Trade News

Ford Motor Co., seeking to fill the leadership team of its newly created Ford Blue division, said Kiersten Robinson, its top human resources executive, would become general manager of Ford Blue's family vehicles as well as president of Ford's operations in Mexico and Canada.

Robinson will report to Kumar Galhotra, president of Ford Blue, and the move will formally take effect in mid-May, the automaker said Monday.

"Kiersten is a transformational leader who has been instrumental in supporting Ford's business and global team for nearly three decades through innovative people, talent, employee safety and workplace experience solutions," CEO Jim Farley said in a statement. "Now she's taking on a critical global operating role within Ford Blue as president of Mexico and Canada, as well as leading our Family Vehicles product line that includes the popular Ford Explorer, Expedition and Everest."

Robinson joined the company in 1995 and has held a number of role…

After declaring this month that they had no intention of doing so, Volkswagen executives are now rethinking their plans to keep production of the retro-styled electric minivan, the ID Buzz, anchored exclusively in Hanover, Germany, with North American production now a possibility.

So what changed between March 10 and March 21?

Consumer reaction — especially in person — as the brand brought the ID Buzz to the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, said Volkswagen of America CEO Scott Keogh.

"Demand is through the roof — it's super high — so I think we're going to have to give a fair amount of strategic thoughts on this front," Keogh said. "Obviously, there's going to be a big boost at launch; I think that's no surprise. In my mind, I think it's sustainable when you see the amount of demand."

Keogh spoke of driving European-spec ID Buzz models in Austin this month, where he was joined by Herbert Diess, CEO of Volkswagen Group, and the two e…

Ford Motor Co.'s F-150 Lightning electric pickup will get up to 320 miles of battery range — 20 miles more than previously expected — according to final EPA estimates released Monday.

The top-end range will be available on XLT, Lariat and Pro trims equipped with an optional extended-range battery. Platinum trims, which come standard with an extended-range battery, also will get 20 more miles than previously estimated, at 300 miles per charge.

Pro, XLT and Lariat trims with the standard-range battery will get up to 230 miles of EPA-estimated range, in line with earlier projections.

Pro trims are available to fleet customers only.

"We are laser focused on continually improving our energy consumption efficiency for Lightning and the team is really happy to deliver these results for our customers." Linda Zhang, chief program engineer of the F-150 Lightning, said in a statement.

The Lightning's 320 miles would trail the 329-mile range of GMC's H…

Cadillac could build nearly 200,000 Lyriq electric crossovers annually depending on customer demand, executives said Monday before the first 2023 Lyriq rolled off the production line at Spring Hill Assembly.

The plant in Tennessee can support output of just under 200,000 vehicles per year. Today, the Cadillac XT5 and XT6 and the GMC Acadia internal combustion crossovers are also built there. They will be built alongside the Lyriq for now.

"We have a progressive ramp-up, but we have the ability to flex based upon customer demand," said Rory Harvey, vice president of global Cadillac. "And customer demand for the Lyriq is absolutely huge."

General Motors eventually plans to add production of upcoming electric vehicles to the plant, GM President Mark Reuss added.

"The agility … is inherent in the production system," he said. "We have some pretty hot crossovers that come out of this plant, too, with the XT5, XT6 and Acadia. Lots of legs on t…

Editors note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that VW’s commitments included upgrades to Audi’s Mexican assembly plant.

Volkswagen Group of America plans to spend at least $7.1 billion in North America through 2027 to build up its local electric vehicle production capacity — including construction of a battery plant as well as overhauls of its assembly plant in Puebla and an engine plant in Silao, Mexico — and bolster interim ICE-powered production as part of a push to regionalize its product decisions for the continent.

The company aims to introduce more than 25 new battery-electric vehicles through 2030 across the group's brands that sell in the U.S.: VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley and Lamborghini. But more importantly, it also plans to localize "all major design and engineering responsibilities" for top-hat development of EVs for North American consumers by 2030 — a move that could, in theory, allow VW to produce an electric midsize pickup…

Runaway raw material costs are fueling a “ridiculous” increase in the price of batteries for electric vehicles, according to Li Auto Inc. CEO Li Xiang, who took to social media in China over the weekend to offer a rare insight into EV makers’ pain.

“The cost of batteries in the second quarter rose by a very ridiculous amount,” Li said on his official Weibo account late Saturday. Carmakers that haven’t raised prices yet are probably going to have to once their battery suppliers start charging more, he added.

While Li Auto, a Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. customer, hasn’t made any price adjustments to its cars, the world’s biggest battery maker confirmed it has raised prices on some of its products, without specifying which ones.

“Due to the price surge of the upstream raw materials, we have made dynamic adjustments to the prices of some of our battery products accordingly,” a CATL spokesman said via text message Monday.

Li’s comments came a…

Ford Motor Co.'s vehicle factories in Germany and Spain are facing production disruption this week due to shortages of parts from Ukraine and other locations.

Output of the Focus compact car at Ford's Saarlouis plant in Germany was suspended on Monday for five days until Friday, the automaker said in an emailed statement to Automotive News Europe.

Ford is experiencing a number of shortages at the plant affecting production.

The war in Ukraine has prevented the company from sourcing a 12.3-inch infotainment screen for the newly updated version of the Focus, Ford said. The company said it is continuing to build Focus models with an 8-inch screen.

Ford is also having difficulty with deliveries of enough steering wheel parts produced in Ukraine, a local media report said, citing a letter to employees from the factory works council.

Ford also paused production of the Fiesta small car in Cologne on Monday until the end of the week because of se…

LAS VEGAS — As the automotive retail community gathered at the Las Vegas Convention Center last week for the first in-person NADA Show since the start of the pandemic, one topic was inescapable: electric vehicles.

From Ford Motor Co. prominently parking an F-150 Lightning at its display to a photography booth vendor using a Porsche Taycan at its stand to the National Automobile Dealers Association setting up what it referred to as Electric Avenue — which included three brand-new EVs and the out-of-production Mitsubishi i-MiEV — electrification was seemingly everywhere show attendees looked.

While the recurring phrase of the show was "dealers are all-in on EVs," many are still grappling with questions about the business of selling battery-electric vehicles, from the investment required to prepare facilities to pricing and profit margins.

Automakers insisting on setting the prices — and with a smaller gap between invoice and sticker — smacks of a pivot t…

A car salesman fired for siphoning tens of thousands of dollars from a Detroit-area Stellantis dealership is accused of ripping off dozens of his former customers by pretending that he still worked for the store.

Ricardo Perez, 38, was terminated by Dick Scott Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Plymouth, Mich., last July after managers discovered he had defrauded the store.

Police said Perez then began contacting his past customers and offering them attractive deals for trade-ins and vehicle leases, without telling them he had been fired. He would meet with victims in parking lots to conduct deals, convincing them the open-air meeting was to protect against COVID-19.

Victims would give him their vehicles, thinking they were returning it to the dealership, and Perez would sell it himself. He kept some vehicles as a "rental" to use while scamming others, said Ray Watters, the police chief in Lincoln Park, Mich., where Perez was arrested this m…

Andy Kunz knows what makes a city great. After all, he has degrees in fine arts and urban design and a background in landscape architecture and urban planning.

But it took a more whimsical, or you could say magical, experience during his childhood to draw him toward his passion, high-speed rail: It was the 1971 opening of Walt Disney World near Orlando.

"When Disney first opened, it was all about this future city, Epcot. It wasn't an amusement park. It was going to be a future city with monorails and all this cool transportation," Kunz said. "Here I am, a young kid totally sucked in by that, and all the Disney brochures had that little picture of the future city of Epcot on the back. And so I grew up with this super excitement about the future of monorails and all these cool trains that we were going to have."

Over the years, Kunz has come to believe that great cities have great rail systems. In 2009, he founded the US High Speed Rail Association, an ad…