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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.

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Amazon.com Inc. is buying autonomous vehicle startup Zoox Inc., a move that could potentially help the e-commerce giant slash delivery costs and create a formidable opponent to ride-hailing and food-delivery companies.

Terms of the deal were not announced in a statement Friday, but The Information reported that Amazon agreed to pay more than $1 billion for the firm.

Aicha Evans, Zoox’s CEO, and Jesse Levinson, co-founder and chief technology officer, will continue to lead the company as a standalone business.

“Zoox is working to imagine, invent, and design a world-class autonomous ride-hailing experience,” said Jeff Wilke, the head of Amazon’s worldwide retail business.

Shipping costs are one of Amazon’s largest expenses, and Zoox could help the company shave off more than $20 billion annually, Morgan Stanley analysts have estimated.

Still, autonomous vehicles have been a target of Silicon Valley giants and venture capital investors for yea…

Heavy truck and engine manufacturer Navistar International Corp. on Friday named insider Persio Lisboa as its CEO, effective July 1.

Lisboa, a 32-year veteran with the company, is currently COO and executive vice president. He succeeds Troy Clarke, who will move to the newly created role of executive chairman.

Clarke, 65, joined the company in 2010 after a 35-year career at General Motors, which concluded in 2009 when he was president of GM North America. Navistar named him CEO in 2013.

"Now is an ideal time for Persio to become Navistar's next chief executive officer," Clarke said in a statement. "I have enjoyed the opportunity to lead Navistar for the last seven years, but it's now my intention to move toward retirement."

Clarke will continue to manage talks with Volkswagen Group's truck division Traton SE, including its buyout offer in January to acquire Navistar for $35 per share, the company said.

Volkswagen said in March it still want…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is striving to maintain its full-size pickup dominance by redesigning the F-150 to incorporate — and improve upon — some of the most popular features that rivals have added in unsuccessful bids to dethrone it.

The 14th-generation pickup, unveiled virtually Thursday evening, is expected to offer best-in-class towing, payload, torque and horsepower when it hits dealerships as soon as November. The pickup will include functional tailgate upgrades, similar to what General Motors introduced on the GMC Sierra in 2018. Ford is adding a larger center touch screen, just as Fiat Chrysler added to its Ram 1500 in 2018. And the automaker is hoping to preempt a growing list of electric vehicle startups — including one that unveiled a prototype hours before Ford's reveal — looking for a slice of the profitable segment by offering a hybrid powertrain and mobile power generators across all trims.

The F-150, the highest-volume member …

Cadillac said it will introduce the Lyriq, the first in Cadillac's electric vehicle portfolio, at a virtual event in August.

The electric crossover is set to be revealed on Cadillac's media site on Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. EDT after postponing its April debut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"Building on more than a century of innovation, the Cadillac LYRIQ marks the beginning of a new chapter for the brand -- one that is all-electric and redefines the boundaries and limits of mobility and connectivity," Cadillac said in a statement.

General Motors has said that Cadillac will be its lead EV brand. The Lyriq, powered by the proprietary Ultium battery, will launch Cadillac's all-electric portfolio that GM has said will debut over the next few years. GM has also said it is planning a large electric Cadillac SUV and a handmade flagship electric sedan called the Celestiq.

The Lyriq unveil is the first GM has moved online due to th…

Waymo and Volvo Cars have agreed to develop a self-driving electric vehicle designed for ride-hailing use, as part of a new global partnership, the companies said Thursday.

Waymo, a unit of Silicon Valley's Alphabet Inc., said it will be the exclusive global partner for Volvo Cars for developing self-driving vehicles capable of operating safely without routine driver intervention. Waymo will focus on the artificial intelligence and certain hardware, including cameras, lidar and radar, for the automated "driver." Volvo will design and manufacture the vehicles.

The companies said Waymo will work with Volvo's global brands, including Polestar and Lynk & CO.

Volvo, owned by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, has a separate agreement to deliver vehicles to ride-hailing company Uber Technologies Inc. that Uber will equip to operate as self-driving vehicles. Volvo Cars is continuing to deliver vehicles to Uber.

Uber's development of self-driving v…

NEW DELHI -- Days after a border clash with China this month in which 20 Indian soldiers were killed, New Delhi told companies to find ways to cut imports from China. But two big industries, automobiles and pharmaceuticals, say it is easier said than done.

Like many countries, India relies on China for products such as electronic components and drug ingredients because it cannot make them or source them elsewhere as cheaply, company and industry figures say.

Thus any moves to curb imports or make them costlier without developing alternatives will hurt local businesses.

"We don't import because we like to, but because we have no choice," said R.C. Bhargava, chairman of Maruti Suzuki India, the country's biggest automaker.

"To attract companies to produce locally, we need to be more competitive and lower our costs compared with other countries."

India imported around $70.3 billion of goods from China in the fiscal year to March 2019, and expo…

BMW Group and Great Wall Motor Co. started construction on a joint venture plant in the east China city of Zhangjiagang. 

Despite lingering coronavirus infections in China, the project is “progressing smoothly,” Great Wall said in a statement. 

The 5.1 billion-yuan ($721 million) joint venture, Spotlight Automotive, was incorporated in November 2019 as a 50-50 partnership between BMW and Great Wall.

The new company will pool R&D resources from the two shareholders to develop gasoline and electric vehicles for BMW’s Mini and Great Wall’s proprietary brands, according to the statement.

The plant can produce up to 160,000 vehicles annually, and vehicles will be distributed via separate dealerships under the two automakers’ respective brands, Great Wall noted.

Great Wall didn’t disclose a construction timetable for the plant.

BMW also operates a Chinese joint venture with Brilliance China Automotive in the northeast city o…

Nissan Motor Co. plans to tap Chinese battery maker Sunwoda Electric Vehicle Battery Co. to jointly develop and produce batteries for hybrid vehicles.

The Japanese automaker “will begin studying joint development of next-generation vehicle batteries” for its e-Power vehicles to be sold in and outside China, Nissan said last week. 

“The two companies will also discuss the development of an efficient production system to ensure stable supply capacity for jointly developed batteries,” it added.  

Nissan expects to reach a final agreement with Sunwoda on the deal before the end of this year.

Nissan’s e-Power hybrids use an electric motor to directly drive the wheels and a gasoline engine to generate electricity for the motor.

The automaker plans to sell more than 1 million all-electric cars and e-Power models annually by 2023.

Nissan produces only one electrified model in China – the battery-powered Nissan Sylphy compact s…

New-vehicle sales at foreign automakers and 11 major domestic auto manufacturers kept advancing in the first 20 days of June, as the market continued to recover from the coronavirus outbreak, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said. 

Aggregate sales during the period jumped nearly 16 percent to top 1.08 million, the trade group said this week. 

The companies account for nearly all vehicle sales in China, so the data suggest that China’s car and light-truck market is on track to rebound for the third straight month in June. 

The 11 Chinese automakers include eight state-owned companies – SAIC Motor Corp., Dongfeng Motor Group, China FAW Group, Changan Automobile Co., GAC Motor Co., Brilliance China Automotive, Jianghuai Automobile Co. and Chery Automobile Co.

Privately held Geely Automobile Holdings, Great Wall Motor Co. and BYD Co. also are included in the tally.

After plunging 42 percent in the first quarter …

India plans to impose stringent quality control measures and higher tariffs on imports from China, people with the knowledge of the matter said, as a military standoff between the neighbors threaten economic ties.

The state-run Bureau of Indian Standards is finalizing tougher standards for at least 370 products to ensure items that can be locally produced aren’t imported, the people said, asking not to be identified citing rules. 

The products include chemicals, steel, electronics, heavy machinery, furniture, paper, industrial machinery, rubber articles, glass, metal articles, pharma, fertilizer and plastic toys.

Discussions are also underway to raise import duty on products including furniture, compressors for air conditioners and auto components, they said. The proposal is being evaluated by the Finance Ministry amid the government’s push for local manufacturing.

The Trade Ministry is separately evaluating non-tariff measures to check Chine…

Renault Group opened an R&D center at its light commercial-vehicle joint venture with Brilliance China Automotive to help the partnership improve products. 

With design, development and validation capabilities, the center will introduce advanced technologies for Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi vehicles engineered and built under the joint venture, Brilliance China said. 

The center employs 350 people, including more than 10 experts from the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and India. 

The joint venture, Renault Brilliance Jinbei, was incorporated in the northeast China city of Shenyang in 2017 as a 51-49 partnership between Brilliance China and Renault. 

Renault Brilliance Jinbei produces light buses for Brilliance China’s Jinbei and Huasong brands. 

In April, Renault announced it would exit a passenger vehicle JV established with Dongfeng Motor Group in 2013 to focus on developing and producing light com…