Trade News

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp.'s first venture capital fund is investing in startups that help the Japanese automaker refine everyday processes by bringing sharper supply-chain management and robotics to the factory floor, a fund executive said.

The Silicon Valley-based Toyota AI Ventures fund, with $200 million under management, has so far invested in 36 early-stage startups, including self-driving car software firm Nauto, factory video analytics company Drishti and air mobility firm Joby Aviation.

Toyota, the world's largest automaker by vehicle sales, and many car companies such as Volkswagen Group are funnelling money into startups to help gain an edge in artificial intelligence as investor interest shifts to self-driving cars.

For instance Toyota, which has dozens of factories around the world, wants to be able to quickly share the lessons learned at one plant across other plants so that efficiencies are maximized, Jim Adler, the founding managing dir…

Elon Musk is getting into the Texas power market, with previously unrevealed construction of a gigantic battery connected to an ailing electric grid that nearly collapsed last month. The move marks Tesla Inc.’s first major foray into the epicenter of the U.S. energy economy.

A Tesla subsidiary registered as Gambit Energy Storage LLC is quietly building a more than 100 megawatt energy storage project in Angleton, Texas, a town roughly 40 miles south of Houston. A battery that size could power about 20,000 homes on a hot summer day. Workers at the site kept equipment under cover and discouraged onlookers, but a Tesla logo could be seen on a worker’s hard hat and public documents helped confirm the company’s role.

Property records on file with Brazoria County show Gambit shares the same address as a Tesla facility near the company’s auto plant in Fremont, California. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lists Gambit as a Tesla subsidiary. Exec…

Chinese electric-vehicle maker XPeng Inc. reported a narrowing loss in the fourth quarter and deliveries that beat its own expectations by 30 percent, a sign the startup is building a solid footing in the world’s largest market for cleaner cars.

Guangzhou-based Xpeng posted a net loss of 787.4 million yuan ($121 million), compared with a loss of 997.1 million yuan the same period a year ago, according to a statement Monday. Revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31 soared almost 350 percent to 2.85 billion yuan ($437 million).

“We closed 2020 on a strong note,” Chairman and CEO He Xiaopeng said. “Our relentless focus on providing highly differentiated smart EV products to our customers and expanding our sales and service network supported our achievements and empowers our sustainable future growth.”

The figures round out a robust 2020 for Xpeng, whose New York-listed shares are up 87 percent over the past 12 months even after taking a battering in rece…

Self-driving truck startup Plus is in advanced talks with a few special purpose acquisition companies for a merger, as it seeks to bankroll its expansion in the autonomous driving industry, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Sequoia Capital-backed company has received several letters of intent from U.S.-listed SPACs and is weeks away from a deal announcement, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is private. The SPACs range in size from $300 million to $500 million, and Plus is planning to set its valuation range later this month, one of the people said.

Plus is working with Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and will start a roadshow for additional financing via a private investment in public equity, or PIPE, transaction after it chooses a SPAC, the people added. Representatives for Plus and Goldman Sachs declined to comment.

The Cupertino, California-based firm is among a handful of startups that are trying to upend …

PARIS -- Stellantis has halted a plan to bring back the Peugeot brand to the U.S. market, saying it wants to concentrate on “existing brands” in North America after the merger of PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles gave the new group a broader geographical reach.

The plan for a comeback for Peugeot, last sold in the U.S. in the early 1990s, was thrown into question after the merger was announced in December 2019. Larry Dominique, the executive who had been leading PSA’s U.S. efforts since 2017, on Friday was named head of North America for the Stellantis brand Alfa Romeo. 

A Stellantis spokesman said on Saturday that the "new context of Stellantis with a strong presence on U.S. market leads us to focus on existing brands.” 

“This is why Larry will develop Alfa Romeo in this market,” the spokesman added.

Dominique had been preparing for the Peugeot brand’s U.S. comeback for more than four years, with a focus on creating a distributio…

Robert Bosch has started a critical testing phase at its new semiconductor plant in Dresden, Germany, as the automotive industry struggles with a shortage of essential chips that has led to widespread production halts.

The 1 billion euro ($1.2 billion) factory is expected to start production at the end of this year, with a main focus on automotive microchips. Bosch has an existing semiconductor fabrication plant – known as a wafer fab -- in Reutlingen, Germany, near the supplier’s headquarters in Stuttgart.

At the Dresden plant, prototype silicon wafers have passed through the fully automated production process for the first time, Bosch said in a news release Monday. The wafers take about six weeks to process, with 250 fabrication steps. 

The wafers will be used as part of power semiconductors for applications such as DC-to-DC converters for electrified vehicles. Bosch said it takes about 10 weeks to make a wafer into a finished semiconductor c…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Lessons learned, forgotten from '3-11'

The date is seared in the minds of the Japanese, much like Nov. 22 and Sept. 11 are for Americans. March 11, this Thursday, marks the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of Japan.

And, in a bizarre coincidence, that same date in 2020 was for Americans an unforgettable marker in the life of the coronavirus pandemic.

That evening alone, President Donald Trump banned travel from Europe, the NBA canceled its season and actor Tom Hanks revealed he had COVID-19.

The day was "the pivot point on which weeks of winter unease about the looming novel coronavirus turned in a matter of hours into a sudden, wrenching, nation-altering halt to daily life and routine," Wired magazine wrote.

Both events, nine years apart, had dramatic impacts on the auto industry.

And we explore them in Monday's issue. Namely:

■ The lessons that the Japanese …

Here are edited highlights from the latest episodes of "Daily Drive," Automotive News' weekday podcast, hosted by Jason Stein and Steve Schmith.

"When I was growing up my dad was a very dominant kind of employer. He was involved in everything. He was fair, but tough. When I got out of college, about a year later, he realized that maybe I had some special skills. He reversed his role from being the dominant player, the CEO-COO, into an adviser role and gave me space, allowed me to make mistakes." -- Dealer Mike Maroone, CEO of Maroone USA, reflecting on his father, Al, who died in February at age 98

"We are a digital-forward brand. The customer can come on to polestar.com and actually learn about the product, configure the product, carry out the transaction online with a retail partner in the back end, assess their trade-in and all the way down to actually have the car delivered to their front door. So everything is from a digital-forward proces…

Stewart Stropp, senior director of automotive retail, talks about the results of J.D. Power’s inaugural U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration study. For some consumers, a Tesla isn’t always tried and true. For others, one factor that makes them hesitant about a EV is a lack of information.

How do I subscribe?

Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

Spotify: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" can be streamed through Spotify on your desktop, tablet or mobile device. Click here to subscribe.

Google Play: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" is available on Android devices through the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe.

The world's newest automotive group, Stellantis, will start life with a war chest of $21.2 billion in cash, but without a published strategic plan as to how it will manage 14 brands across three continents and 400,000 employees – and find about $6 billion a year in annual synergies.

CEO Carlos Tavares told analysts this week that they would have to wait until the end of this year or the beginning of 2022 for a capital markets day. That plan, when it comes, will extend out to 2030, far longer than most strategic plans and much longer than the two four-year plans that he put in place at PSA Group.

Stellantis is in no rush, Tavares said at a presentation of results from PSA and new partner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, evoking an earlier merger that ended in a bitter separation. "We do not forget what happened in the past with DaimlerChrysler," he said. 

"Stellantis is not born from a crisis," Tavares said, but "from the understanding that the two former…

DETROIT — For 76 straight years it was the largest one in the world, but General Motors would rather not be described as simply an automaker anymore. As GM expands into various technologies and transportation services, its executives say an electric delivery van, an insurance quote or even a robotaxi might also come to define the company over the next decade.

CEO Mary Barra believes GM can come to be viewed as a technology company, a distinction many legacy automakers have long clamored for so Wall Street would consider them on a par with challengers such as Tesla Inc.

GM's reach into adjacent businesses is part of a broader strategy to stretch what's typically a one-time transaction into a wider profit net over the lifetime of the vehicle as the automaker aims for a zero-emission portfolio of light-duty vehicles by 2035, analysts say. Some predict GM and other traditional automakers could boost their revenue as much as 30 to 40 percent with service businesses…

The Jeep Grand Cherokee L will be a newcomer to the three-row utility segment when it arrives at dealerships in the second quarter, but it won't need much of an introduction. Jeep will just have to let consumers know that the Grand Cherokee can haul a few more people now.

The nameplate is one of the most established in the industry, giving it immediate familiarity with consumers. The three-row version will bring that longstanding cachet as it faces off with fresh offerings such as the Hyundai Palisade and the fast-turning Kia Telluride. Higher trim levels could end up contending with the likes of Land Rover.

The Grand Cherokee's first three-row offering is stepping into the fray in Jeep's typical role as a premium option. The base rear-wheel-drive model starts at $38,690, while the lowest 4x4 price point is $40,690. The top trim surpasses $66,000. All prices include shipping.

For comparison, the Hyundai Palisade starts at $33,7…