Trade News

The Aston Martin Volante, the exotic brand's first eight-cylinder convertible, makes its long-awaited debut on June 21, 1978, almost nine years after the launch of the DBS V8.

Aston Martin had used the Volante badge — Italian for "flying" — to distinguish its convertible models starting in 1965.

The 5.3-liter V-8 engine produced up to 305 hp and 320 pound-feet of torque.

Convertibles fell out of favor in the 1970s largely because of federal safety requirements, a volatile economy and slumping industry sales and profits.

But Rex Woodgate, Aston Martin's U.S. representative, and Los Angeles dealer Chuck Vandergriff, citing consumer requests, had lobbied for a convertible for several years. They even commissioned automotive artist Dale W. King to produce a rendering of an Aston Martin convertible, according to author David Dowsey's book, Aston Martin: Power Beauty and Soul.

Harold Beach completed the design …

DETROIT — General Motors CEO Mary Barra has appointed an inclusion advisory board as part of GM's commitment to take action against racism and discrimination following nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd while in police custody in May in Minneapolis.

Barra will chair the board, and on Monday she named 11 other members.

"The board will guide our work to improve diversity and inclusion in our company, with the ultimate aspiration of making GM the most inclusive company in the world," Barra wrote Monday in an internal memo obtained by Automotive News.

The board includes four members from outside the company:

Tonya Allen, social justice advocate and CEO of the Skillman Foundation, a Detroit foundation focused on education and economic wellbeing for children. Dennis Archer Jr., CEO of Ignition Media Group, president of Archer Corporate Services and son of former Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer. Arden Hoffman, chief people officer at Cruise, GM…

PARIS -- A PSA Group shareholder is calling for the French carmaker to change the terms of its merger with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles to reflect the downturn in the global auto industry and declining prospects of the Italian-American manufacturer.

Six months after striking a deal to combine, the two companies’ fortunes have diverged, Paris-based Phitrust said in a statement Monday ahead of Peugeot-maker PSA’s annual meeting June 25. “Even back in December 2019, the respective situations of each group didn’t justify a 50-50 merger,” it said.

The auto sector has undergone a seismic shift since the two carmaking dynasties unveiled their plan to combine into the world’s fourth-biggest producer. The coronavirus pandemic shut factories and dealerships across the globe, leading to a collapse in sales.

While Fiat Chrysler is poised to get a state-backed 6.3 billion euros ($7.1 billion) credit facility in Italy, PSA CFO Philippe de Rovira has said the French compa…

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Justice Department denied politics played a role in its decision last year to open an antitrust investigation of four automakers that reached an agreement with California on fuel-efficiency standards.

The department said it had a legitimate legal basis to believe that the companies -- Volkswagen Group, BMW AG, Honda Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. -- violated antitrust laws, according to a June 19 letter to U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I.

“We share the view that political interference from outside the Department must never govern law enforcement efforts,” according to the letter obtained by Bloomberg News. “This inquiry was, based on the information known to it at the time, entirely reasonable.”

The letter is the first detailed explanation about why the Trump administration opened the investigation. The inquiry, which was closed six months later, was widely criticized as motivated by the administration’s clash with the automakers…

South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group and battery maker LG Chem Ltd. on Monday launched a global contest to identify up to 10 electric vehicle and battery startups for potential investment and development of green vehicles.

The companies want to select startups with technological capabilities to help the development of future non-polluting vehicles through the competition, called "EV and Battery Challenge."

Automakers are making massive investments in zero-emission and self-driving technology as they look to move away from traditional internal combustion engines.

Hyundai Motor Group, which includes Hyundai Motor Co. and sister company Kia Motors Corp., has said it plans to deploy 44 eco-friendly vehicles by 2025, including 23 EVs.

Earlier this year, LG Chem was chosen as one of the battery suppliers for Hyundai Motor Group's new EVs.

Applications for the competition are open through Aug. 28.

"Start-ups that have working prototypes and ar…

MUMBAI -- A state in India has stalled a proposal by China's Great Wall Motor to invest nearly $500 million, days after a deadly border clash between the two nations, potentially delaying the company's plan to tap one of the world's biggest new-vehicle markets.

The state government of Maharashtra, home to the financial capital of Mumbai, said on Monday it had put on hold three investment proposals from Chinese firms worth a combined 50 billion rupees ($658 million) in total, including Great Wall's.

The initial agreements are not canceled, but further action is awaited, said Maharashtra's industries minister Subhash Desai, days after the state government signed them.

It is the latest setback for Chinese companies that are facing calls for boycott after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in clashes at a disputed border site, in a major escalation of a weeks-long standoff between the two nuclear-armed Asian giants.

"In the current environment, we will wa…

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.

Automotive News reporter Mike Martinez explains what's at stake for Ford as it prepares to debut the next-generation F-150 pickup. The F-Series line of pickups, of which F-150 is a part, has been the bestselling vehicle line in the U.S. for 38 straight years.

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BEIJING -- China's industry ministry said on Monday it might temporarily ease quotas designed to boost production of electric cars, in an attempt to help automakers in the world's biggest market revive sales badly bruised by the coronavirus pandemic.

China has some of the world's strictest rules regarding the production of fossil-fuel vehicles, as it battles unhealthy levels of air pollution in crowded cities.

Automakers in China are obliged to manufacture new energy vehicles, including electric, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, to win "points" to make up for a portion of the negative points they incur when they produce internal combustion engine vehicles.

Depending on the present situation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a policy that it might temporarily adjust the quotas and allow automakers to use the green points they generate next year to offset their negative points this year.

Industry officials c…

Beginning this week, Manheim is bringing back in-lane bidders at five pilot locations, with three additional sites to follow next week.

The pilot locations include Manheim Darlington in South Carolina, Manheim Tulsa, Manheim Kansas City, Manheim Dallas and Manheim Dallas-Fort Worth.

Although buyers will be in lanes, vehicles still will not be running through and instead will be displayed on large screens.

Manheim President Grace Huang said the company remains committed to developing its digital platforms while balancing that with what its dealer customers want. Huang said the company has been gathering feedback and "then matching it with what we what we see in the data from a safety perspective."

It's led to a phased-in, "methodical" plan for reopening aspects of the company's auctions, she said. Sellers were allowed to come back on auction blocks to represent vehicles on June 8, for example.

Both Manheim and KAR Global's ADESA announced th…