Trade News

Electric carmaker Fisker Inc., which recently announced plans to go public through a merger with a so-called blank-check company, said on Friday it has a tentative deal for Canadian auto supplier Magna International Inc. to build its Ocean electric SUV.

Fisker said in a statement that it expects to reach a definitive agreement "in the next few months" to have Magna Steyr start production of the Fisker Ocean at its Graz, Austria, plant as early as the fourth quarter of 2022.

A Magna spokesman confirmed the memorandum of understanding, but declined further comment.

Fisker added the companies were "also evaluating manufacturing options for the United States and China."

Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp., backed by alternative investment manager Apollo Global Management Inc., announced a deal last month to take Fisker public through a merger that valued the EV startup at $2.9 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai Motor America has named Olabisi Boyle, a former Fiat Chrysler Automobiles engineering executive, as vice president of product planning and mobility strategy for the Korean automaker's U.S. operations.

Boyle's responsibilities include strategic direction of Hyundai's U.S. vehicle lineup, along with market research, business analytics and pricing. She starts Monday and will report to Hyundai Motor North America CEO Jose Muñoz, the company said in a news release.

"Olabisi brings to Hyundai the perfect combination of automotive engineering and product planning experience with an in-depth understanding of the technologies that are going to drive the future of the automotive industry," Muñoz said in a press release.

The product planning post was formerly held by longtime product vice president Michael O'Brien. He left the company in February after 10 years.

Boyle joins Hyundai from Visa, where she was vice…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Uber Technologies Inc. generated more revenue from delivering food than transporting people for the first time last quarter, but it failed to offset a steep and prolonged decline in ridership brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales fell 29 percent in the second quarter to $2.24 billion, ending a decade of unchecked growth. The loss in the quarter also widened, but Uber maintained Thursday that it will achieve its goal of turning an adjusted profit by the end of next year.

Delivery revenue, which was growing even before the pandemic, surged 103 percent during the quarter and is now central to Uber’s strategy. Along with a $2.65 billion deal to acquire Postmates Inc. and expand its food delivery operations, Uber has begun delivering other items including groceries, prescriptions and packages. Uber now includes UberEats, its food delivery service, as part of the Delivery category.

“Delivery is clearly one of the major beneficiaries of…

The growing Hudson Automotive Group is about to get even bigger.

The Charleston, S.C., dealership group, which has been acquiring stores at a brisk pace the past few years, plans to buy the four-store Beaman Automotive Group in Nashville.

Beaman announced the pending sale last week and said the deal is expected to close in October or November.

With 450 employees, Beaman Automotive generated $414 million in revenue last year. It has Toyota and Buick-GMC outlets in Nashville, a Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat store in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and a Ford dealership in South Dickson, Tenn.

The sale will include all inventory and fixed assets, plus a parts warehouse and collision center. Other terms weren't disclosed.

Beaman Automotive CEO Lee Beaman, in remarks to employees shared with Automotive News, said he had been approached "dozens and dozens of times" over the years to sell his company, but nothing felt right until now.

"I can think of o…

Automakers and safety groups agree that automated emergency braking systems hold the potential to reduce traffic crashes and save lives. But sometimes these systems can activate when there's no imminent collision and instead place motorists in hazardous situations.

As automakers install more of these systems in their vehicles, concerns over these false-positive events have grown more prevalent.

Nissan Motor Co. is aware of more than 1,400 complaints and field reports alleging such activations, according to documents obtained by the Center for Auto Safety via public-information requests and multiple lawsuits.

The Center for Auto Safety is renewing its calls for a safety recall.

"False braking not only endangers the occupants of the Nissan vehicle but puts all surrounding road users at risk," Jason Levine, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy organization, said Thursday. "It undermines consumer trust in the long-term safety benefits of such …

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…