Trade News

Volkswagen Group's Audi unit is among automakers gradually reopening factories in Europe, even as coronavirus lockdowns drag on across much of the region.

Some 100 workers at Audi’s Gyoer, Hungary site, one of the world’s largest engine plants, restarted output on an assembly line in a single-shift system, the company said Tuesday. A second line is set to follow at the end of this week.

Manufacturers are facing a crushing economic blow after governments across Europe placed restrictions on public life to combat the pandemic, which has claimed some 120,000 lives worldwide. The slump may mean 3 million lost vehicle sales this year in Europe, or 60 billion euros ($66 billion) in lower revenue, according to Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Michael Dean.

After weeks of restrictions, governments and corporations are sketching out exit strategies. Still, efforts to get the economy back on track are likely to be gradual and may encounter setbacks if the …

Mazda prepares to enter the U.S. market, with the first batch of R100 imports departing Hiroshima, Japan, on April 14, 1970. The shipment was scheduled to arrive at the Port of Seattle.

The U.S. was Mazda's second North American market after Canada sales were launched in 1968.

The company initially shipped 60 R100 coupes to the U.S. in 1970, and it introduced the rotary-powered RX-3 here in 1972.

Mazda first showed the R100 at the 1967 Tokyo auto show along with the new Cosmo.

The subcompact R100 was priced at $2,495 and featured a rotary engine.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mazda's first 100 years

No automaker had perfected the engineering and manufacturing of the rotary engine, which spins a rotor in a circle rather than pistons going up and down. The engine provides strong power and smooth operation in a compact package. With the rotary engine, the R100 weighed about 1,775 pounds and averaged 23 mpg.

To promote one of its first vehicles…

The start of production at the joint-venture Toyota-Mazda assembly plant in Huntsville, Ala., will be delayed until later in 2021 because of setbacks related to the coronavirus pandemic.

"On April 9, we informed state and local government officials in Alabama, along with our key suppliers, how the COVID-19 pandemic is impacting our ability to maintain critical equipment delivery schedules, creating labor shortages and slowing construction," Toni Eberhart, a spokeswoman for Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, said in a statement emailed to Automotive News.

"As a result, we will delay the start of production of the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant to a time period later in 2021. We are eager to keep the project moving forward and appreciate the ongoing support of all key stakeholders."

The plant was to begin production of 150,000 units each of a Toyota and a Mazda crossover yet to be named, beginning in 2021. Eberhart declined to comment on when production would s…

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is expanding its unexpected foray into medical-supply manufacturing to include production of respirators, face masks and reusable gowns made from airbag material. It also is helping to increase production of collection kits used to test patients for COVID-19.

The automaker said it has started making face masks at a transmission plant in Sterling Heights, Mich., and will begin assembling respirators Tuesday near its Mustang plant in Flat Rock, Mich. Ford initially will pay about 120 UAW-represented workers who have volunteered for the assignments and expects to add 50 more workers as production of the face masks increases.

Ford also is working with airbag supplier Joyson Safety Systems to make reusable gowns for health care workers and helping Thermo Fisher Scientific increase production of COVID-19 test collection kits. Joyson expects to cut and sew 100,000 gowns a week starting next week, for a total of 1.3 million gowns by July 4. Read more

SAIC Motor Corp., the biggest automaker in China, reported a 29 percent drop in 2019 earnings as an industry-wide sales slump undermined manufacturers’ profitability in the world’s largest market.

Net income at the company, a partner of Volkswagen Group and General Motors Co., fell to 25.6 billion yuan ($3.6 billion) for 2019, it said in a statement Monday. Analysts predicted 27 billion yuan on average. Revenue fell 7 percent.

Trade tensions and slowing economic growth weighed on light-vehicle demand in China in the past two years, causing a slump that’s been since exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak.

Automakers are betting on new models to lure potential shoppers back to showrooms as the government loosens stay-at-home orders aimed at fighting the spread of the virus.

DETROIT — The forecasts seem impossibly wretched.

Economists at JPMorgan Chase project a 40 percent decline in gross domestic product in the second quarter. Trillions of dollars in economic activity abandoned in the wake of COVID-19. April's unemployment rate is expected to hit 20 percent or more. That's 25 million people without work. More than 817,000 filed for unemployment in Michigan in the last three weeks — and that's only those who could access the online system here in the epicenter of the U.S. auto industry.

The numbers are all far, far worse than we saw in the Great Recession. But there is reason to think the bounce back might also dwarf the long, slow recovery from the 2008 crisis.

The National Automobile Dealers Association's first-quarter sales analysis reported a 38 percent fall in new-vehicle sales last month compared with March 2019.

Second-quarter new-vehicle retail sales are expected to fall 80 percent in April and 40 to 70 perc…

DETROIT -- The Center for Automotive Research is moving its annual summer conference in Traverse City, Mich., to a virtual event in the wake of the deadly COVID-19 outbreak.

The Management Briefing Seminars, originally scheduled Aug. 4-6 at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, will now take place online on Aug. 4-5.

"While planning for the conference, we have been monitoring the COVID-19 pandemic very closely and following the decisions being made about national and international events," CAR CEO Carla Bailo said in a Monday press release. "We have decided to make CAR MBS 2020 a virtual event for the health and safety of everyone involved."

The event typically gathers hundreds of automotive executives, students and economic development officials from across the U.S. to lead keynotes and panels on trends in the industry and responses to current events.

CAR is currently restructuring the agenda and developing content, which will include conferenc…

CATL, China’s largest electric vehicle battery maker, warned first-quarter profits will fall sharply because of a drop in EV production across the country. 

Net profit for the period is estimated to range from 733 million yuan ($104 million) to 838 million yuan, CATL said last week in a filing on the Shenzhen stock exchange, where it is listed. 

The forecast represents a drop of 20 to 30 percent from the same period last year. 

CATL blamed the slump on the severe contraction in domestic EV output during the first quarter. 

EV production, disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, tumbled 62 percent to about 77,000 in the period, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. 

The company plans to cut manufacturing costs and operating expenses to mitigate the downturn’s impact on its financials, CATL said. 

In 2019, the company’s net profit rose 29 percent to approach 4.4 billion yuan while r…

Mercedes-Benz outperformed its main German rival BMW in the Chinese market in the first quarter.

Light-vehicle sales at Mercedes-Benz dropped 20 percent to 139,960 in the first three months, Daimler AG said last week. 

“In China and South Korea, our dealerships are fully open and we see a significant increase in demand there,” Britta Seeger, Daimler’s management board member responsible for marketing and sales, said last week of the two markets where the coronavirus outbreak has been brought under control.

China deliveries for the BMW and Mini brands combined fell 31 percent to 116,452 in the period, BMW Group said, without divulging separate sales for the two brands. 

Daimler and BMW no longer release monthly sales results. Another major German luxury brand, Audi, hasn’t disclosed sales for the latest period.

Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi maintained growth in China last year despite the ongoing contraction in the overall new-vehicl…

China’s used-vehicle market has yet to recover from the lingering impact of the coronavirus outbreak that started in late January. 

Used-vehicle sales across the country slipped 24 percent to roughly 950,000 in March, with year-to-date volume slumping 38 percent to some 2 million, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

With the epidemic largely brought under control in early March, more than 97 percent of used-vehicle dealerships had resumed operations by the end of the month, up from 44 percent at the beginning of March, the dealers association said. 

To stimulate consumer demand, Beijing announced this month it will slash the value-added tax on used vehicles to 0.5 percent from 2 percent on May 1. The tax cut will remain in effect until the end of 2023. 

Used-vehicle sales across China have grown steadily over the past two decades. Last year, volume rose 8 percent to top 14.9 million, following an 11 percent …

The average backlog at new-vehicle dealerships dropped to an 80-day supply last month from a record high of 444 days in February, with most dealerships reopened and showroom traffic steadily recovering. 

Average March stockpiles at stores marketing luxury brands and imported foreign brands declined to a 76-day supply, from 389 days a month earlier, according to the China Automobiles Dealers Association. 

Inventories at dealerships stocking Chinese brands fell to a 78-day supply from 401 days the previous month. 

The average backlog at stores marketing domestically built, foreign mass-market brands also slipped to an 83-day supply from 486 days in February.

To slow the spread of the coronavirus epidemic that broke out in the central China city of Wuhan, Beijing extended the Chinese New Year holiday by an extra week to Feb. 9. 

Most car dealerships remained closed for the rest of the month as consumers avoided shopping for…