Trade News

AutoNation Inc. reported an 88 percent surge in quarterly adjusted profit on Tuesday as the largest U.S. auto dealership chain earned more per vehicle thanks to tight inventories and robust demand for SUVs, crossovers and trucks.

AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson said on Tuesday the shortage in supplies of semiconductors "is significant, and manufacturers can't give us too much visibility" on how vehicle shipments will be affected. For now, Jackson said, "retailers are managing the situation through price."

Meanwhile, the company said Jackson gave up his 18-year role as chairman. AutoNation named Rick Burdick as chair to succeed Jackson, who remains CEO -- a job he’s held for much of the past 20 years. Burdick has been a director since 1991 and served as a partner for law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer and Feld until 2019.

Global auto sales have rebounded from the pandemic lows hit early last year as consumers increasingly prefer buying vehicles that pro…

TOKYO – Toyota Motor Corp. said it will suspend production at nine plants in Japan for several days this week because of supply disruptions from a weekend earthquake that rattled the country’s northeast.

The world’s biggest automaker said the interruption is caused by suppliers affected by the Saturday night quake. Toyota said it wouldn’t disclose which parts are affected or the suppliers.

But the parts are not semiconductors, spokeswoman Shiori Hashimoto said. That disclosure comes despite the fact that the global industry is facing a shortage of automotive microchips and the fact that a key semiconductor plant in Japan has reduced output due to the quake.

Toyota also declined to say how many units of output would be lost. The suspensions start as early as Feb. 17 at some plants and run through Saturday, February 20, at all the affected lines. Toyota is still considering when to resume operation after that.Toyota said the supply chain issues were not ex…

BorgWarner is expanding its electrification portfolio after signing an agreement to acquire Akasol, a maker of battery systems for commercial and off-road vehicles based in Darmstadt, Germany, at a value of 727 million euros ($880 million).

Under the terms of the agreement, a BorgWarner unit will initiate a voluntary public takeover of all outstanding shares of Akasol, at a price of 120 euros per share, a 23 percent premium to the three-month average price.

The transaction is expected to close toward the end of the second quarter, BorgWarner said in a statement on Monday.

BorgWarner shares rose 10 percent to $46.28 in premarket trading on Tuesday. Markets were closed during the holiday on Monday.

Akasol, initially set up in 1990, makes battery systems for buses, commercial and industrial vehicles as well as locomotives and ships. It buys lithium cells and adapts them to systems that are used by manufacturers such as Daimler and Volvo. Read more

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group says bad planning on the part of its suppliers has compounded a computer chip shortage blighting the global auto industry, claiming it gave ample notice that the coronavirus' hit to car production would be limited.

VW in December was the first automaker to warn of a chip supply crunch that has hit global automakers, forcing them to cut or halt production as the semiconductor industry struggles to keep up with a recovery in the car sector.

The company told its suppliers in April last year -- when much of global car production was idled due to the coronavirus pandemic --  that it expected a strong recovery in the second half of 2020, a VW executive, who declined to be named, told Reuters.

VW says it was made aware of the chip shortage by one of its suppliers at the end of November, but that that warning came too late.

"We have communicated our demand early on. We have passed on our forecasts which have confirmed …

Over the past 10 months, Apple has outfitted its latest iPad Pro and iPhone 12 with lidar sensors that enhance the camera capabilities in both devices. Even though the additions have nothing to do with the company's secretive self-driving vehicle program, the moves nonetheless elicited cheers from one Israeli auto-tech startup.

Opsys Tech has spent the past five years developing a particular kind of lidar for use in driver-assist and self-driving systems called VCSEL, which rhymes with 'pixel.' The company's founders are convinced Vertical Cavity Scanning Emitting Lasers offer advantages over conventional lidar, because they allow more emitters to be packaged on smaller chips and use less power overall.

When Apple started using the same type of lidar, Opsys Tech counted another key advantage — it can further compete on cost.

"By the time Apple finished saying to the world 'I need VCSELs for my phone,' everyone was building capacit…

TOKYO -- Renesas Electronics, a key supplier of automotive semiconductors, said it will restart production at its advanced chip plant in northeast Japan after an earthquake on Saturday cut power to the facility and shut it down.

A resumption of full output will, however, take a week, which could delay some shipments at a time when customers, particularly carmakers, are struggling with a global chip shortage.

"We will do what we can to ensure there is no disruption to supplies," a Renesas spokeswoman said.

The 7.3 magnitude tremor off Japan's northeast coast caused strong shaking at the Naka factory in Ibaraki Prefecture, which has the company's only cutting-edge 300-millimeter fabrication line.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has warned that aftershocks from the latest quake could last for several days.

In 2011, a deadly magnitude 9 quake shut the plant for three months. After that temblor, which killed 20,000 people and destroyed the …

Future Jaguar models will be built exclusively on a full-electric architecture, Jaguar Land Rover said.

The historic marque, known for its performance sports cars, will become all-electric starting in 2025 to "realize its unique potential," Jaguar Land Rover CEO Thierry Bollore said during an online presentation on Monday.

Jaguar currently sells a single full-electric car, the I-Pace crossover.

Sister brand Land Rover will get six new full-electric models in the next five years with the aim of making 60 percent of its sales zero emissions vehicles by 2030. The first battery-powered Land Rover will be launched in 2024.

In addition, JLR will phase out diesel engines, Bollore said.

The strategy forms Jaguar Land Rover's new business plan called "Reimagine."

The aim is to give the Jaguar and Land Rover brands two distinct personalities, said Bollore, former CEO at Renault, who took the top job at JLR in September.

Jaguar models w…

More than a century ago, the industrial genius of Henry Ford ushered in the era of modern manufacturing, fundamentally transforming how people around the world live, work and get around.

For generations, the principles of mass production have varied little across industries and products. But today, the manufacturing sector is at an inflection point.

This new era of transportation will be driven by three key trends.

1. Personalization. One-car-fits-most hasn't been the name of the game in the auto industry for a long time. Consumers want their cars to be seamless extensions of the rest of their lives — from integrating digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa to loading driver settings automatically based on who unlocks the door. That personalization is only accelerating thanks to advances such as 3D printing, which make it more practical — and affordable — to customize a vehicle's components to a customer's specifications.

2. Flexibility. With th…