Trade News

Ford Motor Co. has launched in Europe the first vehicle from a wide-ranging partnership with Volkswagen Group, the Tourneo Connect small passenger van.

The Tourneo Connect is a version of the new VW Caddy van. It will be built alongside the Caddy at VW's factory in Poznan, Poland.

It comes in two lengths and can seat up to seven people. Deliveries start in spring 2022, Ford said in a statement. 

Ford and VW formed an industrial alliance in 2019 for the joint engineering and production of commercial vehicles, as well as other projects such as autonomous cars and an electric car for Ford on VW's MEB platform.

The first Ford-developed vehicle to be revealed under the joint venture will be the next-generation Ranger pickup that is expected be shown later this year. A VW version badged as Amarok will be built by Ford under the partnership.

The companies said in 2020 that they would produce a total of 8 million commercial vehicles together,…

Rivian, after multiple delays, began serial production of the R1T pickup last month at a retooled assembly plant in Normal, Ill., making it the first electric truck out of the gate as the industry begins a seismic shift to electrification.

The electric vehicle startup's first R1Ts off the line — all Launch Editions — start at $73,000, with a 314-mile range from a 135-kilowatt-hour battery and a 1,760-pound payload capacity.

A larger battery pack is coming designed to give the truck a range of about 400 miles. We've scoured the web for some early reviews.

"If you've never had 826 lb.-ft. of instant, electric torque under your right foot, I can solidly say that you haven't lived. The R1T might not have locking differentials, a two-speed transfer case or any kind of tough-guy wizardry you'd associate with off-road prowess, but none of that matters when you've got an absolute ton of torque. I can slowly pick my line up a steep, roc…

GM’s announcement that it will reveal its all-electric Silverado E at CES in January comes a week after Ford announced a $7 billion investment in batteries and building EVs, including the next generation F-Series pickups.

SAN ANTONIO — The revamped 2022 Toyota Tundra will boast a pair of new V-6 powertrains, including a hybrid, that offer improved mileage over the discontinued V-8 predecessor, plus a number of interior and technical refinements, including an improved infotainment system.

The next-generation full-size pickup equipped with a gasoline-powered, twin-turbo 3.5-liter V-6, named i-Force, is estimated by Toyota to get 20 mpg combined in 4x2 form, a 5-mpg improvement over the 2021 4x2 with a 5.7-liter V-8 engine. That moves it closer to comparable versions of the 2021 Ford-150 (22 mpg), Chevrolet Silverado (21 mpg) and Ram 1500 Classic (20 mpg). Toyota did not disclose the i-Force Max hybrid's mileage; EPA fuel economy figures for the gasoline and hybrid models will be released later. No diesel version will be offered.

Toyota, which has dribbled out details about the truck since spring and formally introduced it last month during "Sunday Night Football" on NBC, released…

SEOUL -- South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. and LG Electronics Inc. will be shouldering a combined $1.2 billion for General Motors' Bolt electric vehicle recall -- the lion's share of the expected costs, reassuring investors concerned about a rift between the conglomerate and a major carmaking customer.

GM in August expanded the recall, which will replace LG battery modules due to fire risk, to more than 140,000 cars, estimating the cost at $1.8 billion.

The LG group companies said on Tuesday that talks over the costs had ended. They booked most of their 1.4 trillion won ($1.17 billion) in costs in the July-September quarter although some was booked in the previous quarter.

For the latest quarter, LG Chem, whose wholly owned battery unit LG Energy Solution supplies batteries to GM, will take a charge of 620 billion won while LG Electronics, which assembles the cells into battery modules and packs, will book 480 billion won in costs.

“LG’s swif…

Vroom Inc. said on Tuesday it would buy automotive lender United Auto Credit Corp. for $300 million in cash, as the online used car retailer seeks to offer financing options for its shoppers.

Vroom also said United Auto will retain its brand name and the deal is expected to close by the first quarter of 2022.

Shares in Vroom fell 3.5 percent to close at $20.56 on Monday.

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. in December wants to restart production that has been curtailed by component shortages after a rebound in shipments from pandemic-hit suppliers.

The move may help the automaker regain about a third of output lost to supply disruptions, three sources familiar with the automaker's plans said.

Toyota last month cut its production target for the financial year to end-March by 300,000 vehicles to 9 million units because rising COVID-19 infections slowed work at parts factories in Malaysia and Vietnam, compounding a global chip shortage that has forced it and other automakers to curtail output.

The company has asked suppliers to make up for lost production so it can build an additional 97,000 vehicles between December and the end of March, with some considering additional weekend shifts to do so, said the sources, who asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to talk to the media. 

Takashi Miyao, a res…

Four dealership groups or partners purchased dealerships in the third and fourth quarters in Colorado, Utah, Texas and New Jersey in separate transactions. Two of the deals involved standalone Jeep stores.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic, import and luxury stores.

Standalone Jeep store addition

Fowler Holding Co. of Norman, Okla., the parent company of Fowler Automotive Group, has added its ninth dealership — a rare standalone Jeep store.

Fowler on Oct. 1 bought Pollard Jeep of Boulder in Colorado from Doug Pollard of Pollard Friendly Motor Co.

The dealership has been renamed Fowler Jeep of Boulder.

"After living in Boulder briefly 20 years ago, I have always known this is a community I wanted to represent," Jonathan Fowler, president of Fowler Holding, said in an email to Automotive News. "To have the chance to do that with an iconic American and Colorado brand like Jeep was a match made in Rocky Mountain heaven."

MILAN -- Stellantis plans to retool its factory in Turin, Italy, into an electric-vehicle hub, transferring production of two Maserati models to the Mirafiori plant.

The move is intended to increase efficiency and safeguard jobs as the automaker shifts to selling more EVs.

Stellantis will assign Mirafiori a new electrified platform to build Maserati sedans between 2022 and 2024, making the factory, where the automaker already produces the Fiat New 500 battery-electric minicar, the group's center for electrification in Italy.

The Mirafiori factory is the historic center of Fiat, employing some 50,000 workers in its heyday in the 1970s when it used to produce more than 600,000 cars a year.

The plant currently builds the Maserati Levante crossover as well as the Fiat New 500.

Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Saturday reported that Stellantis could increase production of the combustion-engine Fiat 500 at Mirafiori by moving some volumes there…

In the first half of 2021, investors showered autonomous-trucking developers such as Plus and TuSimple with a record $5.6 billion. That’s up from $4.2 billion in all of 2020, according to research firm Pitchbook. 

Class 8 commercial trucks, the tractor trailers you pass every day on the highway, typically log astronomical mileages on long routes with relatively predictable conditions. That’s an ideal environment for developing and proving self-driving technology. 

“The type of more structured driving that trucks do on the highway is really where autonomous technology shines,” says Plus co-founder and COO Shawn Kerrigan. The autonomous-vehicle developer currently deploys Level 4 autonomous trucks in the U.S. and China.

“The business cases are clear in terms of cost reductions, asset utilization and especially safety,” Kerrigan says. 

After years of waiting on robotaxis and autonomous passenger cars, many investors see that advanceme…

BEIJING -- Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. saw their sales in China tumble in September as a chip shortage hit vehicle production in the world's biggest car market.

Honda said it sold 121,448 vehicles in China last month, down 28 percent from a year earlier due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of components.

Nissan said it sold 104,443 cars and light trucks, down 26 percent, due to "external headwind including the ongoing pandemic, cross-industry material shortages, slowdowns, and increased competition."

Toyota said deliveries tallied 115,000, down 36 percent.

Separately, General Motors, which only reports quarterly China sales, said it sold over 623,000 vehicles in July through September, down 19 percent from the same period last year, "impacted by the ongoing global semiconductor supply chain disruption."

BMW rarely has to answer this question in Western showrooms, but it’s becoming increasingly important for selling cars in China: Can I sing karaoke in this automobile?

Customers in the world’s biggest auto market are demanding that sing-along apps such as Changba work in new vehicles. Local manufacturers XPeng Inc., Nio Inc. and BYD Co. are at the forefront of this trend, besting Western rivals by offering models with karaoke microphones. The push extends beyond music, with Chinese buyers expecting seamless access to features like in-car payment and social-media connectivity.

“We’ve identified this as a challenge,” said Christoph Grote, BMW’s digital car chief. “Chinese consumers are the most demanding when it comes to digital technology in the car.”

Tapping into local tastes is crucial to win over customers in China, where EV adoption is accelerating and homegrown auto offerings are mushrooming. The country is the biggest market for BMW as well as Volks…