Trade News

Before Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk returned to the U.S. after a three-day visit to Germany, he made a final stopover to meet with one of his biggest competitors -- Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess.

The two auto executives met for about two hours on Thursday evening at a small airport in Brunswick, where Musk test-drove VW's ID3 electric compact car, according to people familiar with the matter. Musk also inspected the ID4 electric SUV that VW will launch later this year, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the meeting wasn't public.

A VW Group spokesman confirmed that Diess met with Musk, but declined to comment on details.

Musk had toured Europe's largest economy since Tuesday, visiting pharmaceutical company Curevac, before moving on to Berlin for meetings with politicians and a visit of the factory Tesla is building outside the German capital in Gruenheide.

The site would be Tesla's first assembly plant in Europe and could produce as…

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.

Deloitte's Global Transportation leader Simon Dixon discusses the firm's 2020 Global City Mobility Index and explains which cities around the world are making advances and ushering in smart mobility.

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PARIS -- PSA Group and the French energy company Total have signed an agreement to create a joint venture that will build battery cells at locations in France and Germany. 

The two companies have been working on the project since last year and announced the intent to form a joint venture in January.

PSA said Thursday that Yann Vincent, formerly head of industrial operations and supply chain, would be the CEO of the battery alliance, which will be called Automotive Cells Company, or ACC. 

Ghislain Lescuyer, the chairman of Total’s battery subsidiary Saft, will hold the same post at ACC.  

PSA and Total also released a number of details about the planned factories, which will be operational in 2023 and supply PSA Group vehicles from Peugeot, Citroen, DS Automobiles and Opel/Vauxhall -- and potentially cars from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, which is working toward a merger with PSA.

Batteries produced in the factories could eventual…

TIANJIN, China -- China's auto market, the world's biggest, is expected to grow only slightly in the next five years, the country's top auto industry body said on Friday.

"The next five years will be the key period of industry's transformation and upgrade," Li Shaohua, senior executive at the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, told an industry conference hosted by China Automotive Technology and Research Center in Tianjin.

CAAM predicts China's auto sales will reach around 27.75 million vehicles in 2025, up from 25.77 million units in 2019, Li's presentation showed.

Though sales have picked up in recent months, CAAM predicts they will fall around 10 percent for all of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the market hard early in the year.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican auto production fell 13.15 percent year-on-year in August to 293,463 units, in the third full month the since the car industry restarted after a coronavirus-induced lockdown, data from the national statistics agency showed on Friday.

Meanwhile, auto exports dropped 8.59 percent to 257,610 units. Output and exports were down by about a third from 2019 during the first eight months of this year, the figures show.

Measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic previously brought activity in the sector to a near-standstill.

The Mexican auto industry accounts for close to 4 percent of gross domestic product and generates nearly 1 million direct jobs, according to the country's main industry association.

Volkswagen Group's heavy-truck business plans to make a fresh push to acquire Navistar International Corp. after talks were put on hold amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to people familiar with the matter.

VW’s Traton is seeking to restart negotiations this month to win over Navistar’s management and the main shareholders, including billionaire investor Carl Icahn, said the people, asking not to be identified because deliberations are private.

The German company’s truck unit in January offered to buy the rest of Navistar for $35 a share in cash, or $2.9 billion, to secure a bridgehead in the U.S. heavy-truck market and step up its challenge to Daimler and Volvo AB. VW already owns 16.7 percent, the second-biggest stake, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Officials representing the German side and Navistar have recently discussed the potential range of a higher offer that would be sufficient to secure access to the target’s books, two people …

Yandex and Uber Technologies Inc. will spin off the self-driving car unit of their joint venture into a separate company, giving Yandex more control over the businesses and paving the way for new investors.

Russia’s largest internet company will invest $150 million in the new division, Yandex Self-Driving Group, the companies said in a statement on Friday. It will also purchase part of Uber’s stake, and as a result the Moscow-based company will have 73 percent ownership of the division, and Uber will have 19 percent, with the rest reserved for the unit’s management.

Yandex will also contribute its car-sharing business to the JV with Uber, which is known as MLU and includes ride-hailing and food delivery, the companies said in a separate statement. This will leave Uber with a 33.5 percent stake in MLU, compared with about 37 percent as of June 30. Yandex.Drive has about 16,000 cars across several Russian cities.

The changes will give Yandex more control o…

A bill in California that would allow automakers, commercial truck manufacturers and rental car companies to bypass dealerships and sign month-to-month electric vehicle memberships directly with consumers failed to pass this week.

The proposed law — Assembly Bill 326 — would have created a legal framework for EV memberships and allowed consumers access to EVs without financing or long-term commitments through a direct month-to-month agreement with the EV manufacturer.

The measure's defeat on Tuesday in the California legislature is a big win and relief for franchised new-vehicle dealers in the state but a disappointment to some consumer and environmental organizations as well as EV startup Canoo, the sponsor of the bill.

Ride-hailing company Lyft and Rivian, an EV manufacturer backed by Ford, Cox Automotive, Amazon and others, both supported the bill. Proponents said the measure would expand consumer access to EVs, help the state achieve clean air goals …

Kia Motors America and Hyundai Motor America are recalling more than 600,000 vehicles because of the possibility of leaking brake fluid that can lead to fires.

The recalled U.S. vehicles are 283,803 Kia Optima sedans from the 2013-15 model years, 156,567 Kia Sorento crossovers from 2014-15 and 151,205 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport crossovers from 2013-15.

The recall also includes 52,000 2013-15 Santa Fe Sport crossovers in Canada, a spokesman from Hyundai told Automotive News.Brake fluid may leak into the Hydraulic Electronic Control Unit, which could cause an electrical short over time.

"An electrical short in the HECU increases the risk of an engine compartment fire while driving," according to a NHTSA document.

NHTSA reported there are no known crashes or injuries related to the recall.

The Associated Press reported on the recall earlier Thursday.

Kia will begin notifying dealers Oct. 12 and owners starting Oct. 15. Dealers will inspect …

Demand for new light vehicles in China showed signs of losing steam in August, casting shadows on the market’s prospects heading into the final months of 2020.

Sales of new light vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses increased 4.4 percent last month from a year earlier, according to estimates the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released Wednesday.

The increase is sharply lower than the 8.5 percent growth recorded for July. By contrast, sales of commercial vehicles including buses and trucks remain robust, surging an estimated 38 percent last month, the trade group said.

Taken together, new-vehicle deliveries industrywide rose 11 percent to about 2.18 million in August, according to the industry group’s estimates.

CAAM didn’t provide a breakdown for light-vehicle or commercial-vehicle sales in its estimates for last month. To date, light-vehicle sales in China have grown four straight months …

London Electric Vehicle Co., a U.K.-based taxicab manufacturer owned by Chinese carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, appointed dealers in two major German cities to expand its distribution network in Europe. 

Koch Gruppe Automobile in Berlin and AMC Kruell in Hamburg will provide sales and aftersales services for its taxicabs, London Electric Vehicle Co. said this week. 

The first electric vehicle to be marketed and serviced by the two German dealers will be the TX Shuttle, which is based on London Electric Vehicle Co.'s iconic London black taxi. It will be followed by the VN5, a light van, in spring 2021. 

London Electric Vehicle Co. has signed up three dealers in Germany. 

The first, Autohaus Markötter Bielefeld, in northwestern Germany, was appointed in July to support customers in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe region, the manufacturer said. 

London Electric Vehicle Co., previously known as Manganese Bronze, was…

Tech on tractor-trailers could prevent more crashes, study shows

Driving home from work one night in the left lane of Interstate 94 in metro Detroit, I noticed cars had backed up from an exit ramp onto the highway.

A truck driver in the right lane didn't see the stoppage ahead. Precious seconds passed. Then, the squeal of tires and a tractor-trailer swerving into my lane. Through the stroke of good fortune, the truck missed the stopped traffic by mere feet.

But the acrid smell of locked brakes returns to my memory every time I drive past the westbound Exit 172, and the prospect of watching a passenger car get flattened by a tractor-trailer at highway speeds remains the stuff of vehicular nightmares.

A study issued this morning from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety provides increased evidence that new technology can help prevent such scenarios from becoming reality. Equipping trucks with forward collision warning and automated emergency…