Trade News

DETROIT — The Detroit auto show, rescheduled because of the pandemic, has been canceled altogether for 2021, organizers said Monday.

The show, slated for September in downtown Detroit, will be replaced this year by an outdoor, enthusiast-focused event at a racetrack north of Detroit in Pontiac, Mich.

While many details have yet to be worked out, organizers anticipate new and redesigned vehicle introductions and other events that typically take place at a traditional auto show at the racetrack, although on a smaller scale. Officials declined to say whether the new format would be permanent or if they would return to a more traditional auto show in the fall of 2022.

The Detroit Auto Dealers Association, which operates the show, said it would host a reimagined version of its "Motor Bella" concept at the M1 Concourse in Pontiac, Mich., from Sept. 21-26, featuring 1.6 million square feet of dynamic vehicle and technology display space. Organizers say the site…

Gentex Corp. is partnering with cloud-based marketplace Simplenight to provide drivers with in-vehicle purchasing options related to the travel industry.

As part of the partnership, Gentex is integrating Simplenight into the HomeLink Connect app, which allows drivers to program Gentex's car-to-home automation system from their vehicles, the supplier said in a release Monday.

HomeLink operates home automation devices through vehicle-integrated buttons.

Simplenight has partnerships with travel providers such as hotels, travel agencies, concierges, cruise lines and airlines. Its "global experience" platform allows people to book tours, dining, shows, special events and accommodations.

Simplenight says its platform easily integrates with infotainment and navigation systems, mobile apps and voice assistants, and helps providers increase their exposure, track inventory management and performance, and engage customers.

Canadian supply giant Magna International touted its new joint venture with LG Electronics at CES on Monday.

The joint venture, announced in December and tentatively called LG Magna e-Powertrain, will supply e-motors, inverters and on-board chargers immediately to General Motors and Jaguar Land Rover.

Magna's powertrain electrification portfolio is prepared to accommodate different customers in the transition from internal combustion vehicles, CEO Swamy Kotagiri said at the company's press conference.

"At Magna, we are well positioned to support established automakers as well as new entrants with all aspects of mobility," Kotagiri said.

The LG deal furthers that strategy, said Kotagiri, who took the helm of the company at the start of the year following the retirement of Don Walker.

"By combining our strengths, we gain investment efficiency and speed to market with synergies to achieve more," he said. "There is a lot of opportunity that exi…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is ceasing vehicle output in Brazil, closing three plants and ending sales of nameplates such as the EcoSport in the region as it continues a global restructuring plan started by former CEO Jim Hackett.

The move will cost the company $4.1 billion, with $2.5 billion booked in 2020 and $1.6 billion in special charges coming later this year. The closures will help Ford become consistently profitable in a region that has hemorrhaged money in recent years, company officials said.

The automaker said production will cease immediately at Camacari and Taubate engine plants in Brazil, with some parts output continuing for a few months to support inventories for aftermarket sales. The company's Troller plant in Horizonte, Brazil, will continue to operate until the fourth quarter, Ford said.

Ford will end sales of the EcoSport, Ka and Troller T4 in South America once inventories are sold. The moves will affect about 5,000 workers.<…

Mobileye's self-driving ambitions are going global, and the company's scope is stretching beyond robotaxis.

In 2021, the Intel subsidiary intends to launch new test beds in Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris and potentially New York. Those locations come on top of the company's existing on-road efforts in Tel Aviv, Munich and Detroit.

By spooling up operations in multiple countries, Mobileye wants to showcase its ability to scale quickly in a fledgling industry where competitors often have concentrated on one particular city in early efforts to establish commercial footholds.

It's the first step of a business strategy that starts with a robotaxi network scheduled to open in Tel Aviv in 2022, and extends into producing self-driving systems that could be ready for vehicles purchased by everyday vehicle owners as early as 2025.

Mobileye may be the first company to put a firm timeline on such an endeavor. Developing autonomous-driving systems for use by consumer…

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. is searching for a design director in China, part of efforts to open a "full-function" studio in Shanghai or Beijing and design electric cars tailored to Chinese consumer tastes, according to three people with knowledge of the matter.

The U.S. carmaker's human resources managers, as well as several headhunters, have been trawling the industry over the past four months, the people said.

They are looking for "bi-cultural" candidates with 20 or more years of experience who are familiar with Chinese tastes and can bridge the gaps between China and the United States, they added.

Some candidates have been interviewed by Tesla's global design chief Franz von Holzhausen, according to the people, though it was not clear how many potential candidates had been approached by the company and recruiters.

All three people spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity and confidential nature of the matter.

Tesla an…

An expansion of Cadillac's digital showroom came at just the right time — weeks before the pandemic forced many dealerships to temporarily close their doors.

What started as a pilot of Cadillac Live became an effective tool for the brand and its dealers to continue showing customers vehicles remotely and offer personalized incentives throughout the pandemic.

At the end of 2019, Cadillac began a U.S. pilot of the virtual showroom, which operates out of Toronto with live product experts and had been successful in the Canadian market. The tool was designed to help Cadillac understand how customers want to shop, Melissa Grady, chief marketing officer, told Automotive News at the time.

After quick success with the platform, Cadillac began a national rollout four months earlier than planned, to coincide with the launch of the 2021 Escalade.

Since then, the tool has led to more than 3,000 leads and a conversion rate of more th…

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. will officially launch the e-Palette autonomous people mover this summer, about a year behind schedule because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But when the shuttle finally starts transporting people around Tokyo, Toyota says the operating systems running it will be almost as unique as the all-electric runabout's rolling-box design.

Toyota detailed the software systems last month, saying they rely on two setups that enable practical use of the e-Palette for mobility as a service, the industry buzzterm for businesses that provide on-demand transportation, rather than just selling cars to retail customers.

Toyota calls the first setup the Autonomous Mobility Management System. It is a connectivity system that dispatches e-Palette vehicles when and where they are needed.

The second is the e-Palette Task Assignment Platform. It provides a visual computer interface for workers at a control center to easily monitor the e-Palettes in …

DETROIT — In April 2018, Richard Bazzy, who owns Ford and Lincoln stores in the Pittsburgh area, placed a frantic call to Mark LaNeve, Ford Motor Co.'s head of U.S. marketing, sales and service.

The automaker had just announced it would cut all of its sedans, including the Fusion, which was Ford's fourth most popular nameplate. The way the news was delivered — two sentences toward the bottom of an earnings release — caught many retailers off guard, and some were angry that Ford's dealer council wasn't more involved in the process.

"I didn't think it was a good idea; it scared me," Bazzy recalled last year. "Mark said to me at that moment, 'Relax, it will all be OK.' As I've started to see the plans develop, he was right, it's more than OK."

During his nearly six years with the automaker, LaNeve, 61, who left last week to pursue other opportunities, often served as the chief liaison between Ford's upper management and its retail …

Trade show organizers are swapping face-to-face interactions with computer screens as more high-profile events shift to the Internet because of restrictions on large gatherings intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.

As planners of shows such as CES pivot away from handshakes and event swag during the pandemic, many are tasked with trying to re-create the events virtually — an onerous undertaking with plenty of perils and pluses.

While in-person events offer more possibilities for networking and live demonstrations, virtual shows emphasize the convenience of staying put, lower the barrier to entry and allow more people to participate.

But the accessibility of a virtual format doesn't make planning and preparation any less challenging, said Orlie Gruper, executive director of EcoMotion, a major annual event in Israel that supports the mobility technology ecosystem.

"We went on an adventure," she told Automotive News. …

Toyota Motor Corp. thinks cars that can drive themselves should be able to clean themselves, too.

The automaker filed a U.S. patent application for a system that would allow autonomous vehicles to sense when they're dirty and drive to a car wash. The system determines when the vehicle has traveled on an unpaved road or in bad weather and how long it's been since the last wash.

If the vehicle decides it needs a wash, it then calculates whether it has enough time to get one before the next time it needs to be somewhere. The application notes that the system would be useful for vehicles used in car-sharing services.

It also says such a system could be used with nonautonomous vehicles, though instead of getting a wash itself, the car would notify the driver via a dashboard light or smartphone alert that it's time to get one.