Trade News

NAGOYA, Japan — If things had gone according to plan, a cavalcade of Toyota vehicles would have rumbled into Tokyo this month, heralding the 2020 Summer Olympics and wrapping up an unprecedented seven-year, five-continent endurance drive by the country's flagship automaker.

Instead, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, forcing the cancellation not only of the Summer Games but also of Toyota's so-called Five Continents Drive in its highly anticipated home stretch.

It was an especially bitter pill for Toyota because, as a top sponsor of the Olympics, this was supposed to be its year to shine on the world stage. Toyota Motor Corp. had a lineup of robots, electric vehicles and other gizmos to showcase, and the conclusion of the global drive would be their drumroll.

"It's a real pity," said Hiroshi Yokoyama, group manager of brand management at Toyota's Gazoo Racing Co., the motorsports unit that oversaw the drive program. "But because of …

The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed the pivotal vehicle in McLaren Automotive's transition to a 100 percent electrified portfolio, but the British exotic automaker's future product plans are now coming into clearer focus.

Last week, McLaren released details of its newest vehicle architecture, which, in a different direction for the brand, has been specifically developed to accommodate hybrid powertrains. It's still a central monocoque carbon-fiber tub, the key component that the automaker builds its supercars around. But McLaren's previous two hybrids, the P1 and the Speedtail, have not been on dedicated hybrid platforms.

The upcoming vehicle, code-named P16, will feature a plug-in hybrid powertrain and have an electric range of roughly 19 miles, with a charge time of three to four hours, McLaren CEO Mike Flewitt told Automotive News last week. The electric motor sits between the engine and the gearbox, Flewitt said, but he declined to say which …

Volkswagen of America executives are still working with their German counterparts to lock up sufficient allocation of the ID4 — VW's new Tiguan-size battery-electric crossover — from the single German plant supplying Europe and North America.

Some 99 percent of Volkswagen's 650 U.S. dealers have signed up to sell the ID4 when it goes on sale late this year. VW is under some pressure to get the vehicle in U.S. dealerships — at least those in zero-emission vehicle states — by the end of 2020 to fully comply with the terms of its multibillion-dollar settlement over its 2015 diesel- emissions scandal. The BEV is to be revealed globally on Sept. 23 and will be available in all but a handful of U.S. dealerships next year.

"The factory [in Zwickau, Germany] is ramping up hard" since the start of production this month, said Duncan Movassaghi, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Volkswagen of America. "We believe that the demand for the …

The coronavirus pandemic has delayed the U.S. launch of Porsche's next all-electric model — the Taycan Cross Turismo wagon — to at least the end of the second quarter of 2021, Automotive News has learned.

Production was expected to begin in Germany in September, but it has been delayed until April, a source familiar with the schedule said.

A Porsche spokesman declined to comment on future product plans.

The Cross Turismo is a wagon variant of the Taycan, Porsche's first battery-electric sedan. The Taycan, billed as the electric equivalent of Porsche's iconic 911 sports car, is capable of a 0-to-60-mph sprint in 2.6 seconds.

The Cross Turismo makes the Taycan line appealing to crossover buyers, noted Sam Fiorani, vice president at AutoForecast Solutions.

"Creating a Taycan with more cargo space hits this important market," Fiorani said. "The lower center of gravity from the electric architecture should keep the Porsche-ness of the more usefu…

The coronavirus pandemic dramatically altered the automotive ecosystem this spring as plants shut down, many dealerships temporarily closed their showrooms and the two largest U.S. wholesale auction companies made a near-overnight switch to digital sales.

Since the height of the virus crisis in March and April, manufacturing has restarted and dealerships have reopened.

But Cox Automotive's Manheim and KAR Global's ADESA auction units continue to sell mostly via digital. Even where physical auctions have resumed, buyers have gravitated to buying wholesale cars and trucks online.

With the shift, condition reports on vehicles — the documentation many buyers rely on to make their bidding decisions — have become all the more crucial. And those buyers, along with some auction executives, say the reports must improve and become more reliable.

"We have to be better at condition reports, which we're working really hard at, and we're investing in," Cox Aut…

Buick is deepening its partnership with Amazon to attract younger buyers, with voice assistant technology and online shopping.

The features are part of the latest phase of Buick's tie-up with Amazon. The new components include a virtual Amazon showroom and a custom Alexa "utterance," a phrase that lets people ask about Buick vehicles from any Alexa device. Buick drivers also can access Alexa in their vehicles, starting with the 2020 Encore GX. Buick and Amazon launched a co-branded ad this month in which drivers and passengers debate whether a vehicle is a Buick or an Alexa.

Amazon debuted its vehicle sales tool in 2016 to compete with third-party shopping sites. Today many auto brands, including Hyundai, Toyota and Honda, feature vehicles on the site. Amazon lists new models and allows shoppers to customize trim and color. Amazon directs them to the brand's website to continue building the model or find a dealership.

"This initiative is one of many thi…

DETROIT — U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said he has received no pressure or requests from the White House or Attorney General's Office to speed up a federal investigation into the UAW before November's presidential election.

Schneider's office is in the midst of a yearslong corruption probe that has produced 14 convictions, mostly of former UAW officials, including past President Gary Jones. Schneider has indicated a federal takeover of the union through racketeering charges remains a possibility.

The issue has serious political ramifications.

Schneider, a Trump administration appointee, could conceivably neuter a powerful labor organization that has endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, a move Trump would likely tout as he pins his reelection hopes on a "law and order" message.

Schneider told Automotive News on Friday that he'd like to implement reforms within the troubled union by the end of the year but that he has received no …

California on Thursday approved a $437 million effort to build thousands of electric vehicle chargers, its utility regulator said, calling it the nation's largest utility program to expand charging infrastructure.

The money will go to utility Southern California Edison to fund the installation of nearly 40,000 chargers, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a statement.

The program will help the state achieve its goal of putting 5 million zero-emissions vehicles on the road by 2030, the CPUC said.

Half of the investment must take place in low-income communities, and 30 percent will be dedicated to multi-family residences, where it is more difficult to charge an EV.

Southern California Edison is a unit of Edison International.

NHTSA is giving automakers an additional six months to fully comply with a rule that requires hybrid and electric vehicles to emit alert sounds to warn pedestrians of their approach.

The agency — responding to an emergency petition submitted by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation — said it is giving the industry more time because of disruptions in global supply chains caused by the coronavirus pandemic and significant economic effects.

"The automotive industry in the U.S. was especially afflicted by the shutdowns as vehicle production came to a halt," NHTSA said in an interim final rule. "Automotive supply chains were decimated with production of parts similarly halted."

NHTSA said it agrees with the alliance that the "unprecedented disruptions" to auto manufacturing caused by the COVID-19 crisis make compliance with the original phase-in schedule "impractical and warrant appropriate regulatory relief."

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation an…

Ford Canada plans to close its massive parts distribution center in Bramalea, Ontario, and splitting the work currently done there between two new locations in facilities in eastern and western parts of the province.

“In order to improve customer satisfaction and expedite parts delivery time to dealers, Ford will be opening a new parts depot in Eastern Ontario and a new location west of Toronto to continue servicing Canada’s most heavily populated region,” Ford Canada spokeswoman Rose Pao told Automotive News Canada in an email. “As a result of the two new locations in Ontario, Ford will no longer operate out of the current Bramalea Parts Distribution Centre once the new locations open.”

The Bramalea National Parts Depot opened  on Aug. 1, 1964, after operating in several other locations through the Greater Toronto Area beginning in the 1940s. 

The Bramalea site is 900,000 square feet in size and employs about 200 people, Pao sai…

Hurricane Laura left behind major destruction this week in Louisiana, and auto dealers on Friday were still trying to assess the damage.

The Associated Press said a full assessment could take days. Laura was responsible for at least six deaths as the hurricane uprooted trees, causing them to fall on homes.

Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association President Will Green told Automotive News in an email Friday that he is continuing to check in with dealers throughout the state as they survey the damage at their stores.

"There are still many without power and water in the areas most affected," he wrote. "I have been encouraged by the support I have seen from surrounding dealers whether that be offering of generators or volunteering help and support."

He said it is too early to tell how long dealerships will remain closed.

Lake Charles, La., dealer Phillip Tarver said Thursday there is no electricity or water available in the area, about 50 mile…

WASHINGTON -- Uber Technologies Inc. vowed to make public more safety information regarding its self-driving cars after the National Transportation Safety Board placed partial blame for a fatal 2018 crash on the company’s policies.

The company made the pledge in an update to its voluntary safety assessment, filed Friday with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It marked the first major attempt by Uber to allay criticism of its autonomous driving program since the NTSB board reached its conclusions regarding a Tempe, Ariz., crash in 2018 believed to be the first fatal pedestrian accident involving a self-driving vehicle.

“We support the idea of transparency and making the public understand what we do,” Nat Beuse, head of safety at Uber’s Advanced Technologies Group, said in an interview. The new filing is a “complete update” from Uber’s initial offering to regulators in 2018, he said.

In the document, Uber touts “enhancements,” including t…