Trade News

FRANKFURT -- Continental said it has resumed production at its Russian plant in Kaluga to protect local workers who could otherwise face criminal charges.

"Our employees and managers in Russia face severe criminal consequences should we refrain from serving local demand," the German supplier said on Tuesday.

Continental did not elaborate on the potential charges staff might face.

"In order to protect our employees in Russia from prosecution, we are temporarily resuming the production of passenger tires for the local market at our tire plant in Kaluga if necessary," the supplier said.

"The basis for this step is the duty of care for our employees in Russia," the company said.

Continental said resumption in production was not a profit-driven decision.

Continental had said on March 8 said that production at the Kaluga plant had been suspended.

Continental, based in Hanover, Germany, ranks No. 6 on the Automotive News list of to…

A man was arrested after police said he destroyed the rear windows of more than 100 vehicles at three dealerships in suburban Chicago last week.

Andrew McAuliff allegedly broke onto the lots of Bob Rohrman Honda, Bob Rohrman Schaumburg Ford and Patrick BMW in Schaumburg, Ill., late Wednesday night, the Schaumburg Police Department said. All three dealerships were on the same two blocks.

He was caught at Bob Rohrman Ford by a security guard, who stopped him after he allegedly broke 19 rear windows with a blunt metal object, General Manager Alex Kaliakmanis told Automotive News.

Bob Rohrman Honda was hit the hardest, with more than 80 cars vandalized.

"Thank God we caught him before he got further than 19 vehicles," Kaliakmanis said. Preliminary estimates to repair the damaged vehicles are around $125,000, Kaliakmanis said.

A total of 116 cars at the three dealerships were vandalized, Schaumburg Lieutenant Christy Lindhurst said.

McAul…

Even those companies in China whose factories are operating under so-called closed-loop systems might be forced to stop work due to parts shortages or logistical challenges that make moving people and goods around the country near impossible, a European chamber of commerce has warned.

"A few companies are running in closed-loop production now. Those companies are facing challenges and may shut down very soon due to lack of logistics and workers," Maximilian Butek, chief representative at the Delegation of German Industry & Commerce in Shanghai said in a LinkedIn post Monday. "Their workers for closed-loop production have been working for more than three weeks and need to be replaced."

Butek added that most of his association's members can't "have production sites running since they cannot get raw materials delivered and cannot deliver their products to their customers. The logistics in Shanghai is not working."

Officials in China's financial hub have…

Toyota, the king of gasoline-electric hybrids, has long been skeptical of all-electric vehicles.

Their limited range and spotty charging station networks, along with doubts about profitability, rendered them impractical and nonviable, the company long thought. Toyota once offered a battery-electric RAV4, but only in California and only in volumes to meet state mandates for the sale of zero-emission vehicles.

So the new bZ4X, the first EV Toyota has designed from the ground up, though with a key partner, is a bit of game-changer for the company.

The bZ4X is the product of a joint venture between Toyota and Subaru, which is introducing the similar Solterra EV. The companies split engineering evenly, though the crossovers are built in a Toyota plant in Japan.

The bZ4X — the bZ nomenclature is shorthand for "beyond zero" and will be adopted on future Toyota electric models — is positioned between the RAV4 compact and Venza…

Lexus revealed three images of the new 2023 RZ 450e electric compact crossover on its media site ahead of the vehicle's planned global reveal on Wednesday.

The images show a new design language from the luxury brand, including the equivalent of a filled-in spindle grille on Lexus' first battery-electric vehicle, as well as a severe rake to the rear hatch.

The RZ 450e appears similar in size to the bZ4X, the Toyota brand's first EV designed from the ground up.

Other images released by Lexus show a yoke-style steering wheel.

Full details are scheduled to be released at 6 a.m. EDT Wednesday as part of an online global reveal.

Lexus dealers are eager for the arrival of a BEV, giving them an option for luxury buyers looking to make the jump into fully electric propulsion.

The 1980 Chevrolet Citation, the brand's first front-wheel-drive car, debuts in U.S. showrooms on April 19, 1979, several months after production begins in Willow Run, Mich., ushering in an era of lighter, more spacious and fuel-efficient General Motors cars.

GM engineered and built the first modern American-made fwd cars in 1966 with the Oldsmobile Toronado and Cadillac Eldorado, but they had traditional longitudinally mounted engines.

The company had never designed anything like the Citation and its siblings — the Buick Skylark, Oldsmobile Omega and Pontiac Phoenix — with transverse-mounted engines and transmissions that powered the front wheels.

Engineering and design started on the X-car program in 1976, in large part in response to the Arab oil embargo and rising gasoline prices, as well as rising foreign imports. GM's fleet in the 1970s was still dominated by body-on-frame, rear-wheel-drive cars with longitudinally mounted e…

Months after Chevrolet discontinues the current Trax subcompact crossover, the brand will launch a new Trax.

Chevy on Friday confirmed that production of the current model will end late this year. AutoForecast Solutions expects output to end in November.

The new model, like the current version, will be a gasoline-powered, small, entry-level crossover, Chevy spokeswoman Kellie Van Maele said.

Chevy plans to reveal the new Trax this year, and output is slated to begin in the first half of next year, she said.

U.S. sales of the Trax tallied 5,801 in the first quarter, a drop of 66 percent from a year earlier. The Trax ranked 15th out of 21 subcompact crossovers during the latest quarter, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Automotive News reported in March that General Motors would discontinue both the Trax and the Buick Encore subcompact crossovers, citing AutoForecast Solutions. Both crossovers are built in South Kor…