Trade News

Ford Motor Co. on Friday effectively tapped COO Jim Farley as its next chief executive.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Ford has agreed to award Farley a stock grant worth $2.5 million should someone else eventually succeed 64-year-old CEO Jim Hackett. If Farley is offered the position of president and CEO and declines, he would not receive the stock grant, the filing said.

Farley, 57, assumed the COO post on March 1, a job widely viewed as a stepping stone to the top role. But the Friday filing is the first time Ford has tied financial incentives to Farley and CEO succession. Ford has revived the COO post as part of a sweeping turnaround and effort to boost operating profits.

Ford previously disclosed with the SEC that Farley's total compensation as COO will rise to $8.29 million, up nearly $2 million from his compensation as president of new business, technology and strategy at the automaker. Read more

LONDON - Aston Martin is increasing a capital-raising plan of up to 500 million pounds ($617 million) by 36 million pounds ($44 million) due to the coronavirus outbreak which will now see a consortium led by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll take a roughly 25 percent stake in the company.

Aston, which has seen its share price tumble in recent days in addition to big losses last year after it failed to meet sales expectations, announced plans for Stroll to buy up to 20 percent of the company in January in a bid to turn around its fortunes.

"In light of recent extraordinary equity market volatility related to concerns over Covid-19, the company has renegotiated certain terms relating to the proposed investment," the company said on Friday.

Short-term working capital from Yew Tree, a vehicle controlled by Stroll, is also being increased to 75.5 million pounds ($93 million).

The firm, which builds all its cars in Britain, said the th…

LOS ANGELES — Mazda's North American Chief Marketing Officer Dino Bernacchi has resigned after nearly three years of helping the automaker move upmarket as a "premium" brand, with new messaging for its advertising campaigns.

Brad Audet, the leader of the brand's ad agency Garage Team Mazda, will temporarily head the marketing team while the company searches for a permanent replacement for the CMO position, Mazda said in an e-mailed statement.

"We truly appreciate Dino's contribution to Mazda North American Operations and wish him well in his future endeavors," Mazda said in the release. "During Dino's tenure with MNAO, we saw consistent improvements in brand opinion following the successful launch of our Feel Alive campaign."

Bernacchi, whose resignation is effective March 20, assumed the newly created role of CMO for Mazda's U.S. operations in May 2017. He had worked as marketing director of Harley-Davidson Motor Co. immediately prior to joining Mazda N…

MILAN -- Premium brakes maker Brembo said on Friday it would temporarily close its four Italian plants next week, a further sign that the coronavirus outbreak threatens to disrupt Europe's struggling automotive industry.

Brembo supplies premium brands such as Ferrari, Tesla, BMW and Mercedes, as well as several Formula 1 teams.

Brembo's plants are all located in the provinces of Bergamo and Brescia in the northern Lombardy region, which is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy.

The plants will be closed from Monday to Sunday next week to intensify measures to safeguard workers' health and safety, given "the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent objective inability to operate with continuity," the company said in a statement.

The Italian government has taken extraordinary measures to try and contain the virus outbreak in the country, the worst in Europe, including restrictions on travel and closing restaurants and most …

BEIJING/SHANGHAI -- Chinese electrified vehicle maker BYD said on Friday it is making 5 million masks a day to fight the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 3,200 people in China.

The Shenzhen-based automaker, which is backed by U.S. investor Warren Buffett, said in a statement it started work on building a new mask production line in late January. BYD also produces around 300,000 bottles of hand sanitizers a day, it said.

BYD, which also produces EV batteries, said it will give masks to its workers to ensure normal production and will supply the rest to people in Hubei, the epicenter of the coronavirus, and to hospitals and the public transport sector.

More than 134,500 people have been infected globally by the coronavirus and more than 4,900 have died, according to a Reuters tally of government announcements. The total number of cases in mainland China is 80,813.

As factories in China start to resume work, a number of Chinese manufacture…

TOKYO/BEIJING -- Toyota Motor Corp. said on Friday that production at its plant in Guangzhou, China, would return to normal on Monday, after a month-long output suspension due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Japanese automaker's plant in southeast China will resume its second shift, returning to production levels from before the outbreak accelerated last month. The plant, which produces the Camry sedan and the Yaris compact hatchback models, resumed its first shift earlier this month.

Operations at two other Toyota plants, in Changchun, Jilin Province, and Chengdu, Sichuan Province, have also returned to normal, while its plant in Tianjin is only operating a single shift, compared with double shifts at the start of the year.

Global automakers continue to grapple with production in China due to logistical delays and limited workforces as the country's manufacturing sector slowly recovers from coronavirus-related stoppages, which have disrupted the global…

DETROIT – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Mike Manley is encouraging employees to work remotely in an effort to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Staffers in places such as China and Italy have been doing this already, but that approach is being expanded to all office employees, Manley said in a message to employees. Some staffers, depending on their duties, will still need to appear in person to work. The program is designed to be flexible to allow for a mix of remote and on-site work, according to a spokesman.

While speaking on the impact of the virus outbreak, Manley said: "Clearly we are now moving beyond regional hotspots and into planning for how this will impact every area of our business across the world."

"In our office locations, we are accelerating the deployment of working remotely, or 'Smart Working,'" Manley said in a late Thursday letter to staff that was obtained by Automotive News. "At our offices in China, Korea, Japan and Italy…

Italian supercar maker Lamborghini is halting production for nearly two weeks as parent Volkswagen Group looks to limit the impact on its operations from the coronavirus crisis that has spread across the globe.

Lamborghini will temporarily close its plant in Italy, which has been hit hard by the viral outbreak, until March 25, the company said Thursday in an emailed statement. All of the brand’s cars are manufactured at its headquarters plant on the outskirts of the northern Italian city of Bologna.

“This measure is an act of social responsibility and high sensibility toward our people, in the extraordinary situation in which we find ourselves right now,” Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali said in the statement. “We continue to monitor the situation in order to react rapidly and with the right flexibility, in collaboration with our people and in order to restart with energy in the right moment.”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday ord…

DETROIT -- The Automotive News World Congress, which had been scheduled for March 24-25 in downtown Detroit, has been postponed because of the coronavirus crisis.

Also postponed are the annual Automotive News PACE Awards ceremony and the inaugural PACEpilot event, which were due to be held March 23.

"Rising concerns about the safety of our attendees and staff, as well as events of recent days, led us to the decision," Publisher Jason Stein and Associate Publisher Karen Rentschler said in a statement. "We are currently looking at alternative timing."

Automotive News has hosted the World Congress annually since 1977. This year's event was slated to be held at the TCF Center (formerly Cobo Center) for the first time.

The PACE Awards for supplier innovation, now in their 26th year, are expected to be announced at a rescheduled event in Detroit. PACEpilot, which recognizes pre-commercialized innovations, will be rescheduled along with it.

For qu…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has one again extended the life of the midnight shift at its minivan plant in Windsor, Ontario.

The automaker has been attempting to end production on the third shift for nearly a year, but continues to change the end date.

“FCA notified Unifor today that it is adjusting the start date of the two-shift operation at the Windsor Assembly Plant to begin on July 13,” FCA Canada spokeswoman Lou Ann Gosselin said.

She declined to provide a reason why.

About 6,500 workers build the Chrysler Pacifica and Voyager and Dodge Grand Caravan in Windsor. When the third shift ends, about 1,500 will lose their jobs.

Pacifica sales in the U.S. were down 17 percent to 97,705 in 2019, while Caravan sales fell 19 percent to 122,648 units. Canadian Pacifica sales were down 38 percent to 3,731 in 2019 while Grand Caravan sales dropped 15 per cent to 27,362.

The Voyager isn’t sold in Canada a…

The Colorado House on Thursday adopted a bill that would allow Rivian and other electric vehicle makers to sell directly to consumers, one of the last steps before it goes to Gov. Jared Polis.

The House's 42-20 vote follows approval about two weeks ago in the state Senate. Senators will need to adopt a technical change the House made to the bill language before sending it to Polis for his signature, which could happen this week.

If Polis signs the bill into law, Colorado would allow manufacturers that only build electric vehicles to own, operate or control dealerships, provided they have no franchised dealerships in the state. Notably, the legislation no longer includes a provision that would have allowed any automaker that builds electric vehicles to sell them directly to consumers, following opposition by the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association that led to a compromise in the state Senate.

"We don't think that any change was…