Trade News

DETROIT -- Before the coronavirus outbreak shut them down, U.S. auto factories were hectic workplaces where men and women worked side by side along fast-moving assembly lines, ate in crowded break areas, and jostled in and out of gates as they changed shifts.

That is not what auto factories are like in the era of COVID-19. A General Motors operation set up in a shuttered transmission factory near Detroit in Warren, Mich., to assemble face masks provides a glimpse of what manufacturing will look like for the foreseeable future.

People entering the plant rub their hands in sanitizer made by a Detroit brewery. A surgical face mask and safety glasses are required equipment. They stand while a security guard points a temperature scanner at them.

GM's face mask factory sits in a sprawling maze of abandoned transmission gear machining stations. Automakers have compared their crash programs to manufacture medical equipment for the COVID-19 outbreak to the 'Arsen…

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. brought in restructuring advisers to rework the rental-car company’s debt amid a bleak outlook for business trips and vacations.

Management is seeking advice from restructuring bankers at Moelis & Co. on ways to boost liquidity and avoid filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, according to people familiar with the situation.

One of the options that has been under discussion with bankers is raising cash by issuing new debt, Bloomberg previously reported. The maneuver would need an amendment to a secured debt facility, the people said, asking not to be identified while discussing a private matter. The situation remains fluid and plans could change, depending on market conditions and federal support.

A representative for Hertz, based in Estero, Fla., declined to comment. Andrea Hurst, a spokeswoman for Moelis, declined to comment. Hertz has $1 billion in liquidity and no significant corporate debt maturities until June 2021, accordi…

Tesla Inc. is adding a 10th director to its board and emphasizing several of his Elon Musk-friendly qualities.

Hiromichi Mizuno, whose term as chief investment officer of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund ended last month, becomes Tesla’s newest independent director and will sit on the board’s audit committee. The electric-car maker said Mizuno’s career has included work in Silicon Valley and on environmentalism and sustainability. Tesla also noted that he’s challenged the practice of short selling, which Musk has derided for years.

Mizuno became the first investment head of Japan’s $1.5 trillion pension fund in 2015 and oversaw sweeping changes that shifted its portfolio to stocks from domestic debt. Under his guidance, the GPIF’s investments in green, social and sustainability bonds exceeded $3 billion last year.

Mizuno made international headlines by blasting short sellers for “short-termism” in an interview with the Financial Times last year…

TOKYO – Mitsubishi Motors Corp. executives are having pay cut almost in half after the company slashed its full-year earnings outlook on tumbling sales triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Japanese carmaker said Friday it will cut base compensation to representative executive officers, executive officers and corporate officers by 20 to 30 percent in the fiscal year started April 1 and eliminate performance-based pay for the 12 months.

Several other automakers have announced similar cuts in executive compensation in recent weeks. 

“Recognizing the severity of the situation, in which even a year-end dividend has to be canceled, we will reduce the compensation of our officers and directors,” CEO Takao Kato said. “As a result of this, the officers will see their compensation cut by up to 45 percent.” 

Nonexecutive directors, including outside directors, will return 10 to 25 percent of their compensation. The carmaker also said it will eli…

Unifor President Jerry Dias on Thursday said he is “cautiously optimistic” that Canadian plants will be able to re-open in the early May timetable sought by several automakers.

“We will give the green light at the end of the day if our local union leadership feels comfortable with that,” Dias told Automotive News Canada. “I’m going to have another call tomorrow with the heads of all of our locals at the auto plants to make sure things are still moving properly. But as of now, we haven’t heard this big outcry saying, ‘Don’t do it, it’s too early.’ We haven’t heard any of that.”

His comments come after UAW President Rory Gamble said it would be “too risky” for U.S. workers and their families if auto plants restarted in early May. Auto factories in Canada and the U.S. have been shut down since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and companies and unions in North America have been grappling in recent weeks with finding ways to safely restart production whi…

The House overwhelmingly passed and sent to President Donald Trump a $484 billion coronavirus aid package, even as members are already at odds over the next phase of rescue legislation.

Thursday’s bipartisan 388-5 vote was delivered by lawmakers wearing masks and entering the House chamber under strict health precautions. Several members lamented people who’ve died from or are critically ill with the virus, including one lawmaker’s sister. Yet the day was also marked by partisan sniping.

Trump is expected to swiftly sign the bill, the fourth coronavirus-related spending measure since early March. This bill would replenish funding to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and provide other spending for hospitals and virus testing.

Several trade groups, including the National Automobile Dealers Association and the American International Automobile Dealers Association, advocated more funding for the program and sent a letter to Congress last w…

DETROIT — The UAW on Thursday said restarting U.S. auto production in early May, a target much of the industry has been aiming for, would be "too risky" for workers and their families.

The union's opposition threatens to upend plans by the Detroit 3 to end a near-total shutdown that already has lasted more than a month. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had said it was aiming to restart several U.S. factories May 4, and information given to employees and suppliers indicated that Ford Motor Co. and General Motors were considering a similar time frame.

"At this point in time, the UAW does not believe the scientific data is conclusive that it is safe to have our members back in the workplace," UAW President Rory Gamble said in a statement. "We have not done enough testing to really understand the threat our members face. We want to make sure the scientific data is supportive and every possible health protocols and enhanced protections are in place before UAW members …

Toyota's assembly and components plants in the United States and Canada are expected to go back to work on May 4, along with much of the rest of the industry. But it will be a long, slow slog before the inventor of the Toyota Production System gets close to anything nearing a normal run rate.

"This is more of an opening day," cautioned Chris Reynolds, head of manufacturing for Toyota Motor North America. While the automaker has sufficient stores of parts on hand to start building vehicles once workers return to plants, Reynolds said Toyota would take time "to shake off the rust" with workers who haven't been on the job in more than a month, and to implement and train workers in extensive new safety procedures that will both slow the run rates of assembly lines and hopefully help keep them safe.

"I would be surprised if a car rolls off a line anywhere on May 4," Reynolds told reporters on a conference call Thursday. The new procedures — including staggering entr…

This year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the glitziest ultraluxury events on the annual automotive industry calendar, was canceled because of ongoing concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

The 70th annual event was scheduled for Aug. 16. It will now be held Aug. 15, 2021.

"Ultimately, the continued health and safety of everyone associated with the Concours is our No. 1 priority, which led us to this difficult decision," Bill Perocchi, CEO of Pebble Beach Co., said in a statement. "We recognize that cancelling the 2020 Event will be disappointing to many, although we are confident it is appropriate under these unique circumstances."

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance bills itself as the world's premier celebration of the automobile. The event takes place on the 18th fairway of the famous Pebble Beach golf course, where it hosts more than 15,000 car connoisseurs.

The 2021 event will feature a display of pas…

A Connecticut police department is betting it can help flatten the curve of COVID-19 by taking to the air.

In partnership with Canadian drone manufacturer Draganfly, the Westport, Conn., police are testing the use of aerial technology and biometrics to "monitor social distancing, ease the spread of COVID-19 and keep their communities and personnel safe."

Draganfly says its "pandemic drones" can detect infectious diseases from 190 feet away. The drones are outfitted with sensor and computer vision systems that can detect fever and heart and respiratory rates, "as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, and wherever groups of people may work or congregate." Deep-learning algorithms also can detect hypertension and rapid heartbeats; the drones are not using facial recognition.

The system integrates technologies from Draganfly, the University of South Australia and a h…

Gorden Wagener has spent a good amount of his coronavirus quarantine thinking about waffles.

Daimler’s head of design, who created such iconic cars as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and Vision Mercedes concepts, wanted to bake bread during his pandemic free time, but soon found the bread maker he wanted was out of stock. So he ordered a waffle iron from Williams-Sonoma instead, and the German and Germany-based designer has been perfecting his at-home recipe for the delightfully dimpled grid of syrup holders ever since.

That’s how he landed on the idea for a glove-box waffle catapult.

When I heard he’d become a waffle master, I asked whether he could do deliveries.

“The car is easily smart enough to launch a waffle accurately -- you could write smart messages on the waffle and then throw it!” Wagener suggested on a recent phone call. A paperboy tossing waffles instead of the morning news, he would do it from the new GLE Coupe.

Wagener, of cou…