Trade News

Magna International’s new executive vice-president of R&D is Sherif Marakby, once a key executive at Ford Motor Co.

Marakby, 54, officially joined Magna on July 6, about eight months after stepping back at Ford, where he was CEO of the automaker’s subsidiary Ford Autonomous Vehicles. Marakby took personal leave from Ford for an undisclosed reason in November 2019. At the time, it was unclear whether he would return.

Ford Autonomous Vehicles was created in 2018 to handle Ford's fledgling AV business. Marakby rejoined the Detroit automaker in 2017, after spending a year heading Uber's autonomous-vehicle program, where he led the integration of their autonomous software into production OEM vehicles.

Marakby also was on the board of directors for Argo AI, Ford’s self-driving technology partner.

He comes to Magna with extensive experience in electrification, having led the Ford team in developing a battery-electric, plug-in hybrid and hyb…

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.

Ridecell's Mark Thomas says the third-party mobility platform is seeing an uptick in car-sharing services as more people opt out of using public transportation amid the outbreak. 

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Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc. joined many of its North American peers in reporting a massive drop in revenue and posting a sizable loss for the second quarter, but showed signs of progress toward the end of the quarter as auto production resumed amid the pandemic.

Magna on Friday said it swung to a net loss of $647 million from a gain of $452 million during the same quarter last year. Total sales plunged about 58 percent to $4.29 billion, but topped estimates of $4.10 billion.

In a statement, Magna said the quarterly losses "far exceeded the worst comparable quarterly declines experienced during the 2008-2009 financial crisis."

Shares in Magna were unchanged in early trading on Wall Street.

The diversified parts supplier is the latest of several major automakers to report losses this week as its customers shut production amid government-enforced lockdowns. Light-vehicle production in North America, Magna's biggest market, tumbled…

WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration plans to reimpose tariffs on some Canadian aluminum imports, hitting a crucial trade partner just weeks after the president’s landmark North American trade agreement went into effect. Canada threatened retaliation.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he’s removing Canada’s exemption from 10 percent tariffs, effective Aug. 16. The decision comes more than a month after U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer expressed concern about recent struggles by American aluminum producers, who have said they are hurting from a “surge” of metal from Canada flowing into the U.S.

“Several months ago, my administration agreed to lift those tariffs in return for a promise from the Canadian government that its aluminum industry would not flood our country with exports and kill all our aluminum jobs, which is exactly what they did,” Trump said during a speech at a Whirlpool Corp. factory in Ohio. “Canadian aluminum producers …

TOKYO -- Osamu Masuko, the chairman of Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and one of Japan’s oldest and longest-serving automotive chiefs, has abruptly resigned citing health reasons.

The 71-year-old executive stepped down effective Aug. 7, the Japanese automaker said in a release.

The company did not give details about his health condition but said that Masuko would be staying on as a "special advisor" to the company he has led for 15 years.

Current CEO Takao Kato will take over as temporary chairman, the company said.

Masuko became president of Mitsubishi Motors in 2005 and cycled through various positions at the top, including the CEO and chairman posts, during a pivotal period at the small-sized Japanese player. Masuko hatched numerous plans to reboot the brand’s flagging fortunes, oversaw its foray into electrified vehicles and helped pen its 2016 partnership with Nissan.

With Mitsubishi then part of the Renault Nissan alliance, Masuko exerted a stabi…

Vehicle listings company CarGurus turned a profit in the second quarter as revenue tumbled during the coronavirus pandemic, reflecting discounted dealership subscriptions to its online marketplace.

The Cambridge, Mass., company on Thursday reported revenue of $94.7 million in the quarter ended June 30, down 35 percent from the same quarter a year earlier. Subscription revenue generated by its listings marketplace fell 38 percent to $80 million — $75.5 million of that in the U.S. — while advertising and other revenue fell 7 percent to $14.8 million.

The company reported a 43 percent drop in operating expenses, driven by steep declines in sales and marketing expenses, and said net income rose 19 percent to $7.1 million.

"Although our industry and our business are facing unprecedented uncertainty amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, CarGurus generated strong results in the second quarter that demonstrate our business's flexibility and resilience," CEO Langley Stei…

VIENNA -- AMS said on Thursday its sensors will be used in vehicles built by China's Great Wall Motor Co. starting in 2022, an important step for the Austrian company toward its goal of diversifying into the auto industry.

Great Wall Motor, China's top pickup truck maker, plans to bolster growth with electric vehicles. It already builds Ora, an affordable EV brand, and it has partnered with BMW for EV production.

AMS said technology developed in cooperation with Germany's Ibeo Automotive Systems, a specialist for optical sensors that use lasers to produce three-dimensional pictures of a vehicle's environment, so-called lidars, will be a core component of a new generation of Great Wall models.

The vehicles will allow hands-free automated driving under certain conditions.

AMS, best known as a supplier for Apple Inc.'s iPhones, sees significant growth potential with applications for autonomous cars that need numerous sensors to detect the environment…

Russia's Yandex chooses Ann Arbor for long-term testing of AVs

Russian tech company Yandex arrived in Michigan with the hopes of showcasing its autonomous-driving systems during the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Those plans changed amid the pandemic, and continue to do so.

Even after the show was canceled, Yandex intended to make the Motor City its home base for testing in North America. But the company said Thursday its long-term U.S. fleet instead would locate down the road.

Yandex will run its operations out of nearby Ann Arbor, which has established itself as a regional destination for autonomous testing. The University of Michigan's Mcity test facility was the world's first purpose-built AV proving ground. Self-driving shuttle company May Mobility is headquartered in the city, about 45 miles west of Detroit. Delivery bots operated by Refraction AI have roamed bike lanes along city streets.

With a fleet of Toyota …

New-vehicle sales continue to rebound as the national economy recovers from the coronavirus outbreak that ravaged China in the first quarter. 

In July, industrywide sales increased for the fourth-straight month, jumping nearly 15 percent to 2.08 million, according to estimates the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released Tuesday. 

Growth was led by demand for commercial vehicles, which have been bolstered by tremendous investment by the Chinese government in domestic infrastructure projects such as construction of new railways and power grids.  

Sales of commercial vehicles surged 60 percent last month, while deliveries of light vehicles, including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses, rose 5.3 percent. 

Because of a sharp contraction in the first quarter, new-vehicle sales across the country dropped 13 percent to around 12.3 million in the first seven months, according to the associa…