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Dongfeng Yueda Kia, Kia Motors’ car joint venture in China, said April sales recovered to year-ago levels of 23,534 after a steep decline in the first quarter. 

The new-generation K3 sedan and three crossovers -- the KX3, KX5 and Sportage -- last month generated more than 80 percent of the Korean automaker’s volume.

The KX3 alone contributed sales of 7,627, or 32 percent of April volume, the company said.

With production and sales disrupted by the coronavirus outbreak, sales at Dongfeng Yueda Kia tumbled 44 percent to 17,626 in March. 

In the first quarter, deliveries slumped 48 percent to 43,152.

Dongfeng Yueda Kia, based in the east China city of Yancheng, is a three-way partnership of Kia and two Chinese companies -- Dongfeng Motor Group and local investment company Jiangsu Yueda Investment Co.

The joint venture has operated well below production capacity since 2017. 

Its two plants in Yancheng can build up t…

DETROIT -- Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Thursday is expected to announce that the state's factories can reopen soon, removing one of the last major obstacles to North American automakers bringing thousands of laid-off employees back to work amid the coronavirus pandemic, two people familiar with the plans said.

Companies will be told they can begin work next week at their plants, including training their workforces for the restart, the sources said.

This week, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said they were targeting resuming vehicle production in North America on May 18, but suppliers would need time to prepare ahead for that date.

Whitmer is scheduled to provide an update of the state's handling of the coronavirus outbreak at 3 p.m. EDT.

The governor previously extended the state's coronavirus stay-at-home order through May 15, but lifted restrictions for some businesses other than manufacturing. Neighboring Ohio allowed manufa…

More personal car trips, fewer shared rides post-COVID-19, survey finds

The auto industry can expect to see a lot of dramatic changes in consumer behavior regarding mobility in a post-COVID-19 world.

That's according to a survey of more than 25,000 U.S. customers by the IBM Institute for Business Value. The survey, conducted in April and published last week, found that personal behavior and preferences for transportation – along with retail, work and event attendance – are likely to change as a result of the pandemic.

On the mobility front, many consumers indicated they plan to reduce their use of – or forgo entirely – ride-sharing and public transportation.

More than half of people surveyed who use ride-hailing apps and services said they would either use these less or stop using these services.

More than 20 percent of respondents who now regularly use public transit, including buses, subways or trains, said they no longer would. A…

WASHINGTON -- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday it will not require automakers to recall 56 million additional Takata airbag inflators, saying the devices do not pose a safety risk.

Automakers in the U.S. have previously recalled than 60 million Takata airbag inflators that could explode when deployed, sending deadly metal fragments flying in a defect linked to at least 25 deaths worldwide.

The issue sparked the largest auto industry safety recall in history, involving more than 100 million inflators among 19 major automakers worldwide and is linked to more than 290 injuries.

In 2016, NHTSA ordered the recall of 40 million inflators and said it would review by the end of 2019 whether the airbags with a "dessicant" or drying agent needed to be recalled.

On Thursday, the agency said it will continue to monitor their performance over time. NHTSA said separately Volkswagen Group will recall 370,000 vehicles with Takata i…

Uber Technologies Inc. is leading an investment round of $170 million in scooter-rental company Lime, a lifeline for a startup reeling from plunging customer numbers and company-wide layoffs.

Alphabet Inc., GV and Bain Capital Ventures, along with other new and existing stakeholders, also participated, Lime said in a statement Thursday. As part of the deal, Lime will acquire Uber’s Jump bike-sharing business operations and the two companies will expand the integration of their mobile apps.

The investment round valued Lime at $400 million, a person familiar with the terms said, asking not to be identified because they’re private. That’s a massive drop from the $2.4 billion investors priced the company at in a funding round last year. Lime didn’t comment on the valuation in the statement.

Venture capitalists have invested more than $1 billion in the last few years in two startups renting electric scooters -- Lime and Bird -- but they began falling out of f…

Cox Automotive will furlough more than 12,500 employees — about 10,000 in the U.S. — and executives will forgo some or all of their salaries as a result of the financial hit the company has taken from the coronavirus pandemic.

Close to 87 percent of the furloughed employees work for Cox's Manheim wholesale auction unit, which stopped running physical sales in mid-March and shifted to all-digital sales as states began to shut nonessential business locations, Cox said Thursday.

More than half of the furloughed employees are part-time drivers for Manheim or perform other roles on auction days. About 4,600 others will be furloughed because their jobs can't easily be done at home or have reduced workloads.

Furloughs will begin May 17 and last up to 16 weeks, the company said in a statement. Employees will not be paid and can file for state unemployment benefits, though Cox said they will continue to receive health care benefits, with t…

FCA US appears to be moving forward with plans to introduce a new midsize pickup truck to complement the Jeep Gladiator. And there is an early, familiar contender for the name of the truck.

The company on April 29 filed a trademark application for the name "Dakota," related to "parts for vehicles, namely, automotive exterior decorative trim," according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office posting.

Ram dropped the midsize Dakota pickup in 2011 after a 25-year run. For years, the Dakota was a mainstay of the Dodge lineup.

General Motors and Ford have resurrected midsize trucks in recent years, in part to offer consumers a lower-priced alternative to full-size pickups, which are among the industry's most profitable light vehicles.

U.S. sales of midsize pickups rose 22 percent to nearly 640,000 in 2019. First-quarter demand slipped 0.9 percent.

Among U.S. truck buyers, the Dakota name is widely recognized with plenty of equity and "no no…

Hear Kumar Galhotra on Ford's pandemic shutdown mobilization and working with dealers and suppliers on strategies for the restart.

Speakers:KC Crain, Group Publisher, Automotive NewsKumar Galhotra, President, Americas & International Markets Group, Ford Motor Company

This conversation was originally broadcast on May 7, 2020 at 11am EDT as part of our Congress Conversations series. The series runs through June 4. Register to watch future Congress Conversations live at http://autonews.com/congress.

The economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic shows the importance of ensuring that the U.S. is not dependent on other countries for oil, a nonpartisan think tank said.

Securing America's Future Energy, or SAFE, announced an initiative Thursday called Get America Moving Again to promote the rebuilding of America's economic competitiveness and security to ensure industrial leadership. The group advocates policies that curb energy dependence on foreign oil.

The initiative calls for a 15-point plan to support the reopening of the U.S. energy and transportation industries amid the pandemic.

SAFE is backed by members of the Energy Security Leadership Council, which is made up of current and former CEOs of Goldman Sachs, Transdev Group, FedEx, Waste Management and other U.S. military and business leaders.

Navy Adm. Dennis Blair, a member of the council, said on a call Wednesday that the U.S. needs to prepare for global trends as the shift to electric …

A portion of the General Motors Canada transmission plant in St. Catharines, Ontario, will come back online May 11, with most of the rest of its North American manufacturing operations resuming the week of May 18, the automaker said today.

In a statement, GM Canada said “a portion” of its HFV6 engine line would resume on May 11. The 3.6-liter HFV6 engines power the Chevrolet Impala sedan, Chevrolet Colorado pickup, Buick Enclave crossover and GMC Terrain crossover, according to the automaker’s website.

The rest of the St. Catharines plant, as well as the automaker’s CAMI assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, where the Chevrolet Equinox is assembled, and the Oshawa, Ontario, stamping operation will “come back gradually in the weeks that follow,” GM Canada said. It was not immediately clear if they would resume the week of May 18, though the automaker said it planned to resume production at a majority of its North American plants then.

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Cars.com lost money in the first quarter as the novel coronavirus took a financial toll on the company and its dealership customers, but the company still generated a gain in adjusted net income and its shares skyrocketed.

The Chicago vehicle listings company posted a net loss of $787 million in the quarter ended March 31, up from a net loss of $9 million in the same period a year ago.

Cars.com attributed the loss to a virus-related noncash goodwill and intangible asset impairment charge of $905.9 million recorded in the first quarter.

Revenue dipped 4 percent to $148.1 million, mainly resulting from declines in dealership customers and average revenue per dealership compared with the prior year, the company said. Cars.com said it achieved its second straight quarter of dealership customer growth in the first quarter, reporting 18,938 customers as of March 31, up 104 from the fourth quarter of 2019.

Cars.com said its adjusted net income for the fi…

SHANGHAI -- Geely Automobile Holdings said it sold 105,468 vehicles in April, 2 percent higher than the same period last year, as the world's biggest auto market recovers from the coronavirus.

With the global auto industry hit hard by the coronavirus epidemic, China has become one ray of hope for automakers including Volkswagen Group and General Motors.

Geely said in March that 2020 may be one of its toughest years yet, as pressure stemming from the coronavirus outbreak on production and sales persists, but it planned to go ahead with a global expansion.

It maintained its sales target of 1.41 million cars and light trucks this year, up from 1.36 million last year.

Geely, based in the eastern province of Zhejiang, is China's most globally high-profile automaker following investments by parent company Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. in European manufacturers Volvo Car and Daimler.

Volkswagen also sees demand rebounding in China, helped by ne…