Trade News

DETROIT — The 2022 E-Transit represents Ford Motor Co.'s first battery-electric vehicle designed for commercial buyers as the automaker looks to increase its dominance of the van market and fend off new rivals angling for fleet customers.

The E-Transit, revealed Thursday and scheduled to go into production late next year, will start around $46,000 in the U.S., including shipping. The low-roof cargo van variant will get up to 126 miles on a charge, company officials said, although they declined to discuss other range estimates or elaborate on how range could be affected when the van is loaded with cargo.

The E-Transit, built at Ford's Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri, will be offered in three configurations, with three roof heights and three body lengths, in an effort to give business owners a variety of options to match specific needs. It also will come with an optional Pro Power Onboard mobile generator debuting on the 2021 F-150 pickup.

Ford sai…

Former Reynolds and Reynolds Co. CEO Bob Brockman will remain free on a $1 million unsecured bond while he fights federal charges of tax evasion and wire fraud, a judge ordered Wednesday.

Attorneys for Brockman, who last week stepped down as Reynolds' chairman and CEO, and federal prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday that a review of Brockman's bail conditions ordered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California did not recommend any changes from temporary conditions a judge set last month.

A bail review hearing that had been set for Thursday will be removed from the judge's calendar, according to the court filing.

Brockman, 79, was indicted last month on 39 counts that include tax evasion, wire fraud, money laundering and evidence tampering. Prosecutors say Brockman created an elaborate offshore scheme over two decades to avoid taxes on $2 billion in income. His attorneys entered a not guilty plea on all counts at an initia…

FRANKFURT -- The head of the Berlin engine plant run by Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, Rene Reif, has defected to rival Tesla Inc., German union IG Metall said, calling on employees to protest his departure.

IG Metall said there would be a protest in front of the Mercedes factory on Thursday and called on Daimler to present solutions that would help guarantee the future of the plant.

"We will make clear that we see the defection of the factory manager as a betrayal," Jan Otto, head of IG Metall Berlin, said in a statement.

The German business paper Handelsblatt said industry sources had also confirmed that Reif, 57, would join Tesla.

Reif was one the most experienced manufacturing executives at Daimler. He helped to expand manufacturing capacity for Mercedes cars in China.

He was head of engineering and manufacturing at Beijing Benz Automotive, Daimler's Chinese joint venture, which has a capacity of 480,000 cars and started building the electric…

New-vehicle demand in China continued to grow for the seventh consecutive month in October as the economy kept recovering in the wake of the coronavirus. 

Industry-wide deliveries rose 13 percent to exceed 2.57 million last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday.

Sales of commercial vehicles including trucks and buses surged 30 percent to around 464,000. 

Demand for light vehicles -- sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multi-purpose vehicles and minibuses -- increased 9.3 percent to some 2.11 million.

Deliveries of electrified vehicles soared 105 percent to some 160,000. The number includes roughly 133,000 electric vehicles and 27,000 plug-in hybrids. 

After suffering a 43 percent contraction in the first quarter amid the virus outbreak, the Chinese new-vehicle market resumed growth in April. 

In the first ten months, industry-wide sales dipped 4.7 percent to around 19.7 million. Commercial …

BMW AG CEO Oliver Zipse said Wednesday he is weighing options for the company's mobility services joint venture with Daimler AG, including bringing in new partners or possibly a partial sale.

BMW wants to continue to participate in the mobility services market "whether we bring in new partners or whether we sell it," Zipse told a videoconference of reporters.

"This is a very dynamic environment," he said. "You will see where we make one or the other move."

The future of Free Now, the BMW-Daimler venture that includes car sharing, ride hailing and other services, has been uncertain. Last month, Germany's Manager Magazin reported Uber Technologies had offered 1 billion euros ($1.18 billion) for the venture.

DETROIT — GM Financial's loan and lease originations climbed in the third quarter, even as General Motors' U.S. light-vehicle sales fell 9.9 percent, and more customers paid their loans on time, despite economic uncertainty.

Only 2.1 percent of payments were 31 to 60 days past due during the quarter, compared with 3 percent in the third quarter of 2019.

"In a period of higher unemployment and economic uncertainty, we would normally see higher delinquency and higher losses. It was completely against the trend of what we should see," Dan Berce, CEO of GM Financial, told Automotive News.

Government stimulus cash and relief provided by GM Financial helped consumers early in the pandemic, he said. But lately, consumers have changed their spending behavior to prioritize paying off debt.

"They're not spending money on entertainment, vacations and restaurants," he said. "Instead they are making debt payments, in particular auto…

What does diversity and inclusion mean at some of the nation's largest auto lenders?

From sports analogies to internal definitions, car finance leaders discuss the importance of drawing on talent from different pools, and creating good tension and discussion that better serves auto finance customers and dealership partners.

"Diversity is having a seat at the table. Inclusion is having a voice at the table. Equity is having equal access to the table. Unconscious bias is why some voices are heard more than others at the table. Mitigating bias is more than a moral imperative — it lifts performance. Diversity improves creativity, lessens groupthink and raises team intelligence by raising social intelligence."

— Craig Carrington, president of Ford Credit International Markets and co-chair of the Ford Diversity and Inclusion Council

"I love the NFL's definition: Diversity is who's on the team, and inclusion is who gets to play. For us, diversity is who …

General Motors is halting production of the Chevrolet Corvette for the rest of the week after new coronavirus restrictions disrupted the supply chain in Mexico, The Detroit News reported Wednesday.

GM spokesman David Barnas told the newspaper that Bowling Green Assembly in Kentucky will be closed Wednesday for Veterans Day and will remain closed Thursday and Friday because of the supply disruption.

Barnas told Automotive News via email that GM is not confirming the parts that are impacted by the temporary issue.

"We expect to resume normal operations on Monday, Nov. 16," GM's statement said. "Our supply chain, manufacturing and engineering teams are working closely with our supply base to mitigate any further impact on production."

GM also was forced to idle production of the hot-selling sports car for a week in October -- also because of a parts shortage in the supply chain.

Barnas said in the email that production of the 2021 model year w…