Trade News

SHANGHAI — Here in China's biggest city, spring has arrived and the weather is getting warm. But the chill of the coronavirus epidemic is still wreaking havoc with the city's car dealerships.

While automakers around the world worry about factory production and the supply line of Chinese parts, China's retail market — the world's biggest — has fallen catastrophically. New-vehicle sales for the first two weeks of February were down 92 percent as citizens were instructed to stay home. Many continue to stay home, or at least stay out of dealerships.

A visitor stepping into the Volkswagen dealership on Wuzhong Road in southwest Shanghai last week might have thought he had mistakenly walked into a clinic.

The scene: Everybody was wearing face masks. A desk was set up at the gate where visitors are required to fill out a form with their contact details. All customers must have their temperature taken before being allowed into the store.…

Ford Motor Co. plans to follow its rivals by offering a credit card that would allow customers to more easily finance repairs and earn them money toward service or new-vehicle purchases.

The Visa card, which will be tied to the FordPass Rewards system and is expected to launch in the second quarter, would allow users to accumulate points for any purchase, automotive-related or not, that could be redeemed in Ford showrooms or service centers, according to dealers briefed on Ford's plans.

Cardholders can earn 5 percent back on certain Ford transactions, plus another 5 percent through FordPass Rewards. The card will offer 3 percent back for gasoline, auto insurance, parking and other auto-related purchases, as well as on dining, and 1 percent back on all other purchases.

Users would be eligible to get 0 percent interest for six months on purchases of $499 or more at Ford, Lincoln or Quick Lane stores and could earn credits for hitting annual purchasing thr…

Despite years of near-record sales of new cars and trucks in the U.S., dealers are increasingly being forced to diversify into new business enterprises to stay profitable. The culprit: new-car margins that don't pay the bills anymore amid intense competition.

Automakers have stepped up their certified pre-owned programs. Service departments are looking at tire sales and body shops.

Some retailers say they preload vehicles with F&I products or accessories to add some margin to each sale.

Some retailers have even experimented with creative, nonautomotive ideas: One Montana store sells firearms ammunition and hunting bows.

But they need to dig deeper, according to dealership consultants, who are urging retailers to look at every aspect of their business for more cash. They need to get involved in store operations such as marketing, warranties and insurance rather than relying only on vendors — and some stores are do…

Global automakers and suppliers are scrambling to respond to the massive dislocations in their supply chains caused by the coronavirus that broke out in China.

How did we get here? China does offer colossal market opportunities and unmatched industrial scale. But it is not a place to put all of your eggs. No market is.

But American automakers and suppliers could not resist. For the past 20 years, they put virtually all of their Asian investments into the People's Republic.

We know what happened next: Chinese incomes soared. Car sales exploded from 1 million in 2001 to 24 million in 2019. China became the world's largest producer and consumer of vehicles — by far.

Times were not just very good; they were sensational. "We are making more money than God," the president of GM China confided over a lunch during the halcyon years.

Suppliers such as BorgWarner, Lear, Magna and Aptiv followed quickly. They built…

Auto parts maker Tenneco Inc. shuffled its board Friday in a move that could provoke a fight with former Icahn Enterprises executive Dan Ninivaggi, who in January demanded the board make more-sweeping changes or risk a proxy battle.

Dennis Letham, a 12-year veteran board member, will become lead director effective April 1 in a move that also shifts board member committee responsibilities, the company said in a statement Friday. It’s the second change to Tenneco’s board this month, following a Feb. 5 decision to appoint former General Motors CFO Chuck Stevens as a director.

The Lake Forest, Ill., supplier of mufflers and other automotive components described the moves as governance improvements designed to enhance independent oversight of the board.

But Ninivaggi, who used to run Icahn Automotive Group for billionaire Carl Icahn, has sought more extensive structural changes. He has urged Tenneco’s directors to sell all or part of the company and use the p…

General Motors on Friday said it will add 1,200 jobs at two plants in Lansing, Mich., to increase production of the Chevrolet Traverse, Buick Enclave and a pair of new Cadillac sedans.

GM plans to add 800 workers for a third daily shift at the Lansing-Delta Township crossover plant and 400 jobs to bring back the second shift at Lansing-Grand River Assembly, which makes the Cadillac CT4 and CT5. The new shifts will begin in the second quarter, GM said.

The new jobs will come about three years after the Delta Township plant eliminated its third shift and after running the Grand River plant on one shift for a little more than a year.

GM's contract with the UAW, ratified in October, includes a commitment to create or retain 5,000 jobs at the automaker's Delta Township and Spring Hill, Tenn., plants with investments totaling $1 billion. The labor contract doesn't specifically call for new jobs at Lansing-Grand River, which makes the Chevrolet Camaro in additi…

Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath dreads the thought of spending time has grown frustrated with defending Volvo’s decision to launch a stand-alone electrified brand.

“How long will we have to explain that it's not a crazy idea to create a new electric car company,” asked Ingenlath, who has led Polestar since its creation in mid-2017. “That type of discussion has me fed up. We shouldn't still be questioning this.”

Ingenlath believes the industry, government, consumers and even the media need to do more to accelerate the shift to emissions-free driving. That way the discussion about becoming carbon neutral can evolve. He explains why in an interview with Automotive News Europe Managing Editor Douglas A. Bolduc.

Why do you feel the shift toward electrified cars is stuck in first gear?The pace and the way electrification is being implemented is not satisfying and it's certainly too slow. We really should be talking about the next step.

What needs to change?…

Colorado state senators on Friday passed a bill allowing Rivian and other electric vehicle manufacturers to sell directly to consumers in the state — but they struck a provision that would have allowed all automakers, including those with franchised dealers, to do the same.

The Colorado Senate voted 22-12 on the bill, which now goes to the state House for consideration.

Before the bill's passage, lawmakers removed its most controversial language, which would have allowed automakers to own, operate or control a dealership "that sells electric motor vehicles of a line-make manufactured by the manufacturer." That had sparked fierce pushback by the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association, which opposed the idea of automakers with franchised dealership networks opening factory stores that would compete directly with dealer-owned stores.

“I want to say thank you to this entire chamber for everyone giving this bill the time and attention that it needed to …