Trade News

The levels of driving automation, the industry's go-to framework, were updated this week to clarify differences between Level 3 and Level 4, part of an effort to better define and group the capabilities of autonomous technologies that are on the road and under development.

The six levels, established by SAE International in 2014, describe the capabilities of driver-assistance and autonomous driving systems. The levels range from 0 — no driving automation — to 5 — full automation.

SAE and the International Organization for Standardization have clarified Levels 3 and 4 under the J3016 automation standards.

The update also provides an explanation for "how classifications of sustained driving automation fit into the broader context of driver assistance and active safety features," according to SAE.

The update clarifies the role of the fallback-ready user, the possibility of some automated fallback at Level 3, as well as the possibility of some alerts …

Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. both turned in narrower losses than expected in the first quarter.

Uber on Wednesday said its food-delivery business continued to grow, but ride-hailing bookings were flat from the previous quarter. The company said March delivered the first signs of U.S. recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ride-hailing mobility business had to absorb a $600 million hit to account for a settlement with its more than 70,000 U.K. drivers and provide them with more benefits.

Uber posted an adjusted $359 million first-quarter loss before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, narrowing losses by nearly $100 million from the previous quarter.

Analysts on average had expected the company to report an adjusted EBITDA loss of around $452 million, Refinitiv data showed.

Uber has promised to be profitable on that metric by the end of the year, three months after its smaller ride-hail rival Lyft, which on Tuesday…

Cavender Auto Family has signed a purchase agreement to buy Alderson Auto Group's six luxury stores in Texas that will double Cavender's store count and add nearly 20 percent in annual revenue.

The companies on Monday announced the pending transaction to employees.

Rick Cavender, vice president of the San Antonio dealership group with six stores in Texas, said Alderson's CEO and owner, David Alderson, reached out about six months ago, asking if the group had an interest in buying his stores. Cavender's brother Stephen is president of the auto group and dealer principal.

The Alderson group has been in business more than 70 years, founded in 1949 with a Cadillac store.

Alderson's dealerships are in Lubbock and Midland. They include Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Lexus and Mercedes-Benz stores in Lubbock and a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Midland.

David Alderson, the group's third-generation operator and former chairperson of the Texas Automobile Deale…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is expanding its off-road utility lineup with a new Timberline variant as it seeks to cash in on a growing segment even beyond the new Bronco family of vehicles.

The automaker on Wednesday unveiled the 2021 Explorer Timberline, which will start at $47,010, including shipping, and arrive at dealerships this summer. The vehicle features steel skid plates and unique shocks, springs and stabilizer bars that, along with all-terrain tires, boost the Timberline's ride height by 0.8 inch over the base model.

It comes in a unique green color with red tow hook accents and space on the grille for auxiliary lighting to better illuminate trails or other off-road courses.

Ford says there's a market for such capability; internal data show 56 percent of Explorer owners reported an increase in off-road use over the past three years.

"Consumer data has shown us that now more than ever, customers want to get outside and explore nature with…

A first wave of former Reagor-Dykes employees were sentenced Tuesday for their roles in the spectacular collapse of the Lubbock, Texas, dealership group.

Court records were not yet available online, according to a clerk at the federal court in Amarillo, Texas, where the criminal cases have been held. But local media reports say the six employees received prison sentences ranging from two to four years and were ordered to pay restitution of $100-$200 per month.

They pleaded guilty to a range of charges related to a purported floorplan fraud and check-kiting operation that the FBI began investigating as far back as February 2018.

Nine other employees who pleaded guilty to similar charges await sentencing in the coming days and months, including Shane Smith, a former Reagor Dykes CFO whom dealer principals blamed for the group's financial improprieties. Smith is set to be sentenced July 27.

Meanwhile, former dealer principal Bart Reagor was indicted …

Auto supplier BorgWarner Inc. on Wednesday said its operating income doubled to $403 million in the first quarter, while net income fell from a one-time loss on equity securities.

The maker of turbochargers, powertrain sensors and battery heaters said net sales hit $4.1 billion in the first quarter, up 76 percent from the year-earlier period. The company attributed that gain mostly to its October acquisition of Delphi Technologies along with increased product demand and global markets' recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Net income was cut in half to $65 million primarily because of the unrealized loss of $272 million on equity securities.

BorgWarner's quarterly results come in the midst of industry turmoil due to a global semiconductor chip shortage. Ford Motor Co., which made up about 13 percent of BorgWarner's sales in 2020, said last week that the chip shortage could slash its vehicle production by half in the second quarter.

Still, BorgWarne…

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats are pushing for tens of billions of dollars in funding to shift to electric vehicles and away from gas-powered vehicles and build hundreds of thousands of charging stations.

U.S. Reps. Andy Levin and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday are unveiling a revised version of their bill dubbed the "Electric Vehicle Freedom Act" to create a network of high-speed charging stations within five years along the public roads of the national highway system in the U.S.

The Democrats proposed a version last year while Donald Trump was president and who backed ending taxpayer subsidies for electric vehicle purchases. Levin said in an interview "everything's changed" in the push for EVs with the change in administration.

President Joe Biden has called for $174 billion in new spending to boost EVs and charging, including $15 billion to help build and support a national charging network of 500,000 stations by 2030.

"We have a presiden…

General Motors' defense subsidiary appointed a new president and officially opened its North Carolina manufacturing center, the company said in a statement Tuesday.

The production plant, in Concord, has already begun building GM Defense's Infantry Squad Vehicle for the U.S. Army. GM Defense was awarded the $214.3 million contract last June. The Army has an acquisition objective of 2,065 vehicles for infantry brigade combat teams over eight years. GM Defense has space to expand the plant for larger or additional orders, spokeswoman Sonia Taylor told Automotive News.

The truck is the first major product for GM Defense since it was reestablished by the automaker in 2017. The original GM Defense, which helped U.S. combat efforts beginning with World War I, was acquired by General Dynamics in 2003.

GM Defense's new president, Steve duMont, joins the company from Raytheon Intelligence & Space, where he implemented a global growth stra…

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called for a major increase in U.S. production capacity for computer chips whose current shortages are causing global manufacturing bottlenecks, saying the push could create jobs and wean the nation off over-dependence on China and Taiwan.

“Right now we make 0 percent of leading-edge chips in the United States. That’s a problem,” Raimondo said Tuesday in a virtual conference of the Council of the Americas, a business group. “We ought to be making 30 percent, because that matches our demand. So, we will promise to work hard every day, and in the short term also see if we can have more chips available so the automakers can reopen their factories.”

Reaching 30 percent would likely take decades of sustained investment. In the shorter term, the Biden administration is in talks with Taiwan and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to prioritize the needs of American automakers to boost supply after a chip shortage led to closed facto…

FRANKFURT -- Japan's Nissan Motor Co. said on Tuesday it was selling its roughly 1.5 percent stake in German carmaker Daimler AG through an accelerated transaction, following a similar move by alliance partner Renault in March.

The French carmaker, with Nissan, had exchanged stakes with Daimler a decade ago to strengthen their industrial partnerships.

Cooperation is continuing, Daimler and Renault said earlier this year, although people close the matter had said larger initial plans never materialized and the cross-shareholdings were no longer deemed necessary.

Investors were guided to expect pricing near Tuesday's closing price of 69.85 euros a share, a bookrunner organizing the deal said.

At that price, Nissan would reap just under 1.2 billion euros ($1.2 billion) from the deal.

Daimler shares closed at 72.41 euros a share on Tuesday.

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday the E-Transit electric van will start at $44,990, including shipping, cheaper than originally estimated and less than $2,000 more than its gasoline-powered counterpart.

The automaker, which also opened a registration site for the van, said more than 450 commercial customers already have indicated they plan to purchase the vehicle, which goes on sale this year.

The most expensive variant, the high-roof extended-wheelbase cargo van, will start at $54,385, including shipping.

"We've had so much interest early on, we wanted to open this registration site to serve customers with a build mix for their needs across all van body styles," Ted Cannis, general manager, North American commercial business, said in a statement. "Some customers want high-roof vans to maximize internal cargo space, while others need to install bodies on cutaways and chassis cabs. Customers will have an all-electric solution —…