Trade News

TOKYO/BEIJING -- Nissan Motor Co.'s vehicle sales in China, its biggest market, dropped 80 percent in February as coronavirus concerns sapped demand, in another blow to the carmaker which is struggling to recover from a profit free fall.

The Japanese automaker said on Monday it had sold just 15,111 vehicles last month in the world's biggest auto market as demand for its Sylphy sedans and X-Trail and Qashqai crossovers continued to tumble.

Nissan has been betting on growth in China to cushion the impact from its slumping business in the United States and Japan, where car sales fell 27 percent last month.

But commuting bans and road closures in many Chinese regions in February has led to a slowdown in production since last month, curbing output and raising risks to the automaker's global supply chain.

As uncertainty about the coronavirus outbreak shakes global markets, demand in the world's second-largest economy is expected to remain week…

BERLIN -- Elon Musk's plan to turn a remote wooded lot in Germany into the home of a state-of-the-art car factory in less than two years sent an unequivocal message to local authorities: make it happen or lose it.

Eager to host Tesla's first European plant near Berlin -- a potential 4 billion-euro ($4.5 billion) development -- German officials assured the company's CEO fast-track navigation through the country's notorious bureaucracy.  

In recent years, onerous regulations have held up projects from a large train station in Stuttgart to Berlin's first new airport since the end of the Cold War.

Administrative red tape can cause the process of sorting out building permission to take as long as four years. Even something as simple as a mobile-phone mast can drag out for two years.

That makes Tesla's ambitious deadline a critical test case of Germany's ability to adapt just as the powerhouse economy sputters. And even the U.S. automaker's German…

BEIJING -- Automakers across the world face the possibility of extended supply chain disruptions as factories in China stutter back to life after closures due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The car industry is especially exposed as Wuhan -- the epicenter of the outbreak -- is known as one of China's 'Detroits', accounting for nearly 10 percent of vehicles made in the country and home to hundreds of parts suppliers.

Non-essential factories in Wuhan and other cities in Hubei province remain on lockdown at least until Wednesday. When they reopen on March 11, or whenever authorities give the go-ahead, it is not clear if companies will have the raw materials or workers to get back to normal operations.

Automakers are concerned about their employees' health and the uneven and unpredictable application of rules in different cities and regions that is making it hard for an industry that is used to uniformity to plan ahead.

"In some cities, one worker g…

Jerry Lavine is quick to agree that the challenges of a fledgling Chinese electric vehicle maker don't merit much sympathy amid a global health crisis.

Still, as president of Bordrin North America, the 51-year-old former Ford engineer is responsible for the livelihoods of some 80 r&d employees in Oak Park, Mich., just north of Detroit. And they and their co-workers in China started this year with a landmark achievement within reach: production of Bordrin's first vehicle, a two-row crossover called the iV6.

For Lavine, the year had begun routinely enough, with trips to Las Vegas for CES and to Shanghai. He returned to Detroit on Jan. 21, as his Chinese colleagues were about to begin their 10-day New Year's holiday.

Before long, news of the spreading coronavirus made it clear that Bordrin's fifth year of existence would be marked early by a big detour.

Seven weeks later, things are still off-course. Some employees who traveled to their hometowns…

The growing number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has raised questions about the vulnerability of long international supply chains to such an epidemic.

Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius warned against a return to economic nationalism as a response to the crisis.

"These events show how fragile global supply chains are," he told Der Spiegel magazine in remarks published on Saturday. "But a world without global work sharing would be less successful ... We should protect [that success] while checking for vulnerabilities where we can bring more security into the supply chain."

He said Daimler was "gradually ramping up" production again in China after the Chinese New Year stoppage, which had been lengthened because of the coronavirus. But the disease would have an impact on company results.

"We can't yet say what the impact will be, but it is clear that both production and sales will be affected," Kallenius said.

The number of confirmed coronaviru…

DETROIT — The UAW's efforts at rooting out corruption from within have failed to impress federal prosecutors, who allege that an intricate embezzlement scheme reached the union's highest office and are weighing the option of pursuing a government takeover of the nearly 85-year-old labor organization.

In charging former President Gary Jones with stealing more than $1 million from members and spending it on lavish vacations, dinners and golf outings, U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider strengthened an argument that the union's top ranks have been marred by greed and illegal behavior for years. He stressed that the Justice Department is "not done" prosecuting the case, which has so far produced 13 convictions of former union and automaker officials, including two retired UAW vice presidents and a onetime top negotiator at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

"It's not the people working the jobs; it's the leadership," Schneider said last week. "That is a real indicator there'…

CREWE, England — The Geneva auto show's cancellation did not dampen Bentley Motors' zeal for showcasing the car it had planned to spotlight there — the $1.9 million Bacalar roadster.

For Bentley, the Bacalar is a way to remind the world — or at least those who have $1.9 million to spend on a car — about the automaker's bespoke division, Mulliner, which began life as a builder of horse-drawn carriages in the 1500s. Bentley bought the brand in 1959.

Now in its 101st year, Bentley is channeling its engineering and design resources to make more out of the Mulliner name.

Other automakers have relied on third-party coachbuilders of renown, including Pininfarina and Zagato, to create exotic niche products. Bentley has such a partner inside the company, said Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark.

"We've always owned one of the oldest and most renowned coachbuilders," Hallmark told reporters during a roundtable last week, hastily put t…

General Motors took a nearly $4 billion hit last year from a strike called by a soon-to-be convicted felon.

The $1 million that former UAW President Gary Jones is accused of stealing from the workers he was supposed to be fighting for is bad enough.

But it pales in comparison to the financial toll on GM, on its suppliers and on dues-paying members who sacrificed for more than a month during the strike. Many believed then that the strike was at least partly aimed at distracting from the scandal, and the embezzlement charges against Jones made public last week will further fuel those suspicions.

That Jones now faces up to five years in prison is hardly a surprise. Anyone who's been following the scandal could see it coming since September, when prosecutors charged UAW Regional Director Vance Pearson and first laid out the galling details of what investigators had uncovered.

It was instantly obvious that one of the alleged schemers, a man identifie…

DETROIT — The Motor City's auto industry once fretted about the seemingly endless stream of capital investment going to rival vehicle assembly plants and supply chains in places around the Southeast and Mexico.

But suddenly, it's all about Detroit again.

General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles have launched a wave of economic development across the greater Detroit area over the past year. New manufacturing projects represent billions in renewed commitments to the auto industry's traditional capital city. With them comes a decade of business opportunities for the region's contractors, tooling suppliers, consultants, engineers, parts makers and skilled and hourly workers.

Among the largest investments is FCA's pledge of $1.6 billion for a second Jeep assembly plant at its Mack Avenue Engine Complex, along with $900 million to modernize the Jefferson North Assembly Plant for the Dodge Durango and Jeep Cherokee.…

There are an estimated 46 new electric vehicles slated for production in the next three model years, according to Cox Automotive. While that number will be celebrated in some corners, it is generating concern among auto lenders that worry about residual values and incurring big losses similar to what happened during the financial crisis a dozen years ago.

The consternation comes from the fact EVs are commonly leased and captive finance companies dominate this space, meaning they will be taking a risk on EV resale values. If lenders get residual values wrong and off-lease vehicles are worth significantly less than predicted, that could generate significant losses when lenders resell them at auction.

This resale-value catastrophe last occurred in 2008 when fuel prices spiked and auction values fell for full-size trucks coming back from leases. Several lenders back then had to take special charges because of unexpected depreciation on off-lease…