Trade News

Hyundai Motor Group grabbed the spotlight at an under-attended New York auto show last week to unveil product and manufacturing plans for the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands while also revealing plans to invest in U.S. electric vehicle manufacturing.

Many automakers skipped the return of the show — canceled since the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020.

So Hyundai, Kia and Genesis — all brands that appear to be weathering the current downturn in new-vehicle sales — seized the opportunity.

Speaking at the Automotive Forum in New York on the eve of the show, Hyundai Motor America CEO Jose Muñoz announced the automaker will build the hybrid version of the Hyundai Santa Fe midsize crossover and the Genesis Electrified GV70 compact crossover at its plant in Montgomery, Ala.

On Automotive News' "Daily Drive" podcast, Muñoz said the company will also build an assembly plant in the U.S. for EVs and batteries.

The moves are part of a $7.4 billion …

It has been more than 45 years since the two of us sat in free-market economist Vervon Orval Watts' economics class at Northwood University. He noted an interest rate is the incentive or reward charged by a lender of credit or money. For the borrower, it is the amount they are willing to part with or pay to gain cash or credit.

An interest rate consists of three parts. They are the time preference premium, debtor risk premium and inflationary risk premium.

The time preference premium is the original reason for loaning money. The average TPP portion of an interest rate is between 0 and 2 percent. It represents a borrower's time preference to have a good, service or asset today and pay extra via the interest rate, rather than waiting until able to pay in full. When a time preference is 0 percent, the borrower is willing to wait.

The debtor risk premium is inversely related to a customer's credit rating. The debtor's risk premium port…

North American and Chinese assembly plants accounted for the bulk of the industry’s latest production cuts caused by the ongoing shortage of microchips, according to a new estimate by AutoForecast Solutions.

Each represented about a third of the latest production schedule trims, according to AFS, which has been tracking the chip shortage’s impact since early last year.

Globally, 60,200 more vehicles were removed from automakers’ production schedules, even as beleaguered European plants largely received a reprieve.

Plants in the rest of Asia lost an additional 7,900 vehicles, while more cuts were reported in South America, the Middle East and Africa.

Nearly 1.5 million vehicles have been cut from schedules worldwide so far this year. That’s on top of 10.5 million units lost in 2021.

European manufacturers have accounted for much of the industry’s production setbacks in recent weeks, and about half of all vehicles lost worldwide this year. Read more

Do you know an up-and-coming young executive in the U.S. auto industry whose achievements deserve recognition?

Automotive News has launched its ninth annual search for Rising Stars at automakers, suppliers, mobility companies and service providers. The program honors dynamic executives in the U.S. who are poised to grow in prominence and step into senior leadership roles.

Anyone may submit nominations, which will be accepted through May 20. To qualify, candidates should have a minimum of 10 years of work experience, be based in the U.S. and be 45 or younger as of Aug. 22, 2022.

The Rising Stars will be announced in the Aug. 22 issue.

Learn more and submit a nomination at autonews.com/risingstars.

Advances in electric vehicles, EV batteries and recharging, automated driving and more have made it to the finalist phase of the 2022 Automotive News PACE Awards.

PACE judges will review the innovations of 31 finalists for the awards, to be presented at a ceremony on Sept. 19 at the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center in Detroit.

In addition, 23 entries have been chosen as finalists for the 2022 Automotive News PACEpilot award.

The PACE Awards, now in their 28th year, are given to suppliers in recognition of a technological innovation in product or process that has reached the commercial market.

The PACEpilot award recognizes pre- commercial, post-pilot innovations in the automotive or future mobility space, including products, processes, software and IT systems.

The 2022 Automotive News PACE Award finalists and their innovations are:

■ American Axle & ManufacturingDetroitP3 two-speed electric drive technology

■ Ap…

After deciding in 2021 to drop both its largest sedan and top-end SUV from U.S. showrooms, Toyota will replace them starting this year with vehicles carrying a venerated Japanese nameplate — though one largely unfamiliar to American consumers.

Toyota Motor Corp. will launch an SUV version of the Crown sedan and sell it in North America beginning in 2023 as a replacement for the Land Cruiser, Reuters reported last week, citing sources at the company. The SUV would come initially as a hybrid, the sources said, and would be exported from Japan to North America and China. A battery-electric version would follow in 2024, while a plug-in hybrid version would be built for Japan's domestic market.

At least one variant of the redesigned Crown sedan — expected to be a performance hybrid — will go on sale this year in the U.S., where it will compete with the Audi A6 and similar sedans, replacing the Avalon, a source told Automotive News.

The Crown SUV would slot …

Automakers are driving toward eliminating emissions in their vehicle fleets, production plants and supplier networks.

Mercedes-Benz said last week that it will more than halve its carbon footprint per passenger vehicle by the next decade compared with 2020 levels.

The luxury marque will source 70 percent of its energy needs for production through renewable energy by 2030 by rolling out solar and wind power projects at its plants and through power purchase agreements.

In an online presentation, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius described climate change as "our generation's most important task."

Mercedes' environmental focus will significantly affect the automaker's suppliers globally.

Sustainability will be an "awarding criteria," Källenius said. "If you want to do business with us in the future, you need to have a sustainable business strategy," he said.

Mercedes-Benz Chief Technology Officer Markus…

Electric vehicles make up only about one-tenth of the global market. But automakers and suppliers are preparing for the next generation of components, with solid-state batteries, axial flux motors — and now, 800-volt electrical systems that promise to cut charging time in half, sharply reduce battery size and cost and increase drivetrain efficiency.

So far, just a handful of new vehicles use 800-volt systems, as opposed to the standard 400-volt technology. Among the examples reaching the market: the Porsche Taycan, Audi E-tron GT, Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6. The Lucid Air luxury sedan uses a 900-volt architecture, but experts say it is technically an 800-volt system.

EV component suppliers say that by the end of the decade, 800-volt vehicle architectures will be the dominant technology, especially as more and more dedicated full-electric platforms such as Hyundai's E-GMP and Volkswagen Group's PPE appear.

"In 2025, the majority of applications coming …

In her 30 years in the auto industry, Julie Herrera has learned several tricks of the trade. One piece of advice she has for other dealers: When hiring, hire service technicians first.

"If you're getting an opportunity on a new point or a buy-sell, start immediately with securing technicians," said Herrera, dealer principal of Toyota of Cedar Park outside Austin, Texas.

That's because it takes longer to find and develop them, she said.

For Herrera, 54, training and retaining technicians has always been a point of focus — especially since opening Toyota of Cedar Park in May 2017, after the automaker approved her application for an open point.

"I know what each of their stalls, each of their bays, make per month for the store, and how they help us retain our customers by knowing their jobs," Herrera said.

One of the first things she did was visit area high schools, joined by her parts and service director and shop foreman. Two miles from the…