Trade News

Editor's note: Reuters has corrected the plant investment figures that were published in an earlier version of this story.

WARSAW -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plans to invest 755 million zlotys ($204 million) in its plant in Tychy, Poland, Deputy Prime Minister Jaroslaw Gowin said on Tuesday, in a move that will see new electric and hybrid vehicles produced at the factory.

FCA said new hybrid and electric Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo models would be built in Tychy. The company wants to start production of the first of three new models for the group's brands in the second half of 2022.

The investment comes as a boost to emerging Europe's largest economy, which is hoping a switch to EVs can help its auto sector catch up with regional rivals such as the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

"Modern, hybrid and electric cars of the Jeep, Fiat and Alfa Romeo brands will start to leave the factory in Tychy in 2022," Gowin wrote on Twitter.

Gowin did not…

BANGALORE -- Tesla Inc. will begin selling vehicles in India in 2021, CEO Elon Musk tweeted.

Replying to a tweet asking him if Tesla would being selling vehicles in January in India, Musk tweeted on Sunday: "No, but definitely this year." 

The first model to be launched will be the Model 3, the cheapest among Tesla vehicles, with prices starting at over $74,739 (5.5 million Indian rupees), according to a report in the Economic Times on Saturday. The report said sales would begin in June and orders could start "anytime soon." 

In October, the government of Maharashtra had invited Tesla to the state, weeks after Musk suggested entering the country next year.

Nitin Gadkari, India's transport minister, told the Indian Express on Monday that the EV maker might look at assembly and manufacturing in India based on the sales response. 

Tesla and the minister's office could not be reached by Reuters for comment.

India has bee…

It’s a situation that plays out at auto dealerships every day: A customer brings in a vehicle for service or after minor damage, only to find that the estimated charges are more than he or she was prepared to handle.

 Just four in 10 U.S. adults would be able to pay for an unexpected $1,000 car repair, according to a well-publicized 2020 survey by Bankrate, a consumer financial services company.

To help consumers manage unexpected costs, dealership service departments are offering more F&I products. Besides traditional insurance products such as vehicle service contracts and extended warranties, an increasing number of point-of-sale lending options can help customers cover their service bills. And at many dealerships, the customer doesn’t even have to leave the service department.

Industrywide, about half of new- and used-car buyers complete their initial purchase without signing up for upfront insurance products such as vehicle service contract…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

In these excerpts from executive interviews with EV startup Lucid Motors and tech firm ZeroLight, hear how a 3D cloud-based configurator is giving customers more vehicle customization options.

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The assumption of 2020 was that the year would be a washout when it came to automakers making big, new investments in assembly plants. Given the cataclysm of the coronavirus pandemic, the halt in industry production, the crash of the U.S. economy, the scramble for cash reserves, the new uncertainty over the health and safety of industrial workplaces and the very real fear that Americans would be in no hurry to buy a new vehicle, it was logical that nobody needed to spend money on an auto factory.

But things turned out differently.

Despite the early worries, automakers pressed ahead with new investments, expansions, retoolings and undeveloped land in 2020. These were the largest projects in the January-November period, as tabulated by the Center for Automotive Research of Ann Arbor, Mich., for its industry-tracking Book of Deals database.

$1.45 billionFord: Oakville, OntarioRetooling and preparation for production of battery-electric vehicles

$1.2…

COVID-19 disrupted but didn’t cancel some of 2020’s biggest product debuts and tech advances, but we did detect one major shift — changes and updates seem to be coming faster inside, under the hood, even in the drivetrain, than outside.

We’ve rounded up some of the year’s breakout hits, as well as a few misses.

HITS

HIT: Ford Bronco family

The return of Ford's Wrangler rival generated online buzz and a strong preorder bank. But perhaps the biggest validation of what became Ford's odyssey to resurrect the Bronco nameplate came when General Motors reportedly lamented that it's missing the latest round of Detroit's off-road battles featuring Jeep and Ford. The Bronco may now be delayed until summer 2021, but the Bronco Sport appears to be off to a strong start.

HIT: Land Rover Defender 110

This was one of the most anticipated reboots of 2020, and like just about everything else this year, it didn't go as planned. The pandemic shut La…

A month into 2020, Ford Motor Co. teased the new Mustang Mach-E with a video of exuberant millennials devouring chicken wings and cocktail shrimp directly out of its front trunk, in the space where an engine otherwise would have been. At the time, who would have guessed that the most unrealistic part of the scenario would be people from multiple households socializing indoors?

The coronavirus pandemic put the kibosh on partying with frunk shrimp and shut down North American auto production for two months. Despite the chaos, the Mach-E and a number of other electric vehicle launches still managed to happen. And automakers that initially scrambled to conserve cash to weather the crisis have deepened their commitment to EVs, even as consumers' eagerness to buy and chill seafood in them remains uncertain.

The shrimp industry took another hit from the cancellation of every major auto show since March. But dealers, after some difficult months navigat…

When the history of the COVID-19 pandemic is written, there should be a prominent place for the auto industry heroes who — even as their own companies weathered shutdowns and slowdowns — stepped up, pitched in, mobilized, fed, educated and comforted.

Beginning in the earliest days of the crisis, the industry united to battle this virus and its economic fallout. From the world's largest automakers to the smallest suppliers. From giant retail groups to the neighborhood car dealer. And from the big-name donors to the unnamed individuals, many have given their time, talent and resources.

In late July and early August, Automotive News recognized some of them in "A Call to Action," a four-part print, video and podcast series. They were chosen from nominations sent in by our readers. The full series is available at autonews.com/calltoaction.

It was built on Best Practices, an Automotive News weekly feature that focuses on dealers' winning strategies.

T…

Hindsight is 20/20, the old saying goes. At this point, I'm just glad to put 2020 in the past.

It was an unusually grim trip around the sun. In recent years, it's been frustrating to see persistently high numbers of traffic deaths in the U.S. — then a new virus comes along and kills about a decade's worth of American auto travelers in 2020. And it isn't over.

It might seem an odd time to launch this Automotive News yearbook, but believe me it was planned well before we knew 2020 was going to be, well, so 2020. Our aim is to provide an almanac of sorts, something you might want to keep handy into 2021 or beyond. (That is, for the few of you who don't hoard a complete collection of past Automotive News issues. Or is that only me?)

Inside, you'll find our lists of All-Stars, Rising Stars, the biggest dealers and the best ones to work for, as well as our traditional roundups of the year's top stories and the people we lost. We look back at the vehicles we l…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Our first yearbook: A look back at COVID's impact and so much more

In August 1953, a fire destroyed General Motors' Hydra-Matic plant in Livonia, Mich. Chronicles written more than a half-century later still called it "America's Most Destructive Industrial Fire" and the worst "dollar loss in the history of the auto industry."

Not surprisingly, the Automotive News staff voted it as the story of the year in its first such poll.

Another cause of monumental loss topped this year's top-story ranking: the coronavirus crisis.

It seems disrespectful in a way to frame a health pandemic — death toll 1.76 million and counting — in terms of its effect on one industry. But no other phenomenon in our 68 years of tallying top stories has had such an impact on the global assembly, distribution and selling of cars — and on the lives of the people who make the industry run.

In Monday's issue, we'll have the results of our top 1…

For consumers and their shifting tastes and preferences, there will be a little bit of everything to choose from in the new year.

The big appetite for crossovers, SUVs and pickups will be fed with new and redesigned models, while another batch of electrified vehicles, including additional EVs, will enter the marketplace.

Here's a look at what automakers will be sending to U.S. showrooms throughout 2021.

The luxury brand's flagship — the MDX — is set to launch in February with an all-new ultrarigid platform, new styling and a redesigned interior.

Production of the Tonale plug-in hybrid compact crossover is slated to begin.

Two limited-run models, the Valkryie and V12 Speedster, will launch in the first half.

A sportback version of the Q5 crossover arrives in the first half. In the second half, the brand will launch two EVs: the Q4 E-tron and E-tron GT.

Bentayga Speed and Ben…