News

DETROIT – Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday confirmed it will end sales of the Transit Connect small van in North America after the 2023 model year, plans that Automotive News first reported last year.

The automaker, which hasn't publicly commented on the plans until now, said in a statement the decision stemmed from the company's "efforts to reduce global manufacturing cost and complexity, alongside decreased demand for the compact van segment."

Ford currently imports the vehicle to North America from a plant in Valencia, Spain. Automotive News reported last year that Ford had planned to build a next-generation model for North America in Mexico, code-named V758, but scrapped those plans.

The next-gen model would have been built on the same platform as the Maverick compact pickup and Bronco Sport crossover, which are also assembled in Mexico.

Ford on Tuesday confirmed the Transit Connect will continue to be built in Spain and sold in European markets.

…

DETROIT — UAW President Shawn Fain struck a defiant tone in his inaugural address to members on the first day of the union's special bargaining convention, laying the groundwork for potentially contentious contract talks with the Detroit 3 automakers this year.

"We're here to come together to ready ourselves for the war against the one and only true enemy: multibillion dollar corporations and employers who refuse to give our members their fair share," Fain said to members. "It's a new day in the UAW."

Fain was sworn in as the UAW's fifth president in five years a day before the convention opened following a prolonged, contentious election.

He defeated incumbent President Ray Curry by fewer than 500 votes. As the count neared an end, Curry filed a protest alleging widespread disenfranchisement.

Fain has promised a more aggressive approach to bargaining with the Detroit 3 this fall. The union is expected to fight for better wages and benefits as wel…

The rethink of auto shows continues.

Organizers of IAA Mobility 2023 said Wednesday they've reached an agreement with venture capital firm Assembly Ventures to oversee a portion of the show's conference programming this fall in Munich.

The development underscores an evolving shift for IAA, which in recent years has changed locations and expanded to include e-bikes and scooters. Now, the conference's work with Assembly Ventures helps address topics at the center of an uncertain transportation industry.

Likewise, it puts an emphasis on the changing nature of traditional auto shows.

"Mobility is not just a bolt-on that automotive folks need to be aware of," Jessica Robinson, co-founder and partner at Assembly Ventures, told Automotive News. "This is integral to the future, and we're seeing this in how they're organizing this show."

Collaborating with a venture capital firm on programming made sense, IAA organizers said, because they have first…

Shawn Fain was sworn in as president of the UAW over the weekend before the quadrennial special bargaining convention started on Monday. U.S. dealership count rose last year even as sales skidded. Plus, independent auto dealer Amanda Gordon shares insights on the still-tight used-vehicle market.

How do I subscribe?

Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad

Android

Spotify

Two employees at Nissan of Newnan in Georgia have been arrested amid a police investigation into customer reports of fraud on vehicle purchase paperwork.

Two customers reported forged signatures on their documentation, with one alleging the forgery in connection with a vehicle service contract and other add-on items included in the deal without her knowledge. A third police report found a couple alleging the dealership lied to a financial institution about the trim level of the pickup they purchased, a practice known in the finance-and-insurance industry as "power-booking."

A spokeswoman for the city of Newnan would not confirm whether any arrests had been made in the case, citing the ongoing investigation into the dealership.

But attorney John Lovell of the Law Offices of John Lovell said his clients Joshua Cherman and Mohammed Karim Hassan had each been arrested on suspicion of single counts of theft by deception in connection with the case.

On …

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general are urging Congress to pass "expansive" right-to-repair legislation that, in part, targets the auto industry.

In a letter sent last week to Democratic and Republican lawmakers, 28 attorneys general called on Congress to consider previously introduced legislation that focuses on repairing vehicles, agricultural equipment and consumer electronics.

"Manufacturing of automobiles, digital devices and agricultural equipment is increasingly becoming more technologically advanced and built with more embedded electronics," the attorneys general, which represent states including California, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Tennessee as well as the District of Columbia and Guam, wrote in the letter.

"OEMs often control access to these electronics parts, creating unfair restraint of trade and a monopoly on repair. This can harm consumers directly by driving up prices and is antithetical to a fr…

WASHINGTON — Automakers represented by the Alliance for Automotive Innovation have joined nearly 350 business, labor and trade groups urging Congress to pass a permitting reform bill before summer's end.

In a letter sent Monday to congressional leaders, the diverse coalition — led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — called on lawmakers to pass "meaningful and durable" legislation that would modernize the permitting process for a variety of domestic energy projects, including critical mineral mining to support the production of electric vehicle batteries.

The groups, which include state and local chambers as well as the American Clean Power Association, American Gas Association, Business Roundtable and National Mining Association, argue the U.S. permitting process is outdated, with federal permits taking up to seven and a half years on average to be approved depending on the project.

"Our permitting system is fundamentally broken, and it is delaying the inv…

Lucid Group, Inc. is recalling several hundred electric vehicles due to a glitch that may cause its flagship model to lose power while being driven.

The startup said flawed electrically activated switches could affect the 2022-2023 model years of the Lucid Air, triggering the recall of 637 vehicles, according to a filing with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"This may lead to a loss of propulsion without pre-warning and may increase the risk of a crash," the company said in the filing, which was submitted to the regulatory agency on March 23.

The Newark, Calif.-based company delivered 4,494 Lucid Air vehicles as of the end of last year. Lucid said in the filing that its service centers will update the vehicle software and replace the problematic switches for free. It didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Chinese new-vehicle dealers are struggling to stay afloat after efforts to clear gasoline-fueled cars before tougher emissions standards taking effect later this year are upended by a bruising price war.

Auto sales — especially of internal combustion engine light vehicles — haven’t bounced back from pandemic restrictions even with hefty discounts doled out by major carmakers including BYD Co., Chery Auto, Toyota Motor Corp. and Ford Motor Co. New-vehicle sales fell 20 percent in the first two months of the year, with deliveries of gasoline-fueled cars dropping 30 percent.

With the next phase of China’s emissions standards to be implemented in July, dealers could be left with hundreds of thousands of cars that would become non-compliant, according to a March 23 article by the country’s Auto Dealers Chamber of Commerce, which has since been deleted from its WeChat account. The price war may have brought higher foot traffic, but showrooms that didn’t offer discou…

Stress test for the EV transition

A business' survival is dependent on smart risk management. As the auto industry takes its biggest risk in the era of mass production — the electrification transition — this week's Automotive News highlights the magnitude of the bets being made.

Ford Motor Co., for example, for the first time publicly disclosed how much money it lost in its Model E electric vehicle division last year ($2.1 billion) and how much it expects to lose this year ($3 billion). Offsetting these large losses, if Ford's projections hold true, will be large profits from its Ford Blue internal-combustion arm and its Ford Pro commercial business. A cynic might say Ford is chasing bad money with good, as the company plows those divisional profits into EV-related investments such as new factories and R&D on alternative battery chemistries. But that is a risk the company is willing to bear, and it is confident the payoff is not far away.

Newcomer …

DETROIT — The election of Shawn Fain as the UAW's fifth president in five years could upend what are already expected to be difficult contract negotiations between the union and Detroit 3 automakers later this year.

But his razor-thin margin of victory over incumbent Ray Curry — Fain won by fewer than 500 votes and received the support of less than 7 percent of the UAW's membership — could make it tough to rally a disgruntled membership eager to move beyond the union's troubled past.

"No one can declare they have a mandate," said Marick Masters, a business professor at Wayne State University in Detroit who specializes in labor issues. "The membership is obviously divided. I think the No. 1 challenge facing Fain is to unite the membership behind a bargaining strategy."

Fain, who was sworn in on Sunday, will have to hit the ground running. Union leaders from around the country will gather this week for a special bargaining convention, where they'll vote o…