Trade News

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…

As electric vehicle maker Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. prepares to go public through a reverse merger, it will move its headquarters to Troy, Mich., from Auburn Hills., Mich.

Electric Last Mile will occupy 31,000 square feet of space in the building, which includes a 15,000-square-foot prototype lab, the company said in a press release. The company did not immediately respond to emails about the exact location of the building. It's unclear when the company will move out of its current headquarters at 2851 High Meadow Circle in Auburn Hills.

The company will build initial battery pack and electric motor prototypes as well as complete preproduction vehicles at the location, the company said in the release. Electric Last Mile also plans to open additional offices in California and other locations in proximity to engineering and electrical vehicle development hubs.

In December, Electric Last Mile announced plans to go public through a reverse merger wit…

Editor's note: Kia achieved its best U.S. sales year in 2016. An earlier version of this story misstated the year.

Bill Peffer, who spent just one week as COO and executive vice president at Kia Motors America, has been named CEO of Maserati North America.

The Italian exotic brand said his hiring was effective immediately. He will "lead all Maserati operations for the United States and Canada," the automaker said, and will report to Bernard Loire, Maserati's chief commercial officer. Loire joined the automaker in January 2020.

Peffer replaces Al Gardner as the head of Maserati's North American operations. Gardner left Maserati in August and later joined Atlantic Coast Automotive Group as vice president, according to his LinkedIn profile. Rosberto McGinnis, Maserati's global head of after sales, held the interim CEO role before Peffer's hiring, a Maserati spokesperson said.

Peffer had been promoted from vice president of sales operations at Kia in…

When the coronavirus pandemic swept the U.S. last March, shuttering auto factories and forcing most of the country into their homes, GM Financial's chief experience officer Bob Beatty had his hands full.

More than 25 years in customer service hadn't prepared him to convert 700 active customer service employees to home offices, training the majority on softphone technologies — web-based calling services — while addressing some of the highest call and message volumes the company had ever experienced.

"There was a problem around each corner," Beatty said.

On the second night working from home, an IBM representative called Beatty to discuss enhancing the lender's ongoing project: an artificial intelligence chatbot named Nanci.

Nanci — whose name is derived from "financial" in the lender's title — was developed in partnership with IBM Services through its Watson Assistant program and has been functional on the company's site for almost a year. It cou…

LONDON -- Honda said it would halt output at its British factory from Monday to Thursday next week due to COVID-19 related global supply chain issues, the latest production suspension in recent weeks.

"The situation is currently being monitored with a view to re-start production on Friday 22 January," the company said.

Honda also stopped car output for a few days in December at the Civic plant as some major container ports, such as Felixstowe, struggled to cope with disruption caused by COVID-19, pre-Brexit stockpiling and Christmas.

A further stoppage occurred at the start of January.

On Friday, Honda said its domestic output could be affected by a shortage of semiconductors as automakers face a lack of chips while consumer demand has been bouncing back from the pandemic.

In Britain, the automaker made just under 110,000 Civic cars in 2019 but is due to permanently close the site this year.