Trade News

Volkswagen Group said it will reassign responsibility for its China business unit to VW brand chief Ralf Brandstaetter.

The company veteran will take over the role on Aug. 1, 2022, VW said in a statement on Thursday.

Skoda boss Thomas Schaefer will become VW brand CEO. Schaefer will familiarize himself with the VW brand role from April 1 onwards as chief operating officer ahead of taking up the CEO role, VW said.

Brandstaetter, 53, will move to Beijing for the new role, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported on Wednesday.

VW's current China boss, Stephan Woellenstein, will be given a new as-yet unidentified role with the automaker, reports said last month.

China accounts for 40 percent of VW Group's volume, but sales in the world's biggest market are well below targets, with demand for VW's ID full-electric models models much weaker than expected due to the microchip crisis and competition from Tesla and local electric brands such as Nio…

HAMBURG -- Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess will stay on in the role, the company said on Thursday, ending weeks of uncertainty about his future as the automaker updated a five-year plan that sees spending on electric cars rising by about a half.

VW Group's supervisory board presented its annual update to the company's five-year investment plan, outlining investments of 159 billion euros ($180 billion) and involving electrifying more of VW's sites across Europe.

Spending for EVs will be raised by about 50 percent to nearly $59 billion.

VW Group also confirmed it expected its operating margin to be at the upper end of its 6 percent to 7.5 percent target range for 2021.

Diess also will take on responsibility for the company's software unit Cariad.

Diess's future had been in doubt following clashes with VW's powerful labor unions.

"We have made important decisions and found good answers to make Volkswagen fit for the future," supervis…

Ford Motor Co. Chair Bill Ford acquired almost 2 million shares of the company for about $20.5 million through the exercise of stock options.

The great-grandson of founder Henry Ford chose to use cash to pay exercise costs on the options rather than sell some of the resulting shares, according to a regulatory filing.

The transaction leaves Ford, 64, with about 20 million shares, including restricted stock. That total also includes about 15 million of the founding family's special class of super-voting stock. His holdings would be worth about $400 million based on Ford's latest price.

The automaker's shares hit a 20-year high last month, with investors rewarding the company for a more-aggressive push into electric vehicles under CEO Jim Farley. Since Farley became CEO 14 months ago, Ford shares have risen nearly 200 percent, closing Wednesday at $19.81.

"The decision to exercise these options to purchase almost 2 million shares of common stock refl…

Stellantis will roll out hands-free Level 3 automated driving technology within its cars starting in 2024.

The technology to allow the driver to hand control to the car is being developed in partnership with BMW, the automaker said.

Announcing a new software strategy, Stellantis said it aims to generate about 20 billion euros ($23 billion) in extra revenue from software-driven features in its vehicles by 2030.

"The first Level 3 solution will come in 2024 before rolling out across the full portfolio in the years to come," Joachim Langenwalter, head of artificial intelligence, software and hardware at the company, said during an online presentation of the strategy on Tuesday.

Stellantis executives did not expand on which of its 14 brands will gain access to the technology first, but a slide outlining the plans pictured an Alfa Romeo, suggesting it would go to premium brands first.

BMW will roll out Level 3 technology starting in 2022 with t…

HAMBURG -- Volkswagen Group's supervisory board will provide details Thursday on the future responsibilities of CEO Herbert Diess, which are likely to be curtailed because of a clash with the automaker's works council, a person familiar with the matter said.

The board, which also includes representatives for the Porsche and Piech families, Qatar and Lower Saxony, will outline "how to continue with Mr Diess and what will be his focus area in the future," the source said.

The board was meeting on Thursday to debate the group's next five-year plan covering future investments, management roles and factory allocations.

The supervisory board, which oversees strategy at the automaker, will also appoint new members to the management board, which is responsible for operational activities, German press reports said.

The new management board members are expected to include VW brand CEO Ralf Brandstaetter, who will also be placed in charge of the automaker's …

A buyer returning to the used-vehicle market after three or four years would need to go back to the 2014 model year to find the kind of $400 monthly payments their previous purchase might have carried, according to Experian.

And if the owner were financing at an independent dealership, they'd have to settle for the 2013 model year to keep the bill at $400, Experian concluded following an analysis of third-quarter auto sales trends released Dec. 2.

Used-vehicle loans rose 20 percent to $25,909 in the third quarter compared with the same period last year, and the average monthly payment rose $64, or 16 percent, to $465. The average amount financed on new vehicles rose 8.5 percent to $37,646, and the average monthly loan payment rose 8.8 percent to $615.

Experian said later model years drove the increase in used-vehicle payments, though Melinda Zabritski, Experian's senior director of automotive financial solutions, said older vehicl…

Growing Keating Auto Group acquired four dealerships over the past week and a half as it continues to expand its Texas-only footprint.

Keating Auto, of Victoria, Texas, on Nov. 29 bought Tom Light Chevrolet in Bryan, Texas, from brothers Tim Light and Tom Light, said Ben Keating, the dealership group's owner.

Terms were not disclosed, but the dealership was renamed Aggieland Chevrolet. Bryan is near College Station, home to the Texas A&M University Aggies.

On Monday, Keating Auto bought Automax Ford, Automax Volkswagen and Automax Hyundai-Genesis, all in Killeen, from husband and wife Bradley Whitis and A.G. Whitis.

The stores have been renamed Killeen Ford, Killeen Volkswagen and Killeen Hyundai-Genesis. Killeen, which is north of Austin, is near the U.S. Army base Fort Hood.

The acquisition marks a return to the Volkswagen brand for the Keating group, Keating noted.

Bill Scrivner and Mike Sims of Pinnacle Mergers and Acquisiti…

BEIJING -- SAIC Mobility, a unit of top Chinese automaker SAIC Motor and autonomous driving startup Momenta have begun offering autonomous robotaxis test rides to the public in a Shanghai district as part of a trial, Momenta said on Wednesday.

The two companies are testing 20 robotaxi vehicles in Shanghai's Jiading district to further gauge viability for commercial use in a trial that will expand to a second Chinese city next year, said Momenta, whose technology is used by SAIC Mobility.

SAIC Mobility, a SAIC Motor unit dedicated to robotaxi services, was not immediately available for a comment.

Beijing-based Momenta said the two companies are exploring the application of fully autonomous so-called "Level 4" driving technology in urban travel scenarios through the trial. 

Riders can summon a robotaxi through the SAIC Mobility App with one click, the statement said.

Momenta and SAIC Mobility plan to boost the test fleet in Jiading nex…

BERLIN -- Volkswagen Financial Services expects record annual revenue boosted by a strong fourth quarter, it said on Wednesday, amid high used car demand, comparatively low risk provisions for car loans, and cheap refinancing opportunities.

Annual operating profits this year will be far above a previous projection of 4 billion euros ($4.51 billion), CFO Frank Fiedler said to Reuters, after fourth quarter results outstripped all other quarters this year.

Volkswagen Financial Services, which includes the Volkswagen Bank and Porsche Financial Services, reported operating profits of 2.8 billion euros in 2020.

The company, which said in March it expected revenue this year to match last year's levels, had expected more dealerships to fail in the second year of the pandemic but very few did, Fiedler said.

"We managed to get our full dealership branch through," Fiedler said. "And they are looking good."

The carmaker's finance division is undergoing…

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended the Biden administration’s support for electric vehicles that Tesla Inc. chief executive officer Elon Musk dismissed as “unnecessary.”

“We think it’s very important to fund EV charging stations and to also make sure what’s in the next Build Back Better Act to buy down the price of electric vehicles,” Buttigieg said Tuesday at an event hosted by The Wall Street Journal.

Speaking at the same event on Monday, Musk took aim at the Build Back Better Act, a centerpiece economic policy measure backed by President Joe Biden now pending before the Senate.

“I would say honestly I would just can this whole bill,” Musk said in a Monday, slamming excessive federal spending. “Don’t pass it. That’s my recommendation.”

While Biden’s Build Back Better proposal would reinstate a $7,500 credit for Tesla and do away with any limit on the number of EVs that are eligible per manufacturer, it also would give consum…

BANGKOK -- Ford Motor Co. is investing $900 million to upgrade factories in Thailand that build its Ranger pickup truck and Everest utility vehicle.

Ford, making its largest-ever investment in the operations, plans to nearly double the number of robots at its Thai manufacturing plant and at AutoAlliance Thailand, a venture with Mazda Motor Corp., while $400 million of the investment will go towards its supply chain network.

It will also add a second shift to the Ford plant which will createt as many as 1,250 jobs, bringing its workforce in Thailand to more than 9,000.

In Thailand, Ford said it is able to produce around 270,000 vehicles annually.

About 60 percent is exported Asia-Pacific markets like Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines where its pickup trucks are popular.

"If demand increases in the future, the proportion is adjusted on a monthly basis," a Ford spokeswoman said, adding that its export market is robust.

The fact…

Volkswagen has established key partnerships to secure raw materials it needs to realize its ambitious electric-vehicle strategy and close a gap with rival Tesla, the automaker said in a statement.

At the core of the three agreements, which are part of VW's $34 billion plan to build battery plants and procure materials, lies a planned joint venture with Belgian chemicals and recycling company Umicore.

The venture aims to supply cathode materials to VW's European battery cell factories, which it plans to build by 2030. It will start production in 2025 with 20 gigawatt hours (GWh) for a plant in Salzgitter, Germany, which the automaker plans to build with China's Gotion High-Tech.

The joint venture's goal is to reach annual production capacity of up to 160 GWh by the end of the decade, enough capacity to power approximately 2.2 million EVs.

"Volkswagen is implementing its battery strategy very consistently and at a high pace," board member Thomas Sch…