Trade News

The past two years have brought a torrent of challenges for the automotive supply chain. Even beyond Covid-19, there have been blocked canals, congested ports, driver shortages and multiple natural disasters that have surprised OEMs and suppliers around the world. The pandemic exacerbated these issues and created new ones, most notably a critically restricted supply of semiconductor chips. 

A key culprit is making these challenges worse: outdated software. 

“If you’re reacting to a supply chain crisis with old and inflexible software written in the 1990s, it's a bit like playing a game of chess where you can only see some of the pieces,” says Liam Mawe, Global Head of Automotive and Mobility at Palantir Technologies. “Data and analytics in the supply chain should light up the entire chess board and guide decision-makers in the supply chain to make moves with the full available context towards the strategic goals of the company.”

For many busin…

Microchip relief? Don't get your hopes up

You have no doubt heard, in the past few years, the expression "headline fatigue." People sometimes tell pollsters that they're just tired of reading the same bad news over and over and over.

And you might even feel that way about the global shortage of microchips.

But guess what. That story ... won't … go … away.

This week, we take stock of where things stand as Year Two of the situation gets going. News flash: Don't get your hopes up.

Asia Editor Hans Greimel and I did a quick survey of the current outlook of executives and forecasters who are either directly involved in fixing the problem or monitoring it for any sign of real relief. What you'll read this week is that, even as the industry tries its hardest to hack a path through the thickets of the problem — and even manages to find relief here and there — the chip shortage is going to keep constraining vehicle production for months to come.<…

The CEO and co-founder of mobility data platform startup Populus discusses how city transportation departments manage mobility, the underappreciated value of curb space and the future of shared transportation.

How do I subscribe?

Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

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Lamborghini is in its last year of selling only pure combustion engines in models such as Aventador as the sports-car maker switches its lineup to plug-in hybrids.

The Volkswagen Group brand will unveil its first production car with a plug next year before electrifying its full offering by 2024. For 2022, Lamborghini has almost sold out its entire production run following record deliveries in 2021, CEO Stephan Winkelmann said.

Lamborghini said it delivered 8,405 vehicles globally last year, up 13 percent. Sales in Europe, its largest region, rose 12 percent.

"It will be the last time that we only offer combustion engines," Winkelmann said in an interview. The carmaker has seen a "very good start" to 2022, he said. 

Winkelmann said Lamborghini plans to unveil four new products in 2022 as it moves to hybridize its lineup.

Lamborghini has allocated a record 1.5 billion euros ($1.7 billion) for the shift to plug-in hybrids, and plans to of…

Autonomous robots were a major focus this year at CES, from roaming device demonstrations on the exhibit floor to virtual presentations discussing emerging trends in the space.

Autonomous-delivery startup Ottonomy used the Las Vegas event to spotlight its Ottobot, the company's newly named delivery robot capable of navigating "crowded and unpredictable environments" and working indoors as well as outside. Two of Ottonomy's autonomous delivery robots, or ADRs, are operating inside Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, where the bots make food, beverage and retail deliveries to passengers waiting to board flights.

The autonomous robots, which resemble high-tech coolers on wheels, have a range of 2.5 miles and can operate for six to eight hours before needing to be recharged. The speed of the Ottobots is limited to 5 to 10 mph for safety reasons.

Customers in the airport's B concourse use a mobile app to request delivery …

A select few Toyota and Lexus dealers this month will be pioneers in an expansion of the SmartPath and Monogram digital retailing systems — a strategy that promises to bring to dealer service lanes what the initiative has brought to hundreds of dealers' sales floors.

Toyota's SmartPath Service and its Lexus counterpart, Monogram Service, aim to ease the trepidation some consumers face in the service lane with a large dose of digital transparency, including pricing.

When fully implemented, the fixed ops components will allow owners to digitally guide their whole service experience: setting appointments, reviewing video inspections, approving repair orders, paying their bills and monitoring repair progress through completion and eventual delivery.

"What we've been working on for the last two years really is designing the SmartPath Service and Monogram Service experience and using the same premise that we had for sales and F&I," said T…

Some major automotive suppliers won't just be rolling out new driver-assistance technology in the coming years. They also will be deploying health technology aimed at detecting COVID-19, alerting someone to signs of a heart attack and purifying the air in vehicles.

"Our technologies make mobility cleaner, safer and smarter," Valeo Deputy CEO Christophe Perillat said this month at CES. "Naturally, they're finding their ways into other fields beyond our traditional automotive business."

Suppliers including Valeo and Mitsubishi Electric are finding that much of the technology they are developing for advanced driver-assistance systems can provide health benefits as well.

Take Valeo, for instance. At CES, it showcased a COVID-19 symptom detection terminal that the supplier says can determine whether someone has the coronavirus without making contact with the person, and do so in less than two minutes — with accuracy similar to that of a …

Jim Butler Auto Group, Faulkner Automotive Group, Horne Auto Group and Coughlin Automotive Group each expanded their dealership portfolios with acquisitions in either late in the fourth quarter of 2021 or early in January 2022.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic-, import- and luxury-brand dealerships.

Missouri growth

Jim Butler Auto Group expanded its reach in Missouri with the acquisition of a Ford-Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership.

Jim Butler Auto, through a subsidiary, bought Auffenberg Motor Co. of Mexico, Mo., on Thursday from Chris Auffenberg.

It marks the first Ford and second Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealership for Jim Butler Auto of Fenton, Mo., a St. Louis suburb.

Jim Butler Auto is not keeping the dealership in its existing location, however.

The group moved the franchises into a single temporary facility next to Jim Butler Centralia Chevrolet in Centralia, Mo., around a 20-minute drive west of Mexico. Read more

Keyes Hyundai of Mission Hills in Los Angeles is finding sales and customer satisfaction success with its practice of hiring automotive retailing outsiders.

After Lithia Motors Inc. acquired the dealership as part of its purchase of the nine-store Keyes Automotive Group in November 2020, Kevin Grant and Robert Lowry were transferred from another Lithia location to lead the Hyundai store. The pair had been hiring people with outside industry experience at their previous dealership and decided to roll out the strategy right off the bat for Mission Hills.

"What we decided to do is to stop looking at resumes and stop looking for car people," Grant, general manager, told Automotive News. "And let's start hiring for personality."

Grant and Lowry, general sales manager, worked with a Lithia recruiter to develop a job posting aimed at individuals looking to try something new. The ad sought applicants for customer service roles without specifying that the jobs w…

At a time when the auto industry is hungrier than ever for technological innovations, new patent awards are on the decline.

The number of new U.S. patent grants fell 7 percent in 2021. While there was little change in which automotive companies ranked as the top five for receiving patents last year, all but one of them saw a decrease from 2020, according to a report from Fairview Research's IFI Claims Patent Services, a database that closely monitors the activity.

What caused the drop is unclear, said IFI CEO Mike Baycroft. One theory is that COVID-19 may have slowed down the pipeline, with companies and individuals interrupted in their work. But this would not explain why a similar drop did not occur in 2020, when the pandemic was causing even more workplace and project disruption.

"It is almost like the process itself has slowed down," Baycroft said. "Whether that is the U.S. patent office not being able to process these applications and grants, or i…

U.S. private sector employees needed more time to save enough money to buy used and new cars last year as vehicle prices ballooned faster than wages grew, a study by consulting firm Anderson Economic Group concluded.

The Consumer Price Index — a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics measurement of the average change over time in prices paid by consumers for an assortment of goods and services — soared 37 percent for used vehicles in December 2021 compared with December 2020, according to findings released Thursday by Anderson. New-vehicle prices shot up 12 percent over that same time period.

Those price surges have been exacerbated by a combination of high consumer demand for vehicles and parts shortages that have constrained new-car production and put pressure on dealership inventory levels. And average weekly earnings for all private sector jobs in the U.S. in 2021 grew at a pace that couldn't keep up with the surges — from $1,035 in December 2020 to $1,085 in Dec…

DETROIT -- General Motors is expected on Tuesday to outline plans to invest $6.5 billion for EV projects at two sites in Michigan.

The investment would create 4,000 jobs in Orion Township and the Lansing suburb of Delta Township in Eaton County, according to a Jan. 25 board meeting agenda for the Michigan Strategic Fund that was posted online Friday.

The Michigan Strategic Fund's board is expected to approve a state tax incentives package for the automaker. The value of the incentives has not yet been made public by the Michigan Economic Development Corp.

GM is expected to tap its Orion Assembly plant for production of new electric vehicles and battery assembly, while sites in the Lansing area would build proprietary Ultium batteries with LG Energy Solution.

GM has revealed few details of what it has planned for the projects, but CEO Mary Barra has said the automaker plans to invest $35 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle development and ha…