Trade News

After years of cleaning up the recall crisis over faulty Takata airbag inflators, the company that now owns the former supplier's factories is taking that cleanup to its core.

Joyson Safety Systems, the airbag producer owned by China's Ningbo Joyson Electronic Corp. but globally headquartered in suburban Detroit, is introducing a strict new operating system at its more than 50 plants, requiring local managers to adopt standardized quality and reporting practices and waste- reduction programs.

It is a long-term rollout of a new rulebook that began last year under the direction of Detroit supplier veteran Silvano Restiotto, vice president of the Global Joyson Production System. With a small team of administrators, Restiotto is moving plant by plant, from Brazil to Hungary to China to Mexico to the U.S., to convert all of the company's plants — and possibly its 12 global engineering centers — to the new system.

"When we bought Takata…

The beach town of Santa Cruz, Calif., is known for world-class surfing spots such as Steamer Lane and the picturesque mountains that separate it from Silicon Valley to the north. Biking and hiking are a way of life, as are long commutes "over the hill" to San Jose and beyond.

Hyundai's attempt to distill that moderately rugged lifestyle into a crossover-based pickup also carries the Santa Cruz name. It goes on sale this summer as a compact four-door with a smaller footprint and presumed price advantage over midsize pickups that have grown larger and more plush.

Car-based pickups have rarely spelled big sales. But Hyundai hopes to capture the growing market for light trucks that has heated up after a year of pandemic sheltering. Hyundai's plan is not so much to take on the pickup market as to lean into its crossover success.

"Especially now, as we're entering a post-pandemic phase, people really want to go out — back to nature, camping, biking," said Gil…

Editor's note: It's been 25 years since the GM EV1 rolled into showrooms and launched the electric vehicle in the modern era. This article is part of a special report Automotive News will publish on Monday.

If you really want to know who killed the electric car, we'll tell you. It's Charles Kettering, and he did it with — surprisingly — an electric motor.

At the dawn of the automotive era, three energy sources were battling for supremacy to drive the automobile: gasoline, electricity and steam. Each had major drawbacks.

Gasoline was expensive, hard to find and dangerous to handle. Worse, cars with gasoline engines had to be hand-cranked, a risky, potentially bone-breaking activity.

Electric cars use batteries to store energy, which is fed to a motor that drives the wheels. But the lead-acid batteries used in early electric vehicles were heavy; driving range was extremely limited — maybe 50 miles max — the vehicles were extremely slow; and chargin…

Volkswagen is expanding its electric vehicle family with two versions of a production-ready, three-row, seven-passenger crossover that it will begin producing in China with two joint-venture partners.

A version of the Atlas-sized ID6 — the latest in the automaker's global lineup of EVs, following the debut last year of the Golf-sized ID3 and Tiguan-sized ID4 — is likely to be added to VW's U.S. lineup and built locally, but not for several years. The ID6 variants, VW brand's biggest production EVs to date, were unveiled on the eve of press previews for the Shanghai auto show.

The ID6 X and ID6 Crozz, each built by one the Chinese joint ventures, are expected to play a crucial role in China, where vehicles large enough to carry members of an extended family are popular.

The ID6, based on the automaker's MEB modular electric platform, will be available in China in one of four configurations, with a range of up to 365 miles and up to 342 hp, VW said. The …

Editor's note: It's been 25 years since the GM EV1 rolled into showrooms and launched the electric vehicle in the modern era. This article is part of a special report Automotive News will publish on Monday.

As president of General Motors from 1990 to 1992, Lloyd Reuss was an early champion of the Impact, the concept car that became the EV1. Among other things, Reuss, now 84, helped put in place the engineering team that created the Impact.

Thirty years later, Reuss' son, Mark, 57, is now GM president, and he's leading the automaker's efforts to meet an aggressive goal: to transform its entire light-duty lineup to electric vehicles by 2035.

Mark and Lloyd discussed the legacy of the Impact and the EV1 for Automotive News. Here are edited excerpts of their conversation.

On the creation of the Impact:

Mark: A lot of people thought GM only did the Impact to show how we could meet California's strict ZEV standards, not to encourage our own tech…

At a time of social unrest stemming from incidents of police violence and questions of injustice, industries across the country are facing heightened concern over issues of diversity and inclusion.

The auto industry is no exception, a gathering of suppliers said last week.

From hiring practices to ad spending to minority-owned supplier procurement, the sector is coming under new fire for its results on industry diversity. Automakers and their suppliers have long been criticized for a lack of diversity, particularly in leadership roles.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra was sharply criticized last month for failing to meet with media companies about GM's spending levels with Black-owned media. Meanwhile, Piston Group, the nation's largest minority-owned auto supplier, had its minority business enterprise status revoked in February — a decision currently under appeal — for its lack of minority management. That decertification could, in turn, pose challenges f…

Richard Parry-Jones, the Welsh product development boss who helped transform Ford Motor Co.'s European lineup in the 1990s and early 2000s, died Friday. He was 69.

Parry-Jones was involved in an accident on his farm in Wales, according to British media reports.

In his 38-year career with Ford, he was instrumental in the engineering of the Ford Mondeo sedan, the Puma subcompact and the first-generation Focus.

He would rack up countless miles on the rural roads around his home in England, focusing on the tiny details of ride, handling, steering, noise, vibration and feel. Some referred to him as the CEO of driving dynamics.

In 1999, he delivered a lecture -- "Engineering for Corporate Success in the New Millennium" -- at London's Royal Academy of Engineering.

Parry-Jones retired from Ford in 2007 as the company's chief technical officer but continued to serve on corporate boards and consult. He joined the board of Aston Martin last year.…

Key Auto Group has acquired a General Motors store in New Hampshire, its latest in a string of dealership purchases.

The Portsmouth, N.H., group bought Newport Chevrolet-Buick-GMC on Tuesday from Autosaver Group, according to Nancy Phillips Associates, a dealership buy-sell firm in Exeter, N.H., that handled the transaction.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but the store has been renamed Key Chevrolet-Buick-GMC of Newport.

Key Auto has been on a buying spree. Last year, it bought Port City Chrysler-Dodge-Ram in Portsmouth, N.H., and another Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram store in Rochester, N.H.

It has about 20 locations in New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont and Florida including new-car dealerships, used-car superstores and a heavy-truck dealership.

Detroit lender Ally Financial Inc. said Friday it swung to a first-quarter net profit driven by strong consumer auto demand and a favorable comparison to the year-earlier period that was impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Ally, one of the largest U.S. auto lenders, reported net income of $796 million compared with a loss of $319 million in last year's first quarter. Net income more than doubled compared with $374 million in the first quarter of 2019.

Ally originated $10.2 billion in auto loans and leases in the first quarter, its highest volume in five years.

Ongoing inventory constraints are driving up transaction prices as dealership partners mitigate ravenous consumer demand amid limited supply, Ally Financial CEO Jeffrey Brown said on an investor call.

"Overall demand for new and used vehicles was robust during the quarter, while competition remained balanced but intense," he said. "Industry inventory levels reached multidecade lows as sale…

Taking a page from Ford Motor Co. — one of its key investors — Rivian will offer usage-based insurance that can be purchased at the same time as a Rivian R1T pickup or R1S utility vehicle.

Like Ford, Rivian's underwriter is Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.

Rivian also is offering customers the ability to bundle their homeowner's insurance and policies for other non-Rivian vehicles, as well as coverage for its off-road accessories.

The company promises a quote within minutes to customers who order their vehicle online.

The insurance offering is the latest enticement dangled by Rivian to customers to differentiate itself in an increasingly competitive EV landscape, as it develops a network of collision and service facilities and trains in-house product experts to provide personalized assistance on demand.

Initially, the insurance policies are available in 40 states, but they are expected to be available in 48 whe…

Editors note: A previous version of this story included an incorrrect location for CarSaver.

Technical innovations from 27 suppliers around the world have been named finalists in the 2021 Automotive News PACE Awards.

The 31 individual technologies range from new sensors that can distinguish between vehicle passengers to an advancement in how an auto retailer transacts a remote sale.

At the same time, 23 finalists from 20 companies have been named for the Automotive News PACEpilot award.

The Automotive News PACEpilot award, now in its second year, recognizes pre-commercial, post-pilot innovations in the automotive or future mobility space, including products, processes, software and IT systems.

The Automotive News PACE Award, now in its 27th year, is given to suppliers in recognition of a technological innovation in product or processes that has reached commercial application.

PACE judges will review the innovations for the award, to…

Stellantis will idle its minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario, until the end of April, due to the global microchip shortage.

Production is scheduled to resume May 3, the automaker said.

The Chrysler Pacifica, Voyager, Grand Caravan and Pacifica Hybrid minivans are all built at the Windsor Assembly Plant.

“Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry,” the automaker said in a statement.

The Brampton, Ontario, Assembly Plant -- where the Chrysler 300, Dodge Challenger  and Dodge Charger are assembled -- resumes production April 19.

Both plants have been down for two weeks.

The automaker also said Friday that the chip shortage forced it to idle its assembly plants in Belvidere, Ill., and Toluca, Mexico, through the rest of April and its Warren, Mich., truck plant through the end of May.

The company said the upscal…