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BEIJING -- Volkswagen Group's top executive in China said he expected supplies of microchips to improve in the next six months.

Automakers around the world have had to adjust assembly lines due to the shortages, caused by manufacturing delays that some semiconductor makers blame on a faster-than expected recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

"We hope the chip supply crisis will bottom out this summer and expect to see an improvement in this situation within the second half of the year," VW Group's China chief, Stephan Woellenstein, told reporters on Friday.

Starting in August, Volkswagen will source some chips from a new supplier, Woellenstein said, adding that the move would start to ease the shortage in September.

Because of the chip shortage, VW saw its sales in China drop 12 percent between April and June compared with a year earlier.

VW builds cars in China in joint ventures with FAW Group and SAIC Motor.

VW Group's premium br…

General Motors said Thursday it is adding more downtime at five crossover plants in North America because of the global microchip shortage.

Four plants will be down from July 19 until Aug. 2:

Lansing Delta Township, in Michigan, which builds the Chevrolet Traverse and Buick Enclave Spring Hill Assembly, in Tennessee, which builds the Cadillac XT5 XT6 and GMC Acadia San Luis Potosi Assembly, in Mexico, which builds the Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain Ramos Arizpe Assembly, in Mexico, which builds the Chevy Equinox and Blazer

GM also said CAMI Assembly in Ingersoll, Ontario, which previously was scheduled to be down the last two weeks of July, now will remain idle until Aug. 23. The plant builds the Chevy Equinox. The Detroit News reported the updated production schedules earlier Thursday.

Last week, AutoForecast Solutions estimated that the industry could lose 6.2 million vehicles globally because of the chip crisis. Automakers in North America alone could…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is weighing plans to start shipping partially built vehicles that are awaiting semiconductors or related components to dealerships around the country, a move that, if approved, would place responsibility on its retail network to complete the assembly once the chips are available.

The automaker began detailing the plans, which are not final, to its some of its dealers this week, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. Only dealers who would choose to receive the unfinished vehicles would get shipments and service technicians would be trained on how to install the chips, one of the people said. Dealerships would be compensated for slightly less than an hour's worth of labor for each vehicle, the person said.

Still unclear is whether the dealers would be responsible for the vehicles while they sit on their lots awaiting chips. Dealers are not expected to have to floorplan the vehicles before they're finished, one perso…

Nissan Motor Co. has extended U.S. production downtime for the Altima until the start of August due to the ongoing global microchip shortage.

The mid-sized sedan model has not been built in Canton, Miss., since June 4, which includes the regular two-week summer shutdown. Nissan sold 61,930 units in the first half of the year, down 10 percent from a year earlier.

Meanwhile, Nissan said Altima, Titan and Frontier production also will be idle for two days each in the first half of August.

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Goodyear’s airless tire to be tested on Local Motors' autonomous shuttle in Florida

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. says it plans to affix airless tires it has developed to Olli, a 3D-printed, autonomous and electric shuttle, for test runs in Florida.

The tire manufacturer is partnering with ground mobility company Local Motors and mobility network operator Beep, both of which developed the second iteration of Olli. Shuttles equipped with Goodyear's NPTs, or non-pneumatic tires, will be used in the Jacksonville Transportation Authority's Autonomous Vehicle Test & Learn program.

Jacksonville's urban landscape is ideal for testing the alternative tires because of its speed limits and streamlined travel paths, Goodyear said in a Tuesday news release.

"This is an important milestone as we look to advance mobility today and as we look to introduce the first completely sustainable and maintenance-free tires by the end of th…

Stellantis's assembly plant in Brampton, Ont., might not have anything to build beyond 2023 as the automaker plans to move production of the Dodge Charger and Challenger muscle cars to the U.S. the next year, according to AutoForecast Solutions, a leading forecasting and consulting firm.

“Analyzing the Stellantis portfolio... across North America, one of the things we see is the Charger and Challenger potentially going to the United States, leaving a void at Brampton starting in 2024,” AutoForecast Solutions CEO Joe McCabe told Automotive News Canada when asked about the automaker’s electrification plans.

McCabe’s comments came after Stellantis’ EV Day earlier this month, when the automaker said it would introduce a battery-electric muscle car to its lineup in 2024. Stellantis has not said where that car would be built.

Brampton Assembly currently builds the gas-powered Charger and Challenger cars, as well as the Chrysler 300 sedan, which is ex…

DETROIT — BrightDrop, General Motors' electric vehicle delivery brand, plans to open its first dealerships later this year, an executive said Thursday, but some of the stores may be outside of GM's existing dealer network.

"We are not looking exclusively at existing General Motors dealers. What we are looking at is the very best of the commercial dealers out there," Scott Young, BrightDrop vice president of vehicle distribution, told reporters Thursday.

Outsourcing to non-GM dealers would mark a shift from GM's traditional commercial strategy. GM dealers facilitate sales of the automaker's existing gasoline-powered commercial vehicles.

BrightDrop is in talks with select dealers in California, Young said.

"From there we will grow that network, which is really focused on large fleets and delivery of goods and services across the U.S.," he said.

BrightDrop plans to launch the EV600 van later this year, initially being built by a supplier in …

Environmentalists say they are concerned the Biden administration will yield in coming days to automaker pressure and adopt modest limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, instead of the strict standards they say are necessary to combat climate change.

The requirements set to be proposed by the end of the month are the linchpin of the administration’s efforts to limit planet-warming pollution from the transportation sector that is now the leading U.S. source of greenhouse gases. Yet automobile companies have lobbied the Biden administration to adopt an industry-friendly approach negotiated with California that gives extra credit to electric vehicles.

Environmentalists have warned the White House not to go along.

“Our nation’s standards must be robust, have integrity and ensure strong year-over-year on-road emission reductions,” more than two dozen major environmental groups said in a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday. “The standards must not…

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated sales of second-hand multi-purpose vehicles in June. 

Deliveries of used vehicles in China advanced for the second straight month in June, rising 25 percent, as chip shortages spurred consumers to choose used vehicles instead of waiting for new vehicles. 

Nearly 1.53 million second-hand vehicles were sold across the country last month, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

Crossovers, SUVs and sedans drove the latest gains. 

Demand for used crossovers and SUVs surged 46 percent to some 165,800 in June.

Sales of second-hand sedans jumped 26 percent to roughly 923,400. 

And deliveries of used minibuses rose 22 percent to around 34,100, while demand for second-hand multi-purpose vehicles gained 21 percent to about 89,100. 

Demand for used commercial vehicles also remained strong in June, with truck sales increasing 13 percent…

Stellantis is scheduling more downtime at a number of its North American plants, including Detroit's Jefferson North Assembly, a company spokeswoman confirmed Wednesday.

The Detroit plant, which makes the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango, will be down for several weeks. Layoffs are scheduled from July 11 to Aug. 1. A shutdown was previously scheduled from Aug. 2 to 6, something Stellantis said is necessary to perform maintenance and begin work for future models. Production is set to resume Aug. 9.

The new downtime is a continued result of the global semiconductor chip shortage, according to a statement from Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson.

Meanwhile, supply chain issues continue to impact manufacturing at other plants. Belvidere Assembly Plant in Illinois, Toluca Assembly Plant in Mexico and Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario are set to be down through the end of the month.

And Stellantis said last week its other plant in Ontario — Brampton…

WASHINGTON -- U.S. auto safety regulators on Wednesday urged about 50,000 owners of General Motors electric Chevrolet Bolt vehicles that were recalled last year to park outside and away from homes and other structures after charging because of fire risks.

Earlier on Wednesday, GM made the same recommendation and added owners should not leave vehicles charging overnight. The recommendation was prompted after the largest U.S. automaker said it was investigating reports of two recent fires in vehicles that were recalled in November for fire risks.

The 50,000 U.S. Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles are from the 2017-2019 model years and were recalled for the potential of an unattended fire in the high-voltage battery pack underneath the backseat’s bottom cushion.

NHTSA opened an investigation in October into the Bolt fires, the agency noted Wednesday and "continues to evaluate the information received, and is looking into these latest fires." Read more

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp.'s automated-driving subsidiary Woven Planet is making its second major acquisition, buying an American artificial intelligence company that will help the world's largest automaker generate next-generation mapping for self-driving cars.

Woven Planet declined to disclose how much it will spend to buy Carmera Inc., a company with offices in New York and Seattle that develops high-definition digital maps using vehicular crowdsourcing and remote sensing to capture street-level change. But the deal follows Woven Planet's $550 million purchase in April of Level 5, the self-driving car unit of ride-hailing giant Lyft.

The Carmera acquisition gives Woven Planet a quick boost in automatically updated high-definition mapping, a key technology for all manner of self-driving new mobility. The technology is critical to creating precise maps that quickly and affordably stay updated with changes in the road scape.

In a n…