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Driverless robotaxis hit the streets of Chinese city

One of the emerging themes in the mobility world this year has been the deployment of a small number of completely driverless cars on public roads. Add 25 more to the list.

AutoX, a Chinese autonomous vehicle company backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, says it has put driverless robotaxis on the streets of downtown Shenzhen. According to the company, this is the first time in that nation's history an AV fleet has been deployed without safety drivers or remote operators providing backup.

The company revealed Wednesday evening that it had been conducting driverless "stress tests" in the city for half a year. It released photos of a fleet of modified Chrysler Pacificas and a video of a van making its way through the streets, changing lanes to avoid an illegally parked car, and yielding to pedestrians and bicyclists. At first the van is seen with zero occupants. Later it picks up passengers…

Nikola Corp.’s strategic partner Robert Bosch Gmbh cut its stake in the electric-truck startup to below 5 percent after a lockup for early investors expired and General Motors downgraded its partnership with the company.

Bosch, the world's largest auto supplier and a top Nikola shareholder, reduced its stake to 4.9 percent, according to a securities filing made public on Wednesday. The German company previously reported a 6.4 percent stake in Nikola as of June 15.

Shares of Nikola closed Thursday's trading up 3.6 percent to $18.98.

The Phoenix-based startup’s agreement with Bosch to “develop, build, test and support” various components for prototypes, including a fuel-cell system, dates to 2017. Nikola told Bloomberg in September Bosch will supply fuel cells for its planned European-built fuel cell-powered trucks.

Representatives for Nikola had no immediate comment.

A Bosch spokesman in the U.S. said his company trimmed its holdin…

Aston Martin is reviewing how a report was commissioned that has been criticized for making inaccurate comparisons of the climate harm caused by cars powered by batteries and combustion engines.

One claim it made was that it takes 78,000 km (48,000 miles) for EVs to be cleaner than conventional cars. The claim was widely reported by U.K. media outlets in the wake of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposed 2030 ban on gasoline and diesel cars

The figure is more like 16,000 miles, according to Auke Hoekstra, a researcher at the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Hoekstra said the report underestimated emissions from combustion-engine cars by roughly half and did not take into account fuel production. It also bases its approximation of the carbon footprint of EVs on one model built by Polestar, the carmaker jointly owned by Volvo Cars and Geely Holding Group.

Aston Martin CEO Tobias Moers said the report the company compiled along with some of its…

Zhejiang Geely Holding Group has elevated its CFO Daniel Li to CEO, a new role created by the largest private Chinese automaker in its management structure.

The appointment became effective in November, according to information Geely posted on its website. 

Li, 50, joined Geely in 2011 as vice president and CFO. 

Prior to the new appointment, he was also executive director and vice chairman of Geely Automobile Holdings, Geely’s Hong Kong-listed subsidiary that builds and markets passenger vehicles under the Geely and Lynk & CO brands.

Li made significant contributions to Geely’s integration of Volvo Car Corp. after Geely acquired the Swedish automaker in 2010, according to Geely’s website.

He has also played a key role in Geely’s acquisitions of LEVC -- a U.K. company that builds the iconic London Taxi, U.K. sports car brand Lotus, Malaysian car brand Proton and Danish bank Saxo in recent years, the we…

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation has hired Garrick Francis, a public policy veteran, as vice president of federal affairs.

Francis will lead the alliance's federal affairs team, which includes Senior Director John Ohly and Director Jared Eichhorn — both of whom have been with the group since it was formed in January. He will begin the new position at the start of 2021, the auto lobbying group said Wednesday.

"Given the rapid pace of innovation, it is more important than ever for federal policies, rules and guidelines to align and offer clear safety, fuel and technology standards," Francis said in a statement. "These are key for the success of the industry's long-term growth, research, and development for years to come."

Francis joins the alliance from railroad giant CSX Transportation, where he was head of federal affairs. He also served as director and assistant vice president of federal affairs for the company.

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Public dealership group Asbury Automotive Group Inc. on Wednesday rolled out a new digital retailing platform called Clicklane that it says will help it more than double its revenue to $20 billion in 2025.

Asbury, the seventh-largest new-vehicle retailer as ranked by Automotive News, announced the growth goals Wednesday. It says it plans to expand from an estimated $8 billion in revenue in 2020 by adding $5 billion in incremental business through Clicklane over the next five years, plus another $5 billion through acquisitions and $2 billion in same-store revenue growth. Asbury posted revenue of $7.21 billion in 2019.

Clicklane replaces Asbury's previous digital retailing tool called Push Start. The change is the latest step in the dealership group's 4-year-old-plus omnichannel strategy, Asbury CEO David Hult said in a statement. Omnichannel retailing refers to offering a seamless buying experience to consumers whether they shop online, in-store or both.

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Auto loans, which are historically less expensive to incentivize, received the most aggressive offers this spring from captive finance companies, with no-interest, seven-year loans driving new-vehicle sales in the early days of the pandemic. Leasing levels concurrently fell industrywide, according to J.D. Power data, and remain below prior-year levels.

The shift in incentives is one factor that hindered leases this year. Fewer sales, lease extensions and early closures of high-penetration leasing states such as New York and Michigan all contributed to the trend, as did limited new-car inventory and extensions on leasing contracts for many customers impacted by pandemic-related shutdowns.

Leasing likely will remain a largely captive-controlled business, though credit unions are eyeing opportunities to move into the spaces captives left behind.

Mike Buckingham, senior director of the auto finance practice at J.D. Power, said credit u…

U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, an auto dealer in Pennsylvania, on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to issue an emergency order that would block his state from certifying its election results, including Joe Biden's win over President Donald Trump.

The Republican congressman and other plaintiffs are asking the court to prevent Pennsylvania from taking any further action to certify its results of the Nov. 3 election and to undo any such actions already taken, according to the filing.

Kelly's request comes after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday dismissed a challenge, led by the congressman, of the state's mail-in voting system. The suit argues that provisions of Act 77 — an election reform bill signed into law by Gov. Tom Wolf last year expanding mail-in voting — are unconstitutional.

Pennsylvania certified its presidential election results Nov. 24, declaring Democrat Biden the winner.

Kelly owns Mike Kelly Automotive, which retails Cadillac, Che…

General Motors is planning to apply for a banking charter that would allow its lending unit to hold deposits and expand its auto finance business, The Wall Street Journal reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter.

The automaker's finance arm, GM Financial, has been talking to federal and state banking regulators for months about forming an industrial loan company and could file its applications as early as December, the report said.

A GM Financial spokeswoman declined to comment on the report or answer further questions on the matter.

Forming an industrial loan company would aid auto financing for the lender to support its auto finance business through deposits. The charter also would allow the lender to offer consumers high-yield savings accounts and other deposit products to auto customers.

Industrial loan company charters allow nonbanks to originate loans and collect insured deposits. Operating under the charter also provides l…