The chip shortage shows no signs of easing and some major automakers this week outlined more production rollbacks due to the supply crunch.
Here’s what the companies said:
Toyota cuts output again on shortage of chips, parts
GM to extend crossover cuts, resume Silverado, Sierra production
Stellantis halts Cherokee, Pacifica production for 2 more weeks
Ford extends downtime at Missouri F-150 plant to fourth week
GM's second-half production loss doubles from prior forecast
TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. will slash global production again next month, to the tune of 330,000 units, as the pandemic and global shortage of automotive microchips continue to bite.
The total hit represents a 40 percent cutback from Toyota's original October production plan.
In announcing the reversal on Friday, Japan's biggest automaker said it will also take a bigger thumping than expected in September. Toyota expects to lose another 70,000 units this month.
That adjustment comes on top of an August announcement, when Toyota warned it would lose 360,000 vehicles of output globally in September, including some 80,000 units in North America.
Unlike in last month's announcement, when Toyota kept its fiscal year global production target unchanged, Toyota said this time that it would lower its target to 9 million units for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. It had earlier planned to manufacture 9.3 million vehicles worldwide.
That total …
Editor's note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that the entire plant work force went on strike. Only a "small fraction" of workers participated in the strike, a company spokesman said.
Employees at global supplier ZF Friedrichshafen's plant in Marysville, Mich., went on strike Thursday after the UAW said the company backed out of an agreement to recognize the employees' intentions to join the union.
ZF disagreed, saying it did not renege on what is known as a neutrality agreement. Production is continuing at the plant, a ZF spokesman said.
About 340 employees work at the location, but it's unclear how many people are actually on strike. The ZF spokesman said only a "small fraction" of the workforce is participating in the strike.
The plant is a key supplier to Stellantis and produces rear beam axles and axle drive units.
According to a news release from the UAW, a number of ZF employees at the plant have been indicati…
DETROIT — Chevrolet is expanding its Silverado lineup with a ZR2 off-road option in its latest refresh. The 2022 Silverado pickup will launch with Super Cruise availability and a revamped interior next year.
Silverado sales rose 8.3 percent to 286,410 in the first half of the year, maintaining the vehicle's crown as General Motors' bestselling vehicle in the U.S., though Chevy's overall pickup sales fell short of rivals Ford Motor Co. and Ram. Chevy announced this year that it would launch an electric version of the popular pickup at Factory Zero in Detroit. GM declined to provide production timing, but forecasters expect the EV to go on sale in 2023.
"We've been selling the heck out of the current truck and we've got some great improvements here," Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, told Automotive News. "Our goal here is to continue to dominate with the pickups and Silverado in particular."
The pickup, slated to go on sale in the spring, wi…
Apple Inc. appointed one of its top software executives, Kevin Lynch, to oversee its nascent self-driving car project after the previous leader left for Ford Motor Co.
Lynch, an Adobe Inc. veteran who joined Apple in 2013 to run the software group for the company’s smartwatch and health efforts, replaced Doug Field as the manager in charge of the car work, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
The executive first started working on the project earlier this year when he took over teams handling the underlying software. Now he is overseeing the whole group, which also includes hardware engineering and work on self-driving car sensors, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the move isn’t public.
The change marks the latest shake-up in the project’s tumultuous history. Since Apple embarked on its plan to develop a self-driving car around 2014, the endeavor has seen management turnover, layoffs of engineers and strategy shifts -…
WASHINGTON -- A group of 13 Republican lawmakers on Thursday raised concerns about U.S. approval for Chinese telecommunications company Huawei to buy chips for its growing auto components business.
The lawmakers, on the Energy and Commerce Committee, asked U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg in a letter seen by Reuters if he was concerned "Huawei will look for a foothold in developing components for future vehicles in order to gather information on Americans and our transportation infrastructure."
Reuters reported in August that U.S. officials have approved license applications worth hundreds of millions of dollars for the company, which is on a U.S. trade blacklist.
A spokesman for Buttigieg declined to comment. A spokesman for Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Republicans, led by U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the ranking member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, said the United States "must not surre…
The assortment of sensors automated vehicles should use to perceive their surroundings and detect obstacles is anything but settled upon.
Cameras, radar and lidar comprise the elemental sensors needed to reach higher levels of automated driving. But more companies are now exploring the ways thermal cameras might augment their systems.
A company called Plus that specializes in developing automated driving for trucks, is the latest to evaluate the potential of thermal cameras. The company said Wednesday it is collaborating with Teledyne FLIR on a development project that utilizes the cameras on its sensor stack for Level 4 automated vehicles.
"You can never be too safe when it comes to equipment you put on a heavy truck," Tim Daly, chief architect for Plus, said in a written statement. "Combining thermal cameras with our other sensors would bring an additional margin of safety to our system."
Thermal cameras are particularly adept at detecting obsta…
Mills Automotive Group of Charlotte, N.C., has purchased three dealerships in Hampton, Va., from Tysinger Motor Co., owned by Mark Tysinger.
The acquisition, which closed on Aug. 31, included Mercedes-Benz of Hampton, Audi Hampton and Tysinger Hyundai-Genesis, plus a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter commercial van franchise.
The Tysinger dealership business started nearly 100 years ago when John Tysinger, great-grandfather of Mark Tysinger, opened a General Motors dealership in 1926. Tysinger, in a statement, said it wanted to find a buyer to enhance its long-standing legacy in the community.
"These franchises complement our growing dealership group," Damian Mills, CEO of Mills Automotive, said in a statement. "His [Mark Tysinger's] stellar mix of franchises in the diverse and growing Hampton Roads region is a perfect fit for our continued geographic and brand expansion."
The group of stores will now operate as Classic Hampton Au…
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. will extend downtime at its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Claycomo, Mo., to a fourth-straight week because of the ongoing global semiconductor shortage.
The automaker informed employees Wednesday that both the pickup and van sides of the plant will be shuttered until Sept. 20. Workers there build the bestselling F-150 pickup as well as the Transit van.
The pickup side of the plant has been down since Aug. 23.
The chip shortage has greatly impacted production of some of Ford's most important nameplates.
The company has said it plans to work through "most" of some 60,000 to 70,000 unfinished vehicles that are sitting on lots around assembly plants by the end of the third quarter.
DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. has temporarily halted the scheduling of new Maverick hybrid pickup orders beyond the units it has already sold due to a parts availability issue, the automaker confirmed Wednesday.
Ford is currently building both configurations of the Maverick — the standard hybrid and optional 2.0-liter EcoBoost four-cylinder gasoline-only variant — at its Hermosillo, Mexico, plant to fulfill its current order bank. The vehicle is scheduled to launch on time later this month. However, the Maverick Truck Club owners forum posted a memo the automaker allegedly sent dealers earlier this week that the production of future Maverick hybrid orders will not be scheduled "until further notice."
Ford, which did not confirm the dealer memo, said in a statement that both the Maverick hybrid and EcoBoost variants will soon be headed to dealer showrooms and noted that customers can currently order both trucks from their local dealerships.
"As with any of our…
MUNICH — German supplier giant Continental is counting on the launch of a new business unit dedicated to autonomous mobility to help it become more nimble and more attractive to tech startups it wants to partner with.
The creation will also help make Continental's push deeper into emerging technologies more visible to outsiders and investors, said Frank Petznick, head of Continental's advanced driver-assistance systems.
"The less corporate overhead I have, the faster I can act in terms of partnerships, signing contracts, and also give the partner companies a feeling that they're partnering with this automated mobility unit, not with this big mother ship and really big, administrative corporation," Petznick told Automotive News on the sidelines of the Munich auto show Tuesday.
Continental this year said it would create a dedicated unit for its advanced driver-assistance and autonomous technology, betting that it could grow in that high-tech space even a…
Senol Bayrak, a 17-year Daimler veteran who has done tours of duty in China and Germany, will now lead sales and product management in the U.S.
Bayrak, 43, takes over as vice president of sales and product management at Mercedes-Benz USA, effective Nov. 1. He replaces Adam Chamberlain, who will leave the company after 12 years to pursue opportunities outside parent Daimler, the company said in a statement.
In his most recent role, Bayrak served in Stuttgart as the director of product management for SUV and electric models, as well as market intelligence and competitor analysis.
He will have overall responsibility for Mercedes' U.S. sales, volume planning, distribution operations and product management.
He arrives as the automaker faces tight inventories and product disruptions due to industrywide supply chain challenges.
The global semiconductor shortage has forced Mercedes-Benz to scale back production of V-8 engines for the 2022 model ye…