Trade News

Ford Motor Co. is suing participants in an alleged civil conspiracy to improperly acquire a custom-built 2018 Ford GT supercar in Canada, resell it for a profit and swiftly resell it again for yet another profit, all within a matter of weeks. 

Ford charges the defendants with flipping a new GT model worth C$690,800 ($520,000 USD) and selling it for more than double that price within a few weeks, in violation of the manufacturer’s 24-month prohibition against reselling the vehicle, according to a case in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

The defendants are Timothy Quocksister, president of Silver Arrow Cars in Victoria, B.C.; Bradley Nullmeyer, former CEO of Element Fleet Management Corp. of Toronto; Steven Hudson, former CEO of Element Financial Corp.; and Engineered Automotive, a vehicle servicing firm in Concord, Ont.

It’s a complex, high-stakes tale in which all defendants deny wrongdoing while sometimes pointing an accusing figure at o…

Nissan Motor Co. gave the starkest warning yet on the future of the Japanese group’s car factories in western Europe, with a plant in the U.K. threatened by Brexit and another in Spain suffering from a slump in demand.

The Sunderland site in England, which makes models that account for the bulk of European sales, remains under a cloud of uncertainty, Gianluca de Ficchy, chairman of Nissan Europe, said Monday in a press conference near Paris.

Should Britain fail to reach a free-trade agreement with the European Union, a resulting 10 percent tariff on cars and parts could not only spell the demise of the plant, which sends about three-quarters of its output to the continent, but also of Nissan’s entire European strategy, the executive said.

“We would not be viable,” he said. “We just wouldn’t be able to sell our cars.”

Nissan’s latest warning on Sunderland, the U.K.’s biggest auto plant, comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson began talks aime…

Traffic fatalities on U.S. roadways reached an estimated 38,800 in 2019, the second consecutive year the country saw a small decline in road deaths, according to new figures released last week by the National Safety Council.

The 2019 total represents a 2 percent decline from 2018, which saw slightly more than 39,400 road deaths, and a 4 percent decline from 2017, when about 40,230 people died in vehicle crashes, according to the Itasca, Ill.-based safety organization.

Preliminary estimates suggest the United States may be benefiting from "risk mitigation actions implemented in the last few years," the council said in the news release. One example the group cited is the Vision Zero initiative, a strategy gaining momentum in major cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago and New York that works to improve traffic safety by taking actions such as redesigning high-crash areas. Another proven safety measure is lowering the legal alcohol-concentration li…

MILAN -- Maserati will call its upcoming supercar the MC20.

The MC20 will have an advanced electric powertrain, Maserati said in a news release without giving further details.

The MC20 is expected to go on sale in 2021 as a rival to the Ferrari F8 Tributo and Lamborghini Huracan models.

The MC20 name underlines the sporting credentials of the new model, Maserati said.

With the MC20, Maserati will return to racing, the automaker said. MC is the acronym of Maserati Corse (Maserati Racing) and 20 refers to 2020.

Maserati's first racing car was the Tipo 26, where the number indicated the year of its manufacture.

The MC20 is a "natural evolution" of the MC12, the car that in 2004 marked Maserati’s return to racing after 37 years, the automaker said.

The MC12 won 22 races from 2004 to 2010 including 3 victories in the 24 Hours of Spa Francorchamps endurance event in Belgium and 14 championship titles in the FIA GT from 2004 to 201…

General Motors began sales of the first battery-electric vehicle under the Chevrolet brand in China, expanding its electrified vehicle lineup as required by local regulations. 

The sporty Chevrolet Menlo sedan is priced from 159,900 yuan ($22,617) to 179,900 yuan after government subsidies, GM’s China unit said. 

It is powered by lithium ion batteries, and the vehicle’s electric drive system generates 110 kW of maximum power and 350 Nm of maximum torque. 

The electric car has a range of 410 kilometers under the New European Driving Cycle conditions on one charge. 

Buyers are covered by a warranty of eight years or 160,000 km for the battery, motor and electric control systems. 

The Menlo is the third electrified vehicle produced and marketed through SAIC-GM, GM’s passenger-vehicle joint venture in China, following the battery-powered Buick Velite 6 and the plug-in hybrid Cadillac CT6. 

GM also builds and…

Honda Motor Co.’s China sales are poised to fall as much as 50 percent this month with three of the company’s assembly plants in the central China city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, still closed. 

Automakers and other industrial companies are not allowed to resume production until March 11 to prevent the transmission of the virus, the Wuhan government said last week. 

In Wuhan, the three factories Honda runs with Dongfeng Motor Group can produce 650,000 vehicles a year at full capacity. 

In the south China city of Guangzhou, Honda operates two plants with GAC Motor Co., which build up to 600,000 vehicles annually. 

Honda’s January sales rose 9.8 percent to approach 150,000 despite the week-long Chinese New Year holiday that started January 23. 

Two of Honda’s three most-popular models, the Civic and CR-V, are assembled at plants in Wuhan, while the Accord is produced at factories in Guangzhou.…

Audi halted output of its e-tron crossover to resolve production issues including battery-supply bottlenecks as it prepares to flank the model with a sportier variant, underscoring the struggles traditional automakers face to boost electric cars.

Manufacturing at Audi’s factory in Brussels stopped on Thursday and the plant will remain idle until Tuesday, a company spokeswoman said Monday by phone. Audi sold about 26,400 e-tron vehicles last year, she said, declining to comment on estimated deliveries this year. In the U.S., Audi sold 5,369 e-trons in 2019. 

Audi, Volkswagen Group's largest profit contributor, had to delay the e-tron’s market launch after its unveiling in September 2018. Audi recalled its first all-electric model last year over potential fire risk. It plans to add the e-tron Sportback version -- which features a more coupe-like declining roofline -- later this year as well as a performance sedan dubbed the e-tron GT.

Former…

Many drivers' first experience with an advanced driver- assistance system is adaptive cruise control, which started gaining popularity in the early 2000s. Along with lane-keeping assist and automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise has helped people realize that someday, cars might just drive themselves.

The technology has become so pervasive that, according to AAA, it's marketed under at least 20 unique names.

With adaptive cruise control, the driver sets the desired cruising speed, and a radar or camera system automatically adjusts that speed so that the car stays a safe distance from the vehicle ahead.

Now, Hyundai has found a way to incorporate even more intelligence.

In October, the automaker said it had developed a version of its Smart Cruise Control system that uses machine learning to factor in individual driving patterns and habits. "Through machine learning, Smart Cruise Control autonomously drives in an …

Modern cars and trucks have become data-gathering machines. Wittingly or not, vehicle owners readily cough up large amounts of information by linking their smartphones with vehicles' computer systems. Their favorite music, contacts and location data may be stored in a vehicle. Telematics systems and tracking devices can keep details on driving habits.

Consumer Reports has several suggestions as to what vehicle owners should do to prevent this data from traveling to a subsequent owner.

The publication noted that a first step is unpairing all connected devices. That puts an end to sharing contact info, music preferences and GPS mapping data.

If a universal application, such as HomeLink, is used for garage door openers, it should be reset. That should remove codes used to enter your home.

Telematics services such as Hyundai's Blue Link, FordPass and OnStar should be reset, which can be done by summoning the service's cus…

Ever been stuck on the road far from home with a breakdown? Not fun. So imagine getting an email or text warning weeks or months before a starter quits, a battery dies or a fuel pump fails. Some of General Motors' connected-car owners are already getting alerts for the service bay.

Thanks to an engineering discipline called prognostics, carmakers are working on giving customers a digital warning before a check-engine light comes on. Prognostics tap sensors to monitor starting, charging and running systems, and telemetry hardware sends vehicle health messages to the automaker's centralized processing operation.

Algorithms and artificial intelligence weigh the results and determine the remaining service life of critical components — and whether to trigger a warning.

"The most obvious benefit is peace of mind," says Jim Kelly, GM program engineering manager for vehicle health. "These issues are very rare, but our customers can sleep…