Trade News

Nearly two years ago, Charlie Gilchrist, then president of the National Automobile Dealers Association, warned that the biggest threat facing the industry was a shortage of qualified body shop technicians.

Even before Gilchrist sounded the alarm bells, Barton Ford in Suffolk, Va., was doing something about it.

The dealership has been teaming up with nearby schools to create a local talent pipeline that it's using to keep its service department humming.

Barton Ford set up a paid internship program with the College and Career Academy at Pruden, a technical school about 4 miles away, and has hired at least six students from the school over the past three years. This month, the dealership partnered with Ford to donate a 2015 F-150 Platinum to the school so students would have a modern vehicle to practice repairs on during class.

The dealership also has assisted nearby Tidewater Community College, paying part of students' tuition, donating tools and …

Nissan Motor Co. expanded its production footprint in China when a Nissan Qashqai compact crossover this week rolled out of a renovated assembly plant in Changzhou.

The factory, previously run by Dongfeng Motor Group, Nissan’s joint venture partner, has become Dongfeng-Nissan’s first production site in east China, and the fifth across the country.

The renovated plant can produce up to 120,000 vehicles a year. 

Aside from Changzhou, Dongfeng-Nissan assembles vehicles under the Nissan brand in four other cities: north China’s Zhengzhou, Northeast China’s Dalian, central China’s Xiangyang and South China’s Guangzhou.

Nissan’s China sales grew for the second straight month in October, rising 5 percent to 146,028, according to Nissan’s China office.

Due to a severe contraction in the first quarter, when the virus outbreak ravaged China, the Japanese brand’s total deliveries through October dropped 8 percent to 1.13 million.

Huawei Technologies, a major global supplier of communications equipment and smart phones, admonished managers this week who are pressing the company to build connected vehicles rather than only supply technology. 

The warning was included in a notice, signed off by Huawei’s founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, and posted in a section of the company’s website created for managers and employees.

Huawei reaffirmed its core business and position as a supplier of information and communications technology infrastructure and smart devices. 

“Despite the constant changes in the external environment in the past two years, we must be clear that building ICT infrastructure is the historical mission of Huawei,” the notice said.

The letter also directly addresses the company’s role and ties to the auto industry: “Huawei will not build complete cars, but will focus on ICT technology to help automakers build good cars and become a provider of incremental …

New-vehicle production in China continues to increase steadily following the coronavirus outbreak, rising 9.6 percent to top 1.61 million in the first 20 days of November, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. 

In the latest 20-day period, output of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks jumped 27 percent from a year earlier to around 233,000, the group said this week.

Production of new light vehicles, including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, MPVs and minibuses, rose 7.2 percent to approach 1.38 million, according to CAAM.

The trade group didn’t disclose new-vehicle sales for the latest period. 

China’s new-vehicle output started to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic in April and continued to grow for the seventh straight month in October, advancing 11 percent to exceed 2.55 million. In the first ten months, total production dipped 4.6 percent to below 19.52 million. 

New-vehicle sales rose in October for t…

FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. are running into a shortage of delivery vans during a record surge in package volumes.

Urged by the couriers to purchase any vans they can scrounge up, leasing companies are dipping into the used market.

Added demand “is creating shortages” in the rental market, UPS said in an email while emphasizing that the company’s own operations haven’t been hurt. FedEx is paying a stipend to its contractors to offset the extra cost of renting.

“If there’s a cargo van out there, we’re trying to buy it,” said Brendan Keegan, CEO of Merchants Fleet, which provides vehicles to package delivery companies. It expects to have 15,000 vans out for lease at year-end, up from 6,000 a year earlier.

Delivery vans are a lucrative business for the Detroit 3 automakers and other key industry players.

The van drought sprang from pandemic-induced shutdowns at factories that build the high-ceiling and box-like vehicles -- just …

TOKYO -- Japan's state-owned export credit agency has agreed to give Nissan Motor up to $2 billion as part of a credit agreement to help it finance car sales in the U.S.

The money should help Nissan sell cars in the world's second-biggest auto market after China by allowing it to provide customers with loans that they can repay in monthly installments, the Japan Bank of International Cooperation said.

The United States "is an important market for Japanese automobile manufacturers. Sales finance has become an important tool in business strategy," JBIC said in a press release.

"This case provides financial support for Nissan's overseas business development," the agency said on Wednesday.

The money is part of a $4.1 billion credit agreement for Nissan Motor Acceptance Corp., which is a unit of Nissan North America.

The Japan bank has provided loans for overseas sales financing to other automakers, including a $78 million October agreement with…

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. plans to start manufacturing EV chargers in China in 2021, according to a document submitted to the Shanghai authorities by the U.S. automaker that is seeking to expand sales in the world's biggest car market.

Tesla, which now sells its Model 3 sedan in China and expects to deliver its Model Y crossovers in 2021, plans to invest 42 million yuan ($6.4 million) in a new factory to make the chargers, also known as charging piles, near its car plant in Shanghai, the document seen by Reuters said.

China, which offers hefty subsidies for electric vehicles as it seeks to cut down on pollution from gasoline or diesel cars, has been expanding its nationwide network of charging points, one of the biggest challenges to encouraging adoption of EVs.

The factory, which Tesla expects to complete in February, will have capacity to make 10,000 chargers a year, according to the document submitted by Tesla.

It now imports the chargers, usually …

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. plans to start manufacturing electric vehicle chargers in China in 2021, according to a document submitted to Shanghai authorities by the U.S. automaker, which is seeking to expand sales in the world's biggest light-vehicle market.

Tesla plans to invest 42 million yuan ($6.4 million) in a new factory to make the chargers, also known as charging piles, near its EV assembly plant in Shanghai, the document seen by Reuters said.

China, which offers hefty subsidies for EVs as it seeks to cut down on pollution from gasoline or diesel vehicles, has been expanding its nationwide network of charging points, one of the biggest challenges to encouraging adoption of EVs.

The factory, which Tesla expects to complete in February, will have capacity to make 10,000 chargers a year, according to the document submitted by Tesla.

It now imports the chargers, usually installed in charging stations or car parks, from the United States.

Tes…

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.

GM is offering buyouts to its U.S. Cadillac dealers to walk away from their franchise if they aren't willing to commit to the luxury brand's all-electric future. Automotive News reporter Hannah Lutz provides insight into her coverage on the topic.

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Denso Corp. is adding more than 1.5 million fuel pumps to an earlier recall because of a defect that may cause the fuel pumps to stop working, potentially causing a stall or risking a crash.

In an April recall report filed with NHTSA, the Japanese auto parts supplier flagged more than 2 million fuel pumps because "an impeller in some low-pressure fuel pumps may become deformed under certain conditions, which could render the fuel pump inoperable."

In total, about 3.53 million fuel pumps are being recalled.

Automakers that have purchased the defective parts for possible use or installation in their vehicles include American Honda Motor Co., Ford Motor Co., Subaru of America, Toyota Motor North America and Mitsubishi Motors North America, NHTSA said in the recall report. Denso is affiliated with Toyota.

A recall schedule and remedy to fix the defect will be determined by the automakers, NHTSA said.

Last month, Toyota added 1.5 million Toyota …

Auto loan debt edged up in the third quarter, driven by record-high loan originations, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's quarterly report on household debt.

Total household debt grew $87 billion in the third quarter to $14.35 trillion, the highest figure recorded for household debt this year, the Fed said last week.

Auto loan debt increased by $17 billion from the second quarter, thanks largely to the highest auto originations recorded for the 16-year-old report.

Auto originations of $168.2 billion, a 5.7 percent increase from the same time last year, is a large improvement over last quarter, the Fed said, which saw more extreme impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Auto originations declined 13 percent in second-quarter 2020 to $135.9 billion.

Total auto debt reached $1.36 trillion in the third quarter, up $45 billion from last year.

The latest report also showed delinquency rates dropped across all credit products, furthe…

Personal vehicle ownership has never been more desirable to Americans. Whether it be long drives to clear one's head, driving to vacation spots instead of flying or a fear of public transportation because of COVID-19 concerns, consumers consider their vehicle a haven in a perilous world.

As personal ownership desirability increases, so do opportunities for dealerships to sell finance-and-insurance products. Wary of the various expenses that come with vehicle ownership, consumers are seeing value in protection products, an Ally Financial survey published this month found.

Public retailers have provided evidence to support the theory, as companies such as Penske Automotive Group and AutoNation Inc. reported a "significant shift toward individual mobility" among the reasons for record-high third-quarter earnings. All six retailers also grew F&I profit per vehicle by more than $100 each in the quarter.

The survey, conducted Sept. …