Trade News

DETROIT -- General Motors said its filtering facepiece respirators have received N95 certification from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

To achieve the N95 rating, a filtering facepiece must filter out "at least 95 percent of airborne particles during 'worst case' testing using a 'most-penetrating'-sized particle," GM said in a statement Tuesday.

The automaker said this required a new manufacturing process at its plant in Warren, Mich. The process mandates that N95 masks include certain components, such as a wire nosepiece and a sonic weld that extends from the nose to the chin.

After excess material is trimmed off and ear bands are welded into place, the masks are subjected to a "quality check." The masks are then "cleaned, bagged and prepared for shipment," the company said.

GM also said sonic welders that were used in its Brownstown Township, Mich., battery assembly plant have been repurposed for the N95 respirators. T…

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.

Ford's product development boss explains why the automaker waited so long to bring back the Bronco SUV and how the iconic off-roader and its variants will stand out in the market and differentiate itself from rival Jeep.

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WASHINGTON -- A group of 15 U.S. states and the District of Columbia on Tuesday unveiled a joint memorandum of understanding aimed at boosting the market for electric medium- and heavy-duty vehicles and phasing out diesel-powered trucks by 2050.

The announcement comes weeks after the California Air Resources Board approved a groundbreaking policy to require manufacturers to sell a rising number of zero-emission vehicles, starting in 2024 and to electrify nearly all larger trucks by 2045.

The 14 states said the voluntary initiative is aimed at boosting the number of electric large pickup trucks and vans, delivery trucks, box trucks, school and transit buses, and long-haul delivery trucks, with the goal of ensuring all new medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sales be zero emission vehicles by 2050 with a target of 30 percent ZEV sales by 2030.

The states include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oreg…

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor Group leader Euisun Chung said Tuesday flagship Hyundai Motor and sister company Kia Motors aim to sell 1 million electric vehicles in 2025, together targeting more than 10 percent of global market share of EVs.

Hyundai Motor plans to launch a next-generation electric vehicle with a driving range of 280 miles per charge and charging time of 20 minutes or less, Chung said in a televised video message. It aims to export 1,600 hydrogen-powered trucks to Europe by 2025, and develop a new system that doubles battery life at half the price, he said.

Chung's statement came as South Korea outlined a plan Tuesday to spend 114.1 trillion won ($94.6 billion) on a "New Deal" to create jobs and help the economy recover from the coronavirus fallout, anchored in part by investment in electric vehicles and hydrogen cars.

The six-year plan will build digital infrastructure and a stronger safety net for job seekers, but its "Green New Deal" aspects …

BEIJING -- Volkswagen Group and its Chinese joint venture partner, SAIC Motor, plan to invest 4.13 billion yuan ($590 million) to revamp their car plants in Shanghai to make new Audi A7L sedans, according to a government document seen by Reuters.

SAIC Volkswagen, the joint venture of the German company and China's biggest automaker, currently sells cars under the VW and Skoda brands.

With the revamp at its Shanghai plants, the JV is aiming for an annual manufacturing capacity of 60,000 Audi A7Ls and 60,000 new Volkswagen utility vehicles. The total capacity at the plants will remain unchanged.

The revamp, expected to be done by the end 2020, comes as demand for luxury cars in China remained firm even as sales in the world's biggest auto market slumped over the past two years.

SAIC Chairman Chen Hong has previously said the JV plans to roll out the first Audi product in early 2022.

ID4 output

VW hopes to start production based on its …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co., resurrecting a historically popular nameplate with modern amenities such as a trail-mapping system and 360-degree camera views, aims to attract a new generation of overlanding enthusiasts with the first members of the Bronco family of off-roaders.

The 2021 Bronco SUV and Bronco Sport crossover signify a new direction for the automaker as it aims to wrest back a slice of the market long ago ceded to rivals -- particularly Jeep. Under CEO Jim Hackett, Ford is pruning its lineup to focus on more profitable vehicles that elicit more emotion and passion from customers.

It expects the pair of rugged utilities — unveiled Monday directly into the living rooms of would-be buyers via primetime introductions on ESPN, National Geographic and ABC — to do just that.

Under development for the past half-decade and arriving nearly 25 years after the last Bronco departed, the sixth-generation SUV will serve as the flagship for a new off-road sub…

Tesla Inc. needs to succeed in China if it wants to dominate the world of electric cars -- especially in a post-virus world. To do that, Elon Musk is turning to a battery engineer who once helped Apple Inc. extend the life of its MacBook laptops.

Zeng Yuqun, 52, built Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. into China’s battery champion in less than a decade, creating the largest global producer of rechargeable cells for the plug-in vehicles considered to be the future of cars. That effort has helped propel Zeng from a modest hillside village and $30-a-month job with a state-run company to an estimated $17 billion fortune.

CATL’s products are in the vehicles of almost every major global auto brand, and starting this month they’ll also power electric cars manufactured by Tesla at its new factory on the outskirts of Shanghai. It’s an alliance with lucrative potential, combining the sector’s most-popular plug-in model -- the Tesla Model 3 -- with low-cost batteries in…