Trade News

Cadillac is revamping its sedan lineup in the U.S. with the 2020 CT4 and CT5. The CT5-V, the performance variant, is powered by a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 engine with 360 hp and 405 pound-feet of torque. It's available with rear-wheel drive or all-wheel drive. The CT5-V starts at $48,690 including shipping. Here's a roundup of CT5-V driving impressions from the automotive media.

"The car hunkered down and took off under heavy acceleration and felt secure and balanced on twisty stretches. The steering is precise and firm, with ample assist in touring mode. The CT5's weight distributions range from 51/49 to 54/46 front/rear, depending on engine, rear- or all-wheel drive and other features. I didn't notice any ill effects from the slightly nose-heavy layout, possibly because sport mode's performance traction management system neutralized them.

"The brakes, which include six-piston Brembos up front, have massive stopping power and pedal feedback that makes them ea…

DETROIT -- The Detroit Grand Prix, scheduled to take place May 29-31 at Belle Isle Park, is canceled this year because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The race will be scheduled for June 4-6 next year, according to a Monday news release.

"We looked at every possible scenario to reschedule the race, but all of them would have been too disruptive to the hundreds of fall events that will take place on Belle Isle," Bud Denker, chairman of the event, said in the release.

Ticketholders will be contacted soon, the release said.

James McLernon, a longtime auto industry executive with a specialization in manufacturing who rose from the assembly line to become a top executive with Chevrolet, opened Volkswagen's first U.S. assembly plant, and was a founder and past chairman of the board of American Axle, died March 21 at his home in Michigan. He was 92.

After serving in the Navy Air Corps during World War II, McLernon was an hourly worker at General Motors' Tonawanda, N.Y., plant while studying industrial engineering at the University of Buffalo. He became an engineer at GM and rose through the ranks to become general manufacturing manager at GM's Chevrolet Division executive in 1969.

In 1976, McLernon joined what was then Volkswagen Manufacturing Corp. of America as its first president, overseeing the completion of an unfinished Chrysler plant into the German automaker's New Stanton, Pa., assembly plant. In 1978, he was named president and CEO of a newly formed umbrella group for Vo…

Showroom traffic at car dealerships in China remains subdued even though the coronavirus epidemic has largely been brought under control in the country. 

While 98.8 percent of franchised dealerships reopened as of Friday, average showroom traffic stood at just 66.4 percent of normal levels, according to the latest survey by the China Automobile Dealers Association.

On Friday, average revenue generated by new-vehicle sales was only 63.8 percent of normal levels, according to the survey of 8,721 franchised stores across China.

And dealerships surveyed said average parts and service revenue was at 66.8 percent of normal levels.  

As the coronavirus spread from its epicenter, the central province of Hubei, to the rest of China in late January, dealerships remained closed until Feb. 8. 

By locking down Hubei and dispatching more than 40,000 medics from the rest of China to the province, the viral outbreak was largely contained by …

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.

Bordrin North America President Jerry Lavine discusses the initial hurdles the EV startup faced in China as COVID-19 swept through the region and how the company is recalibrating ambitions to bring its first vehicle to market.

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Volvo Car’s China sales slipped 16 percent to 11,413 in March after nosediving 82 percent to just 1,205 in February. 

With the viral outbreak under control in China, all four of Volvo’s China assembly plants reopened in early March after an extended closure the previous month, the company said. 

“In March, showroom traffic in the region started to pick up pace,” it added. 

Because of a plunge in February volume, year-to-date sales at Volvo through March slumped 31 percent to 29,885.

Volvo Car builds vehicles in China for the Volvo brand and its electrified performance-vehicle Polestar marque. 

On March 24, the Swedish carmaker officially launched output of the second Polestar product, the Polestar 2 full-electric midsize sedan. 

Production of the Polestar brand’s first model, the Polestar1 hybrid coupe, started in China in August 2019.  

While the overall market declined for a second straight year…

BYD Co., China’s largest electrified-vehicle maker, is set to launch a significantly upgraded Han flagship electric sedan in June.

The electric compact car, equipped with BYD’s latest redesigned lithium iron phosphate batteries, will have a cruising range of 605 kilometers and can accelerate to 100 km in 3.9 seconds, the company said.

The new design allows singular battery cells to be arranged in an array shaped like a blade and inserted into a pack. 

With the optimized layout, the battery pack can increase space utilization by more than 50 percent compared with conventional block-shaped lithium iron phosphate batteries.  

BYD also released a video using so-called nail penetration tests to demonstrate that the redesigned batteries, dubbed Blade Batteries, are much safer to use than conventional lithium iron phosphate batteries and ternary lithium batteries.

BYD, based in Shenzhen, is listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai. It is partly …

BMW Group delivered 116,452 vehicles under the BMW and Mini brands in the first quarter, a decline of 31 percent from the same period last year. 

The German group blamed the drop on the coronavirus outbreak. The pandemic “led to a significant decrease in sales in China”, it said. 

But China sales improved last month, the Germany automaker noted. 

Around 95 percent of BMW’s retail outlets in China are now open for business, the company said.

“In a welcome development, this trend was reversed in March, pointing to a sustainable recovery in this market,” Pieter Nota, BMW’s management board member responsible for customers, brands and sales, said in a statement.

BMW didn’t disclose separate China sales for March. 

In China, BMW builds and markets vehicles for the BMW brand with Brilliance China Automotive in the northeast China city of Shenyang.

In November, its newly formed joint venture with Great Wall Motor …

BEIJING – Car and light-truck production will drop 12 percent this year to around 21.6 million units and will rebound by 7.5 percent next year, research firm IHS Markit predicted on Monday.

Production and demand for vehicles have been hammered across the world by lockdowns aimed at curtailing the coronavirus outbreak, which has spread from China to Europe, the United States and elsewhere.

"The latest forecast takes the extended shutdown of auto plants in March and the supply chain disruption caused by the extended shutdown of the plants in Hubei province into consideration," IHS Markit said in a post on its social media wechat account.

"For Chinese automakers which purchase auto parts from Europe, the disruption of production in Europe may be a risk factor. But at this stage, we have not seen the European coronavirus epidemic directly affect Chinese auto production," IHS Markit added.

Last week, IHS Markit estimated China's light vehicle sales thi…

One of the most nonconventional automakers is taking a nonconventional approach to building desperately needed medical equipment to battle the coronavirus pandemic.

Tesla posted a video Sunday describing how engineers were working on a prototype ventilator using a number of vehicle parts, including the display screen and infotainment computer from the Model 3 sedan. The computer is used to control sensors on an airflow manifold, and the display screen is used to monitor patient breathing patterns.

The design utilizes a suspension air tank as an oxygen mixing chamber, as well as a number of other sensors, compressors and tubes.

An unidentified employee said on the video that Tesla was attempting its own design instead of traditional methods to avoid putting additional strain on medical equipment suppliers. It was unclear when the prototype would be complete, whether the automaker intended to manufacture the device in bulk, or if the designs could pass r…