Trade News

Ford Motor Co. is donating 1.5 million face masks to a state government initiative to combat spread of the coronavirus by distributing 4 million free masks to low-income communities, senior centers, schools and homeless shelters.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the Mask Up Michigan initiative on Friday alongside Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist II and retiring Ford CEO Jim Hackett at a news conference in Lansing.

"This is a moment when our country needs us — and we're stepping up," Hackett said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is supplying the state with 2.5 million of the masks.

Ford, which has pivoted into production of personal protection equipment during the coronavirus pandemic, is donating 1.5 million masks.

The automaker has produced 72 million pieces of PPE, which have included ventilators, respirators and face shields that are assembled at Ford's Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Mich.

Hackett said Ford would use i…

The CEO of Canadian auto retailer Steele Auto Group has purchased a 10 percent stake in publicly traded rival AutoCanada Inc.

Rob Steele on Thursday acquired 24,000 common shares of AutoCanada through his company Steele Auto Investments Ltd. The cost of the acquisition wasn't immediately disclosed.

“These shares were acquired for investment purposes,” Steele said in a statement.

Steele Auto Group operates 41 dealerships selling 27 brands and has an employee base of more than 2,000 in Atlantic Canada.

In February 2020 it added Luling Chevrolet Buick GMC of in Luling, Texas, to its stable of stores.

AutoCanada operates 50 franchised dealerships in Canada comprised of 21brands in eight provinces. It also has 13 franchises comprised of 11 brands in Illinois.

AutoCanada this week reported a net loss of CDN$20.1 million in the second quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic sent the dealer group’s retail sales plummeting early in the health crisis.

DETROIT -- General Motors' effort to revive its racketeering lawsuit against Fiat Chrysler Automobiles was denied in a Friday ruling by a federal judge, who said new evidence the automaker presented was "too speculative."

U.S. District Judge Paul Borman dismissed the case with prejudice in July after calling it a distraction for the companies and a "waste of time and resources." GM's racketeering suit, filed in November, claimed that its smaller rival secured an unfair labor-cost advantage by bribing UAW officials during key contract negotiations covering wages and benefits.

GM presented new evidence this month, saying in its amended complaint that FCA and co-conspirators used a network of bank accounts containing millions of dollars in Switzerland, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Italy, Singapore and the Cayman Islands to harm GM.

Friday's filing recounted GM's reasoning to reopen the case, in which it "argued that the Court committed two clear err…

Lithium ion batteries are essential to electric vehicles, but they have drawbacks: They are hard to make and degrade over time.

A San Leandro, Calif.,-based start-up said Thursday it had raised $4 million in funding and is working with German chemical giant BASF on a new technology to tackle those problems, aiming one day to reduce the cost of lithium ion batteries while boosting their capacities and extending their lifetimes.

Coreshell Technologies makes a coating that would go directly onto the surface of the electrodes in lithium ion batteries.

To produce power, lithium ions move back and forth between electrodes inside the battery. But as they pass through layers, some of the lithium gets stuck, both depleting it and making it harder for remaining ions to move back and forth.

Coreshell said its coating allows the lithium to pass through more easily and without getting stuck, which speeds up the break-in process during battery manufacturing, al…

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.

Mark Davidoff, board chairman of the Michigan Israel Business Accelerator, explains why Israel is a breeding ground for innovation and new technology; how the state of Michigan is helping automakers and other industry players connect with the Israeli startup community.

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Mark Frissora, the former chairman and CEO of Hertz Global Holdings Inc., will return nearly $2 million in incentive-based compensation to settle a U.S. regulator’s claims that he played a key role in causing the now-bankrupt car-rental company to file inaccurate financial statements in 2013.

Frissora pressured subordinates to “find money,” mainly by re-analyzing reserve accounts, as Hertz’s financial results fell short of forecasts in 2013, the Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement Thursday. He also kept older cars in the company’s rental fleet longer to lower depreciation costs without disclosing the change to investors, the SEC said.

Hertz reaffirmed earnings guidance in November 2013 despite internal projections that showed lower earnings per share figures, according to the SEC. The company then revised the results in 2014 and restated them in 2015, cutting previously reported pretax income by $235 million, the SEC said. Hertz agreed to pay…

Western Europe’s electrified vehicle sales pulled ahead of China’s last month after countries including Germany and France boosted government subsidies to stimulate demand that had been decimated by the pandemic.

The roughly 500,000 plug-in hybrid and battery-electric vehicles registered in Europe during the first seven months exceeded China’s sales by about 14,000 units, according to a report from Matthias Schmidt, an independent auto analyst in Berlin.

Registrations of battery-powered cars were about 269,000 in western Europe and plug-in registrations were 231,000, according to the report.

In addition to helping automakers recover from the coronavirus, government incentives are assisting automakers’ efforts to meet tougher emissions standards.

While China’s auto market has been recovering, the government is reducing subsidies that have supported new-energy vehicle sales to encourage automakers to compete on their own.

Europe probably will…

General Motors plans to hand off ventilator production at its Indiana parts facility to Ventec Life Systems by the end of the month as it completes its government contract to build 30,000 ventilators to help treat coronavirus patients.

GM has delivered more than 20,000 ventilators to the National Stockpile and expects to send the remaining 10,000 by the end August, said spokesman Dan Flores. Ventec, a ventilator company based near Seattle, will lease GM's Kokomo, Ind., facility to continue mass producing the ventilators for hospitals across the U.S., GM said.

In early April, the Trump administration announced a $490 million contract with GM to deliver the 30,000 ventilators — more than double the number in the Strategic National Stockpile at the time — by August. A week later, GM and Ventec began mass producing the ventilators out of the Kokomo facility.

GM and Ventec had already partnered and sourced parts from GM's supply base befo…

A California judge on Thursday refused to give Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft Inc. more time to appeal his decision forcing them to classify drivers in that state as employees, which they have said would necessitate restructuring their businesses.

At a hearing in San Francisco Superior Court, Judge Ethan Schulman said he found no reason to extend his Aug. 20 deadline for the ride-hailing companies to appeal the preliminary injunction he issued on Monday before it could take effect.

"I am unconvinced that any extension of the 10-day stay is required," Schulman said. "Both applications are denied."

Uber and Lyft have said they will appeal.

The injunction came in a lawsuit where California and the cities of Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco accused Uber and Lyft of violating Assembly Bill 5, a new state law making it harder to treat "gig" workers as independent contractors.

Uber and Lyft prefer using that classification for drivers, be…

Toyota and Mazda said Thursday they will pour another $830 million into their joint manufacturing plant under construction in Huntsville, Ala., to boost production efficiency at what had been a $1.6 billion plant slated to start making new crossovers next year.

The added investment, which the automakers said would be used to "incorporate more cutting-edge manufacturing technologies into its production lines and provide enhanced training" to its 4,000 planned workers, boosts the total investment to $2.33 billion. It also represents a roughly 50 percent increase in its planned costs less than a year before it is due to start producing new compact crossovers for both Mazda and Toyota.

Construction of the plant, which was announced in 2018, was slightly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but Toyota says that most work has been completed on its roof, walls, floor, ductwork and fire protection.

The automakers revealed no further details of …

With the arrival of summer, traditionally a slack season for sales, new-vehicle dealerships in China saw their average backlog rise to a nearly two-month supply in July. Average stockpiles at dealerships increased to 57 days last month, up from 52 days the previous month, the China Automobile Dealers Association said.

Stores marketing Chinese brands reported the biggest inventory burden, at 64 days’ supply, up from 62 days in June.

The average backlog of dealerships stocking domestically built, foreign mass-market brands grew to 59 days from 53 a month earlier.

Inventories at stores distributing luxury brands and imported foreign brands jumped to 50 days from 41 the previous month. 

The highest average dealership backlog in July, at 106 days, was reported by Jaguar Land Rover. 

It was followed by a 92-day supply of vehicles at Beijing Hyundai stores – Hyundai Motor Co.’s joint venture with BAIC Motor Co. – and …