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DETROIT — Stellantis is idling assembly plants that build the Ram 1500 Classic and Chrysler Pacifica minivan for at least three weeks because of the microchip shortage plaguing the auto industry.

Warren Truck Assembly just north of Detroit is scheduled to be down from Monday through April 18, according to an employee bulletin confirmed by the automaker. The plant, which has 3,405 workers on two shifts, is slated to start producing the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs in the second quarter.

"Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry," the company said in a statement. "Due to the unprecedented global microchip shortage, production at the Warren Truck Assembly Plant will be down beginning next week through mid April."

The automaker also is halting production of the Pacifica and Chrysler Voyager in Windsor, Ont., for four weeks starting Mon…

Nio Inc. will temporarily halt production at one of its factories in Anhui province because of the semiconductor shortage, becoming the first high-profile Chinese carmaker to succumb to a chip snarl that’s silenced the factory lines of auto manufacturers globally.

Nio’s JAC-NIO plant in the central provincial capital of Hefei will cease operations for five working days starting from March 29, the company said in a statement Friday.

“The overall supply constraint of semiconductors has impacted the company’s production volume in March,” Shanghai-based Nio said. “The company expects to deliver approximately 19,500 vehicles in the first quarter, adjusted from the previously released outlook of 20,000 to 20,500 vehicles.”

Automakers the world over have expanded and extended production cuts that first began in late December to cope with a worsening global shortage of semiconductors. The coronavirus pandemic caused a surge in chip orders that are needed for sma…

Volkswagen Group said it will claim damages from former CEO Martin Winterkorn and former Audi boss Rupert Stadler, as the company tries to draw a line under its diesel cheating scandal.

The automaker's supervisory board has concluded that Winterkorn breached his duties of care from July 27, 2015, by failing to comprehensively and promptly clarify the circumstances behind the use of unlawful software functions in 2.0-liter TDI diesel engines sold in the North American market between 2009 and 2015, VW said in a statement on Friday.

Winterkorn also failed to ensure that the questions asked by the U.S. authorities in this context were answered truthfully, completely and without delay, VW said.

The board also concluded that Stadler breached his duties of care by failing, in the period from September 21, 2016, to ensure that 3.0-liter and 4.2-liter V-TDI diesel engines developed by Audi and installed in VW, Audi and Porsche vehicles sold in Europe were investi…

DETROIT -- General Motors plans to increase design space by 30 percent at its Global Technical Center in Warren, Mich., with a new building scheduled for completion in 2023.

The new facility, Design West, will help GM accelerate vehicle development with more space for collaboration and better use of technology, said Michael McBride, executive director of global design operations and immersive technology.

"This is really going to be designed as a collaboration space to bring not only our creative designers into the studios, but all of the cross-functional team members that we work with, so that we can have a great space for everyone to come together and work faster and smarter with more technology and a lot of new efficiencies," McBride told Automotive News.

Many of GM's designers returned to the Warren campus in May, following GM's coronavirus protocols, but they can't fit under one roof. Teams are scattered throughout the Warren ca…

Chinese carmaker SAIC Motor Corp. and appliance giant Haier Group Corp. signed a preliminary agreement to jointly develop intelligent transportation systems and smart homes, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The duo will cooperate in areas including autonomous driving and lightweight-material development and establish a fund to invest in areas such as intelligent manufacturing, the people said, asking not to be named discussing information that isn’t public.

The agreement, signed Thursday, also involves Haier investing in a SAIC unit that will be set up to develop autonomous driving technology at Yangshan Port to the south of Shanghai, the people said, without disclosing any financial details.

A SAIC representative confirmed the two companies have signed a cooperation agreement and said more details will be announced in due course. A representative from Haier wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Chinese automakers and technolo…

Toyota Financial Services is closing a large field office in Iowa as part of ongoing efforts to consolidate its customer service operations into its dealer services hubs in the South. Two more centers will close to form three Experience Centers, according to a Toyota Financial Services spokesman.

The changes will impact one-third of the captive lender's 3,300 employees nationwide.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Toyota's captive arm plans to organize all of its dealership and customer service representatives in Plano; Chandler, Ariz.; and Alpharetta, Ga. The moves will streamline the lender's field offices and present opportunities to invest in new technologies, Toyota Financial Services said in an emailed statement.

"Every team member in good standing who wants a position will continue to have one at one of the new locations," the statement said.

The Cedar Rapids office will shutter at the end of 2022, and about 600 e…

China’s electric carmakers are paying top-dollar rents to open showrooms in luxury malls, as they seek to gain an edge in the hyper-competitive market.

More than half the malls in Shanghai have at least one electric-vehicle showroom and more are planned, according to real-estate service provider Jones Lang LaSalle Inc. They are now part of the “standard configuration” of shopping centers in medium-to-large cities, the firm said in a recent report.

With dozens of EV makers in various stages of development jockeying for a slice of what is the world’s largest EV market, upstart brands like Nio Inc. and Xpeng Inc., and the new-energy arms of SAIC Motor Corp. and Geely Automobile Holdings, are staking out ground in malls to burnish their image as premium goods for the middle class and differentiate themselves from more established automakers.

Rents for a 200-to-300 square meter (2,150-3,230 square feet) showroom in prime areas of China’s biggest cities run to…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. will begin delivering its highly anticipated 2021 Bronco SUV to customers in June, although some hardtop roof options are being further delayed to the 2022 model year because of issues with roof supplier Webasto.

The automaker on Thursday shared the latest production updates in separate letters to customers and dealers. It promised to compensate affected customers for the roof delays with FordPass Rewards points, off-road school vouchers and free accessories that could cost Ford tens of millions of dollars.

Ford said it has turned roughly 125,000 of the 190,000 Bronco deposits in the U.S. and Canada into firm orders, a 66 percent conversion rate. Of those orders, 73 percent are for the four-door model. More than 60 percent of customers have chosen the larger 2.7-liter V-6 engine, and the four most expensive trims account for 70 percent of orders, Ford says.

Roughly 18 percent of orders are for the manual transmission, which is av…

Electric vehicle maker Rivian has inked a deal with the University of Illinois to use its COVID-19 saliva tests in its factories in Illinois and California. 

The Amazon-backed startup donated $500,000 to the university's SHIELD COVID-19 testing program to launch and support a new lab at Illinois State University, which is close to the company's plant in Normal.

“The proximity of the Normal lab to our facility means the turnaround time for our workers’ COVID-19 test results has dropped from 36 to 24 hours,” Jessica Siron, director of environmental, health and safety at Rivian said in a statement. “This gives us the ability to respond faster to a positive test result and trace it, which allows us to stay on schedule safely."

The SHIELD lab in Normal, run by Illinois State University staff, opened Jan. 11 and is currently processing about 5,000 tests a week from Rivian's 3.5 million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Normal. Rivian is also using…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Taking life on Mars for a spin

Scooter riders could soon take a bit of Mars technology for a spin.

NASA, SMART Tire Co. and micromobility company Spin are testing tire technology that was used on lunar and Mars rover missions for consumer applications.

SMART — which stands for Shape Memory Alloy Radial Technology — is applying NASA's shape memory alloy tire technology to an eco-friendly bike tire named METL.

METL is an airless, lighter-weight tire that "is elastic like rubber yet strong like titanium, exhibiting perfect shape memory," SMART said in a statement. The technology is a flexible, "space-age" metal that never goes flat, SMART says.

The company has been developing shape memory alloy tires for traditional bicycles and is conducting R&D for e-scooters at Spin, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Co.

"Shape memory alloys look extremely promising in revolutionizing the entire terrestrial tire industry," San…

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Thursday he was unaware of any support by the Biden administration to ban gas-powered vehicles after 2035 as California aims to do.

Asked by a lawmaker at a U.S. House hearing if the Biden administration supported California's plan to ban the sale of new gas-powered passenger cars and trucks in 2035, Buttigieg said he had "not heard of anything to that effect at the national or federal level."

He did note that automakers like General Motors have set a goal of ending gas-powered passenger vehicle sales by 2035. "I've not heard of that in a mandatory context but that certainly seems to be where the U.S. auto industry is headed."

During the 2020 campaign, Biden declined to endorse California's plan.

This week, a growing number of Democratic lawmakers have called on President Biden to endorse banning gas-powered vehicles by a specific date.

On Wednesday, a group of more than 70 U.S. House Democrats l…