Trade News

A Ford Motor Co. employee has died from injuries sustained in a mass shooting early Saturday in Austin, Texas.

Douglas John Kantor, 25, was one of 14 victims in the shooting, according to a report from KXAN-TV. Kantor died at 12:01 p.m. local time Sunday.

Authorities have arrested one person in connection with the shooting, according to Mayor Steve Adler's office.

Originally from Airmont, N.Y., Kantor was visiting Austin from his home in Michigan, his family told KXAN.

He signed on with Ford's IT department in 2018, following his graduation from Michigan State University with a degree in computer engineering.

"We were shocked and saddened to learn about the death of a Ford colleague as a result of the Austin shooting," Ford spokesman Ian Thibodeau said in an email. "We are providing support to his family and his colleagues. Out of respect for everyone affected by this tragedy, we will not be saying more at thi…

BEIRUT -- Fugitive former auto executive Carlos Ghosn said on Monday he was prepared for a lengthy process to clear his name with French authorities, and vowed to challenge an Interpol warrant that is barring him from travel outside of Lebanon.

The architect of the Renault-Nissan auto alliance has been fighting multiple probes since fleeing to Lebanon from Japan in late 2019, and has said he hopes to clear his name in financial misconduct cases against him.

Ghosn was chairman of both Nissan and Mitsubishi and CEO of Renault when he was arrested in Japan in 2018 on charges of under-reporting his salary and using company funds for personal use. He has denied wrongdoing.

The Lebanese-French executive said he had answered hundreds of questions from French investigators earlier this month in hearings centred around allegations of financial misconduct in France.

Ghosn said he had submitted voluntarily to questioning at Beirut's Palace of Justice as a …

General Motors is recalling 285,622 vehicles from the 2021 model year — 282,309 of them in the U.S. — because their airbag malfunction indicator lights might fail to warn drivers of issues with the airbags.

The vehicles' communications gateway module could incorrectly process a loss of communication with the sensing diagnostic module, which could cause airbag malfunction indicator lights to "inconsistently illuminate," according to a document filed with NHTSA.

The recall covers a range of models: the Buick Envision; Cadillac CT4, CT5, Escalade and Escalade ESV; Chevrolet Corvette, Suburban and Tahoe; and GMC Yukon and Yukon XL.

GM said it will notify vehicle owners via recall notification letters July 19, and dealers will update the software in the communications gateway module.

The automaker notified dealers June 3.

In a safety recall report filed with NHTSA, GM said the company is not aware of any accidents …

William Li is being mobbed. At a gala dinner in Shanghai, the founder of Chinese electric carmaker Nio Inc. can barely move forward in the buffet queue before being stopped for another selfie, handshake or hug. Swapping his usual attire of jeans and a T-shirt for a tailored grey suit and blue dress shirt, the tall 46-year-old happily obliges with a smile.

Li manages to spoon a small amount of fried rice and vegetables onto his plate, but he’s not here for the food. Over the next three hours, Li poses for hundreds more photos, chatting with customers of the automaker he started just over six years ago and has built into a way of life — at least for the people who buy his cars — with clubhouses, a round-the-clock battery recharging service and even clothing, food and exercise equipment, all decked out in Nio’s geometric logo.

As Li works the room, a video backdrop shows six performers, each wearing a different-colored Nio hoodie, singing a self-composed song ded…

DETROIT -- Hyundai Motor Co. has accelerated efforts around developing air taxis and will offer services around those vehicles rather than just selling them, the South Korean automaker's COO told Reuters.

Hyundai is ahead of the timetable it previously laid out for the rollout of urban air mobility vehicles, also known as flying cars, Jose Munoz, Hyundai's global chief operating officer, said in an interview broadcast on Monday at the Reuters Events Car of the Future conference.

Munoz, who is also CEO of Hyundai North America, previously said urban air taxis would be in operation at major U.S. airports by 2028, maybe earlier. The executive told Reuters on Monday it could possibly happen before 2025.

"We see this market as a significant growth opportunity," Munoz said.

Hyundai is developing air taxis powered by electric batteries that can transport five to six people from highly congested urban centers to airports. Air taxis come in several s…

IHS Markit’s Todd Campau says while the average age of light vehicles on U.S. roads hit a milestone of 12.1 years in 2020, the rate of growth could slow in 2021.

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The history of the automotive industry is chock full of innovative thinkers from its very first days, yet – for most of that history – innovation of anything beyond the conceptual drawing board remained generally only within the reach of the titans of industry, and their large-scale design and industrial manufacturing capabilities. 

While this economy-of-scale-based paradigm has nearly always been true – innovation has flourished in spite of it, mainly within the aftermarket sector, that has created myriad opportunities for modifiers, hot-rodders, tuners, accessorizers, and physical "hackers" of every kind – which, in turn, indirectly increased the values of the vehicles themselves. Just look at the annual SEMA show to see how much real-world innovation is done outside the walls of the OEMs, and how much desire there is to contribute to overall industry innovation and improve the enjoyment of the consumer experience. The best “platforms” are actually more valuab…

By mid-2019, in the months following the arrest of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, relations between Nissan and French partner Renault plumbed new lows. Ham-fisted attempts by Renault's new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, to broker a surprise merger between Renault and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, behind Nissan's back, only further strained the Franco-Japanese alliance. Sales, profits and share prices plunged — not only at Nissan and Renault, but at Mitsubishi, the auto group's third leg.

This is the second excerpt from Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire. It is drawn from Chapter 13, "Alliance Upheaval." The passage describes how the alliance teetered without its longtime leader and includes Ghosn's take on why the companies faltered in his absence. The book was written by Automotive News Asia Editor Hans Greimel and William Sposato.

Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard's failed backroom dealing with FCA drew…

Used vehicles are expected to continue to command higher prices for the foreseeable future, but the reason may not be as simple as lower availability amid higher demand.

Based on data from IHS Markit, one might conclude that vehicles in operation in the U.S. are set to shrink, given what happened in 2020. But so far in 2021, the trend is reversing.

Scrappage rates hit their second-highest point in two decades last year and outpaced the rate of new vehicles being added to U.S. roads. That probably won't be the case this year.

About 15 million vehicles were scrapped last year, a rate of 5.6 percent of vehicles in operation, according to IHS Markit. At the same time, new-vehicle registrations increased the number of vehicles in operation in the country by 5.1 percent.

IHS Markit tracks scrappage, or the number of cars and trucks no longer on U.S. roads, by getting data on:

Exports Branded vehicles — those labeled a total loss by an insurance co…

Jeremie Papin has spent the past year attempting to stabilize a listing ship.

Last June, he was elevated to vice chairman of North America to lead Nissan Motor Co.'s critical U.S. market — a business buffeted by sinking sales and dissatisfied dealers.

Since then, Papin has steered Nissan through a product overhaul and has led a strategic pivot away from the aggressive pursuit of market share championed by former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn. While a formidable task in the best of market conditions, these initiatives have been orchestrated by Papin during the dual crises of a pandemic and a global microprocessor shortage, both playing havoc with vehicle production plans.

The past year has been "about changing the way we did business, further exacerbated by the pandemic and all the disruption it brought," the French native said. "It's a real opportunity to reset a lot of the ways we were doing business, including how we int…

Tired of your Bentley clashing with your yacht?

Bentley helped one customer solve that decidedly first-world problem by creating a bespoke yacht cabin to match the interior of a Continental GT V8 coupe.

The automaker worked with Contest Yachts to replicate the Continental's Hotspur red leather and Linen beige hide on an 18-meter yacht. Bentley used a specially commissioned machine to give the yacht's paneling its signature diamond-in-diamond stitching, with each diamond made of exactly 712 stitches.

It also complemented the Continental's Light Sapphire exterior with a deep blue hull on the yacht.

"This project was an opportunity for Bentley Design Services to showcase some of their many skills in a truly unique collaboration," Brett Boydell, Bentley's head of design collaborations, said in a statement. "Bentley cars embrace qualities of craftsmanship and styling that are only achieved at the highest level of nautical d…