Trade News

MUNICH -- BMW AG may offer more incentives to workers to persuade them to leave and help the automaker to reach a target of eliminating about 5,000 positions.

BMW has been unable to meet its headcount-reduction goal with existing measures, CFO Nicolas Peter said in an internal posting confirmed by the company. Those have included placing employees on unpaid leave and reducing working hours for those on shorter contracts.

The company could add early retirement packages to the list, a BMW spokeswoman said Friday.

While BMW typically loses and replaces about 5,000 employees every year due to natural attrition, uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic has slowed the outflow as people put off plans to seek other jobs or to start their own businesses.

The COVID-19 outbreak has made it tough for automakers to sell vehicles as government measures to contain the virus caused showrooms to close and slowed production to a crawl. Weak consumer demand ha…

Uber Technologies Inc. on Friday said it would offer rides by the hour in some U.S. cities, a feature aimed at helping Americans with essential trips during the coronavirus pandemic.

The option, which is already available in a handful of cities in Australia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East, will cost $50 per hour. Fares for regular Uber rides are generally based on the level of demand and the trip distance.

Uber said it decided to expand the hourly feature to the U.S. after riders requested an option for extended trips during the pandemic to avoid exposure to different drivers and vehicles when taking multiple trips in a confined time period.

The company said it expected the option to be used for trips to grocery stores, pharmacies and doctors appointments, but would monitor use going forward.

Hourly bookings will be available in Atlanta, Chicago, Washington, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Tampa Bay, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Tacoma and Seattle …

Tesla Inc. shareholders will vote in July on whether the electric-car maker should start doing something Elon Musk has long resisted: advertise its cars.

James Danforth, a San Diego-based holder of 850 Tesla shares, is proposing that the company spend at least $50 per vehicle produced to advertise its products. Tesla’s board opposes the measure.

“Advertising can increase brand value, product awareness and interest,” Danforth wrote in the proposal, which is included in Tesla’s proxy statement. “Tesla ads can help mitigate and dilute substantial FUD (‘Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt’) and misinformation campaigns sponsored by competitors and detractors worldwide and steer the narrative more favorably.”

Musk, 48, has opposed paying for traditional advertising and criticized other companies for spending on marketing rather than on improving their products. The CEO prefers to promote Tesla himself on Twitter, where he has almost 35 million followers, and through oth…

BEIJING -- Geely Automobile Holdings raised $836 million from a share placement as the Chinese automaker looks to replenish coffers to finance growth in the world's largest auto market.

Hong Kong-based Geely has sold 600 million primary shares at the bottom of the $1.39-$1.44 price range, or at a 7.85 percent discount to the last closing price of HK$11.72, according to a release.

The offering represents about 6.1 percent of its enlarged share capital, and the company plans to use the proceeds to support business development and general growth.

The share placement comes after China's economy contracted 6.8 percent in the first quarter, as the country reels from an epidemic that started in the central city of Wuhan.

Geely Automobile, based in the eastern province of Zhejiang, is China's most globally high-profile automaker following investments by parent company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group in European manufacturers Volvo Car and Daimler AG.

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DETROIT -- General Motors' North American assembly plants have overcome initial parts-supply challenges and will boost production next week.

Three U.S. factories building mid- and full-size pickups will operate on three shifts starting June 1, the automaker said in a statement Thursday. GM has been running just one shift at the facilities and was unable to increase output this week because supply of parts from Mexico was constrained.

GM said three other factories that build crossovers in the U.S. and Canada will move to two shifts, from one. Five of its assembly plants will still operate on one shift.

Chevrolet and GMC dealers have been running low on inventory of GM’s redesigned Silverado and Sierra models, which are among the most lucrative in the company’s lineup. Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation Inc., said in a Bloomberg Television interview this month that the largest U.S. new-car retailer was eager to rebuild its stock of Silverado.

“If t…

FRANKFURT -- German auto supplier ZF Friedrichshafen plans to cut up to 15,000 jobs, or around 10 percent of its work force, by 2025 as a result of a slump in demand, according to a company memo.

ZF, which helps automakers develop gearboxes and hybrid drivetrains, said in an email to employees that half of the 12,000-15,000 job cuts would be in Germany.

The company employed 147,797 people at the end of 2019, according to its annual report.

"As a result of the demand freeze on the customer side, our company will make heavy financial losses in 2020," CEO Wolf-Henning Scheider wrote in the email memo that was seen by Reuters.

"These losses threaten our financial independence," he wrote. "The crisis will last longer, and even in 2022 we will fall noticeably short of our targets for sales."

A spokesman declined to comment.

German media including DPA and Suedkurier first reported the planned cuts.

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen said Thursday its supervisory board had approved several projects in a multibillion-dollar alliance with Ford Motor that was first announced in July.

The German automaker said various contracts between the two companies were nearing completion and would be signed soon.

Among the shared projects specified by VW are a midsize pickup to be developed by Ford; a city delivery van to be developed by VW; a larger commercial van to be developed by Ford, and a new electric vehicle for Ford of Europe, to be built on VW's electric vehicle architecture.

Regarding official approval of the agreements, a Ford spokesman said Thursday, "We look forward to jointly providing an update soon."

VW's statement said "further projects are to follow, as is the investment in Argo AI," the self-driving software company backed by Ford and which eventually will be jointly controlled with VW.

VW's planned $3.1 billion investment in Argo "rema…

Chinese electric vehicle startup Aiways has begun shipping 500 electric vehicles to the French island of Corse as part of efforts to explore the European market. 

The vehicles – all U5 crossovers – will be used for leasing on the island in the Mediterranean Sea, the company said. 

The U5 – about the size of an Audi Q5 – is Aiways’ first product and is equipped with a 140-kilowatt electric motor, with a range of more than 400 kilometers. 

Aiways was established in Shanghai in 2017 by Volvo Car Corp.’s former China sales chief, Fu Qiang, and SAIC Motor Corp.’s former CFO, Gu Feng. It has an assembly plant in Shangrao of east China’s Jiangxi province. 

The startup, eager to demonstrate its engineering capabilities, product quality and ambitions to enter the European market, staged a test drive of two U5s on a 14,231-kilometer (8,843-mile) journey stretching from the northwestern China city of Xi’an to Frankfurt, Germany, last yea…

Mazda Motor Corp. is resuming new-product launches in China after a two-year interval. The Mazda CX-30 will go on sale next week as the Japanese carmaker’s fifth crossover in the market. 

The compact crossover will be priced from 129,900 yuan ($18,180) to 176,900 yuan, according to Changan Mazda, Mazda’s joint venture with Changan Automobile Co., which produces the CX-30.

The crossover, similar in size to the Toyota C-HR and Honda XR-V, is fitted with Mazda’s Skyactiv powertrain comprised of a 2.6-liter gasoline engine and a six-speed automatic transmission. 

Aside from the CX-30, Mazda assembles the CX-5 and CX-8 crossovers as well as the Mazda 3 sedan at Changan Mazda. 

It also builds the CX-4 and the Mazda 6 sedan at a partnership with China FAW Group Corp. 

Mazda’s China sales, reflecting a lack of new products, slumped the past two years after peaking at 309,000 in 2017. 

In 2019, the company’s China de…

Volvo Car Corp., tapping China as a key export hub, launched shipments of the XC40 compact crossovers to South Africa. 

The vehicles, loaded on an ocean liner in Shanghai on Sunday, are scheduled to dock at South Africa’s Durpan port in mid-June, Volvo’s China sales company said. 

The XC40 also will be exported to other countries, including those in the Americas, Oceania and Asia, the company added.

It is the fourth vehicle Volvo has shipped to other markets from plants in China, following the S60 and S90 sedans and the XC60 crossover. 

In China, Volvo builds the S60 and XC60 in the southwest city of Chengdu. The S90 is manufactured in Daqing. 

The XC40 is built at Geely Automobile Holdings’ factory in the east city of Luqiao. Volvo and Geely are both owned by private Chinese company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group. 

China is Volvo’s largest market globally. The Swedish brand’s local deliveries, dampened by the…