After announcing the mandate for Canadian workers, requiring the vaccine will be the best way to help their employees feel safe on the job.
Ryder, Gatik team up to roll out U.S. autonomous delivery network
Truck fleet operator Ryder System Inc. and Gatik said on Tuesday they will build a national U.S. autonomous short-haul, "middle-mile" logistics network for Gatik, a Silicon Valley self-driving startup, to deliver goods to business customers.
Ryder's corporate venture capital arm RyderVentures has also invested in Gatik's latest funding round of $85 million that was announced in August.
Gatik works with Walmart Inc. and Loblaw Companies Ltd. to deliver goods to retail stores from warehouses using autonomous trucks with safety drivers -- though in Arkansas it is already running some driverless deliveries.
As part of the partnership, Gatik will lease a fleet of medium-duty trucks from Ryder - initially around 20 vehicles in the Dallas area.
Gatik will add its autonomous driving systems to those trucks, which will transport goods to retail locations from fulfillment centers, or "dark stores" — distribution centers catering to e-commerce busines…
Tesla’s Q3 may hinge on China factory, supply chain costs
SAN FRANCISCO -- Investors will be closely watching Tesla Inc.'s third-quarter results on Wednesday for indications of its performance in China, where the electric carmaker has posted robust sales in the face of negative publicity and a host of new domestic competitors.
The company headed by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk is expected to report a jump in revenue driven by record global deliveries in the July to September period.
While it has weathered the chip crisis better than rivals, some investors are concerned supply-chain issues could increase costs and weigh down margins.
The upside could come from Tesla's Shanghai factory, which has surpassed the company's factory in Fremont, Calif., in terms of production, and has cut costs with the use of more Chinese parts including batteries.
Tesla started deliveries in late August of a less expensive version of the Model Y crossover equipped with cheaper, iron-based batteries made by CATL in China,…
Audi extends production stops due to semiconductor shortage
Audi is extending production stops due to a lack of semiconductor supplies, with most of the assembly lines at its factories in Ingolstadt and Neckarsulm in Germany at a standstill this week.
The short-time work plan, which was originally scheduled to end last Friday, has been extended, an Audi spokeswoman told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche.
In Ingolstadt the assembly line for the Q2 crossover and A3 compact car will be at a complete standstill next week. There was no production on the line last week.
The other two lines, on which the A3, A4 and A5 are built, are running on at least some days, but only in one shift each: one Monday to Thursday on the early shift, the other Tuesday to Thursday on the night shift.
Production of the A4 and A5 will also stop in Neckarsulm this week. The A6, A7 and A8 models will be produced from Monday to Thursday, but the A6 and A7 will only be produced in one shift each.
According …
Stellantis, Samsung SDI agree on joint EV battery deal for North America, report says
SEOUL -- Stellantis and South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI have agreed to jointly produce EV batteries for the North American market, a person familiar with the matter said.
"The two companies (Samsung SDI and Stellantis) have struck a MOU (memorandum of understanding) to produce EV batteries for North America," the person with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.
The source spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The person said the location of the battery JV is under review and will be announced later.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency earlier reported that the two companies plan to build a factory in the U.S., citing industry sources.
Samsung SDI and Stellantis did not have immediate comment when reached by Reuters.
Samsung SDI, an affiliate of South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics, already has EV battery plants in South Korea, China and Hungary, which supply customers such as…
Leading finance technology provider IDS is now Solifi
IDS and its acquired companies, William Stucky and Associates and White Clarke Group, today announced the launch of a new company identity: Solifi.
The new brand and visual identity bring together innovative solutions, deep industry expertise, global reach, and a unified technology platform designed to enable our customers to deploy capital to power global commerce. Solifi is reshaping the secured finance industry by delivering solutions that guard, guide, and grow our customers’ businesses.
“We are very excited to unveil our new brand. Our goal in rebranding to Solifi was to capture our vision of an integrated technology ecosystem that helps our customers connect capital to potential,” says David Hamilton, CEO, Solifi. “A key aspect of our mission is to help our customers serve their customers better. By bringing together market-leading secured finance solutions onto a single platform, we are uniquely positioned to help our customers tap into market opportuniti…
Stellantis, LG Energy Solution to form battery JV for North America
Stellantis entered a preliminary agreement with battery maker LG Energy Solution to produce battery cells and modules for North America, as the automaker rolls out its 30-billion-euro ($35 billion) electrification plan.
Stellantis and LG will form a JV to produce battery cells and modules at a new facility that will have an annual production capacity of 40 gigawatt-hours, the automaker said in a statement Monday.
The batteries produced will be supplied to Stellantis' assembly plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico for installation in hybrid and full-EVs, to support its goal of having more than 40 percent of its U.S. sales as electric by 2030.
The announcement comes weeks after Stellantis and its partner TotalEnergies agreed to open up their battery cell JV ACC to Daimler, to expand their European sourcing of battery cells.
The new north American plant is targeted to start by the first quarter of 2024.
The location of the plant is under revie…
Ford picks UK plant over Germany for EV parts production
LONDON/ COLOGNE -- Ford has picked the UK over Germany for its first electric vehicle components factory in Europe.
The automaker said it is investing 230 million pounds ($316 million) to convert its transmission plant in Halewood, northwest England, to produce electric drive units for future Ford full-electric passenger and commercial vehicles sold in Europe.
Production will begin in 2024, Ford said in a statement on Monday. Capacity is planned to be around 250,000 units a year. The investment will safeguard about 500 jobs at the factory.
An electric drive unit combines the electric motor, invertor and transmission and replaces the engine and gearbox in a combustion engine car.
Ford did not comment on whether it would build each element at the plant or source from suppliers and assemble them into a single unit on site.
Labor bosses at Ford's German operations criticized Ford's choice of the UK factory for the investment instead of converti…
Toyota to build U.S. battery plant, eventually localize EV production
Toyota Motor North America said it will invest $3.4 billion in the U.S. over the next nine years to develop and localize automotive battery production, including those for electric vehicles which would be made locally instead of in Japan.
The U.S. investment — part of a previously announced $13.5 billion program globally by the automaker for battery development and production — will include a $1.29 billion lithium ion battery plant, built in partnership with Toyota Tsusho, that will begin producing batteries by 2025. They will go in upcoming localized EVs as well as hybrids.
Toyota did not provide a location for the proposed plant nor details of its business model, but said it would result in the creation of 1,750 new American jobs. The plant's production would focus first on batteries for hybrids, but would then begin to produce battery packs for U.S.-built EVs, a spokesman confirmed.
Toyota also did not say where it plans to build its EVs for North Am…
Hyundai vows to appeal $16M verdict over Genesis points
A Florida Hyundai and Nissan dealer was awarded $16 million this month by a jury in a U.S. District Court lawsuit in which he claimed Hyundai Motor America reneged on an agreement to give him first right of refusal on two open Genesis points.
Hyundai said in a statement that it disagreed with the verdict and will appeal.
The jury in the 3-year-old case, Action Nissan Inc. and William Nero vs. Hyundai Motor America and Genesis Motor America, found that Hyundai had reached a settlement with Nero on a separate matter in 2009, and that the earlier agreement included right of first refusal if Hyundai established a luxury brand within a decade.
The jury found that Hyundai did establish the Genesis luxury brand within that time frame and had breached an agreement with Nero on the open points. Nero also owns Universal Hyundai in Orlando, Fla.
Genesis was formally launched in 2015 but struggled to define a retail model in the U.S. in the years that followe…
EQE crossover styling glimpsed in Germany
About a year from now, Mercedes-Benz is expected to launch the battery-electric EQE crossover, to be built at its Alabama plant. It will be slightly smaller than the EQS SUV, also coming next year.
The EQE crossover and sedan, which is due in 2022 as well, are similar in size and market segment as Mercedes' E-Class cars and crossovers, while the EQS SUV and sedan, launching this fall, slot above and are intended to be the electric equivalent of the company's flagship S-Class vehicles.
The EQE vehicles are built on a Mercedes-Benz scalable and flexible EVA platform and are expected to spawn several models, including rear-wheel-drive and all-wheel-drive dual-motor variants that will offer at least two battery pack options.
The heavily camouflaged EQE crossover was snapped recently undergoing testing in Germany. Though specific design details are hidden, the vehicle's steeply raked windshield, flush-mounted headlights, smooth and round…
4 ways to improve recall campaigns
In a typical year, upward of 30 million vehicles in the U.S. are affected by recalls. We expect this number to grow as vehicles increase in complexity and are built with more parts that could break or malfunction. Swiftly driving these recalls to completion is critical. After all, consumer brand perception and loyalty, manufacturer financial penalties and, most important, consumer safety are on the line. Yet today, fewer than half of vehicles 5 years old and older get recall-related repair services. As a result, recall campaigns last not weeks, but years — consider the ongoing Takata airbag recall.
It has become increasingly clear that traditional recall campaign management needs a revamp to be more proactive, engaging, optimized, agile and data-driven.
This can be done by focusing on four core areas of improvement:
1. Going beyond VIN: With time of the essence, effective vehicle owner notification is nonnegotiable. For older vehicles that may have chan…