Trade News

WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will recall 3 million vehicles for Takata airbag inflators that could rupture at a cost of $610 million.

NHTSA on Tuesday ordered Ford to issue the recall for driver-side airbag inflators, rejecting the automaker's 2017 petition to avoid it.

The defect, which in rare instances leads to airbag inflators rupturing and sending potentially deadly metal fragments flying, prompted the largest automotive recall in U.S. history of more than 67 million inflators. Worldwide, about 100 million inflators installed by 19 major automakers have been recalled.

The recall includes 2.7 million U.S. vehicles and about 300,000 in Canada and other locations. Ford will include the cost in fourth-quarter results, it said in a regulatory filing.

The vehicles were previously recalled for passenger-side inflators. "We believe our extensive data demonstrated that a safety recall was not warranted for the driver-side airbag. Howe…

WASHINGTON -- Pete Buttigieg, President Joe Biden's nominee to head the U.S. Transportation Department, won bipartisan support from senators at a Thursday confirmation hearing, where he said it was possible new gas tax revenue could fund infrastructure.

"We need to look at any responsible, viable revenue mechanism we can all agree on," said Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., at the hearing in which lawmakers said he would quickly win Senate confirmation.

Asked by Republican Senator Mike Lee if new revenue could include gasoline tax hikes, Buttigieg said: "It's possible -- certainly many states have taken that step including my own -- but it's not the only approach."

After the hearing, a spokesman for Buttigieg sought to clarify his remarks. "A variety of options need to be on the table to ensure we can invest in our highways and create jobs, but increasing the gas tax is not among them."

Congress has not boosted the 18.4-cents-per-ga…

The Washington Auto Show is postponing the spring event because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, show organizers said Thursday.

The event was set to run March 26 through April 4 at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the nation's capital. Show organizers in August moved the 2021 show from its original dates — Jan. 29 through Feb. 7 — because of the COVID-19 crisis.

"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and health of our loyal attendees, our participating exhibitors and all those who work so hard to make the show a success every year," show CEO John O'Donnell said in a statement.

"With that in mind, we are doing everything we can to host a show in 2021 that meets the high standards our visitors are used to, while ensuring that our region stays safe and finally defeats this terrible pandemic," he said.

Organizers said they're working with D.C. officials and the convention center to explore dates l…

Electric vehicle owners will consider purchasing another EV in the future based on their ownership satisfaction, according to J.D. Power's first Electric Vehicle Experience Ownership Study, released Thursday.

The study found that the likelihood of EV owners purchasing the same brand lessens as satisfaction declines.

Owners with satisfaction scores from 600 to 750 points are likely to purchase another EV, but only 25 percent of those owners will purchase from the same brand.

"While early adopters of EVs say they'll remain loyal to EVs in general, staying with the same brand is not a sure thing," Brent Gruber, senior director of global automotive at J.D. Power, said in the study. "Auto manufacturers will have to keep EV owners and shoppers interested in their products beyond just the cost equation. With automakers expected to flood the market with EV launches during the next three years, to capture a share of the market they need to offer vehicles that evo…

Audi, seeking to quickly expand its presence in China's full-electric vehicle market, plans to launch output of a new generation of EVs in 2024 under a three-way partnership to be formed with Volkswagen Group and China FAW Group Corp.

Under the deal the three sides signed Monday, the company will be 60 percent owned by Audi and VW Group, with the remaining 40 percent stake to be held by FAW, Audi said this week.

The company, to be established in the northeast China city of Changchun in the first quarter of this year, will produce models developed on Audi’s new platform for premium EVs, called PPT. 

Audi assembles and markets gasoline and plug-in hybrids at FAW-VW, a 10-30-60 joint venture between itself, VW Group China and FAW. In addition to Audi, FAW-VW assembles vehicles for VW brand.

Like the gasoline and plug-in hybrid products, the PPT-based EV models will be distributed via FAW-VW’s existing Audi dealership network, Audi…

TOKYO – Honda is leveraging a tie-up with General Motors and Cruise to ramp up its new mobility business by importing some of Cruise’s newest wheels for use in Japan this year.

Under the plan announced Wednesday, Honda Motor Co. will receive the first self-driving test vehicle from Cruise for assessment in Japan this year. After that, Honda plans to also start a mobility-as-a-service, or MaaS, enterprise in Japan using the Cruise Origin autonomous shuttle.

The autonomous driving test vehicle, called Cruise AV, will be based on the Chevrolet Bolt. The Cruise Origin is a box-like people mover being jointly developed by all three companies. Cruise is majority owned by GM.

Honda spokeswoman Yu Kitagawa said the Japanese carmaker is still discussing details and that it is too early to say how many vehicles will be used or when the programs begin.

Honda’s announcement came as GM and Microsoft led a fresh investment round of $2 billion into Cruise, help…

MILAN -- The merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group into Stellantis has brought struggling Alfa Romeo a new CEO and a promise that the new group will “find a way to help the brand grow.” 

Alfa Romeo has failed to reach growth targets in a series of turnaround plans under Fiat and FCA.

PSA veteran Jean-Philippe Imparato now takes over at Alfa Romeo after a successful run as head of the Peugeot brand.

Imparato, 54, was named to lead Peugeot in 2016. He has overseen the launch of a number of key models, including the 3008 and 5008 crossovers and the new-generation 208 and 2008, both of which have full-electric versions.

At Peugeot, he has focused on increasing prices and residual values. Imparato, whose family has some Italian origins, worked in Italy from 2008 to 2010 as CEO of the local Citroen sales company.

Alfa Romeo has been led since 2018 by Timothy Kuniskis, who moves to become head of the Dodge brand and, on an inter…

Leon Edwards, a former president of the National Automobile Dealers Association who led the group when it agreed to a decade of antitrust oversight by the U.S. Justice Department, died Saturday. He was 89.

Edwards, a Chevrolet dealer from Birmingham, Ala., was NADA president in 1995. During his tenure, NADA agreed to the antitrust settlement that called for 10 years of monitoring after the organization was accused of making illegal efforts to limit price competition in car sales to consumers.

At the time, NADA leaders, including Edwards, said they opted to settle with the Justice Department rather than face litigation that they said would have cost at least $1 million to defend, according to an October 1995 article by Automotive News.

Edwards and other NADA leaders denied that the association's actions violated antitrust laws. But the cost to fight the allegations in court could have been "crippling," Edwards said in a letter to NADA…

As expected, Volkswagen Group of America has ended production of the Golf at the automaker's plant in Puebla, Mexico, which supplied U.S. dealers, as the base-model hatchback is wound down in the U.S.

A new eighth-generation Golf R and Golf GTI, manufactured in Germany, will be imported into the U.S. for the 2022 model year as the Puebla plant transitions to new products, including the Taos subcompact crossover, VW of America said today.

Since the vehicle first went on sale in the U.S. in 1974 as the VW Rabbit, the German brand has sold nearly 2.5 million Golf hatchbacks in the states, including the latest generation, which debuted for the 2015 model year. It switched to the Golf nameplate, used elsewhere globally, in 1985, returned as a Rabbit from 2006 to 2009, and finally stayed with the Golf name from 2010 onward.

U.S. sales of the base-model Golf actually rose 7.4 percent in 2020 to 6,063 vehicles. But as a small hatchback, the …

Gerald Wiegert, the entrepreneur born in the Detroit area who for three decades aimed to build an American supercar faster and sexier than anything out of Europe, died Jan. 15 in California. He was 76.

The Vector W8 was the most successful of Wiegert's automotive projects, but just 23 of the low-slung road rockets were built in the early 1990s. Wiegert, like the other automotive mavericks who came before him — such as Preston Tucker, Malcolm Bricklin and John DeLorean — faced insurmountable financial obstacles.

Born in Dearborn in 1944, the son of a machinist attended Detroit's College for Creative Studies, completed an internship at General Motors' Technical Center and then graduated from ArtCenter College of Design in California, according to an article in Hagerty magazine. In the 1970s, as he worked as a freelance designer, Wiegert began raising money to build an American supercar to take on those from Lamborghini and Ferrari.

After a few failed attem…

A Ford Motor Co. safety recall is being investigated after NHTSA received 11 complaints that the 2019 power tailgate remedy did not work.

The recall affected 300,000 2017-20 Super Duty pickups: the F-250, F-350 and F-450.

The defect was caused by water entering the electrical wiring system causing a short circuit resulting in the unintended switch activation and release of the tailgate latches.

The remedy was the addition of jumper pigtails to the tailgate release control circuits and the installation of a new tailgate handle release switch, according to a NHTSA document.

The Associated Press reported that complaints received by NHTSA reveal the trucks are still experiencing the issue.

The NHTSA investigation could lead to another Ford recall to correct the defect.

Sumitomo Electric Wiring Systems of Farmington Hills, Mich., was the supplier of the tailgate.

A Ford spokeswoman had no…

Chase Auto forged its first direct-to-consumer private label automaker partnership with Rivian Automotive Inc., both companies said last week. The program is slated to launch early this year, ahead of expected June deliveries of Rivian's all-electric R1T pickup.

Chase's digital capabilities drew the battery-electric automaker to the bank, which strives alongside the traditional automotive industry to create a fully online purchase experience, said Jagdeep Dayal, head of partnerships for Chase Auto. Rivian was in talks with several of Chase's competitors leading up to its U.S. launch, he said.

"They choose us for the capabilities we have as a captive and, quite frankly, the digital capabilities that we will be able to bring to bear in this fully digital environment," Dayal said.

Established in 2009, Rivian has yet to sell a vehicle. The company has raised about $6 billion from backers, including Ford Motor Co. and Amazon. It plans …