Trade News

The No. 1 challenge for building electric autos is cost, said Joerg Reger, managing director of ABB Robotics. The Swiss production innovator is addressing that by making its robots more adaptable and more autonomous. Reger, 56, told Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs why ABB is seeing a surge in auto plant investment during an interview at the company's R&D center in Friedberg, Germany.

Q: What is the biggest problem you are being asked to solve in automotive manufacturing today?

A: The biggest challenge our customers face is managing a broad range of vehicle variants. Everybody has to be very, very flexible. This includes the production lines. We offer flexible cells with a standardized design supporting multiple applications, for example, for gluing, for sealing, for spot welding, for arc welding or for assembly. These cells are supplied by autonomous mobile robots that bring the warehouse closer to the production line. In old plants you sti…

WASHINGTON — As car dealers anxiously await details on how tax credits will be applied to eligible electric vehicles at the point of sale as soon as Jan. 1, some are worried about a Cash for Clunkers scenario that could leave them footing the bill for several months.

Starting in 2024, eligible EV buyers will be able to transfer federal tax credits to dealers and use those funds as a down payment. The credit transfer is allowed under the Inflation Reduction Act's Section 30D credit for new EV purchases and Section 25E credit for used EVs, which provide consumers with up to $7,500 and $4,000, respectively, if certain requirements are met.

The U.S. Treasury Department said participating dealers will be able to register via an online IRS portal in the next few months. In January, those dealers will be able to submit EV sales information to the IRS and "promptly receive payments for transferred credits," Lily Batchelder, assistant secretary for tax…

McLaren Automotive is looking toward transformation as the purveyor of two-door sports cars considers a bigger, more profitable market — four-door, utility-type vehicles.

In April, without revealing details, McLaren told retailers it would bring "another class of automobile" in the decade's second half. According to retailers, McLaren's director of product strategy, Jamie Corstorphine, said, "Stay tuned. It may have four doors and four seats."

McLaren is fashionably late to the mid-six-figure luxury utility vehicle club. Competitors Bentley, Lamborghini and Rolls-Royce have successfully launched SUVs, while Ferrari's first utility vehicle deliveries begin this year.

McLaren plans to transition to a 100 percent electrified portfolio by 2026. But the automaker isn't ready to commit to battery-only power.

"McLaren doesn't feel EV technology is there," a retailer said. "It's an answer, but it's not the answer."

The British marque is also exp…

There isn't much time left to get a new V-8-powered Maserati.

Maserati is dropping the V-8 engine in the Levante, Ghibli and Quattroporte at the end of the year as it transitions to electric vehicles. The brand plans to go all-electric by 2030.

Levante: A redesigned Levante may move to the STLA large platform, which will underpin a range of Stellantis electrified vehicles, around 2026 as an EV.

Grecale: The Grecale midsize crossover that debuted in 2022 offers conventional and mild-hybrid engines. An electric version is coming in 2024.

MC20: The sports car's gasoline-powered version has a twin-turbocharged V-6 engine that generates 621 hp. The MC20 speedster will get an electric version in 2025.

Quattroporte: A redesigned Quattroporte could arrive in 2025.

GranTurismo: The GranTurismo coupe and its convertible counterpart will get electric variants in 2024. The electric option tops 1,200 hp.

Ghibli: P…

As the historic UAW strike enters its third week, dealers hope preparation will be enough to cushion the blow and keep service departments humming as the labor unrest hits closer to home with more than three dozen parts facilities being taken offline by the union's latest tactic.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced on Friday that 38 General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution centers in 20 states that package and ship parts used to repair customers' vehicles will join the strike. This could negatively impact dealership service departments to repair and maintain vehicles, which can account for at least half of a store's annual profits.

"All dealerships across the country have got a shop full of customers' cars that need to be repaired," said Ben Keating, owner of Keating Auto Group, which includes two GM dealerships and four Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores throughout Texas.

Despite the impact, Keating said the decision to strike at the parts distribut…

Aaron Zimmerman vividly recalls the aha moment when he realized service advisers at the dealership group where he worked several years ago knew nothing about the very metrics used to rate their performance — and determine their pay.

"I was in a meeting with a general manager who was getting on his advisers pretty hard about a decline in their key performance indicators, like hours per repair order and effective labor rate," said Zimmerman, a corporate fixed ops director at the time. "And I saw a lot of blank faces."

Nobody knew what an effective labor rate was, said Zimmerman, a 2023 Automotive News 40 Under 40 honoree and now corporate fixed ops director at Len Stoler Automotive Group. The group owns 10 stores in Maryland and New York.

"We wanted to hold advisers accountable to certain KPIs, but it's hard for them to do that if they haven't been taught what they are," he said. "You can't change or improve on what you don't know."…

LONG BEACH, Calif. — From the outside, the intricately woven amalgam of metal pipes and tanks built and owned by FuelCell Energy Inc. alongside the entrance to Toyota's main California port here could pass for a miniature old-school oil refinery.

But looks can be deceiving, because the products — hydrogen, electricity and water — coming out of this first-of-a-kind processing facility are as clean as oil is dirty. They are distilled from a naturally occurring byproduct of rotting waste that otherwise would end up fouling the atmosphere, and in a unique pilot program, will be used by Toyota for the next 20 years to aid its port operations here, just a short distance from the Pacific Ocean.

Called Tri-gen, the small plant transforms biogas — methane polluted with other contaminants captured and carried by pipeline from a nearby anaerobic digester — into an adjustable combination of up to 2.3 megawatts of electricity, 1,200 kg of hydrogen and 1,400…

Automakers and their retailers are getting creative in the race for service technicians.

In February, Mercedes-Benz USA partnered with Job Corps to grow its technician ranks. In March, Ford Motor Co. announced a $1 million scholarship fund for future technicians in four U.S. cities.

And Volvo Cars, in an effort to recruit more female technicians, has redesigned its shop uniforms to better suit women.

Female technicians typically have to wear ill-fitting uniforms designed and sized for men. So Volvo aimed to create a uniform that would fit women without making them stand out among their peers.

"While the existing uniforms are meant to be gender neutral, the feedback we received from our female technicians was that the cut and fabric was made with a man's traditional build in mind," said Volvo Car USA and Canada marketing head Leigh Moynihan. Several "female technicians flagged the need for a specific uniform to better …

The Maybach lineup at Mercedes is about to expand beyond current high-end versions of the S-Class sedan and two SUVs — the EQS and the GLS.

Mercedes-Maybach is planning additional vehicles under the brand's Myth and Legend models — which are ultraexpensive, come in limited runs or are more exclusive one-offs commissioned by wealthy collectors, Car and Driver reported. Legend" models are more prestigious, with pricing of $1 million or more.

The magazine said a new Mercedes-Maybach SL roadster, which "will boast more bling per square inch of sheet metal than any other passenger car this side of a Kahn or Mansory conversion," is also in the works.

"We are going to turn Maybach into kind of a coachbuilt super Mercedes which lifts personalization to a whole new level," a senior company official told Car and Driver.

Future Maybach models will feature unique body panels and made-to-measure body-in-white.

BMW is pl…

A former Nissan and Gulf States Toyota executive is joining AutoNation Inc. as its new COO.

Jeff Parent, 58, will start Oct. 16, the company said. He brings an extensive background in areas including sales, supply chain management, business strategy, and operational and strategic initiatives, according to the hiring announcement. Parent will be tasked with overseeing AutoNation's daily operations, working with other members of the leadership team to enact the company's strategic plans and boost efficiency.

He will get paid an annual base salary of $800,000, receive a one-time sign-on cash payment of $1.5 million and participate in the company's annual incentive compensation program. AutoNation also is issuing him various one-time stock payments and making him eligible for annual performance-based stock compensation, according to a regulatory filing Monday.

CEO Mike Manley said in a statement that Parent is "a proven leader with an excellent track record…