Trade News

Tesla Inc. halted some construction work at its German plant project after failing to make a security deposit with local authorities.

Brandenburg’s environment ministry stopped tree removal activity and the installation of paint-shop machinery at the site until the funds are received, a spokeswoman for the ministry said Friday, declining to comment further.

Tesla needs to provide a 100 million-euro ($122 million) deposit with local authorities to cover the cost of tearing down the factory if the project doesn’t receive final approval, Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper reported earlier. Having missed a Thursday deadline, the U.S. carmaker now has until Jan. 4 to come up with the funds, or risk having preliminary approvals revoked, the daily said.

Any major delays would be a blow for Tesla’s ambitious timetable to have its first European factory up and running by the middle of next year. The company plans to eventually produce as many as 500,000 cars annuall…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles plans to invest $23 million in a 250,000-square-foot vehicle customization facility in Toledo, Ohio, to support nearby production of the Jeep Wrangler and Gladiator, according to Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz.

In a Friday news release, Kapszukiewicz said the Toledo City Council would vote next week on whether to authorize the sale and development of the property, which would be operated by a supplier and employ about 300 workers. The site formerly housed operations for an automotive fabric supplier and an emergency ambulance service provider.

If approved, the city would sell the property for $1. If FCA fails to develop the site for the intended use within four years, Toledo would also have the option of buying back the property for $1.

"The iconic Jeep brand has a special connection and history with Toledo and all of its residents," FCA said in a statement. "We appreciate the City Council's consideration…

U.S. traffic deaths decreased nationwide in 2019 with a fatality rate the lowest since 2014, according to annual data released Friday from NHTSA's Fatality Analysis Reporting System.

NHTSA reported 36,096 fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2019, down 2 percent from 36,835 in 2018 even as travel rose 0.8 percent.

The fatality rate fell to 1.1 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, the lowest rate since 2014, compared with 1.14 in 2018. Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities decreased to the lowest percentage since 1982.

"We saw notable reductions in pedestrian and cyclist fatalities, as well as fewer lives lost in alcohol-impaired driving crashes," NHTSA Deputy Administrator James Owen said in a statement. "If we're to keep building on these numbers, everyone needs to do their part by driving sober, wearing their seat belts, avoiding speeding and distractions, and sharing the road with pedestrians and cyclists."

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Tesla has thrilled some investors and jarred others by soaring to a valuation of as much as $649 billion, more than what the world’s seven largest automakers were collectively worth at the beginning of this year. The company is now comfortably in a category by itself, defying even CEO Elon Musk’s warnings.

“I actually said the stock is too high a long time ago,” Musk said at the start of December. “But they didn’t listen to me.”

For startups aiming to mimic Musk’s success and for traditional automakers struggling to disrupt themselves, most lingering doubts about future demand for electric vehicles have dissipated. Thanks in large part to the Tesla phenomenon, a consensus has emerged that they are undeniably the future.

“What you’ve had is a greater realization of the inevitability” of EVs, said Michael Pye, an investment manager at Baillie Gifford, which oversees about $370 billion and is one of the biggest shareholders of both Tesla and China-based EV…

DETROIT — UAW President Rory Gamble doesn't believe the Detroit 3 should mandate that its factory workers be vaccinated against COVID-19, but he hopes to make the shots widely available and encourage union members to get one.

"UAW members are American," he said in an interview. "In America, you get people with different religious beliefs, you have people who are just of the opinion that they don't take any vaccines at all. We think that should be respected. We're very willing to sit down and work out with the companies going forward how we manage those issues."

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission this week said companies can, with limited exceptions for medical or religious reasons, legally require employees to get the vaccine, which is in the early stages of distribution. But Gamble said he thinks General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will approach the process much like they handle yearly flu shots, which are not mandatory.

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LOS ANGELES — Kia Motors America named Bill Peffer chief operating officer and executive vice president after serving as vice president of sales operations since July 2017.

Peffer, 50, will lead all customer-facing functions in the U.S., Kia said in a statement, including sales, marketing and service. He will report to Sean Yoon, president and CEO of Kia Motors America and Kia Motors North America.

The appointment is effective Jan. 1.

"In the most difficult of circumstances, Kia's U.S. sales have outperformed the industry throughout 2020 under Bill's leadership," Yoon said in the statement Thursday. "This promotion is well deserved, and with five all-new and significantly redesigned vehicles slated for introduction in 2021 Bill will play an increasingly important role in the growth and maturation of the Kia brand."

Prior to his arrival at Kia in July 2017 to steer sales, Peffer had been president and COO of New England dealership group Balise Mot…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group are pressing to complete their merger ahead of schedule as disruptions to the auto industry add urgency to their efforts to realize synergies from joining forces.

The two companies that would form the world’s fourth-largest automaker are aiming to seal the deal by the end of January, according to people familiar with the matter. European antitrust approval is expected by the end of the year, and if that timeline slips, the companies still expect to hold meetings Jan. 4 to get sign-off from shareholders, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private.

Fiat Chrysler and PSA are eager to sew up the merger and get on with the work of squeezing the roughly 5 billion euros ($6.1 billion) of annual savings from cooperating as one company called Stellantis, they said. Tesla Inc. has emerged as far and away the world’s most valuable automaker this year by reaching high volumes of electric vehic…

Harald Müller, president of Volkswagen’s Jetta subbrand, passed away in Germany, according to information VW Group CEO Herbert Diess disclosed via his LinkedIn account this week.

Diess didn’t disclose what Müller died of or who will succeed him as head of the Jetta brand and president of FAW-VW’s Chengdu plant. 

“The Jetta brand will forever be associated with Harald Müller - no brand has ever started more successfully in China, the world’s largest automotive market,” Diess said in the LinkedIn post.

Jetta, previously a volume model under the VW brand, was unveiled as an entry-level subbrand specifically for China in February 2018. 

VW expects Jetta to capture share in China’s entry-level segment, where 80 percent of customers are first-time car buyers. 

Jetta has launched three products – the VA3 sedan, and the VS5 and VS7 crossovers. The vehicles, developed on VW’s MQB platform, are produced at the Chengdu plant run by FAW-…

BYD Co., a leading Chinese electrified vehicle maker, said 246 electric buses it delivered to Dutch customer Keolis Nederland BV went into service in the Netherlands this month. 

The fleet, comprising 12- and 13-meter-long buses with low floors, now operate in Dutch cities including Zwolle, Apeldoorn, Ede, Dedemsvaart, Vaassen, Harderwijk and Deventer. 

The buses were mainly built at BYD’s assembly plant in Hungary. They are part of an order for 259 electric buses the company received in December 2019 from Keolis Nederland, the Dutch subsidiary of global public transport operator Keolis. 

BYD said it will deliver the remaining 13 electric buses to Keolis Nederland next spring. 

In Europe, BYD also operates electric bus assembly plants in France and the United Kingdom. 

It has secured orders for more than 1,400 electric buses from European customers, BYD said. 

Outside China, the Chinese company also asse…

Connected vehicles vulnerable to major hacks, Upstream Security says

Connectivity can boost the capabilities of automated vehicles, enhance vehicle personalization and improve driver experiences.

These benefits are so widespread that connected vehicles — able to communicate with each other, the infrastructure, the cloud, even pedestrians — are expected to comprise nearly 86 percent of the global automotive market by 2025.

But all of this technology leaves vulnerabilities and increases opportunities for hackers, according to Upstream Security's 2021 Global Automotive Cybersecurity Report, released Tuesday.

The Israeli company analyzed 633 publicly reported cyber hacks or attacks since 2010, nearly one-third of which occurred this year.

"Traditional forms of cyber threats like ransomware, as well as more automotive-specific threats targeting telematics services, vehicle components, and the vehicles themselves, contributed to the recent incr…

President-elect Joe Biden has selected former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, North Carolina environmental regulator Michael Regan and Rep. Deb Haaland of New Mexico to advance his climate policy and strengthen safeguards against pollution.

If confirmed, Granholm would be secretary of energy, Regan would become Environmental Protection Agency administrator and Haaland secretary of the Interior.

The team announced Thursday also includes Brenda Mallory as chair of the Council on Environmental Quality, Gina McCarthy as National Climate adviser and Ali Zaidi as Deputy National Climate adviser.

“This brilliant, tested, trailblazing team will be ready on day one to confront the existential threat of climate change with a unified national response rooted in science and equity,” Biden said in a statement released Thursday night. “They share my belief that we have no time to waste to confront the climate crisis, protect our air and drinking water, and deliver ju…