Trade News

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Baidu Inc. received a permit from the state of California to test self-driving vehicles without a driver behind the wheel, the state's Department of Motor Vehicles said on Wednesday.

Although self-driving vehicles are designed to eliminate the need for a driver, most testing thus far has been with a safety driver behind the wheel who can take over in case of emergency.

Currently, 58 companies have permits in California to test autonomous vehicles with such a backup driver, including most major automakers and Apple Inc.

Baidu is the sixth company to have a permit to test without a driver behind the wheel. The permit allows it to test three autonomous vehicles on specified streets within Sunnyvale, Santa Clara County.

According to Baidu, it will be using two different models of cars for testing its self-driving system, the Lincoln MKZ sedan and the Chrysler Pacifica van.

The Chinese search engine leader has 500 self-driving…

Tesla Inc. generated fourth-quarter net income of $270 million, securing a full-year profit for the first time since its founding in 2003.

The electric vehicle maker said Wednesday it expects to remain consistently profitable moving forward, even as executives suggested the main driver of its recent success -- sales of regulatory credits to competitors -- could become less of a factor.

On a conference call with analysts, Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn noted the $401 million the EV maker made in the fourth quarter from credit sales was higher than anticipated and came from “discreet deals struck over the course of the quarter.”

He reiterated that Tesla is not planning the business around credit sales and does not expect them to be a factor long-term.

The company's fourth-quarter revenue jumped 46 percent to $10.7 billion, with automotive margins during the period hitting 24 percent.

Tesla delivered 499,647 vehicles in 2020, up 61 percent year over…

BMW said it generated more cash than expected last year, joining German peer Volkswagen in posting upbeat preliminary earnings after sustaining their recovery from coronavirus disruptions.

Automotive free cash flow rose to 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion) in the final three months of 2020, almost double the year-earlier period, BMW said in a statement Wednesday. The company reiterated that margins will be at the higher end of a range of as much as 3 percent.

BMW and VW's sales both rebounded after the first half of last year, with demand coming back particularly strong in China. Still, coronavirus lockdowns weighed on full-year shipments, and Daimler's Mercedes-Benz maintained its leadership of the global luxury-car segment for a fifth consecutive year.

While BMW is doing well in China -- its largest market -- the automaker is under growing pressure there as upstarts including Tesla, Nio and Li Auto gain share.

BMW is responding to the threat by e…

HAMBURG -- Microchip supply bottlenecks will impact production at some of Volkswagen's German plants in February.

VW said on Wednesday that it had applied for short-time work at its Wolfsburg car factory on some days of the month.

The automaker also said it had also planned reduced working hours at its components factories in Kassel and Brunswick in February as a precautionary measure. Production at Emden however will not be affected, VW said.

"That means that, depending on the supply situation, there can be adjustments in vehicle and components production over the coming weeks," VW said in an e-mailed statement.

Global automakers are adjusting assembly lines due to semiconductor shortages, which have become a political issue since German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier wrote to his Taiwanese counterpart to ask for help in addressing it.

Automakers early last year canceled orders to chip manufacturers in anticipation of a sharp drop in sale…

WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden's nominee for energy secretary, Jennifer Granholm, is expected to face questions on the administration's push to compete with China on electric vehicles at her Senate confirmation hearing later on Wednesday.

While governor of auto-manufacturing Michigan from 2003-11, Granholm led a charge to secure $1.35 billion in federal funding for companies to produce electric vehicles and batteries in the state.

Granholm, 61, who is expected to be confirmed by the Senate in days after the hearing, wants to steer the department to help the United States compete with China on EVs and green technologies like advanced batteries and solar and wind power.

"We need to be the leader, rather than passive bystanders, or otherwise we're going to allow other countries like China and others we're fighting to be able to corner this market," Granholm told ABC News last month.

She would be the second female U.S. energy secretary after Hazel…

Tesla Inc.’s business selling regulatory credits to automakers that need help complying with emissions rules will keep on booming this year, according to Credit Suisse.

Regulatory credit revenue probably will rise to $2 billion from about $1.4 billion in 2020, analyst Dan Levy predicted in a note previewing Tesla’s quarterly earnings Wednesday. He wrote that his estimate for 2021 is higher than consensus of $1.3 billion.

A surge in regulatory-credit revenue had been a major factor in Tesla’s streak of quarterly profits that’s sent shares soaring and made the stock eligible for the S&P 500. Levy suggested in his note that Europe’s stricter limits on automotive carbon-dioxide emissions will present an opportunity for the company this year.

Tesla doesn’t say which carmakers it sells credits to, though General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles disclosed in 2019 that they had reached agreements to buy U.S. greenhouse-gas credits from the company. FCA a…

SEOUL -- South Korea's LG Chem Ltd. swung to an operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the supplier expects surging revenue from its battery unit that supplies Tesla Inc. to set the stage for a strong 2021.

The maker of chemicals and batteries, whose battery unit LG Energy Solution supplies Tesla, posted an operating profit of 674 billion won ($610.20 million) -- compared with a loss of 33 billion won in the same period a year earlier.

With the launches of new EVs and increased orders for its energy storage system batteries, LG Energy Solution expects revenue to grow more than 50 percent in 2021 from a year earlier, aiming to ramp up annual capacity to 155 gigawatt-hours of batteries by the of the year, up about 30 percent from a year earlier, the unit's Senior Vice President Chang Seung-se said in a call with analysts.

LG Chem's overall fourth-quarter revenue rose 20 percent to 8.9 trillion won, the company said in a regulatory filing. LGg E…

LONDON -- Jaguar Land Rover appointed its creative boss to the board of management Wednesday to help redefine the Jaguar brand as Britain's biggest carmaker reviews its strategy under new CEO Thierry Bollore.

Bollore took over the company in September and faces a number of challenges including electrification, managing underutilization of its plants, handling the rapid fall in diesel sales and the effect of COVID-19 on the industry.

The Jaguar brand has also underperformed Land Rover in recent years with some model overlap.

Bollore said Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern would be "developing the character, distinction and personality of each" brand and the role includes leading the design function at the marques.

"Jaguar Land Rover continues to transform its business at pace and redefine its strategic direction," the Tata Motors-owned company said in a statement.

"In his new role McGovern’s recognized creative mindset along with his busi…

TAIPEI -- Major Taiwanese chipmakers are willing to prioritize supplies for automakers amid a global shortage of chips for the industry, the island's economics minister said after meeting with company executives.

Automakers around the world are shutting assembly lines due to the shortages, which in some cases have been exacerbated by the former U.S. administration's actions against Chinese chip factories.

"Chipmakers are willing to follow the government's request and try to support auto chips as much as they can to support production in the U.S., Europe and Japan," Economics Minister Wang Mei-hua told reporters.

The issue has become a diplomatic one, with German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier writing to Wang to ask her for help in addressing the problem. Wang also said the U.S., European Union and Japan had also been in contact.

The chipmakers are prepared to negotiate with clients of other products to see which clients are willing to delay or c…

TOKYO -- Nissan said Wednesday all its "new vehicle offerings" in key markets would be electrified by the early 2030s, as part of the automaker's efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

The company, which plans to cover markets in Japan, China, the U.S. and Europe, said it will pursue battery innovations, including solid-state batteries, for electric vehicles and further develop its e-POWER hybrid technology to achieve greater energy efficiency.

"We're determined to help create a carbon-neutral society and accelerate the global effort against climate change," said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida.

Nissan's plans comes as global automakers are pivoting from diesel vehicles to electric and hybrid models, while Japan aims to eliminate sales of new gasoline-powered vehicles by the mid-2030s, shifting to EVs, hybrids and fuel cell vehicles.

Japan laid out a green growth strategy last year that included ideas to to help achieve a 2050 carbon-neutral goal.…

LOS ANGELES — Kia is ending sales of two slow-selling sedans, the Cadenza and flagship K900, to make room for a growing stable of crossovers.

The 2020 model year will be the last for both sedans in the U.S.

Kia sold 1,265 of the midsize Cadenza last year and just 305 of the K900, a large rear-drive sedan that pushed the brand into luxury territory. As the two poorest-selling Kia products, their discontinuation does not come as a big surprise.

"As the auto industry shifts its focus from full-size sedans to SUVs, Kia is poised to succeed with a robust range of utility offerings which includes Telluride, Sorento, Sportage and Seltos," Kia said in a statement Tuesday. "As we realign our model lineup to meet consumer demands, the K900 and Cadenza will be discontinued for the 2021 model year."

The Cadenza, which straddled the midsize- and large-car segments, was introduced at the 2013 Detroit auto show and went on sale later that year as a 2014 model.…