Trade News

BMW of North America CEO Bernhard Kuhnt, 53, is leaving the U.S. to run the automaker's German business.

Sebastian Mackensen, 49, a former Volkswagen Group executive with U.S. market experience, will take over in North America effective Sept. 1, BMW said Friday.

In his new position, Mackensen will manage all sales, marketing and distribution activities for BMW Group from Canada to Argentina, in addition to serving as president and CEO of BMW of North America.

Mackensen is a senior vice president and head of BMW's German market. Previously, he ran BMW's Mini unit.

Mackensen has extensive experience in North America, including as Audi's sales chief for the Americas for five years.

Before that, he held management roles in customer relations and business development at Porsche Cars North America.

In his new role, Mackensen must steer BMW through the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and this year's microchip…

NHTSA has opened a preliminary evaluation to assess potential issues related to a loss of power in 2020-21 model year Porsche Taycan electric vehicles.

The agency's Office of Defects Investigation has received nine complaints from vehicle owners and two field reports alleging "a loss of motive power while in motion at any speed without warning to the driver," according to a NHTSA document.

The investigation was opened Monday. The agency said 12,146 Porsche Taycans — an 800-volt battery-electric vehicle with an auxiliary 12-volt battery — could be affected.

Porsche on Friday contested NHTSA’s estimated number of affected vehicles, stating it has delivered a total of 6,552 Taycans from the 2020-21 model years in the U.S. through the end of the first quarter this year — the German automaker’s last reporting period.

A spokesperson for Porsche Cars North America said it wasn’t sure where NHTSA’s population figure came from, “but it bears no relation to…

DETROIT — General Motors said it will halt production at its Chevrolet Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky., next week because of a parts supply issue.

The automaker would not disclose details on the parts issue but said it was not related to the global microchip shortage that has impacted more than 277,000 GM vehicles by AutoForecast Solutions' tally.

Production at Bowling Green Assembly is expected to idle Monday and resume June 1, GM said.

"Our supply chain, manufacturing and engineering teams are working closely with our supply base to mitigate any further impact on production," spokesman Dan Flores said.

The production halt will be Bowling Green's third parts-related shutdown since February.

U.S. Corvette sales surged 73 percent to 6,611 deliveries during the first quarter. Figures for the first quarter of 2020 were impacted by the initial weeks of the coronavirus crisis.

Ford Motor Co. is considering divesting its electric scooter-sharing service Spin, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company is working with an adviser to examine strategic options including a sale or spinoff of the unit, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. It could also look to merge the unit with a special purpose acquisition company, the people added.

Ford acquired Spin in 2018. The company operates dockless electric scooters on campuses and cities in North America and Europe, according to its website.

No final decision has been made and Ford could opt to keep the unit, they said.

A representative for Ford declined to comment.

Spin represented something of a side project at Ford under previous CEO Jim Hackett, who wanted to explore different forms of mobility.

New CEO Jim Farley is eliminating extraneous operations as he works to accelerate the automake…

Toyota Motor Corp. plans to sponsor more than 15,000 customers who live in California and own certain Prius Prime or RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrids to join a program that tracks any carbon generated from charging those vehicles and offsets it with renewable energy.

The automaker calls the program Clean Assist, and it is providing it at no cost to customers through the Toyota app.

Once customers are enrolled, the smartphone app tracks the amount of electricity the vehicle used during charging. Toyota then buys an equivalent amount of California-sourced renewable energy certificates — used to underwrite the expansion of renewable energy generation and transportation.

Evidence of the purchased renewable energy certificates is sent to the California Air Resources Board, generating low-carbon fuel standard credits for the automaker. (Each low-carbon fuel standard credit is equivalent to 1 metric ton of CO2 that is saved.)

To be eligible to participate…

BMW AG will raise its earnings forecast for the year because it expects an antitrust fine from the European Union to be much smaller than anticipated two years ago.

The automaker will get a roughly 1 billion-euro ($1.2 billion) boost to earnings this quarter from revaluing a provision for an EU fine over allegations that it colluded with its German peers to delay rolling out cleaner cars.

BMW expects the EU “will significantly reduce its allegations” against the company, according to a statement. The lesser-than-anticipated fine will allow the company to raise its margin forecast for auto earnings before interest and taxes by about 1 percentage point.

The EU accused BMW, Volkswagen Group and Daimler of conspiring on emission-reduction systems for diesel cars between 2006 and 2014. Their coordination allegedly made technology aimed at reducing nitrogen-oxide emissions less effective.

Daimler was early to cooperate with the EU’s investigation, which…

Huawei Technologies Co. appointed Richard Yu, the outspoken leader of its consumer electronics business, CEO of its smart car solutions unit, signaling the importance it places on future auto tech.

Yu, who was already director for car components, is expanding his responsibilities in Huawei’s auto business while also departing a position he only recently gained as CEO of its cloud group. Zhang Pingan, an established cloud division executive, will take over that role, according to an internal memo that Bloomberg News has reviewed. 

Huawei’s consumer tech unit was the company’s growth engine before U.S. sanctions hamstrung its ability to procure key components and effectively sidelined its smartphone business. Yu, 51, will not be relinquishing his responsibilities leading that division, however his focus going forward will likely be on recreating its success with the company’s smart car initiatives.

A Huawei spokesman declined to comment.

Rece…

Baidu, a leading Chinese self-driving technology developer, has started testing vehicle-to-everything technology that can help vehicles without sensor equipment achieve Level 4 autonomous driving on open roads with roadside sensing and 5G communication technology.

It has conducted tests at several upgraded road intersections in the Chinese capital of Beijing, the southern China city of Guangzhou and the northern China city of Cangzhou, Baidu said last week.

By deploying autonomous driving capabilities through vehicle-road-cloud coordination, the technology can “supersede the ingrained perception system” of a self-driving vehicle, the company noted. 

“This novel approach will help the industry overcome existing challenges to safely scaling autonomous driving by providing a universal, shared infrastructure that can be applied to any smart transportation vehicle,” it said of the technology.

FRANKFURT -- Daimler Truck AG on Thursday said it had intensified a partnership with Contemporary Amperex Technology, choosing the Chinese battery maker as the supplier for the Mercedes-Benz eActros longhaul electric truck.

The truck is scheduled to be ready for series production in 2024, Daimler Truck said, adding the supply agreement with CATL would go beyond 2030.

The truck maker also struck an agreement with Shell under which the oil major will from 2024 launch heavy-duty hydrogen-refueling stations between the green hydrogen production hubs at the Port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands and in Cologne and Hamburg in Germany.

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Americans leery of sharing the road with self-driving vehicles

Some autonomous vehicles are subtle. There's no easy way for passersby to detect whether they're sharing the road with a self-driving car. With other AVs, the spinning lidar sensor on the rooftop leaves no doubt.

Whether self-driving vehicles should be easily identifiable remains a complicated question for regulators and companies that operate test vehicles. A majority of motorists, though, want clear indications.

Sixty-two percent say that clear markings would make them feel safer in mixed traffic, according to a new survey conducted by AAA and the Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. It's the single-most important factor in helping assuage anxiety, per the results, followed by 60 percent of respondents who desire designated lanes for self-driving vehicles.

"Regulators must establish guidelines that ensure self-drivin…

DETROIT — Facing pressure from new rivals trying to stake a claim in the burgeoning battery-electric pickup market, Ford Motor Co. designed the 2022 F-150 Lightning to do what its gasoline-powered counterpart has done for decades: outwork — and outsell — all competitors.

Ford is hoping that a bold starting price of $39,974 before shipping — about $10,000 less than what the average shopper pays for a gasoline F-150 truck these days ($50,600 in April) — coupled with new features not possible on the current model will help win over EV skeptics and expand the pool of buyers who have made the F-150 the nation's bestselling vehicle.

The Lightning, revealed late Wednesday, features standard four-wheel-drive; the F-150's first independent rear suspension; an improved on-board generator that can power a house or work site for three straight days; and the industry's largest front trunk that comes with four power outlets and 14.1 cubic feet of space — enough room for two…

Nissan Motor Co. plans to trim North American production in June because of the semiconductor shortage, the automaker said Wednesday.

Frontier and Titan pickup production in Canton, Miss., will be cut for four days in June, while Altima sedan assembly will stop for three weeks next month. Production of those models also suffered stoppages this month.

The chip shortage is striking as Nissan orchestrates a product overhaul that is central to reviving consumer interest and profitability in the U.S.

The Japanese automaker's U.S. plants are preparing to introduce three key redesigns: the midsize Pathfinder, Infiniti QX60 crossover and Frontier midsize pickup.

Nissan is prioritizing high-volume models such as the Sentra, Rogue and Kicks for the limited supply of microprocessors, Michael Colleran, the brand’s U.S. sales and marketing boss, told Automotive News last week.

“It's a bit of a Rubik's cube," Colleran said, referring to allocation deci…