Trade News

Matthias Mueller, the former CEO of Volkswagen Group, has been named chairman of Piech Automotive, an electric-car startup run by the son of the late former VW Group Chairman Ferdinand PIech.

Mueller is one of a number of high-profile figures involved in Piech Automotive, which was founded by Toni Piech and Rea Stark Rajcic, a Swiss designer and entrepreneur. They include tech investor Peter Thiel -- a co-founder of PayPal and an early investor in Facebook.

Piech Automotive said in a statement that it had completed its first round of investment with Thiel’s involvement, but did not provide further details. It announced that a second round to raise capital to launch a production car would be managed in the coming months under the leadership of UBS.

Mueller was ousted by VW Group’s board, controlled by the Piech-Porsche clan, in April 2018 and replaced by Herbert Diess.

Mueller had taken the top job at VW after the automaker's diesel chea…

While sporty luxury cars may be fading from showrooms in the SUV and crossover era, Jaguar is not leaving a segment it helped create more than 50 years ago with the now-classic XJ6.

The 2021 XF arrives at dealers in January sporting a host of changes – inside and out – designed to improve aerodynamics, upgrade connectivity, and reduce dealer service visits for software reflashes. The XF 2021 XF will be available in just one body style and with one engine, a 2.0-liter turbo four available with either 246 or 296 horsepower.

The optional V-6 engine and Sportbrake wagon have been dropped from the 2021 XF lineup. Three models will be offered: the base XF P250 S, the P250 SE, both available with rear- and all-wheel drive, and the P300 R-Dynamic SE, offered only with all-wheel drive.

Jaguar's design team focused on refining the XF's interior with higher quality materials, such as open-pore wood trim, real aluminum accents, and contrasting colors that are plea…

Electric vehicle startup Faraday Future aims to close a deal soon to go public through a reverse merger with a special-purchase acquisition company (SPAC), its CEO said on Monday.

"We are working on such a deal ... and will be able to announce something hopefully quite soon," Carsten Breitfeld said of the possibility of a SPAC deal.

Breitfeld declined to say who Faraday is negotiating with or when a deal would close.

A SPAC is a shell company that raises money through an initial public offering to buy an operating entity, typically within two years.

SPACs have emerged as a quick route to the stock market for companies, particularly auto technology startups, and have proven popular with investors seeking to echo Tesla Inc.'s high stock valuation.

Breitfeld, who joined the Los Angeles-based company as CEO last year, also said the company would deliver its first electric luxury SUV, the FF 91, nine months after securing funding, with volume pr…

Toyota Motor Corp. said Monday it would develop a heavy-duty, fuel-cell electric truck with its subsidiary, Hino Motor Co., for the North American market.

The move expands upon Toyota's existing effort to develop a 25-ton, Class 8 fuel-cell electric truck for the Japanese market, announced earlier this year.

The first demonstration truck is expected to be ready in the first half of 2021, Toyota said.

“Toyota’s twenty plus years of fuel cell technology combined with Hino’s heavy-duty truck experience will create an innovative and capable product," said Tak Yokoo, senior executive engineer, Toyota Research and Development, in a statement.

With the redesigned Rogue compact crossover, Nissan is doubling down on its "value brand" reputation.

The next-generation crossover, Nissan's bestselling model, is loaded up with family-friendly technology and delivers a more powerful engine — for just $160 more than the outgoing version.

The 2021 Rogue, which arrives in late October, will be priced starting at $26,745. The top-of-the-line Rogue Platinum with all-wheel drive is priced at $37,925. Both prices include shipping.

"Rogue is clearly one of the most important launches in the history of Nissan," Chris Reed, Nissan North America's senior vice president of R&D, told Automotive News this summer.

Indeed. The Rogue is a key model in the highly competitive compact crossover segment. It accounted for 12.4 percent of compact crossovers sold in the U.S. last year. The segment was the largest in 2019 behind full-size pickups.

The Rogue is Nissan's equivalent of the Ford F-150, Jeff Schu…

Nancy Sun, co-founder and chief engineer at Ike, discusses her work history, why the automation technology company recently started testing on roads and the meaning behind its “long-term fast” motto.

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Outgoing Volkswagen dealer council Chairman John Luciano says improved communication among the automaker and its U.S. retailers is allowing dealers to have a bigger voice at the meeting table. 

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Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. together are spending nearly $100 million on a November California ballot initiative to overturn a state law that would compel them to classify drivers as employees.

That sum looks less huge, however, than the potential costs of complying with the existing law, according to a Reuters analysis.

The two ride-hailing companies would each face more than $392 million in annual payroll taxes and workers' compensation costs even if they drastically cut the number of drivers on their platforms, a Reuters calculation showed.

Using a recently-published Cornell University driver pay study in Seattle as a basis, Reuters calculated that each full-time driver would cost the company, on average, an additional $7,700. That includes roughly $4,560 in annual employer-based California and federal payroll taxes and some $3,140 in annual workers' compensation insurance, which is mandated in California.

The companies say they would…

Romeo Systems Inc., a battery maker for electric vehicles, will go public through a merger with special-purpose acquisition company RMG Acquisition Corp. in a $1.33 billion deal, the companies said Monday.

The deal is expected to raise $384 million for Romeo, which includes an investment of $150 million from investors such as The Heritage Group and Republic Services.

Romeo will use the proceeds for capacity expansion and R&D to further develop battery system technologies for commercial vehicles, according to a statement.

Supplier BorgWarner made a $50 million investment in Romeo in May 2019 and the two companies established a joint venture.

“BorgWarner congratulates Romeo Power on the achievement of this important milestone”, said Frédéric Lissalde, CEO of BorgWarner, in a statement. “We look forward to continuing to work with Romeo Power on the expansion of their business and the global growth of the BorgWarner and Romeo Power joint venture.…

LONDON -- Lotus has won a British government grant to help fund development of a new electric vehicle architecture.

Lotus, majority owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said the money would be used to help develop a platform called LEVA, for Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture.

Developments arising from the platform could find their way to future battery electric vehicles, the automaker said in a news release.

The money for Lotus came from the British government’s Advanced Route to Market Demonstrator fund, which pledged 10 million pounds ($12.9 million) in June to encourage companies to kick-start R&D work following the coronavirus lockdowns earlier this year. 

The money will be shared between 12 projects, including the one led by Lotus.

Lotus did not disclose the amount it received, but the UK government’s Advanced Propulsion Center, which administered the fund, said successful candidates would receive 500,00…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ A rising tide, an uneven lift

COVID-19 is having an uneven impact on the automotive universe.

U.S. auto sales for a number of automakers — including Ford, GM and Toyota — actually rose last month. Those September advances limited the quarterly decline to about 10 percent — welcome relief after a 33 percent second-quarter drop.

On the retail front, some of the public dealerships are pointing to strong third-quarter earnings. As we note in Monday's issue, one of them, Lithia Motors, is feeling bullish enough to embark on an ambitious, multi-year acquisition spree.

But the parts-supply sector is hurting. The warnings came back in spring, during two months of auto factory shutdowns. The fear was that after being starved for revenue, suppliers would struggle to gear up once the assembly lines started rolling again.

Those struggles are now playing out in a variety of ways. Debt loads are high. Cash is tight. Borrowin…

WASHINGTON -- Honda Motor Co. said on Saturday it has confirmed a 17th U.S. death tied to a faulty airbag inflator made by now-defunct Japanese safety products supplier Takata Corp.

Honda said that after a joint inspection with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, it confirmed a faulty airbag inflator was to blame for the Aug. 20 crash of a 2002 Honda Civic that led to the death of a driver in Mesa, Ariz.

The defect, which can lead to airbag inflators rupturing and sending metal fragments flying, prompted the largest automotive recall in U.S. history and is tied to 15 U.S. deaths in Honda vehicles and two in Ford Motor Co. vehicles since 2009. More than 290 injuries are also tied to faulty Takata inflators and at least 26 deaths worldwide.

Honda said the 2002 Civic had been under recall since December 2011 for replacement of the driver’s frontal airbag inflator, while the passenger's frontal airbag inflator was recalled in 2014.

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