Trade News

Organizers of Germany's top auto show, the IAA, plan to stage digital and real-world activities as the event continues to struggle to attract foreign automakers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

German automakers Volkswagen Group, BMW and Daimler will take part in the show, which takes place in Munich from Sept. 7 to Sept. 12.

Frankfurt was the IAA's host city for almost 70 years but the VDA has picked Munich for this year's event.

So far only a handful of non-German automakers, including Ford, Hyundai and Chinese brands, have said they will be present. Other major car companies including Toyota, Renault and Stellantis, which includes PSA Group and its Germany-based Opel brand as well as Fiat Chrysler, have not committed to being present.

This means that time is running out to make the show a truly international event with global appeal.

Organizers will place more emphasis on digital activities in case travel is still disrupted in September by me…

After significant product launches and redesigns in 2020, Buick-GMC dealers are eager for this year's wave of big-ticket vehicles: GMC's electric Hummer pickup and Buick's redesigned Envision compact crossover.

When GMC unveiled the Hummer supertruck, "people were blown away," said Todd Ingersoll, chairman of the Buick-GMC National Dealer Council and CEO of Ingersoll Automotive.

Reservations for the pickup filled up within minutes, GMC has said. The pickup is slated to go on sale late this year.

"It's great to be at the forefront of the first supertruck ever to come to market," Ingersoll said.

The Envision compact crossover, imported from China, has started to arrive at dealerships. The Envision, which is available in the Avenir trim for the first time, is larger than the previous generation and offers more safety features and infotainment options.

Last year, dealers were excited about the redesigned GMC Yukon SUV and the new Buick Encore …

In the early days of the pandemic, the technicians at John Hiester's four North Carolina dealerships had only enough work to last till about lunch.

As business slowed the techs became increasingly worried about layoffs or furloughs. Hiester called a meeting to soothe concerns but admits he might have just added to the discomfort.

"I told them we're gonna do everything we can to get as much work in here as possible and we'll just have to play it by ear," recalled Hiester, who owns two Chevrolet dealerships and two Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores scattered south of the Research Triangle. "I knew that was a bad answer. I went home and thought about it.

"I said, 'We gotta come up with something.' "

His first thought was of a past love — tinkering on classic cars. He wondered if his techs, when things got slow in the afternoon, would want to pass the time turning wrenches on old cars. He bounced the idea off his managers, who loved it. Soon, it snowbal…

Anhalt, who took the helm of Elektrobit as CEO in January, talks about the company’s approach to software-defined vehicles, its strategy for this year, and her career experience going from software development to automotive.

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TOKYO — A top Nissan executive indicated he copped a plea deal to testify against ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn because he was worried about possibly getting snared in the legal swoop.

Hari Nada, a star government witness and the executive running Nissan's legal office at the time of Ghosn's arrest, said internal investigations into Ghosn's alleged misconduct began as early as January 2018, at least 10 months before Tokyo authorities arrested Ghosn on Nov. 19 of that year.

Nada, testifying last week before the Tokyo District Court in the case against former Nissan director Greg Kelly, offered his first public explanation for what made him turn on Nissan's longtime boss.

The initial probe into Ghosn, he said, was launched by Nissan's statutory auditor, Hidetoshi Imazu, to look into questions about Ghosn's billing of personal air travel to the company. That investigation expanded to look into suspicions about some $80 million in de…

With gold chandeliers, stained-glass windows and a marble fireplace, Brown Bros. Cadillac looks nothing like a typical dealership.

Gary and Bruce Brown's mother designed the extravagant, 15,000-square-foot showroom in Louisville, Ky., that surrounds cars with 19th-century oil landscapes by Harvey Joiner and Carl Brenner on walls of floral paper and rustic brick.

"I've been told by a number of people that it looks like the lobby of a fine Southern hotel," said Gary Brown, who now owns the dealership with his brother. "I think her aim was to make it a very comfortable, stylish place to buy a Cadillac. At that time, Cadillac was still the dominant luxury car in America."

But Cadillac's dominance ended two decades ago, and in two weeks, downtown Louisville will be without a Cadillac dealership for the first time in more than a century. The Browns are among the more than 175 Cadillac dealers who have decided to take a buyout instead of going along for the r…

The semiconductor shortage roiling global auto production has hit Nissan Motor Co.'s Canton, Miss., assembly plant, where the company builds pickups, sedans and commercial vans.

Frontier and Titan pickup output was idled for two days in late January, according to a factory memo obtained by Automotive News. The pickup line is also scheduled to be down on Feb. 8, the memo indicates.

Nissan builds about 410 mid- and full-size pickups at the factory each day, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

The midsize Frontier will undergo a major redesign in late summer, its first since 2004.

Altima assembly at Canton has also been affected. Overtime and Saturday production of the midsize sedan was cut for a part of January, the memo notes.

Output at Nissan's larger Smyrna, Tenn., factory so far has not been affected by the chip shortage. Nissan builds mostly crossovers at Smyrna, including the brand's best-selling Rogue compact crossover.

"Nissan…

DETROIT — The UAW is expected to receive an independent monitor within the next 90 days as part of a consent decree with the federal government approved by a judge late Friday night.

The deal, announced in December, includes a six-year period of oversight, $1.5 million fine and potential changes to its election process after prosecutors found evidence of rampant corruption among top officers.

The approval of the consent decree by U.S. District Judge David Lawson Friday included new timing details and officially started the clock on the process to implement the independent watchdogs.

The union has 30 days from the consent decree approval to suggest three candidates to become its independent monitor. After that, the government can either approve one or seek additional options, but will seek to select one within 60 days of receiving the initial candidates. They must then be approved and appointed by the court.

The monitor…

DETROIT — The UAW is expected to receive an independent monitor within the next 90 days as part of a consent decree with the federal government approved by a judge late Friday.

The sweeping deal, announced in December, includes a six-year period of oversight, $1.5 million fine and potential changes to its election process after prosecutors found evidence of rampant corruption among top union officers.

The approval of the consent decree by U.S. District Judge David Lawson Friday includes new timing details and officially started the clock on the process to implement independent watchdogs.

The union has 30 days from approval of the consent decree to suggest three candidates for the independent monitor. After that, the government can either approve one or seek additional options, but will seek to select one within 60 days of receiving the initial candidates. They must then be approved and appointed by the court.

The monitor will have the power to bri…