Trade News

South by Southwest, the giant Austin, Texas, film, music and technology festival that was scheduled to host about two dozen sessions on transportation and future mobility, was canceled Friday because of concerns over the coronavirus.

The gathering, which was to begin March 13, attracts more than 75,000 people to the city each year to catch a glimpse of some of the world's biggest bands, filmmakers, politicians and business executives.

The automotive industry has become more involved with SXSW as the festival has grown in popularity. Kia is a major sponsor — one tier below the top sponsorship level. And this year's panel discussions were to cover topics such autonomous vehicle data sharing and collaboration, future automotive cockpit design, designing the Waymo driver, and transportation safety through the airwaves.

Among last year's SXSW automotive highlights:

U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao outlined plans to make her department more respo…

TORONTO -- Canada’s assembly plants earned plenty of accolades last year, but that’s unlikely to translate into largescale investment. 

“Does the quality of the workplace matter? Sure, but it’s one of a dozen factors, if not dozens,” said Dennis DesRosiers, president of DesRosiers Automotive Consultants. “I’ll tell you, the cost of electricity is a hell of a lot more important than these ratings.” 

To be sure, J.D. Power’s 2019 Initial Quality Survey (IQS) and Plant Assembly Line Quality Awards and Consumer Reports’ Auto Reliability Survey were kind to many of Canada’s plants and the vehicles they produce. 

Toyota’s Cambridge North assembly plant was given a platinum award for assembly-line quality, the highest possible rank, for having 17 problems per 100 vehicles produced there. The adjacent Cambridge South plant won a bronze award for having 21 problems per 100. 

Vehicles assembled in Canada also achieved high marks: The Dod…

The captive finance arms of Toyota and Lexus will offer payment relief to customers affected by this week's tornadoes in Tennessee.

Toyota Financial Services and Lexus Financial Services customers will be eligible for extensions and lease deferred payments and redirected billed statements as well as other options, Toyota Financial said in a statement Friday.

"Toyota Financial Services cares about the safety and well-being of its customers and wants to help those impacted by these storms," the statement said.

Toyota is planning to start contacting customers via email soon.

Customers impacted by the storms in the devastated areas can contact Toyota Financial at 800-874-8822 or Lexus Financial at 800-874-7050 or by email through the mail center function at ToyotaFinancial.com and LexusFinancial.com.

Nissan, whose North American operations are based in the Nashville area, also announced efforts to help with disaster relief. It donated $100,000 …

SAN FRANCISCO -- For years, Tesla Inc. has refuted concerns about worker safety at its main assembly plant by describing reviews from a California regulator as vindication.

But new documents and statements from the agency contradict those claims.

Tesla omitted hundreds of injuries that the company listed in logs at its factory from annual summary data that the company sends to the government, according to a memorandum the state’s workplace-safety agency sent in December. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health, or Cal/OSHA, also hit Tesla with a citation that month for failing to properly record other injuries in its logs since 2015.

The documents, some of which were obtained through a public-records request, undermine statements Tesla executives have made about its plant in Fremont, Calif. CEO Elon Musk dedicated a portion of an October 2018 earnings call to brief investors about workplace-safety efforts. He said Cal/OSHA had invest…

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. has secured Chinese government approval to sell longer-range China-made Model 3 vehicles in China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Friday.

The vehicles will have a driving range of more than 372 miles before they need to be recharged, the ministry said in a statement, while the current China-made Model 3 has a standard driving range of more than 249 miles.

Tesla started delivering cars in December from its $2 billion factory in Shanghai.

NEW DELHI -- Tata Motors warned on Friday of lower profit at its British luxury car brand Jaguar Land Rover for the fiscal year as the coronavirus outbreak has hit sales in China.

The outbreak, which started in China and is spreading globally, has hurt sales in the world's biggest auto market. The spread of the virus to South Korea, Japan, and Northern Italy is creating similar issues, Tata said in a statement.

"Recognizing the present situation is highly uncertain and could change, the reduction in China sales resulting from the coronavirus presently is estimated to reduce Jaguar Land Rover's full year EBIT margin by about 1 percent," it said.

China is also a major hub for vehicle parts production and a prolonged shutdown at plants has disrupted auto supply chains affecting carmakers in all parts of the world.

"Suppliers in China are resuming operations but remain below full capacity," Tata said, adding that JLR has managed to avoid pot…

BMW has updated its logo for the first time in 23 years, but the automaker is stopping short of making the change on its vehicles, it said in a statement.  

The update, which began rolling out this week, is for "online and offline communication purposes," the brand said, positioning its new look as "better-suited to the digital age."

The biggest change is that the thick outer ring in the circular logo went from a solid black to transparent. So whatever color the logo is set against will appear in that portion.  

The design was also made simpler and flatter, a change from the slightly rounded look of the old logo, which made it look more three-dimensional.  

The automaker follows other brands, such as Volkswagen, that have gone to a flatter look for digital media reasons. 

"BMW is becoming a relationship brand. The new communication logo stands for openness and clarity," Jens Thiemer, BMW's head of brand management, said…

Genesis has priced its first crossover — the midsize GV80 that goes on sale this summer — at $49,925, including shipping, for the base model with rear-wheel drive and a turbocharged four-cylinder engine.

"To our competitors, consider the GV80's pricing a shot across the bow," Mark Del Rosso, CEO of Genesis Motor North America, said in a news release Thursday.

The Standard trim includes 19-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, seating for five people, leatherette seats, a suite of safety features, a 14.5-inch infotainment screen and premium audio.

The Advanced trim, at $53,825 including shipping, includes a panoramic sunroof, wood trim, ventilated front seats and an upgraded Lexicon audio system with 21 speakers. The top Prestige model at $58,075 adds leather seating, 20-inch wheels and additional safety features such as blind-spot monitoring.

All-wheel-drive versions of the four-cylinder model add about $6,000.

Versions of the crossover with t…

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of Hyundai's spokesman.

Hyundai Motor America is recalling about 207,000 Sonata vehicles in the U.S. because of a fuel line issue that could increase the risk of fire.

The recall covers 2013-14 Hyundai Sonatas sedans produced between November 2012 and January 2014 for the U.S. market. The automaker did not release a global number of vehicles involved.

The low-pressure fuel hose may crack over time as a result of heat generated within the engine compartment, according to a NHTSA document. This could cause a fuel leak, increasing the risk of an engine-compartment fire. Occupants also might detect a fuel smell related to this issue.

Hyundai has not yet identified a solution to the problem. The automaker said it "believes the material used to produce the fuel feed line might be more susceptible to heat under certain vehicle operating conditions," according to the recall report.

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The U.S. Department of Labor approved a final rule Thursday requiring unions to file annual financial reports concerning their trusts, as the federal agency aims to increase financial transparency amid recent convictions of officials from the UAW and automakers.

The final rule requires labor unions with total annual receipts of $250,000 or more to file an annual report — referred to as "Form T-1" — under certain circumstances for each type of trust as defined by the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. Unions also must file an annual trust report if they select or appoint the majority of the members of the trust's governing board or contribute more than 50 percent of the trust's receipts, according to the rule.

Any contributions related to a collective bargaining agreement will also be considered the union's contributions, the department said.

The department's announcement Thursday came directly after federal prosecutors charged Gary Jones, a f…