

The training has been a hit with Mercedes-Benz of Sugar Land clients in the dealership's "First. Class. Access." program, which is built around a package of lifestyle sweeteners. Besides the teen driving school, these customers get offers through businesses such as travel concierge services, member pricing at a spa and special rates at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas, to name a few.

"We pitch it as taking care of o…

Employees of Nationwide Motor Sales Corp. in Timonium, Md., will be able to sue the company and its owners in federal court and not seek an arbitrator, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.

The 3-0 decision April 25 came after employees at Nationwide, which retails new and used vehicles, filed a lawsuit in district court claiming "fraudulent payment practices that reduced employees' sales commissions and final paychecks." Nationwide, in response, filed to compel arbitration in accordance with its employee handbook, which contains an arbitration agreement requiring all disputes between employees and the company to be settled using an arbitrator.

According to the opinion, the employees claimed the arbitration agreement was invalid because of a modification clause in the handbook that said Nationwide "retains the right to change, abolish, or modify the Handbook's policies, procedures, and benefits." Maryland law states arbitration clauses are invalid i…

Online used-vehicle retailers such as Carvana Co. and Vroom Inc., after riding high on consumer and investor interest during the COVID-19 pandemic, are facing a reckoning.

Carvana slashed 2,500 jobs and suspended executive pay after losing $506 million in the first quarter. Vroom tapped a new CEO and said it would consider cutting jobs after reporting a big loss. Shift Technologies Inc. cut its corporate staff by 10 percent last month.

The now-humbled disrupters, which just last year were tormenting franchised dealers with aggressive Super Bowl ads, are seeing their stock prices fall as their losses grow. Rising interest rates and high prices generally — especially for gasoline — are undermining retail demand, while wholesale prices remain high. For companies pushing to grow in a hot market, the first quarter brought a rude awakening.

"You have to plan your infrastructure to support growth over the next year," said Sharon Zackfia, who covers all three …

Cruise LLC, the self-driving startup controlled by General Motors, is working with the automaker’s BrightDrop electric van business on a plan to develop autonomous delivery vehicles, people familiar with the matter said.

Cruise and BrightDrop have started early-stage work that could eventually put a self-driving system into the electric vans, potentially creating a driverless package-delivery service, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing the collaboration. The nascent project could be a logical next step for GM, whose Cruise unit has mostly been focused on getting its robotaxi business running and generating revenue.

Despite the preliminary work, the people cautioned that Cruise is still dedicating most of its resources to the robotaxi effort, and said that other self-driving vehicle programs will get additional attention once that business is established. The company has been offering free rides in San Francisco without a safety driver a…

Honda Motor Co. on Friday reported a larger-than-expected operating profit for its fiscal year that ended March 31 but forecast a 7 percent drop in annual earnings for the current year amid higher raw material costs and the ongoing chip shortage.

The automaker recorded a full-year profit of 871 billion yen ($6.7 billion), topping its own projection of 800 billion yen ($6.2 billion). For the quarter ended March 31 Honda reported an operating profit of 199.5 billion yen ($1.5 billion).

Global automakers have been forced to slash production due a shortage of microchips, and now face an increase in costs as China's COVID-19 curbs have shuttered factories and the war in Ukraine further strains supply chains.

Honda projects its profit for the fiscal year through March 2023 will be 810 billion yen ($6.3 billion). The company said it expects about 300 billion yen ($2.3 billion) in costs to cover rising material, labor, and logistics expenses this year, a roughly…

MEXICO CITY - General Motors has agreed a 8.5 percent wage hike with the new, independent union at its pick-up truck plant in the central Mexican city of Silao, labor representatives said on Thursday, one of the highest recent raises in the country's auto industry.

A GM Mexico spokeswoman confirmed the raise in an email to Automotive News. The plant builds the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra.

The deal with union SINTTIA also marks the first major raise since the start of a new trade deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which aims to reduce the vast wage gap between U.S. and Mexican workers.

"It's a victory, a step in the right direction," said Gaspar Rivera Salgado, director of the Center for Mexican Studies at the University of California Los Angeles. It remains to be seen if such raises can be easily duplicated, he added.

Following a vote closely watched by U.S. officials, SINTTIA this year became the first independent uni…

Lithium ion battery recycling firm Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. said it received its previously announced $50 million investment from General Motors battery suppliers LG Chem and LG Energy Solution.

The investment, which was announced in December and restated in April, will transfer 220,000 tons of nickel, or enough for 300,000 EVs, from Li-Cycle's Rochester Hub to LG Energy Solution and LG Chem over a period of 10 years. In exchange, the companies purchased $50 million in common stock from Li-Cycle.

"We're thrilled to advance our collaboration with LGC and LGES, two global industry leaders in the EV supply chain," Li-Cycle CEO Ajay Kochhar said in a statement on April 21. "Together, we are driving sustainable global electrification through the creation of this milestone closed-loop ecosystem in the lithium-ion battery supply chain."

LG Energy Solution and LG Chem also recognized Li-Cycle as their preferred North American lithium ion battery recycler as part …

Executive Editor Jamie Butters gives you the top headlines and talks about layoffs at Carvana and troubles at other used retailers brought on by high inflation and interest rates, dwindling consumer and investor confidence and supply chain disruptions with Automotive News Reporter C.J. Moore.

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