Trade News

Mainstream automakers are finally taking electric vehicles mainstream.

While early adopters learned to love their little electric hatchbacks despite limited range and limited space, automakers are now focused on the vehicle body styles that American consumers want: crossovers, SUVs and pickups that match up favorably to combustion-engine rivals in style and utility, while closing the range gap.

"If you rewind back a decade ago, options for pure EVs were quite limited," said Robby DeGraff, industry analyst at AutoPacific. "Besides the pricey Tesla Model S, we only had Mitsubishi's i-Miev and the first Nissan Leaf — both of which looked like somewhat dorky, obscure hatchbacks that returned not very desirable range."

Thankfully, DeGraff said, "that list is a lot longer now, as more automakers have tapped into the growing need and consumer demand for EVs." They have also tapped into much larger battery packs for longer drives on a single charge.

The…

The race for the national presidency of Unifor has begun in earnest as long-time union chief Jerry Dias nears retirement and the labor organization prepares for leadership elections this summer.

Dias has headed Canada’s largest private-sector union since it was formed in 2013 and has repeatedly said his third term as president will be his last, meaning union delegates will elect a new leader at Unifor’s constitutional convention this August. Dias was elected to his third three-year term in August, 2019. 

Two candidates have already declared their intention to run. Dave Cassidy, president of Unifor Local 444, which represents workers at Stellantis’ Windsor Assembly Plant, and Scott Doherty, executive assistant to Unifor’s national president, will contend for the union’s top job.

Cassidy and Doherty announced their candidacy this month as Dias stepped away from his post to deal with undisclosed health issues. Unifor has provided no timeline for …

Online used-vehicle retailer Carvana, pressed in recent months to expand its vehicle reconditioning capacity, said Thursday it plans to buy the ADESA U.S. physical wholesale auction business from KAR Global Inc. for $2.2 billion in cash.

The transaction would "include all auction sales, operations and staff" at ADESA's 56 vehicle logistics centers in the U.S. It would also include exclusive use of the ADESA.com marketplace in the U.S., according to KAR Global.

Carvana said it will operate the wholesale auction business under the ADESA brand name. ADESA U.S. President John Hammer, additional ADESA executives and 4,500 ADESA and KAR employees will transition to Carvana once the deal closes.

"ADESA earned its place as a respected brand in our industry because of its dedicated team and robust operations," Carvana CEO Ernie Garcia said in a news release. "We have long admired ADESA, having come to appreciate their approach as a customer for many years. We loo…

Rivian Automotive Inc. is "making progress" in the increase of production of electric vehicles at its Normal, Ill., assembly plant and is aiming to take 10 percent share in the EV market by 2030, CEO RJ Scaringe said on Thursday.

"We're absolutely making progress," he said during a Wolfe Research conference of the push to increase vehicle production. "The plant is starting to ramp nicely."

Rivian shares closed up 10.7 percent to $63.71.

Scaringe, responding to a question about how big Rivian could become by 2030, said the company had the brand position "to build out a portfolio ... to allow us to really work toward building a position of 10 percent market share within the EV space."

He called the global semiconductor chip shortage the "most painful" constraint in the push to build production. The California-based startup produced 1,015 vehicles last year, coming up short of its target of 1,200 due to supply-chain constraints.

Rivian's stock…

FRANKFURT/BERLIN -- Volkswagen Group and its top shareholder Porsche Automobil Holding SE have entered a framework agreement for a possible stock market listing of iconic sports car brand Porsche, edging closer to what could become one of the world's largest stock market debuts.

"The automotive industry is changing fundamentally. Volkswagen is determined to play a leading role in a world of zero-emission and autonomous mobility," Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess said.

“The actual feasibility of an IPO depends on several different parameters as well as general market conditions,” VW said in a statement on Thursday. “No final decisions have yet been taken.”

The announcement comes on the heels of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has sparked volatility across world markets and concerns of higher energy prices.

Europe’s biggest automaker announced two days ago it mapped out a framework for a possible deal and was in advanced talks about an IPO of the gr…

The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating whether Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk and his brother Kimbal violated securities laws when selling shares in the company last year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The regulator’s probe is focused on transactions late last year just before Elon Musk polled his Twitter followers asking if he should sell 10 percent of his stake in the company, prompting Tesla’s shares to tumble.

The investigation, reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal, is focusing on whether any insider trading rules were violated, said the person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the probe is private.

The potential probe would escalate Musk's battle with regulators as they scrutinize his social media posts and Tesla's treatment of workers, including accusations of discrimination.

Tesla's shares were up about 3 percent to $786.52 in late-afternoon trading, paring losses amid a broade…

Growing Canadian dealership group Foundation Automotive Corp. made its first acquisition of 2022 and expanded its presence in Texas with the purchase of five franchised dealership rooftops on Wednesday.

Foundation bought BMW of Wichita Falls, Patterson Buick-GMC-Cadillac, Patterson Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat, Patterson Hyundai and Patterson Kia, all in Wichita Falls, from Patterson Auto Group. The deal also included a used-vehicle dealership and two RV dealerships in Wichita Falls.

The group bought the dealerships from Patterson Auto CEO Paul Tigrett, Foundation CEO Kevin Kutschinski told Automotive News in an email. The BMW brand and RV dealerships are new to Foundation's portfolio.

Wichita Falls is northwest of Dallas, near the Oklahoma border.

Kutschinski said Foundation renamed four of the dealerships: Foundation Cadillac-Buick-GMC Wichita Falls, Foundation Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat Wichita Falls, Foundation Hyundai Wichita Falls and Fo…

Robert Bosch said today it will acquire 3D-mapping company Atlatec GmbH as the world's largest auto supplier looks to boost its development of automated driving systems.

Atlatec, based in Karlsruhe, Germany, creates high-resolution 3D maps for use in vehicles equipped with Level 3 or Level 4 automated technology. The company employs 25 people in Germany, Japan and the U.S., according to Bosch.

Bosch sees digital maps as playing a "crucial role" in the development of automated driving, alongside vehicle sensors such as radar and cameras.

"The planned acquisition of Atlatec further expands our expertise in the field of high-resolution digital maps and makes us even more diversified," Mathias Pillin, president of cross-domain computing solutions at Bosch, said in a statement. "It makes Bosch the only company that can offer its customers all the necessary building blocks of automated driving — from actuators and sensors to software and maps — from a single s…

Stellantis has extended the life of a second shift at its minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario.

The automaker said on Thursday it will now knock the Windsor Assembly Plant down to a single shift at the end of June.

Stellantis on Thursday said in a statement that its original timing laid out in a news release issued in October 2021 “referenced the timing as beginning in the early spring.”

Unifor Local 444, which represents workers at the factory, said in its own statement at that time the change was to take place on April 17.

Stellantis on Thursday said it “can confirm that the shift elimination timing has been extended through Q2 of 2022.”

The automaker declined to comment further on why it extended the shift.

About 4,500 people, the majority of them Unifor members, build the Chrysler Pacifica and Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid for global markets, the Chrysler Grand Caravan for the Canadian market and Chry…

Volkswagen Group is holding talks with Huawei Technologies on establishing a joint venture to allow the Chinese tech giant to help it develop autonomous driving vehicles, according to Jiemian, a Shanghai-based business website.

VW will become a majority shareholder of the partnership, Jiemian reported Wednesday, citing a source with information about the talks.

The deal, if finalized, will effectively make Huawei a tier-one autonomous technology supplier to the German auto giant, it noted. 

Su Jing, former head of Huawei’s intelligent driving product line, will join the VW-Huawei joint venture to lead its product development, the source was also cited as saying. 

Su left Huawei in January, according to Jiemian. 

For several months, VW executives have been negotiating with Huawei about acquiring the latter’s autonomous driving unit, German business magazine Manager Magazin, reported last week.

VW has long been the large…

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Postal Service has finalized a contract to replace its mail-truck fleet with almost all gasoline-powered models, drawing an angry response from Biden administration officials who unsuccessfully pushed the agency to buy electric vehicles instead.

The record of decision signed Wednesday represents the culmination of a failed lobbying effort by the Environmental Protection Agency and top Biden administration officials to persuade the Postal Service to shift course. The independent agency can now move forward with its $6 billion plan to begin purchasing as many as 165,000 mail trucks over the next 10 years from Wisconsin military truck maker Oshkosh Corp.

As many as 90 percent of those will run on gasoline instead of batteries, according to the plan.

EPA Associate Administrator Vicki Arroyo decried the move as a “crucial lost opportunity to be a leader in reducing the carbon footprint of one of the largest government fleets in the worl…