Trade News

General Motors is working on a strategy to build at least one new electric vehicle inspired by its Corvette sports car, potentially expanding the brand from a single performance model into a family of vehicles, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. If the plan is approved, the most likely model to emerge later this decade would be a marriage of a crossover and a sports car.

The automaker has toyed with the idea of building different types of vehicles with Corvette styling and performance in the past but never took the plunge. Purists worried about muddying the image of a vehicle with legions of die-hard fans and owners.

GM has designers working on several Corvette-brand concept vehicles that target a wider range of buyers, said the people, who asked not to be named because the plan has not been publicly unveiled. These seek to blend Corvette’s reputation for high-performance driving and rakish styling with creature comforts such as more interior room…

Toyota Research Institute and Stanford University's Dynamic Design Lab said they are conducting research to design a new level of active safety technology.

The engineers are working to combine the instincts of professional drivers and automated driving technology to reduce vehicle crash-related fatalities.

"The reality is that every driver has vulnerabilities, and to avoid a crash, drivers often need to make maneuvers that are beyond their abilities," Gill Pratt, the institute's CEO, said in a statement. "Through this project, TRI will learn from some of the most skilled drivers in the world to develop sophisticated control algorithms that amplify human driving abilities and keep people safe."

A Toyota spokesman told Automotive News in an email that the research is examining how to control vehicles at their operational limits, including making aggressive vehicle-avoidance maneuvers.

Stanford researchers are experimenting with control over brakes w…

Danger can take many forms when it comes to driving. There are the dangers a driver might fail to see because he or she is distracted. And, in the age of COVID-19, there are new dangers that are invisible to the naked eye.

GHSP, a nearly century-old supplier based in Holland, Mich., used CES to showcase technologies to remedy both kinds of hazards.

The company introduced dual-stack rotary and multifunction controllers that allow drivers to access and control vehicle functions from the center console, without taking their eyes off the road.

It also showed off a much different safety product, its disinfectant system, Grenlite.

According to GHSP, Grenlite kills 99.9 percent of viruses and bacteria using UV-C light, helping to ensure that vehicles are safe from unseen threats such as the coronavirus.

The UV-C light units connect to a cloud-based monitoring system that recognizes when a surface or environment, such as a vehicle, has been used an…

The abstract concept of connected vehicles is becoming easier to grasp at a test site in eastern China.

On a four-kilometer (2.5-mile) road in the city of Wuxi in Jiangsu province, a self-driving bus travels back and forth, making stops, swerving past obstacles, accelerating and decelerating, based on information it constantly receives from its surroundings. Embedded in the road, traffic lights, street signs and other infrastructure are sensors, cameras and radars that talk with the vehicle.

The site, used by telecom-equipment giant Huawei Technologies Co. and partners, is part of China’s first national project for intelligent and connected vehicles. The country wants to make traffic smoother and safer, while ensuring local champions like Huawei benefit from the enormous opportunity of supplying the infrastructure.

“Autonomous driving is an irresistible trend, but any isolated vehicle alone can’t nail it,” Jiang Wangcheng, a president at Huawei’s informa…

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly characterized the ID Buzz’s U.S. arrival as delayed until 2023. Volkswagen had initially planned a 2022 launch when production was confirmed in 2017; the revised plan for a 2023 debut had been reported previously.

The anticipation for the Volkswagen ID Buzz is building among dealers — inside and outside the automaker's retail network — ahead of the Microbus-inspired battery electric's U.S. launch in 2023, according to the region's top executive.

“I think what the consumer can expect, I think is just pure, magic Volkswagen,” Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen of America, told Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein in a conversation during the Automotive News Shift Mobility Forum, part of this year’s all-virtual CES technology expo. “You drive it, the world is going to be talking.”

Keogh said he gets regular texts from VW and non-VW dealers about the ID Buzz, including from AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson,…

Subaru Corp. will cut output by "several thousand" vehicles this month in Japan and the United States, it said Thursday, citing a global shortage of semiconductors.

Subaru will adjust production and reduce output at factories in Gunma, Japan, a company spokesman said without specifying exactly how many fewer cars will be made.

The company later said that factories in Gunma will be halted temporarily for two days starting Friday because of supply constraints.

Subaru will also reduce output at its Indiana plant, the spokesman said, adding that the company is examining whether further production cuts will be needed in February.

Global automakers have been hit by a scramble for semiconductors as demand rebounds from the coronavirus crisis.

Subaru rival Nissan Motor Co. plans to reduce production of the Note, a hybrid electric car, at its Oppama Plant in Kanagawa prefecture, Japan, while Honda Motor Co. said on Jan. 8 that its domestic output co…

WASHINGTON -- U.S. traffic deaths jumped dramatically after coronavirus lockdowns ended in 2020, rising 13.1 percent in the three months ending Sept. 30 to the highest rate since 2005 despite a decline in driving, auto safety regulators said on Wednesday.

In total, 11,260 people died on U.S. roads in the third quarter of 2020, up from 9,953 in the same three-month period in 2019, according to preliminary data released by NHTSA.

The fatality rate jumped to 1.48 deaths per 100 million miles traveled as vehicle miles traveled declined 14.5 percent from 2019 levels in the first nine months of the year.

The auto safety agency said it was "deeply concerned about the trends in highway safety evident in the preliminary 2020 data."

In an open letter to drivers on Wednesday, NHTSA urged action to address the "terrible trend."

The agency's letter said "fewer Americans drove but those who did took more risks and had more fatal crashes. ... It’s irrespo…

WASHINGTON -- NHTSA on Wednesday asked Tesla Inc. to recall 158,000 Model S and Model X vehicles over media control unit failures that could pose safety risks by leading to touchscreen displays not working.

The auto safety agency made the unusual request in a formal letter to Tesla after upgrading a safety probe in November, saying it had tentatively concluded the 2012-2018 Model S and 2016-2018 Model X vehicles "contain a defect related to motor vehicle safety."

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment but it must respond to NHTSA by Jan. 27. If it does not agree it must provide the agency "with a full explanation of its decision."

It is unusual for the agency to formally demand a recall. Automakers typically voluntarily agree to a recall if sought in discussions by regulators.

The agency said it sought the recall after considering "Tesla’s technical briefing presentation ... and evaluated Tesla’s assertions."

NHTSA added…

Supplier Denso Corp. announced Seiji Maeda as its new CEO of North American operations, a move effective Jan. 1.

Maeda, 55 who also serves as a senior director for Denso, replaced Kenichiro Ito in the role. Ito, 58, who served as the North American CEO since 2016, is now Denso's chief human resources officer in Japan.

Most recently Maeda led Denso's motor business unit in Japan, a role he started in 2018. Prior to that, he held several leadership positions including roles at Denso's thermal manufacturing plant in Battle Creek, Mich.

He holds a bachelor's degree in law from Nagoya University in Japan.

Denso, ranks No. 2 on the Automotive News list of top 100 global suppliers, with estimated sales to automakers of $41.8 billion in fiscal 2019.

President Jair Bolsonaro criticized Ford’s decision to pull out of Brazil, claiming the company was seeking tax breaks and subsidies to compete with other automakers.

“People complained about the Ford factories,” Bolsonaro told supporters outside his official residence in Brasilia on Wednesday. “I’m sorry, but I will no longer keep spending your money to support their factories.”

Earlier this week, Ford Motor Co. announced it would cease its manufacturing operations after a century in Brazil, shuttering three plants and terminating about 5,000 jobs by year-end as part of a global restructuring. It was a symbolic blow to the Bolsonaro administration, which has pledged to boost South America’s largest economy through business-friendly policies and austerity measures.

The company cited an “unfavorable economic environment and the additional burden of the pandemic” in its announcement of the restructuring on Monday. It didn’t immediately reply to a request f…