Trade News

The U.S. Department of Labor is suing a luxury dealership group in Austin, Texas, for firing an employee who told his co-workers they potentially had been exposed to COVID-19.

When the employee learned in December 2020 that a co-worker had tested positive for COVID-19, he asked Hi Tech Motorcars management to warn other employees, then emailed them all himself when management did not do so, according to the lawsuit. Hi Tech Motorcars fired the employee within an hour, the complaint said.

The matter was investigated early this year by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That investigation determined the dealership violated Section 1 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.

"This employee acted out of real concern for their safety and that of their coworkers, and their actions are protected under federal law," Labor Department Regional Solicitor John Rainwater said in a news release. "The law also protects whis…

Two dealership groups expanded in California and Texas, respectively, with October transactions, while publicly traded auto retailer Lithia Motors Inc. sold a Nissan store this month.

Here's a look at the deals involving import and luxury dealerships.

Lithia dealership divestitureLithia Motors Inc. has divested another dealership from the Carbone Auto Group, which it acquired in 2016.

Lithia on Oct. 5 sold Carbone Nissan in Yorkville, N.Y., to Steet Ponte Auto Group of Yorkville, according to DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group company that handled the transaction. The Steet Ponte group, with stores in central New York, is owned by Steve Ponte Sr. and Joe Steet Sr.

The store was renamed Steet Ponte Nissan. This is Steet Ponte's seventh new-vehicle dealership and first Nissan store, according to its website. The group dates back to 1945.

"We are very excited to add Nissan to our lineup of dealerships," Joe St…

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen's deliveries of battery-powered electric vehicles in China more than tripled in the first nine months of the year, the carmaker said on Friday, less than two months after it flagged the need to change its e-car strategy there.

Deliveries of battery electric vehicles in the world's largest car market stood at 47,200 in the January-September period, up from 15,700 in the same period last year.

"As planned, we significantly accelerated the BEV market ramp-up in China in the third quarter, and we are on track to meet our target for the year of delivering 80,000 to 100,000 vehicles of the ID. model family," said Christian Dahlheim, head of group sales.

Volkswagen Chief Executive Herbert Diess in July said the carmaker had to change its approach to how it markets BEVs in China after first-half deliveries stood at just 18,285.

MEXICO CITY -- Ford Motor Co. will temporarily suspend production Friday at its Hermosillo plant in Mexico's Sonora state due to a shortage of materials, the plant's labor union said Thursday.

Workers will be paid 75 percent of salaries on Friday, the union added.

Ford had also suspended production from Oct. 11-12 at its Hermosillo plant, where it makes its Bronco Sport crossover and Maverick compact pickup.

The union did not specify which materials were in short supply, but other automakers have been struggling with a chip shortage as semiconductor manufacturers shifted production toward parts needed for laptop computers, cellphones and video games during the pandemic.

Ford did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

BEIJING -- Electric vehicle maker Nio Inc. said it would double the capacity of its Hefei plant to 240,000 vehicles a year, up from 120,000 units.

The factory, in the eastern Chinese city of Hefei, can make sedan and crossover models. After the expansion, with extra operating shifts, the plant will be able to make up to 300,000 cars a year, it told Reuters.

Nio will finish the production line expansion in the first half of 2022, it said.

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. will cut global production for a third time next month as the pandemic and global shortage of automotive microchips continue to bite, but the impact will not be as painful as before and Japan's biggest automaker finally sees signs of recovery on the horizon.

"I think we are over the worst period," global procurement manager Kazunari Kumakura said.

Toyota will produce between 850,000 and 900,000 vehicles worldwide in November, the company announced on Friday. The total represents a 15 percent cutback from Toyota's revised November production plan to produce 1 million vehicles in the month.

But even with the cutback, the reduced output level still represents an all-time high for the month of November, Toyota noted. That is because in August, Toyota actually raised the November monthly target to 1 million units in an attempt to catch up from earlier setbacks.

Procurement manager Kumakura said the company could have reach…

European passenger-car registrations slumped 25 percent in September as the microchip shortage squeezed the supply of vehicles to dealerships.

Sales of new cars were 972,723 in the European Union, U.K. and EFTA markets, the lowest for the month since 1995, data from industry association ACEA showed on Friday.

The industry group ACEA largely attributes the decline to the semiconductor shortage, which has led to production stoppages at car factories.

The September sales plunge puts the industry on course to come up short of last year's disastrous showing amid COVID-19 lockdowns that closed many dealerships.

After three consecutive declines, sales in Europe have fallen in more months than they have risen this year.

Market researchers now expect sales to be down this year after optimism in early 2021 when ACEA predicted growth of about 10 percent.

"We currently forecast that this year will not eclipse the desperately weak 2020 result," …

Trailer maker Colorado Teardrops says it has "hundreds" of preorders for a camper that will house EV-charging batteries in its frame.

That's notable considering that, for now, the camper — called the Boulder — exists only as a 3D computer rendering.

Still, customers have paid to be first adopters. Preorders were generated through advertising on YouTube and independent reviews, says marketing director Joshua Robinson.

The built-in batteries will allow electric vehicle drivers to travel with a teardrop-shaped camper that has 5 feet by 10 feet of interior space and doubles as a charging station they can take into the wilderness. The Boulder will have a 75-kilowatt-hour battery pack, which the company says should recharge most EVs to their pre-towing range or better. It also offers more traditional amenities, such as an insulated cabin, a galley and seating that can convert into beds.

Robinson says towing a trailer can be a …

MONTICELLO and AMENIA, N.Y. — In 2020, Toyota sold three times as many RAV4 crossovers to U.S. customers in just one average week than the number of 86 sport coupes it sold all year. Subaru averaged one and half times more Foresters a week than it did the 86's twin, the BRZ, all year.

To look at it another way: The 86's 2,476 deliveries accounted for a scant 0.13 percent of the Toyota brand's total U.S. sales. The BRZ's 2,267 sales were just 0.37 percent of Subaru of America's sales. And annual sales in recent years of both are significantly below their peaks.

So with most American new-car shoppers snapping up crossovers of all sizes, SUVs and pickups, and billions of automaker R&D dollars being pumped into zero-emission vehicles, does it make sense to invest in a new generation of small, gasoline-powered, modestly priced sports cars that sell in tiny volumes?

Absolutely, according to officials at Toyota and Subaru.

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Tesla Inc. is on a collision course with the top U.S. auto-safety regulator over technology that’s been key to the company becoming far and away the world’s most valuable carmaker.

Last month, Tesla beamed an over-the-air software update to its vehicles aimed at improving how its driver-assistance system Autopilot handles crash scenes. Weeks earlier, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened an investigation into whether Autopilot was defective after repeated collisions with police cars and fire trucks.

Tesla made the potentially fateful decision to deploy the update without initiating a recall. The move opened the company up to risks including fines, greater scrutiny of its over-the-air updates and damage to Autopilot’s standing with would-be car buyers, according to safety advocates including a former acting administrator of NHTSA.

“If you’re not going to be transparent about problems with your vehicles and what you’re doing to fix the…

DETROIT -- U.S. commercial electric vehicle maker Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. on Thursday said it has signed a battery supply deal with China's Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.

Financial terms of the deal, which runs through 2025, were not disclosed. CATL's batteries power the Class 1 small delivery vehicle that ELMS began building last month at its plant in Mishawaka, Ind.

The companies are also exploring a setup where CATL would have a U.S. plant that would make battery cells and ship them to the ELMS plant in Indiana for assembly into battery packs, an ELMS spokesman said.

"We reached an important milestone to secure battery capacity in an extremely challenging supply environment," ELMS' deputy chief financial officer, Rob Song, said in a statement.

Battery makers are boosting production to meet soaring worldwide demand as carmakers accelerate the shift to electric vehicles to comply with tougher emission rules aimed at tackling clim…

The Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council has filed a countersuit against Piston Group, alleging breach of contract and defamation in an ongoing legal dispute over the minority leadership of the auto supplier.

The two organizations have been sparring since last year over Piston Group's minority-enterprise business status — a valuable certification doled out and rescinded by the MMSDC.

The MMSDC pulled Piston Group's certification in February after it determined its CEO, former Detroit Piston Vinnie Johnson, did not run the day-to-day operations of his large supplier, which operates four subsidiaries — Piston Automotive, Irvin Automotive, the Detroit Thermal Systems joint venture with Valeo, and office furniture unit Airea.

To be certified, a company must be 51 percent majority-owned by a person of color, actively managed in day-to-day operations by a person of color and operate independently, according to the organization.

The heads of P…