Trade News

FLINT, Mich. --  I stepped out of the rain into a black tent where a masked man thrust a pair of grill tongs my direction.

Pinched at the end was a fresh basic surgical-grade mask. A thumbs up signaled to the next masked man that I had not knowingly been in contact with a person infected with COVID-19, nor was I experiencing any symptoms. My temperature was taken and I was permitted to enter the facility.

I returned to work Thursday. Not my Crain Communications Inc. office in Detroit, but Lear Corp.'s just-in-time seating plant on Flint's historic Buick City site.

The automotive seating supplier held an open house, of sorts, for its production line leaders to get them acclimated with the rigorous new safety protocols as the plant is set to begin limited production Monday.

Admittedly, walking into a production plant in the middle of a pandemic that's claimed the lives of nearly 86,000 Americans in the last 100 days is nightmare fuel. I was fe…

Cruise, the self-driving car unit majority owned by General Motors, is laying off almost 8 percent of full-time employees to cut costs in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

The company will offer affected staff financial support to help them transition, plus health care coverage through the end of the year, Cruise CEO Dan Ammann wrote in a staff memo, a portion of which was viewed by Bloomberg. The cuts mostly fall outside of Cruise’s engineering and core development teams.

“In this time of great change, we’re fortunate to have a crystal-clear mission and billions of dollars in the bank,” Cruise spokesman Ray Wert said. “The actions we took today reflect us doubling down on engineering work and engineering talent.”

DETROIT — Ex-UAW President Gary Jones was arraigned Thursday in U.S. District Court via video conference weeks ahead of a hearing in which he is expected to plead guilty to embezzling union funds.

The former president, who resigned his post late last year as an ongoing federal corruption investigation closed in on him, appeared on video wearing a dark suit and navy blue tie. His attorney, Bruce Maffeo, entered a not-guilty plea on two counts of conspiracy to embezzle funds and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Each of the charges could send Jones to prison for up to five years.

Jones was released on a $10,000 unsecured bond that came with certain conditions, including that he report to pretrial services. His travel was restricted to within the continental U.S. and he is required to surrender his concealed pistol license and passport.

Jones was mostly silent, aside from responding, "Yes, sir, your honor," to a few basic questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge S…

A push to clear up confusing auto tech terminology

Understanding the difference between a driver-assist feature and a self-driving system is a life-or-death matter.

Unfortunately, the terminology used to describe them has devolved into a morass of marketing jargon that often exaggerates capabilities or blurs the line between the two.

Efforts are underway to improve that language. This week, a group of safety organizations put forth a set of common definitions that aims to cut through the clutter and, among other items, better define the differences between collision warnings and collision interventions.

The definitions are not intended to override the marketing strategies of individual automakers, the group says, but instead to standardize key functions of driver-assist systems.

"This is critical to ensure that drivers are aware these systems are designed to assist, not replace, an engaged driver," said the group, composed of member…

Tesla Inc. plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in the Model 3 sedan in China later this year or early next that it expects will bring the cost of electric vehicles in line with gasoline models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid.

For months, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been teasing investors, and rivals, with promises to reveal significant advances in battery technology during a "Battery Day" in late May.

New, low-cost batteries designed to last for a million miles of use and enable electric Teslas to sell profitably for the same price or less than a gasoline vehicle are just part of Musk's agenda, people familiar with the plans told Reuters.

With a global fleet of more than 1 million EVs that are capable of connecting to and sharing power with the grid, Tesla's goal is to achieve the status of a power company, competing with such traditional energy providers as Pacific Gas & Electric and To…

Tesla Inc. is a leader in electric vehicle battery technology, but the company doesn't do all of its own research.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has reached out to battery experts clustered at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Tesla in 2016 agreed to fund a group of scientists led for the past 24 years by Jeff Dahn, a pioneer in lithium ion battery development.

The work with Dahn's team is now playing a key role in Tesla's plans to introduce a new low-cost, long-life battery in the Model 3 sedan in China by early next year, Reuters reported on Thursday. The goal is to bring the cost of EVs in line with gasoline models, and allow EV batteries to have second and third lives in the electric power grid.

Tesla's funding of Dahn's work is public, and Dahn has talked about some of his group's accomplishments at public and private forums, including a presentation in February at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Videos of that presentation and a…

Listen as executives from Brose, Yazaki and OESA detail issues facing the supply base as automakers start to ramp up North American production.

Speakers:Jason Stein, Publisher, Automotive NewsBo Andersson, President & CEO, Yazaki North & Central America and President, Yazaki Europe Ltd.Julie Fream, President & CEO, OESAWilm Uhlenbecker, President & CEO, Brose North AmericaDietmar Ostermann, Senior Partner and US Automotive Advisory Leader, PwC

This conversation was originally broadcast on May 14, 2020 at 11am EDT as part of our Congress Conversations series. The series runs through June 4. Register to watch future Congress Conversations live at http://autonews.com/congress.

DETROIT — General Motors is asking its dealerships to join a program aimed at reassuring consumers that showrooms and vehicles have been properly sanitized, but the nation's largest state dealer association is opposing it over legal liability concerns.

GM is giving dealers until Friday to decide whether to participate in the Clean program, under which they would agree to follow government guidelines and use EPA-approved cleansers in their stores and on new, used and serviced vehicles.

The California New Car Dealers Association argued in a letter to the automaker Wednesday that the initiative could put dealers in legal jeopardy if a case of the coronavirus is identified at their stores. The association, which represents more than 1,100 franchised dealers in the state, also said stores that decline to sign GM's Clean Dealer Participation Agreement could be put at a competitive disadvantage.

"While we admire GM's efforts in lending assistance to avoid the …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. COO Jim Farley said Thursday it's too soon to tell when North America production will reach pre-coronavirus levels after the automaker resumes work in plants next week, but the time frame will largely be determined by the supply chain.

"One of the most important enablers for us to get to full production as soon as possible, obviously, will be the safety of our team members but also the supply base," Farley said in response to a question at its annual shareholders meeting. "All of our production manufacturing operations rely on healthy suppliers and their ability to start up is really critical."

A number of suppliers came back online this week in preparation for a May 18 restart date at most Detroit 3 plants in the U.S.

Kumar Galhotra, Ford's president of the Americas and international markets group, told Automotive News on Wednesday he was confident it would have enough parts to resume limited production next week.

"We've…

SHANGHAI -- The coronavirus pandemic is upending automakers in China, where sales are on track to fall for a third-straight year, while also paving the way for consolidation in the country’s highly fragmented passenger vehicle manufacturing sector. 

Before the outbreak, many automakers -- notably Hyundai, Kia, PSA, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and most Chinese brands, except for Geely and Great Wall -- were producing well below factory capacity. 

The virus ravaged China from late January to early March, sending car and light-truck sales industrywide tumbling 45 percent in the first quarter.

With the outbreak largely contained in mid-March, new-vehicle demand rebounded strongly in April, rising 4.4 percent to 2.07 million. 

Major global automakers, supported by healthy balance sheets and a rich product mix and pipeline, have proved to be more resilient while coping with the unprecedented crisis. 

The three largest carma…

MG, the British car brand famous for the Midget sports car and now owned by SAIC Motor Corp., opened a flagship store in Paris last week, expanding into a key Europe market despite the coronavirus pandemic. 

The four-level store is in central Paris near the upmarket French department store Galeries Lafayette. 

The store initially will sell the MG EZS, a full-electric compact crossover, SAIC said, without revealing the price of the vehicle. 

The EV is 4,314 mm long, 1,809 mm wide and 1,644 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 2,585 mm. It has a range of 263 kilometers under WLTP and a maximum speed of 140 km per hour. 

The EZS, the battery-powered variant of the gasoline ZS, is the only full-electric vehicle in MG’s product lineup. It went on sale in China in March 2019 with a starting price of 119,800 yuan ($16,920) after government subsidies. 

SAIC started exporting the MG EZS from China to Europe in September 2019. France…

Uber Technologies Inc. outlined new safety procedures at a virtual event on Wednesday, a move aimed to inspire more drivers and riders to feel comfortable getting in a shared car again.

The rules will require drivers, passengers and food delivery couriers to wear face masks as cities begin to reopen across the U.S. After the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading rapidly more than two months ago in the U.S., Uber urged riders to stay home and shuttered its carpool service completely. Drivers were often conflicted about continuing to pick up the few remaining passengers or putting their health at risk.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing face coverings in public since April 3 to prevent the spread of the virus. But masks have become a polarizing sign. Some people believe they aren’t necessary and that the economic effects of the lockdowns outweigh the health risks. President Donald Trump has long defended his decision to not wear a …