Trade News

Shares of embattled electric big rig maker Nikola Corp. surged after the company started production of revenue-generating trucks and showed it’s making progress on hydrogen infrastructure.

Nikola revealed the milestones in a presentation to Wall Street analysts late Wednesday. On Thursday, the shares rose as much as 19 percent, their biggest intraday gain since Dec. 23, but in after hours trading Thursday shares had only risen a bit more than 5 percent to $9.67.

The Coolidge, Ariz.-based company sees itself as a leader in clean-energy heavy vehicles in a growing field that includes Tesla Inc. and legacy players like Volvo AB. At the same time, Nikola has been trying to repair its reputation after the indictment of its founder, accusations that it misled investors and a supply-chain crunch that stalled its launch of a battery-electric truck.

Nikola’s updates were met with enthusiasm on Wall Street. JPMorgan analysts said they were left with a “positive im…

Volkswagen Group intends to establish joint ventures with two Chinese companies to ensure the supply of raw materials needed to produce batteries for electric vehicles in China.   

Under memorandums of understanding the companies signed this week, VW China will form a joint venture in Indonesia with cobalt producer Huayou Cobalt and nickel supplier Tsingshan Group. 

In Indonesia, which boasts more than 10 percent of the world's laterite nickel ore reserves, the partnership, after an expansion, will be able to produce cobalt and nickel materials to support EV battery output of 160 gigawatt hours, VW Group China said. 

It will also set up a separate joint venture with Huayou in the south China region of Guangxi to refine nickel and cobalt sulfates as well as produce cathode materials, it noted.

The two partnerships are expected to help VW reduce battery production costs 30 percent to 50 percent in the long term. 

VW G…

Volkswagen of America has spent decades under the watchful gaze of its German parent in Wolfsburg, like a teenager anxious to be treated as an adult: always dependent, always being told what was best, almost always misunderstood.

No wonder there's been some angst.

But in a major milestone this month, and as a concrete sign of growing trust, VW of America was handed the equivalent of the keys to the family car.

Not only was VW's North American arm granted greater autonomy over what products to produce in the region and how to do so, but it was given resources to carry out those decisions in the form of $7.1 billion in investments over the next five years.

And those announcements came just days after top VW Group leadership in Germany turned to North America and China to shoulder more production and sales while Europe struggles through the immediate effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.

"It allows us to be faster," explained Scott Keogh, now i…

SHANGHAI, March 23 (Reuters) - Authorities in the Chinese city of Shanghai have denied rumours of a city-wide lockdown after a sixth straight increase in daily asymptomatic coronavirus cases pushed its count to record levels despite a campaign of mass testing aimed at stifling the spread.

The latest outbreak in China's wealthy commercial hub remains tiny by global standards.

But its testing campaign, with many people locked in residential compounds for days, is part of Beijing's national "dynamic clearance" policy to stamp out flare-ups as quickly as possible.

Daily new local COVID-19 infections in Shanghai neared 1,000 on Tuesday, but authorities vowed to stick with a "slicing and gridding" approach to screen neighbourhoods one by one, rather than shut down entirely.

The lockdown rumours triggered panic buying late Tuesday night, with slots on Alibaba's "Freshippo" delivery app running out a minute after midnight.

"Please do not believe an…

Though it's only starting out in seven states, Solera Auto Finance has access to enough capital that it could be writing "captive-like" loans for dealership customers nationwide, the company said.

"The constraint is regulatory," Alberto Cairo, Solera managing director of U.S. vehicle and fleet solutions, told Automotive News this month.

Solera Auto Finance will offer used-vehicle loans. It will begin buying retail installment sales contracts in Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington. It expects to be in about 20 states by the end of 2022, Cairo said.

Cairo said Solera would be doing the lending itself.

"That was important to us," he said, describing it as a means of controlling the experience.

Solera Auto Finance will appear as the customer's lender, but some retailers have asked if it could carry the dealership's brand in a white-label relationship instead.

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The Unifor national board has charged former president Jerry Dias with allegedly violating the union’s constitution and will hold a hearing before its board to weigh evidence, as the long-time union leader said Wednesday he has entered a residential rehabilitation facility.

Dias retired after 8 ½ years as Unifor president March 11, citing ongoing medical problems. He was already on leave from the union’s top job, having stepped away to deal with health issues Feb. 6.

On March 14, Unifor disclosed an ongoing “independent external investigation” into the former president for an alleged breach of its constitution. At the time, it shared no details about the nature of the allegation, but said the investigation started Jan. 26, with Dias being notified of it Jan. 29.

The union board met this week to discuss the probe and in a press conference Wednesday disclosed Dias allegedly accepted money from a supplier of COVID-19 rapid test kits that he, or staff unde…

PARIS -- Renault on Wednesday said it would suspend operations at its plant in Moscow while it assesses options on its majority stake in AvtoVaz, the country's No. 1 carmaker.

The French carmaker as a consequence revised its operating group margin to around 3 percent from at or above 4 percent.

Renault, which gets about 10 percent of its revenue from Russia, has been reluctant to pull back from the country as all other major automakers have since the invasion of Ukraine.

However the French automaker has faced increasing criticism after it resumed production this week at its Avtoframos plant near Moscow. The factory builds the Renault Duster, Kaptur and Arkana models, and the Nissan Terrano.

"Renault Group activities in its manufacturing plant in Moscow are suspended as of today," the company said in a statement. "Regarding its stake in AvtoVaz, Renault Group is assessing the available options, taking into account the current environment, while ac…

Tesla Inc. is facing opposition from community and environmental groups over its plan to hold a party for 15,000 people to celebrate the opening of its plant in Austin.

The company intends to offer tours of the 8 million-square-foot facility, food and two stages with live music at the invite-only event on April 7, according to plans submitted to Travis County, which encompasses Austin. Officials on Tuesday granted approval after hearing testimony from concerned neighbors.

Paul DiFiore, a representative of the Colorado River Conservancy and the Austin-based environmental-justice group PODER, cited noise, blocked roads, dust from construction and water pollution as issues.

“This grand opening is not a substitute for real community engagement,” DiFiore said. “I urge you to consider rejecting this permit and forcing Tesla to delay their celebration until they start treating the community in Eastern Travis County as more than a workforce for Elon Musk but rat…

Zurich now permits agents to sell its finance and insurance products, the company said Thursday.

It's a "big change" for the provider, Vince Santivasi, Zurich North America head of direct markets, told Automotive News on March 12, ahead of the announcement.

For more than 50 years, Zurich had sold vehicle protection products directly to dealerships. That will continue despite Zurich adding the agency channel, according to Marie Knight, Zurich North America head of strategic services for direct markets and programs.

"We're growing our direct sales force as well," Knight said. She said Zurich added direct sales personnel in 2021 and had new positions for this year.

"We remain steadfastly committed to our robust national sales force," Santivasi said in a statement.

Santivasi told Automotive News Zurich is embracing agencies because some dealerships' relationships with agents are too strong for Zurich to make head…

Soon after I was hired in early 2020 as an editor at Automotive News, I attended my first NADA Show. For someone just starting out covering the fixed ops industry as I was, it was a welcome immersion. I was able to meet trainers, vendors and fixed ops directors from around the country, learn more about the industry and gather some story ideas.

About a month later, the world shut down. Suddenly, the plan to crisscross the country to meet more service, parts and body shop managers at their dealerships was shelved. Instead, it was emails, phone calls and the occasional Zoom meeting.

It wasn't ideal, but I managed to meet fixed ops people and continued to learn more about the challenges dealership body shops and service and parts departments face. And we were able to publish Fixed Ops Journal from home.

That said, it was great to be back in person at this year's NADA Show to see all those folks I had talked to on the phone or "met" through my laptop screen. …

Protective Asset Protection's parent company will purchase Protective's rival finance and insurance product provider AUL Corp.

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed in the Monday announcement by Protective Life Corp. Protective Life expects the deal to close in the second quarter.

Protective Life Senior Vice President M. Scott Karchunas, president of Protective Asset Protection, told Automotive News in an email interview Tuesday that the companies had been discussing a deal "for the past few months."

Buying AUL offered new talent and "a complementary business" with dealership, agent and lender relationships, he said.

"We did not look at this opportunity as filling a gap in our existing portfolio, but instead as a chance to add expertise — particularly with serving the automotive and financial institution industry's needs for pre-owned vehicle service contracts and warranty programs," Karchunas said.

Prot…