Trade News

Italy’s government is in talks with Stellantis, the carmaker formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, about investing in electric-vehicle battery manufacturing in the country, according to people familiar with the matter.

A meeting in Rome this week between Stellantis Chairman John Elkann, CEO Carlos Tavares and Giancarlo Giorgetti, Italy's economic development minister, centered around the future of electric mobility in the country, said the people, who asked not to be named because the gathering was private.

Giorgetti sought assurances from Stellantis that Italy will remain one of the main countries where the company manufactures vehicles and inquired about plans for investment in battery making at Mirafiori, Fiat’s main industrial district in Turin, the people said.

Spokesmen for Stellantis and the minister declined to comment. The discussions are at an early stage, no final decision has been made and the company could decide t…

Carolyn Lee, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute, explains how the auto industry can tackle the growing skills shortage and create a pathway for a more diverse pool of talent to enter the sector.

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Organizers of the Geneva auto show said the event will go ahead next February, after two years of forced cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The GIMS Foundation, the organization behind the show, said it would give exhibitors until mid-July to register for the event.

The show will be open to the public Feb. 19-27, GIMS said in a statement.

Automakers were forced to switch to internet livestreaming to show off their new cars when the 2020 show was canceled at short notice during the first wave of the pandemic.

The trend is accelerating and threatening the business model of auto shows, which involve heavy investments for the companies taking part.

"We don’t know what the situation will be in February, but it looks like things will be back to normal in September and we are hoping things will stay that way," GIMS CEO Sandro Mesquita told Automotive News Europe in a telephone interview.

He said the show was moved to February f…

Tesla Inc. is facing further fallout in China, with some local governments and official institutions reviewing vehicle ownership among their staff, citing concerns the cars pose security risks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Authorities in Zhejiang and Guangxi provinces have either asked government bodies to check and report on any employees who have bought the cars, or forbidden staff from key agencies to drive Teslas into certain official areas, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

The China Meteorological Administration, the national weather service headquartered in Beijing, has told staff not to buy the company’s EVs and if they already have, has requested they transfer ownership of the car to another person, one person said.

The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, meanwhile, is checking whether any employees or their family own Teslas. The moves are motivated by potential secu…

Rivian Automotive Inc. is delaying deliveries of its R1T Launch Edition, its first series of battery-electric trucks.

Customer deliveries slated to begin in June will now start in July, Rivian said in an emailed statement Thursday. The Irvine, Calif., company says it still expects all R1T Launch Edition deliveries to be finished by the spring.

The delay is the result of a few issues such as the global semiconductor chip shortage, delays on shipping containers and difficulties in setting up vehicle servicing. The company said that overall it has not faced some of the more significant chip-related disruptions that have beset the global auto industry.

Also, launching service centers and bringing a test drive program online -- in an environment affected by COVID-19 -- was complex, the company indicated.

The Rivian R1S SUV still appears to be slated for release in August.

It's the second time the R1T Launch Edition has been delayed. In July…

SHANGHAI – Battery swap sites are costly to build and operate. Automakers are still wary of battery swapping to charge electric vehicles after Tesla ditched it in the U.S. in 2013.

Yet in China, battery swapping has gained traction with the participation of a diverse range of domestic companies. 

Because of varying land prices in Chinese cities, a battery swap station requires an investment of an estimated 3 million yuan ($470,000) to 5 million yuan. 

Because of the high costs, most Chinese EV makers have been reluctant to embrace battery swaps. 

Until 2019, state-owned BAIC Motor Co. and EV startup Nio were the only two automakers offering battery swap services for customers. 

Market dynamics are playing a bigger role. EV sales hit a record 1.115 million in 2020, and surged 280 percent to 615,000 in the first four months of 2021, accounting for 7 percent of China’s new-vehicle deliveries, up from 3.5 percent of all indu…

Huawei Technologies, the Chinese tech giant subject to intense speculation over how big a role it wants to play in the auto industry, is dispelling persistent rumors it aims to build intelligent vehicles by acquiring automakers. 

It hasn’t made any investment in automakers, the private Chinese technology giant said in a statement this week. 

“We won’t invest in auto companies in the future either, nor will we control or acquire shares [of any auto company],” it added.  

What the auto industry needs is not “Huawei-brand vehicles” but its “information and communication technology accumulated over the past 30 years to help automakers better develop future-oriented vehicles,” the company said.

It is not the first time Huawei has signaled it has no intention of becoming a smart vehicle maker.

In a November posting on its website, Huawei admonished managers pressing the company to build intelligent vehicles and reaffirm its positio…

Electric-vehicle startup Nio signed an agreement with its contract manufacturer JAC Motor Co. to increase annual production vehicle capacity to 240,000 vehicles, from 150,000 vehicles in 2020.

The expansion, to be carried out over the next three years, will help Nio meet growing market demand, the company said this week. 

Nio, incorporated in Shanghai in 2014, has launched three products – the ES8 SUV, the ES6 crossover and the EC6 coupe-like crossover. 

In the first four months, it delivered 27,162 vehicles, nearly triple the tally a year earlier. 

Due to the global chip shortage, Nio suspended production at JAC for five days starting March 29. 

Nio only sells vehicles in China but earlier this month the company announced it will begin sales in Norway in September as a first foray in Europe.

Vehicle output at 11 key auto groups in China slipped 11 percent to roughly 983,000 vehicles in the first 20 days of May, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said this week. 

The 11 company groups, comprised of all foreign automakers producing locally as well as every major domestic manufacturer, account for more than 90 percent of auto output in China. 

During the 20-day period, production of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks slumped 14 percent from a year earlier, while output of light vehicles —sedans, crossovers, SUVs, MPVs to minibuses – dropped 9.9 percent, according to CAAM.

CAAM didn’t release additional details on the production cuts or the reason for the decline. The trade group normally discloses vehicle output and sales around the tenth of each month for the previous month.

It warned earlier a global chip shortage, which started to dent auto production in China late last year, is likely to worsen in t…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Ford's ‘electric transformation' means new name for 53-year-old plant

Automakers continue to retire long-standing plant names as the industry transitions to building electric vehicles.

Ford Motor Co. announced this week that its Van Dyke Transmission Plant north of Detroit would be rebranded as the Van Dyke Electric Powertrain Center. The change comes roughly seven months after General Motors said its Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant would be known as Factory Zero.

Since the Van Dyke plant opened in 1968, workers have built suspension components and transmissions for gasoline and hybrid vehicles, including the Taurus, Windstar, Transit, EcoSport, Edge and Explorer.

They will soon transition to making electric motors and electric transaxles for hybrid and full-electric vehicles, including the 2022 F-150 Lightning. Ford says electric motor production will begin this summer, and it expects one to come off the assembly …

BEIJING -- BMW, Daimler and Ford have set up facilities in China to store data generated by their cars locally, they told Reuters, as automakers come under growing pressure in the world's biggest car market over how they handle information from vehicles.

Cars are being fitted with an ever-increasing array of sensors and cameras to assist drivers.

But the data they generate can also be used by manufacturers to help develop new technologies, such as autonomous driving systems, raising privacy and security concerns, particularly when the information might be sent abroad.

U.S. EV maker Tesla is under public scrutiny in China over its storage and handling of customer data in the country.

Last week, Reuters reported that staff at some Chinese government offices were told not to park their Tesla cars inside government compounds due to security concerns over vehicle cameras, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Tesla said on Tuesda…

Ted Cannis, Ford's head of North America commercial vehicles, chats about the automaker's push to give its iconic nameplates electrified variants, including the Mustang Mach-E crossover and upcoming F-150 Lightning pickup.

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