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AMSTERDAM -- A burning car carrier off the Dutch coast is being towed to a new location away from shipping routes as part of a difficult operation to salvage the ship, the Dutch water board Rijkswaterstaat and media said.

The ship will be towed to a location 16 km north of the Dutch islands Ameland and Schiermonnikoog, Rijkswaterstaat said in a statement on Sunday.

The towing operation began on Sunday and it was not known when the ship, which was travelling from Germany to Egypt when the fire broke out, will arrive at its temporary destination, the board said, adding it depended on weather conditions, smoke development on the carrier, current and tide.

The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway, which was carrying new cars, resulted in the death of an Indian crew member and injury of seven who jumped overboard to escape the flames. Japan's Shoei Kisen, which owns the ship, said the entire crew of 21 was Indian.

A Rijkswaterstaat spo…

Long touted as the fuel of the future but not of the present, the age of hydrogen may be about to start.

Billions of dollars in federal subsidies are part of a massive industrial policy pushing the energy source. The U.S. Department of Energy is pouring $7 billion into a series of regional hydrogen production hubs to make sure it’s available for transportation and heavy industry. It also plans to subsidize the cost of hydrogen when produced with green technologies.

Automotive News’ tech and innovation reporting team identifies the challenges and opportunities for hydrogen fuel adoption in autos and adjacent industries. The industry’s vision for a zero-emission future is clear, and there are multiple paths to get there. Policymakers are ensuring that hydrogen will be one of them. See our report.

Industrial policy makes hydrogen the hot energy source

Always touted as the fuel of the future but never the present, the age of hydrogen is about to start.

Billions of dollars of federal subsidies are part of a massive industrial policy pushing the energy source. The Department of Energy is pouring $7 billion into a series of regional hydrogen production hubs to make sure that it's available for transportation and heavy industry. It also plans to subsidize the price of hydrogen when produced with green technologies.

By subsidizing the production of clean hydrogen, the government is encouraging its use by the steel, cement, iron, ammonia, petrochemical and specialty-fuel industries.

But policymakers need to make sure the methods used to produce hydrogen are clean. Nearly all the hydrogen currently produced in the U.S. requires carbon-emitting energy sources.

Automakers have spent years developing hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars only to …

Always touted as the fuel of the future but never the present, the age of hydrogen is about to start.

Billions of dollars of federal subsidies are part of a massive industrial policy pushing the energy source. The Department of Energy is pouring $7 billion into a series of regional hydrogen production hubs to make sure that it's available for transportation and heavy industry. It also plans to subsidize the price of hydrogen when produced with green technologies.

By subsidizing the production of clean hydrogen, the government is encouraging its use by the steel, cement, iron, ammonia, petrochemical and specialty-fuel industries.

But policymakers need to make sure the methods used to produce hydrogen are clean. Nearly all the hydrogen currently produced in the U.S. requires carbon-emitting energy sources.

Automakers have spent years developing hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars only to discover there's almost no consumer interest. New-car buyers loo…

The executive director of GM’s hydrogen fuel cell business highlights the automaker’s history with fuel cells, explains when to use fuel cells vs. electric vehicle batteries and shares how GM is taking the tech to other industries. The episode is part of an Automotive News project on hydrogen technology.

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Five of the six major publicly traded franchised dealership groups reported double-digit percentage declines on new-vehicle gross profits during the second quarter, as inventories grew and rising interest rates cut into shoppers' buying power. That came as all of the publics except Asbury Automotive Group Inc. posted new-vehicle sales gains in the quarter.

The six publics — Penske Automotive Group Inc., Sonic Automotive Inc., Asbury, Group 1 Automotive Inc., Lithia Motors Inc. and AutoNation Inc. — collectively averaged about $5,000 in profit on each new vehicle sold during the second quarter, compared with about $2,000 in the second quarter of 2019, before COVID-19 disrupted the industry in 2020.

All of the publics except Sonic also experienced year-over-year drops in second-quarter gross profit per used vehicle, but the group's combined average profit of about $2,000 was about $500 higher than the average in the second quarter of 2019.

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WASHINGTON — Consumers will continue have a choice between electric and combustion powertrains for the next several years, but Audi's global head of marketing and sales says automakers need much more "edutainment" to salve consumer apprehension about electric vehicles.

Hildegard Wortmann visited the U.S. this month as part of the German premium brand co-hosting the Major League Soccer All-Star Game against Premier League champion Arsenal at the Audi Field stadium in Washington, D.C. Wortmann said automakers shouldn't be "dogmatic" when marketing EV, but they need to educate consumers about their benefits while entertaining them and easing their concerns.

"I want the customers to be aware that there is a choice and that they can go for an electric car, and that this electric car does offer 300 miles, does offer fast charging, which I think is more important than actually the range," Wortmann told Automotive News here. But, she said, automakers ne…

If the world is indeed throwing an electric vehicle party, it's pretty clear by now that someone forgot to invite most of Japan.

While Nissan pioneered the segment with the Leaf and Toyota had a short-lived dalliance with Tesla almost a decade ago, most of the largest Japanese brands find themselves lagging behind in the rapidly growing EV race.

And they seem armed with last-minute offerings that look less than competitive against more advanced EVs on sale from Europe, the U.S. and their competitors elsewhere in Asia.

But if this industry has learned anything over the last half a century, it is this: Japan's largest automakers and their tagalong premium brands rarely stay behind for long in any automotive technology competition.

Toyota and Lexus, Nissan and Infiniti, and Honda and Acura have all laid out strategies to greatly expand their EV offerings and promise dramatic range advances if solid-state battery technology becomes commercially viab…

A Michigan Supreme Court opinion could help suppliers get what they've been longing for over the past few years: more leverage to extract price concessions from their customers.

Michigan's high court ruled this month that buyers must be explicit in contracts in saying what they intend to buy from a seller. Contracts between auto suppliers and their customers sometimes use "wishy-washy language," said Dan Rustmann, co-chair of Detroit law firm Butzel's global automotive group.

But because of the court ruling, customers in Michigan must now either state a specific number of parts that they intend to purchase or specifically say what percentage of parts they will buy over the course of the contract.

"You have to use very specific language that says you're buying your [contractual] requirements," Rustmann said. "You have to use clear language now."

The ruling in MSSC Inc. v. AirBoss Flexible Products Co. — a dispute betwee…

The emergence of U.S. government industrial policy designed to slash greenhouse gas emissions will push the country's most polluting and carbon-intensive sectors to hydrogen as their fuel choice.

By subsidizing the production of clean hydrogen, the government is encouraging its use by the steel, cement, iron, ammonia, petrochemical and specialty fuel industries. Combined, heavy industry accounts for about 23 percent of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the federal government.

Shipping and logistics companies and heavy-vehicle manufacturers — transportation accounts for about 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — also stand to benefit from producers expanding production and using government subsidies to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen.

Federal financial support will make hydrogen one of the most cost-effective decarbonizing fuels, said Patrick Molloy, manager for the climate-aligned industries program a…

Once considered a niche environmental play as the automotive industry focused on battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen internal combustion engines have gained renewed attention as a green vehicle technology.

A pending European Union regulatory change would classify heavy-duty trucks using the engines — which burn hydrogen to push pistons — as zero-emission vehicles. That could spark an echo in pickups and smaller vehicles in other markets.

"It was a light-switch moment," said Jim Nebergall, general manager of Cummins Inc.'s hydrogen engine business.

EU regulators have proposed changing their zero-emission definition to ensure that buses and heavy-duty trucks equipped with hydrogen internal combustion engines qualify. They said such vehicles should be included because hydrogen is a fuel with no carbon content. The proposal is passing through the legislative procedure in the European Parliament and Council of the European Union. The vehicles w…