Trade News

Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba Group Holdings is forming an r&d program to create a driverless truck for its logistics business. 

The program will be led by Alibaba’s research institute and its logistics unit, Cainiao Network Technology Co., Chen Li, Alibaba’s CTO said Thursday at a conference on smart logistics held in the east China city of Hangzhou. 

Chen didn’t disclose additional details on the unmanned trucks the company is developing. 

The truck will become Alibaba’s second self-developed unmanned vehicle, following a small, full-electric van. 

Since it was launched in 2020, the van, jointly developed by Alibaba’s research institute and logistics unit, has been in operation at 15 universities and some residential areas in major cities such as Hangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing, Chen said at the event.

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ No contest: EVs are cleaner than ever compared with gasoline counterparts

Electric vehicles are more environmentally friendly than their gasoline-fueled counterparts.

But they run on electricity generated in power plants, which produce their own emissions. That's made it more difficult to discern the actual climate benefits EVs deliver over cars equipped with internal combustion engines.

A new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists brings greater clarity to that question. At a time when the Biden administration is touting electric vehicles as a means to blunting climate change, the report finds that across the country, electric vehicles are more environmentally beneficial than ever.

With power-plant emissions considered, driving an EV is equal to or better than driving an ICE car getting 50 miles per gallon, and that's the case across 97 percent of the U.S., according to the report.

From an emissions standp…

Great Wall Motor Co., a major private Chinese light-vehicle manufacturer with global ambitions, launched production this week at a Thailand factory purchased from General Motors. 

The factory, located in Rayong of eastern Thailand, was renovated after Great Wall acquired it from GM in November.

It will initially build up to 80,000 vehicles a year, with 60 percent of output to be sold in Thailand and the rest to be exported to other Southeast Asia countries, Great Wall said. 

The first product assembled at the factory is the hybrid variant of the H6, a compact crossover marketed under the Haval brand. It will be followed by an Ora-badged full electric sedan. 

Over the next three years, Great Wall plans to build seven other products at the plant, most of which will be all-electric vehicles. 

It is the Chinese company’s second assembly plant outside China, following a factory it opened in the Tula Oblast region of central R…

PSA Peugeot Citroen, bidding to jumpstart lagging sales in a key global market, started mass production of the Citroen brand’s new flagship model, the C5 X, at a plant it operates with Chinese partner Dongfeng Motor Group in the southwest China city of Chengdu. 

The crossover wagon, equipped with PSA’s 360 THP turbocharged gasoline engine and a eight-speed automatic transmission supplied by Aisin Seiki, will hit the Chinese market in September, Dongfeng said this week.

The C5 X is produced only at the Chengdu plant and Citroen says it will be exported to Europe and other Asian countries.

The Citroen C5 X “is a unique combination of the elegance of a saloon, the dynamism of a station wagon and the elevated stance of an SUV,” Citroen said when unveiling the vehicle at the Shanghai auto show in April.

The Chengdu factory will also build a plug-in variant of the vehicle, according to Citroen.

PSA, now part of Stellantis, needs new products…

LOS ANGELES — Honda is previewing the redesigned Civic hatchback prior to its June 23 global debut with a new teaser image. The hatch is based on the 11th-generation Civic compact sedan that debuted in late April.

The 2022 Civic hatchback will be built in the U.S. for the first time at Honda's Greensburg, Ind., assembly plant and go on sale later this year. The hatch was previously imported from the U.K.

The Civic hatchback will showcase European-inspired exterior styling, "enhanced five-door versatility" and will keep the option of a six-speed manual transmission, Honda said Wednesday.

The hatchback will be introduced during a virtual concert on June 23 at 9 p.m. EDT on a Honda Youtube channel.

Pricing for the hatchback was not announced.

The specifications for the five-door model are not expected to stray much from the Civic sedan, given that the two share a platform.

Honda outlined the sedan's new features nearly two months ago, b…

DETROIT — The 2022 Chevrolet Corvette, on sale this year, will come with an upgraded fuel system, additional colors and a special edition similar to racing models.

Dealers will begin taking orders July 1, and production is slated to begin in the third quarter.

The most significant change from the 2021 model year is the upgraded direct-injection fuel system, improved engine calibration and an enhanced active fuel management range, Tadge Juechter, chief engineer for the Corvette, told Automotive News at a media event here.

To meet a new particulate emissions requirement, GM had to reengineer much of the engine and fuel management system, he said. But the 2022 model maintained 490 hp or 495 hp on available performance exhaust systems.

"Usually when you do a new emissions requirement, you have to sacrifice horsepower and torque to meet the new emissions requirement. That wasn't the case," he said.

The solution adjusted the way the injectors at…

WASHINGTON -- The Detroit 3 and UAW said Wednesday that workers will continue to be required to wear masks in workplaces.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in May that fully vaccinated people do not need to wear masks in most instances, including at work. The UAW and the automakers said temperature screening upon entering facilities is expected to be phased out.

Toyota Motor Corp. is among the automakers that has ended temperature checks and entry questionnaires at U.S. plants but it is continuing to require facial coverings.

Many U.S. employers are still requiring vaccinated workers to wear masks in workplaces.

Volkswagen Grou's U.S. unit said it will "no longer require masks for fully vaccinated employees after June 21, and will continue to follow CDC guidelines." Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. said they had made no changes to their U.S. employee COVID-19 requirements.

The joint statement from the UAW and Ge…

Self-driving startup Argo AI, backed by Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG, expects to pursue a public listing within the next year, founder and CEO Bryan Salesky said on Wednesday.

"So we're actively fundraising and are going out this summer to raise a private round initially," Salesky said at The Information's Autonomous Vehicles Summit. "And then we're looking forward to an IPO within the next year."

"The raise this year will definitely provide capital that gives us plenty of runway and will help us continue to scale out," he said, adding that autonomous driving is a capital-intensive business.

Ford and Volkswagen each hold a 42 percent ownership interest in Argo AI.

Last year, VW closed its $2.6 billion investment in Pittsburgh-based Argo AI, which valued the company at just over $7 billion.

Vehicle shortages continued to impact finance trends in used cars in May, as the average amount financed for used vehicles increased $1,654 compared with April. For new vehicles, the amount financed only went up about $400, on average.

"I think the one for used is really the kicker there because clearly from one month to the next, a huge increase in amount financed," Edmunds Senior Analyst Ivan Drury told Automotive News. I"don't think that ... number is ... going down anytime soon,because there just are so few used vehicles for sale — and new vehicles, the same problem."

There continues to be a shortage of certain new vehicles because of the chip shortage, causing customers to consider used vehicles. However, demand for new vehicles remains strong, and once supply returns, customers will be willing to pay the higher prices, Drury said.

Edmunds said the average down payment for new vehicles rose $128 in the last month, while used v…

Stellantis says it will now idle minivan production at its factory in Windsor, Ontario, for the entire month of June due to the ongoing global microchip shortage.

The shortage already led to the automaker halting production during the weeks of June 7 and 14.

“Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry,” the company said in a statement Wednesday. “Due to the unprecedented global microchip shortage, production at the Windsor Assembly Plant will be down through the remainder of June with the week of June 21 as a previously scheduled down week.”

The week of June 28 includes the statutory Canada Day holiday on July 1.

The plant resumed operation the week of May 31, but not at full capacity. The automaker didn’t elaborate on the number of shifts or vehicles it produced that week. Other than those handful of shifts, the plant has been down s…

Steve Berrard, who led auto retail giant AutoNation Inc. during its inception, died Monday, according to a news release. He was 66.

Berrard was co-CEO of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company from 1996 to 1999.

Before that, he was CEO and president of the then-popular video rental chain Blockbuster. He had close ties to the late Florida business mogul Wayne Huizenga, who had poured investments into Blockbuster and with whom Berrard started AutoNation.

Before the pair started rolling up dealerships into the company that became the largest dealership group in the country, Berrard worked as president of Huizenga Holdings Inc. — Huizenga's investment vehicle — and took positions with its subsidiaries from 1981 to 1987.

Berrard and Huizenga stepped down from their co-CEO roles in 1999, and AutoNation's search for a replacement focused on finding an established auto industry executive who could impress Wall Street. Huizenga, who remained the company's chai…

A U.S. district judge in Virginia sided with a subprime lender regarding a punitive class-action lawsuit that alleged it failed to comply with the Military Lending Act.

The case could have broader implications for the automotive finance space by deterring similar litigation, according to an attorney who specializes in automotive and personal property finance. Marci Kawski, partner at Husch Blackwell, said the decision is a victory for dealerships and auto finance companies.

"It's a well-reasoned decision by a well-respected judge," Kawski said. "This kind of transaction is not subject to the MLA, and this decision confirms that."

Jerry Davidson, an active military member, brought a class action against United Auto Credit on the grounds it ran afoul of the act when Davidson financed a used GMC Acadia in 2018.

In the initial complaint, filed in April 2020, Davidson said the lender failed to provide proper MLA disclosures an…