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Ford Motor Co. is planning additional layoffs to its salaried work force in the coming weeks, according to people with knowledge of the matter, although the cuts are not expected to be as large as previous rounds.

The automaker, which could announce the moves as early as next week, is expected to prune workers from multiple business units, including its Ford Blue combustion vehicle division and its Model e electric vehicle unit, according to the people.

The Wall Street Journal reported the impending job cuts Thursday.

"We've got nothing to announce," a Ford spokesman said in a statement to Automotive News. "We've consistently said that we'll align our staffing around the skills and expertise needed to deliver on the Ford+ growth plan and provide customers with leading product and services. That includes hiring in key areas."

Last year, Ford laid off about 3,000 workers around the globe, mostly in the U.S. The company said this year it would slas…

Used-car retail giant CarMax Inc. said Friday that net income slipped in its fiscal first quarter amid continuing challenges with vehicle affordability and inflation, as well as tightened lending standards and decreased consumer confidence that hindered how many vehicles it sold.

CarMax reported net income of $228.3 million in its first quarter ending May 31, down 9.5 percent year over year. The company's net revenue was $7.7 billion, down 17 percent.

CarMax retailed 217,924 used vehicles in the quarter, down 9.6 percent from the year-earlier period. Its comparable store used-vehicle sales fell 11 percent, an improvement over last year's third and fourth fiscal quarters. Comparable store sales fell 22 percent in the third quarter of 2022 and 14 percent in the fourth quarter.

The company also benefited from a $59.3 million legal settlement stemming from economic losses related to the decadelong industrywide recall of defective Takata airbag inf…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Level 3 presents a complicated, ‘mushy middle’ in automated driving

An automated driving breakthrough set to reach public roads this year likely will motor into a thicket of legal complications and other hurdles.

Mercedes-Benz plans to sell vehicles equipped with Drive Pilot, a Level 3 automated system and the first of its kind in the marketplace. Such a system can maintain control and responsibility of a car in certain scenarios. However, the human driver must take control upon the system's request.

When active, Drive Pilot allows motorists to shift their attention from traffic, according to Mercedes.

Volvo and Audi tried to offer similar systems years ago, abandoning them after finding they could not untangle the legal, regulatory and safety quandaries that still accompany Level 3 driving.

Level 3 systems are "an engineer's dream and a plaintiff attorney's next yacht," said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at …

Sonic Automotive Inc., citing lower used-vehicle availability and higher wholesale pricing, has indefinitely suspended operations at eight EchoPark used-only locations and an unspecified number of delivery/buy centers, and it will take a significant second-quarter charge.

The Charlotte, N.C., company said it anticipates a one-time charge from $60 million to $80 million, noting that all but $3 million to $5 million is non-cash.

In a regulatory filing Thursday, Sonic said the charge will include the impairment of fixed assets and right-of-use leased assets from $50 million to $60 million and other items from $10 million to $15 million. Sonic, in the filing, said the majority of the impairment charge "relates to a non-cash impairment of long-lived assets. Sonic's future cash expenditures related to this plan are expected to be between $3 million and $5 million principally related to severance costs."

Sonic, in a late Thursday news release, did not identif…

Used-vehicle auction services company America's Group has acquired a 17-acre auction facility in Las Vegas — its first acquisition since forming in late 2021 — marking its entry into Nevada.

The company said Tuesday that it purchased DAA Las Vegas — a six-lane, full-service auction that opened in 2014 — from McConkey Auction Group. A purchase price was not disclosed.

The acquisition expands the company's market presence to dealers, rental companies and financial institutions in major cities in the West, America's Group CEO Chuck Tapp said Thursday. The company has two auctions in Southern California, though they are smaller — less than 2 acres each, he said.

America's Group formed in December 2021 when vehicle auction and remarketing company XLerate Group acquired America's Auto Auction. The combined company rebranded as America's Group in 2022. Tapp took the CEO reins from Cam Hitchcock at the end of 2022, following the executive's retirement.

"I…

J.D. Power’s Frank Hanley joins the show to talk about the firm’s 2023 Initial Quality Study, which shows new vehicle quality falling to new lows. Ford and SK On land a $9.2 billion federal loan for battery plants. And some promising EV brands are struggling despite a strong U.S. market.

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Hybrid and electric vehicles are outperforming the market and the mechanics who work on these vehicles face more hazards because of the high voltage and frequency.

Are you taking the proper steps to protect your employees as they service EVs and hybrids? We’ll delve into the risks and protections, drawing from OSHA requirements for similar electrical installations, NFPA work practices — specifically NFPA 70E — and experience with capacitors and batteries offered by the Department of Energy.

New-vehicle quality — after hitting the lowest level in more than three decades last year — is getting worse, a J.D. Power survey found.

Technology is more prevalent, which creates more opportunities for problems to arise, and issues are cropping up with basic vehicle functions, such as the ease of opening doors, according to J.D. Power's 2023 U.S. Initial Quality Study. Those factors contributed to a record high number of vehicle problems this year, building on quality issues last year that stemmed from supply chain shortages and remote work, J.D. Power found.

On average, owners reported 192 problems per 100 vehicles industrywide, according to the survey, up from 180 a year earlier and 162 in 2021. The study, conducted from February through May and published Thursday, is based on responses from 93,380 buyers and lessees of new 2023 model-year vehicles.

New-vehicle quality improved at 12 of 33 brands ranked in the study: Dodge, Ram, Alfa Romeo, Porsche…

Kodiak Robotics intends to outfit a fleet of 800 commercial trucks with self-driving systems. The trucks are expected to reach the road in the second half of 2025, the company said Thursday.

Logistics firm Loadsmith will operate the trucks as part of a freight network billed as the first to be exclusively underpinned by self-driving technology.

The partnership will focus on utilizing autonomous-driving on select highways in the southern United States, where industry-friendly laws and regulations largely permit autonomous trucking.

Texas will likely be the starting point, Kodiak Robotics CEO Don Burnette told Automotive News. But details are not yet firm.

"We haven't made a determination or finalized the details of where we'll be operating," he said.

Should their plans come to fruition, it is believed the Loadsmith fleet would be the largest self-driving trucking fleet in operation on public roads in the near term. It is an aggressive but …

Fisker Inc. intends to assemble vehicles in China as early as next year to gain a foothold in the world’s largest electric vehicle market.

The EV maker plans to open a delivery center in China later this year and start sales of its first product, the Ocean full electric crossover, in the first quarter of 2024, the Los Angeles-based EV startup said this month.

“After beginning deliveries in Europe and with first vehicles coming to our U.S. customers on June 23, we are excited to move into the Chinese market later this year,” Chairman and CEO Henrik Fisker said in a statement. 

In a recent visit to China Fisker’s leadership team held talks with officials and business leaders in Shanghai about supply chains, logistics, warehousing and future product development. 

“I believe we can get production up and running in China as early as next year, potentially adding capacity of 70,000 Fisker Oceans annually,” Henrik Fisker noted. 

The…

Buick launched sales of its second Ultium platform-based electric vehicle, the Electra E4, this week in China, as General Motors keeps expanding its lineup of EVs in a key market. 

The electric coupe, available in two- and all-wheel-drive versions, is priced from 189,900 yuan ($26,448) to 259,900 yuan, GM’s China unit said. 

It is 4,818 mm long, 1,912 mm wide and 1,581 mm tall, with a 2,954 mm wheelbase. 

The two-wheel variant, installed with a 65 kWh battery pack, can drive up to 530 kilometers on one charge. A permanent magnet synchronous motor in front generates maximum power of 180 kW and maximum torque of 330 Nm.

The AWD version, fitted with a 79.7 kWh battery pack, has a 620-kilometer range. With an additional induction asynchronous motor in the rear, it delivers maximum power of 211 kW and maximum torque of 465 Nm.

The Buick Electra E4 is produced at SAIC-GM, General Motors’ passenger vehicle joint venture with SAIC Mo…