News

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it will import lower-cost lithium iron batteries for North American electric pickup trucks and SUVs from Chinese battery giant CATL as it works on a broader alliance with CATL and an array of separate deals to secure battery and battery materials into the next decade.

Ford Vice President Lisa Drake said the automaker plans to secure lithium iron, or LFP, batteries from a new 40 GWh factory in North America starting in 2026. Drake would not say if that factory would be built by CATL. Reuters reported in May that CATL was looking at U.S. sites to build EV batteries to serve Ford and BMW.

Ford's decision to use lithium-iron batteries in its best-selling North American EVs is the latest sign that lithium iron's lower cost - Ford said the chemistry can cut material costs by 10-15 percent - is worth the trade-off in range. Tesla is offering LFP batteries in some lower-priced Model 3 sedans sold in the United States. Electric…

Rivian Automotive delivered its first batch of electric delivery vans on Thursday to Amazon, an early investor that has been waiting out production delays at the EV startup but can now put the futuristic vehicles to work in major U.S. cities.

"In 2019, Rivian and Amazon committed to fast-tracking a new type of delivery vehicle that would result in a significant reduction of carbon emissions," Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe said in a joint statement by the companies. "That vision is now being realized."

The move is another step forward for Rivian, which has struggled to ramp up production of its electric R1T pickup, and has only recently announced the formal launch of its R1S SUV. Rivian's consumer vehicles are built on the R1 platform at its factory in Normal, Ill., and the electric delivery vans are built on a separate line.

Amazon unveiled road-ready EDVs at a last-mile delivery center in Chicago, the companies said. Amazon has been testi…

A surge in thefts of Hyundai and Kia vehicles is plaguing cities across the country, with potential thieves being shown on social media how to bypass security features in some models.

While the U.S. is seeing an uptick of automotive thefts in general, Kia and Hyundai models are making up a majority of cases in many cities.

In St. Paul, Minn., Fox 9 reported that almost a quarter of 2022's auto thefts so far have been Hyundai or Kia vehicles. In Grand Rapids, Mich., MLive reported Hyundai and Kia models made up around 45 percent of the city's auto thefts in June.

In St. Louis, there had been a 254 percent increase in Kia thefts and a 222 percent increase in Hyundai thefts in 2022 compared with the same time period in 2021, Spectrum News reported in early June.

Reports from cities such as Memphis, Tenn., Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, tell similar stories.

Some city governments have blamed Hyundai and Kia for not including engine immobilizers…

Stellantis NV is planning to lay off 40 workers at its Warren Stamping Plant, effective Monday — the latest in a series of local cuts.

The layoffs include 28 production workers and 12 skilled trades workers, according to a United Auto Workers Local 869 memo posted on Facebook.

The Detroit News first reported the layoffs.

"In order to operate the plant in a more sustainable manner, Stellantis confirms that there will be indefinite layoffs at the Warren Stamping Plant in Warren, Michigan, effective July 25," spokesperson Ann Marie Fortunate said in a statement. "The company will make every effort to place the laid off hourly employees into open full-time positions as they become available based on seniority."

Last month, the automaker — whose North American headquarters is in Auburn Hills — said it was cutting an undisclosed number of jobs at its Sterling Heights stamping plant, effective June 20, for the same reason: "... to operate the plant in …

Ford Motor Co. on Thursday said it plans to add a new battery cell chemistry to its electric vehicle portfolio to increase capacity and make them cheaper to build.

The automaker plans to add lithium iron phosphate cells to standard-range versions of the Mustang Mach-E next year and to the F-150 Lightning in early 2024, a move it said will reduce material costs for those vehicles by 10 to 15 percent. The automaker currently uses nickel cobalt manganese battery packs for those vehicles and its E-Transit van.

The chemistry addition is one of a number of battery-related initiatives Ford announced Thursday as it seeks to ramp global EV production to a run rate of 600,000 vehicles next year and 2 million by 2026. Ford said it already has secured all of the battery cell capacity needed for the 2023 target and has 70 percent of what it needs to achieve its 2026 goal.

"Ford's new electric vehicle lineup has generated huge enthusiasm and demand, and now we are p…

If you're a faithful reader of our fixed ops coverage — and if you're reading this newsletter, I'm going to assume you are — you probably got an email earlier this week inviting you to register for our annual Fixed Ops Journal Forum.

In case you didn't, here's the link. Please go sign up.

This year, we're holding the five-week event in September and October after hosting them in July the past couple of years. It will be virtual and available on demand again. Though we'd love to be in person with all of you, it makes sense right now to present these weekly hourlong sessions online, where most of you can view them during a lunch hour or after work. We know it's difficult to walk away from the shop for a couple of days.

Our theme this year is "Get Your Service Department Up To Speed." We'll present four consecutive hourlong sessions on Tuesdays starting Sept. 13 and running through Oct. 4. Our exclusive lead sponsor CDK Global will present the fifth session…

General Motors' defense unit said Tuesday it has been selected by the U.S. Army to provide a battery-powered electric vehicle for "analysis and demonstration."

GM Defense said it will leverage the GMC Hummer EV to meet the Army's requirement of a "light to heavy duty battery electric vehicle to support reduced reliance on fossil fuels both in the operational and garrison environments."

The 1,000-hp Hummer EV uses the Ultium platform and can obtain enough charge in 12 minutes to travel up to 100 miles. The vehicle has 329 miles of driving range and can go from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds, GM Defense said.

GM spokesperson Sonia Taylor wrote in an email to Automotive News that the military would purchase one Hummer. She said GM Defense is fully aligned with GM's goal to be fully electric by 2035 and is well positioned to aid the Army's transition to EVs.

"With an ability to leverage GM's portfolio of commercial battery electric technology and $35 bi…

SHANGHAI -- China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group said on Wednesday it had received non-binding preorders for more than 37,000 units of its first model, the Hengchi 5.

Preorders for the Hengchi 5 have far exceeded the company's expectations, president Liu Yongzhuo said at an online event.

The electric vehicle unit of Evergrande started to accept non-binding preorders two weeks ago, with buyers paying 1,000 yuan ($148.13) as a deposit for the pure-electric sport-utility vehicle priced from 179,000 yuan.

The EV unit also said it will start delivering the first batch of 10,000 Hengchi 5 cars from Oct. 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. Buyers will be fully refunded if they change their minds within 15 days after pickup.

Mass production of the Hengchi 5 has been delayed until the third quarter, from June, according to company executives' recent statements, while parent Evergrande Group has been reeling under more than $300 billion worth of liabilities. Read more

With nagging driver shortages and a dramatic increase in home delivery, commercial trucking and logistics are key and potentially lucrative applications for autonomous-vehicle technology. But first, AV developers must prove to freight companies, government regulators and the public that their self-driving technology is fail safe.

What happens if something goes wrong with a self-driving big rig or autonomous Amazon delivery van, for example, and there isn't a driver on board or even remote control to safely pull the vehicle off the road?

For AV tech company Aurora Innovation, the answer is a Fault Management System designed to detect issues with the company's self-driving system and safely guide a truck or van from the road sans human involvement.

This year, Aurora said it would demonstrate a third-generation beta version of the system in the third quarter. Last week, the company revealed it was "a quarter ahead of schedule." In June, Aurora says it succ…

The first week of public comments on the Federal Trade Commission's proposed rules for dealership advertising and finance and insurance offices saw the National Automobile Dealers Association and the American Financial Services Association ask for an extension.

The 60-day public comment window opened July 13, with comments due by Sept. 12. Both NADA and AFSA asked for at least another 120 days on top of that.

Several dozen comments came in during the first week, the vast majority in support of the FTC taking action. Some credited the Your Advocate Alliance vehicle shopping and consumer education company for encouraging them to comment.

Here are excerpts.

Dustin Ervin: "Sales [practices] constantly evolve in a competitive environment. Vehicle sales are among the most competitive environments out there. Furthermore, nothing could be less capitalistic than a rule such as this. There are already several laws covering every issue raised in the rule. Th…

Despite a drop in new-vehicle sales, Lithia Motors Inc.'s second-quarter net income increased.

The growing dealership group profited with higher used-vehicle sales and double-digit percentage gains in gross profit per new vehicle sold, finance and insurance revenue and climbing average vehicle selling prices on new and used vehicles.

Net income jumped 11 percent to $337.6 million, as revenue increased 20 percent to $7.2 billion, a second-quarter record, the Medford, Ore., retailer said on Wednesday.

"The second quarter results demonstrate the diversity and strength across our business lines as we have delivered the highest quarterly revenues in our history," Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer said in a statement.

Even as Lithia has expanded its dealership network through a brisk acquisition pace, new-vehicles sales fell 8.5 percent to 68,752. Used-vehicle sales, however, rose 15 percent to 81,026.

Lithia, the nation's second-largest new-vehicle retail…

U.S. semiconductor manufacturer SkyWater Technology Inc. on Wednesday said it plans to invest $1.8 billion for a chip research and production facility in Indiana, in partnership with the state and Purdue University.

The announcement comes a day after the U.S. Senate voted to move ahead with a slimmed-down version of a legislation, known as the CHIPS Act, to give billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits for the semiconductor industry.

"This endeavor to bolster our chip fabrication facilities will rely on funding from the CHIPS Act," said SkyWater CEO Thomas Sonderman. The Bloomington, Minn.-based company supplies automakers and other industries.

"Federal investment will enable SkyWater to more quickly expand our efforts to address the need for strategic reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing."

SkyWater expects the ground breaking for the new facilities to happen in 2023, according to its spokesperson, but the timing would depend on whethe…