Trade News

DETROIT — The next generation of the Ford family is poised to begin overseeing the company their great-great-grandfather founded more than a century ago.

The automaker on Friday said Alexandra Ford English, daughter of Executive Chairman Bill Ford, and Henry Ford III, son of Edsel Ford II, have been nominated to the board of directors. They would replace Edsel Ford — Bill Ford's cousin — and John Lechleiter, who will step down from their seats in May.

Ford English, 33, joined her family's company in 2017, working as director of market and operations for Ford Autonomous Vehicles. She currently is a director in corporate strategy and sits on the board of electric automaker Rivian.

Henry Ford, 40, has been with the company since 2006 in a variety of roles, including labor relations, purchasing, and marketing for Ford Performance. He currently is a director in Ford investor relations.

"As a father, as an uncle and as an executive chairman, I think it…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s upcoming compact pickup, expected to be called the Maverick, has been caught testing near the company's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters.

The automaker has not formally revealed the small truck, but it is expected to go into production in July, suppliers have been told. A prototype was spotted in January on the assembly line at Ford's Hermosillo, Mexico, plant, and the company last month reported building 21 models there of a "C pickup" on a production chart sent to investors and the media.

The vehicle is expected to slot below the Ranger midsize pickup and start under $20,000, dealers have been told. It would serve as an entry-level replacement for the company's discontinued sedans.

Ford has said publicly that it planned to launch an affordable "white space" product by 2022 but has not indicated what type of vehicle it would be.

The website Motor1.com last year posted an image of a pickup tailgate bearing …

Porsche's all-electric sports car is getting an all-wheel-drive sibling with a muscular profile and mud guards. The 2021 Taycan Cross Turismo, Porsche's second wagon after the Panamera Sport Turismo, sits 0.8 inch higher than the regular Taycan and a further 0.4 inch when the Off Road Design Package is included.

It will be launched with four variants: 4, 4S, Turbo and Turbo S.

The Taycan's standard trunk lid is replaced with a hatch and rear wiper on the Cross.

Porsche has added a dedicated Gravel mode to the wagon by raising the suspension to its highest settings and making changes to the stability control and torque management system for better grip.

The base model features up to 469 hp and vrooms from 0 to 60 mph in 4.8 seconds, with a top speed of 136 mph. The most powerful model is the Turbo S, with up to 750 hp. It goes from 0 to 60 mph in 2.7 seconds, with a top speed of 155 mph.

The Taycan Cross Tur…

Bollinger Motors, a suburban Detroit electric truck startup, plans its first deliveries of four models next year, the company said Friday at a virtual work truck show.

CEO Robert Bollinger says he has lined up "a number of" manufacturing partners to assemble the trucks and chassis-cab models his engineers have designed. Agreements with subassembly partners have been signed; a final assembly company will be named soon, the company said.

Launching at the same time in 2022 will be the B1 SUV, the B2 electric medium-duty pickup and two chassis-cab models. Those chassis-cab vehicles will be offered to fleet customers who buy the fully engineered chassis and send them to up-fitters for installation of custom bodies.

This is a segment where Bollinger will have little and maybe no competition, at least initially. Its Class 3 electric chassis-cab models appear to be the only ones available.

During a filmed presentation shown at the NTEA Work Truck Show, he…

Hindenburg Research, the firm that took aim at Nikola Corp. last year, is now turning its sights on electric pickup maker Lordstown Motors Corp.

"Lordstown is an electric vehicle SPAC with no revenue and no sellable product, which we believe has misled investors on both its demand and production capabilities," Hindenburg said in a report on Friday.

"Despite claims that Lordstown will be producing vehicles by September, a former employee explained how the company is experiencing delays and making 'drastic' design modifications, putting them an estimated 3-4 years away from production," Hindenburg said.

The truckmaker is one of a slew of electric-vehicle startups that have gone public through mergers with special purpose acquisition companies. A number have come under close scrutiny, including Velodyne Lidar Inc., whose founder left amid a fight with its board.

Hindenburg further said that despite claims that battery packs would be made in-hou…

CEO Jay Vijayan says the startup's cloud-native DMS platform is creating a more seamless car-buying experience for dealers and customers.

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Dealership marketing company AutoWeb posted a smaller loss in the fourth quarter and for all of 2020.

The Tampa, Fla., company on Thursday reported a net loss of $937,000 in the quarter, compared with a net loss of $3.2 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

Quarterly revenue fell 35 percent to $17.3 million, attributed to a drop in leads and clicks, as well as continued negative impact from the coronavirus pandemic, the company said. AutoWeb said it scaled back expenses, including lower marketing outlays.

"While we continued to purposefully manage revenue down during the fourth quarter to address market impacts from COVID-19, we generated a 6 percent increase in gross profit, marking our strongest [fourth quarter] since 2017," AutoWeb CEO Jared Rowe said in a statement. "We believe our proven and disciplined operating model, coupled with our unique and exciting strategic plan, has us well-positioned for the year ahead."

Shares of AutoWeb wer…

Baidu, a leading Chinese autonomous driving technology developer, won a bid from the local government to construct an intelligent-driving project in the southwestern city of Chengdu. 

Under the 105 million yuan ($16 million) deal, Baidu will develop 30 kilometers of intelligent connected roads, build a 5G-based intelligent connected vehicle demonstration zone, and provide self-driving bus and taxi services to local residents, the company said.

Baidu didn’t disclose a time frame for implementing the project.

Chengdu, with a population of more than 16 million, is the third most populated city in China, after Shanghai and Beijing. 

Baidu has rolled out demonstration robotaxi programs in Shanghai, Beijing and other major Chinese cities, including Guangzhou and Chongqing.

In January, Baidu said it would join the largest private Chinese automaker, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, to develop self-driving electric vehicles with autonomous dr…

Automotive seating supplier Adient said Friday it would sell its 50 percent interest in Yanfeng Adient Seating to its joint venture partner for $1.5 billion in cash, to pursue its strategy in China independently.

In turn, Adient will acquire YFAS' 50 percent equity interest in Chongqing Yanfeng Adient Automotive Components and 100 percent equity interest in Yanfeng Adient Seating and consolidate those businesses.

Adient CEO Doug Del Grosso said in a statement the deals would offer an opportunity "to drive our China strategy independently and further position the company for future growth in the world's largest automotive market."

Adient designs and manufactures seating systems for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and light trucks.

The company, which operates in 32 countries, expects its China business to have nearly $4.5 billion in annual consolidated and unconsolidated sales after it has closed all deals.

Yanfeng will operate the remain…

Spanish supplier Grupo Antolin established a joint venture in Shanghai with local automotive electronics company Naen Auto Technology. 

Under an agreement signed this month, the partnership will develop electronic control units for vehicle interiors and exteriors supplied by Antolin. 

The joint venture’s first contract will supply a door control unit for a new all-electric utility vehicle developed by Volvo Car Corp. and its Chinese parent, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group., Antolin said, without identifying the vehicle. 

The new company will also supply global automakers including BMW Group, General Motors, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., the Spanish supplier added. 

Additional information on the joint venture was not available. 

Antolin, a global supplier of vehicle interiors, created an electronic systems business unit in early 2020 to diversify into automotive electronics. 

Naen, incorporated in …

Polestar, the electric performance brand owned by Volvo Car Corp. and its Chinese parent, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, named Nathan Forshaw head of operations in China and Asia Pacific.

The appointment, effective April 1, will “strengthen the collaboration between Polestar Asia Pacific and its global headquarters, and accelerate Polestar's development in the Asia Pacific market,” the company said.

Polestar also announced this week plans to expand its Asia Pacific market footprint beyond China to include South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand, beginning later this year. 

Forshaw joined Polestar in 2016 and was the brand’s head of global strategy and business development. Prior to that post, he was a senior executive of AB Volvo in charge of the Swedish truck maker’s operations in Asia Pacific, according to Polestar.  

The company said its current China president, Gao Hong, is leaving for “personal reasons.”  Read more

<!--*/ <!--*/ */ /*-->*/ /*-->*/ Pandemic cut average time spent in U.S. traffic jams by 73 hours last year, study finds

Crowded cities. Nightmare commutes. Congested roads. Those are some of the challenges spotlighted in the annual Global Traffic Scorecard compiled by traffic analytics company Inrix.

The delays worsen every year. Except 2020.

The coronavirus upended travel across the world, and the company's latest report, issued this week, underscores the dramatic nature of the disruptions.

Traffic delays fell nearly 50 percent in major cities across the U.S. The average American driver spent 26 hours in traffic jams in 2020, a drop of 73 hours from just a year earlier. Collectively, motorists saved approximately 3.4 billion hours that would have been wasted sitting in traffic.

"COVID-19 has completely transformed when, where and how people move," Bob Pishue, transportation analyst at Inrix, said in a written statement. "Go…