Trade News

Volkswagen of America has promoted Duncan Movassaghi to its top sales and marketing position, replacing Derrick Hatami, who left the automaker in August.

Movassaghi, 45, who joined Volkswagen of America from Skoda in early 2018, will move up from his former position as senior vice president for U.S. sales to Hatami's former role of executive vice president for sales and marketing, effective Feb. 3, the automaker said Friday.

Werner Eichhorn, head of sales for Volkswagen's North American region, had been filling Hatami's role on an interim basis.

"We have the brand, the products and the plan to take advantage of a unique moment," Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen of America, said in a written statement. "Duncan will sharpen our decision-making and help us make VW matter again."

The brand's U.S. sales last year rose 2.6 percent to 363,322 as its balance of crossovers vs. cars improved.

Before moving to Volkswa…

Ralf Speth presided over the longest profit streak in Jaguar Land Rover's history, but he also pushed an aggressive growth plan that in hindsight dangerously overstretched the company just as it was hit by unprecedented global headwinds.

When Speth took over in 2010, Jaguar Land Rover was fresh from its purchase by Tata Motors from Ford in 2008. Outward confidence was not matched internally. JLR was "more or less bankrupt" when Tata took over, Speth said in a speech in 2014.

Speth, who will retire as JLR CEO in September, was the most high profile of a number of executives Tata hired from BMW to work at JLR. With Land Rover's SUVs and Jaguar's sporty sedans, Speth was able to capitalize on two trends: global demand for off-road capable models and China's fast-rising car market. 

Annual profits were the envy of the industry. Margins hit 11 percent in 2011 and only fell below double figures in 2016.

JLR's success convinced Speth it could be re…

FRANKFURT-- BMW has delayed the development of its next generation Mini as it seeks to cut costs and as uncertainty over Britain's trade relations with the European Union make long-term investment decisions harder.

The German carmaker has developed three generations of the Mini since buying the marque from Rover Group in 1994, keeping each vehicle in the market for about six years.

The current Mini hatch model, which has been on the market since 2014, is built on the company's technological platform called UKL1.

"The lifespan of this platform has been extended," BMW spokesman Maximilian Schoeberl told Reuters. "For cost reasons and because of Brexit."

Pressure has risen on carmakers to free up resources so they can shoulder hefty investments to build next generation low emission electric, hybrid and connected vehicles.

ICE suffers

The combustion-engined city car has suffered as customers migrated toward larger crossovers and SUVs and…

DETROIT -- Automotive seating supplier Adient sold its premium brand, Recaro Automotive Seating, at the start of the year -- a move that comes as the company works to bring itself back to profitability.

Recaro is now owned by Raven Acquisition LLC, a privately owned, Detroit-based investment corporation, Recaro said in a statement. Raven is led by a former Recaro executive and TCE Enterprises, a family investment firm with experience in the auto industry, the release said.

The transaction was effective Jan. 1. Terms were not disclosed in the press release issued by Recaro.

"We know strategically we can continue to support and grow to address emerging customer needs in our specialized marketplace," Recaro President Emil Kreycik said in an email to Automotive News.

Recaro has three locations in Europe, the U.S. and Japan and employs about 425 people. In fiscal 2019, the business generated about $150 million in revenue.

Adient, the world's la…

Tesla Inc.’s plans to build a factory outside Berlin could be under threat if construction work doesn’t begin by mid-March, according to the economy minister for the Brandenburg region where the site is located.

Under German environmental regulations, the project in the town of Gruenheide could be delayed by nine months unless work begins before the breeding period for local wildlife this spring, Joerg Steinbach said in an interview with the Handelsblatt newspaper published Friday.

“That would be a situation in which I would be much more skeptical about whether we could get Tesla to stick with it,” Steinbach said, adding that the U.S. manufacturer needs to have a convincing proposal to meet local environmental demands and gain approval for the project.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently tried to ease local concerns about water usage for the plant, which is located in a forest bordering on a nature reserve. That’s one of the bureaucratic challenges for the…

Self-driving shuttle company May Mobility has revamped its senior management team.

COO Alisyn Malek will leave her position with the company at the end of this week, but will retain an advisory role. Her departure follows the exit of former chief technology officer Steve Vozar, who left last week. Both are co-founders of the company.

Their departures come at a time when the company plans an expansion. May Mobility closed a $50 million invement round in December that will enable it to deploy its six-passenger electric vehicles on routes in more communities. Toyota Motor Corp. was the largest investor in the latest investment round.

"After we wrapped up that fundraising, I thought about what I wanted to lean into next," Malek said. "I'm really proud of everything we accomplished, and the team we've brought in. I trust that they're going to keep killing it and continue to grow the company."

Based in Ann Arbor, Mich., May Mobility has pilot projects…

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor said on Friday it planned to pause South Korean production of its Palisade crossover this weekend to cope with a supply disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak, its spokesperson said on Friday.

Its crosstown rival Ssangyong Motor also said it will idle its plant in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek from Feb. 4 to Feb. 12, as China's factory suspension had disrupted parts supplies.

The suspension illustrates that China's extended factory closures ripple through supply chains across China and beyond.

A coronavirus outbreak that began in Wuhan, the capital of China's central province of Hubei, has spread to more than 9,320 people globally, killing over 200 people.

Many companies scale back operations or close for long periods around the holidays, which began on Jan. 24 this year. This year, China's government extended the Lunar New Year holidays to limit the spread of the virus.

Hyundai Motor is finding alte…

TOKYO -- Embattled Mitsubishi Motors reported a loss in the last quarter as falling revenue, foreign exchange losses and rising r&d costs broadsided earnings. The automaker swung to an operating loss of 6.6 billion yen ($60.5 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, the company said in results published on Friday. That compared with an operating profit of 28.1 billion yen ($257.7 million) a year earlier. The company also slumped to a net loss of 14.4 billion yen ($132 million), from positive net income of 17.3 billion yen ($158.6 million), for a second-straight quarter of net losses. Revenue shrank 14 percent to 538.9 billion yen ($4.94 billion), as worldwide retail sales retreated 5.3 percent to 284,000 units, amid declining deliveries in Japan, Europe and Southeast Asia. Slackening demand in key markets such as Japan, China and Southeast Asia -- the company's biggest -- undercut quarterly returns, CFO Koji Ikeya said while announcing…

Aston Martin secured a deal to sell a minority stake in the struggling company to billionaire Lawrence Stroll, providing the luxury U.K. automaker with much needed funds to build a new SUV.

A consortium led by Stroll will pay 182 million pounds ($239 million) for a 16.7 percent stake, while a subsequent rights issue supported by major shareholders including Stroll will raise a further 318 million pounds, Aston Martin said in a statement on Friday.

Stroll's stake could rise to 20 percent upon completion of the rights issue.

The move will “immediately improve liquidity and reduce leverage,” Aston Martin said. “This follows the disappointing performance of the business through 2019.”

Stroll, a Canadian investor who owns a Formula One racing team, won the backing of Aston Martin’s board after rival suitor Geely cooled on the idea of investing in the sports-car maker. Geely, which controls Sweden's Volvo, Britain's Lotus Cars and holds a stake in Daiml…

Asbury Automotive Group has named a longtime employee who started as a management trainee as its next senior vice president of operations.

Daniel Clara, 40, was appointed to the position effective Jan. 29, the public dealership group said late Thursday in a regulatory filing. Clara replaces John Hartman, a 30-year industry veteran who held the position for just more than two years before leaving Asbury earlier this month.

Clara joined Asbury in 2002. He worked in sales through the company's manager-in-training program at its Crown BMW dealership in Greensboro, N.C., according to his LinkedIn profile.

He has held a number of positions at the nation's seventh largest new-vehicle retailer including vice president of market operations, managing market director, general manager, general sales manager, used-car manager, new-car sales manager, finance and insurance manager and client adviser.

In his new position, Clara will earn a base salary of $600,000…

DETROIT -- Dana Inc. CEO Jim Kamsickas endorsed President Donald Trump's signing of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement at an event in Warren, Mich., at one of the supplier's plants.

"We believe this law will further reduce the chance for disruptions and allow North American vehicle production to remain competitive globally," Kamsickas said ahead of the president's speech during his visit to the plant Thursday.

Kamsickas later told Automotive News that Dana's support of the new North American trade agreement comes from a need for certainty.

"You have to have certainty to understand how you're going to do capital deployment, how you're going to align your training and M&A activities," he said.

"NAFTA was written 25 years ago. As it relates to the transactional stuff of running a business, like how to get a trailer from Mexico over the border up to Detroit, or vice versa, up into Canada, you would be amazed how much waste and unc…