News

Toyota's assembly and components plants in the United States and Canada are expected to go back to work on May 4, along with much of the rest of the industry. But it will be a long, slow slog before the inventor of the Toyota Production System gets close to anything nearing a normal run rate.

"This is more of an opening day," cautioned Chris Reynolds, head of manufacturing for Toyota Motor North America. While the automaker has sufficient stores of parts on hand to start building vehicles once workers return to plants, Reynolds said Toyota would take time "to shake off the rust" with workers who haven't been on the job in more than a month, and to implement and train workers in extensive new safety procedures that will both slow the run rates of assembly lines and hopefully help keep them safe.

"I would be surprised if a car rolls off a line anywhere on May 4," Reynolds told reporters on a conference call Thursday. The new procedures — including staggering entr…

This year's Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, one of the glitziest ultraluxury events on the annual automotive industry calendar, was canceled because of ongoing concerns over the spread of COVID-19.

The 70th annual event was scheduled for Aug. 16. It will now be held Aug. 15, 2021.

"Ultimately, the continued health and safety of everyone associated with the Concours is our No. 1 priority, which led us to this difficult decision," Bill Perocchi, CEO of Pebble Beach Co., said in a statement. "We recognize that cancelling the 2020 Event will be disappointing to many, although we are confident it is appropriate under these unique circumstances."

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance bills itself as the world's premier celebration of the automobile. The event takes place on the 18th fairway of the famous Pebble Beach golf course, where it hosts more than 15,000 car connoisseurs.

The 2021 event will feature a display of pas…

Connecticut town testing drones to help battle COVID-19

A Connecticut police department is betting it can help flatten the curve of COVID-19 by taking to the air.

In partnership with Canadian drone manufacturer Draganfly, the Westport, Conn., police are testing the use of aerial technology and biometrics to "monitor social distancing, ease the spread of COVID-19 and keep their communities and personnel safe."

Draganfly says its "pandemic drones" can detect infectious diseases from 190 feet away. The drones are outfitted with sensor and computer vision systems that can detect fever and heart and respiratory rates, "as well as detect people sneezing and coughing in crowds, and wherever groups of people may work or congregate." Deep-learning algorithms also can detect hypertension and rapid heartbeats; the drones are not using facial recognition.

The system integrates technologies from Draganfly, the University of South Australia and a h…

Gorden Wagener has spent a good amount of his coronavirus quarantine thinking about waffles.

Daimler’s head of design, who created such iconic cars as the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren and Vision Mercedes concepts, wanted to bake bread during his pandemic free time, but soon found the bread maker he wanted was out of stock. So he ordered a waffle iron from Williams-Sonoma instead, and the German and Germany-based designer has been perfecting his at-home recipe for the delightfully dimpled grid of syrup holders ever since.

That’s how he landed on the idea for a glove-box waffle catapult.

When I heard he’d become a waffle master, I asked whether he could do deliveries.

“The car is easily smart enough to launch a waffle accurately -- you could write smart messages on the waffle and then throw it!” Wagener suggested on a recent phone call. A paperboy tossing waffles instead of the morning news, he would do it from the new GLE Coupe.

Wagener, of cou…

When Jason Rogers’ Buick Rendezvous blew its exhaust system and became undrivable last year, the cable-and-internet salesman and weekend songwriter decided he’d just take the bus to downtown Nashville from his home 10 miles south.

That 45-minute commute worked until the coronavirus hit U.S. cities starting in February. Then, Rogers said, he started renting cars by the week to avoid catching COVID-19 on the bus and bringing it home to his two children. With rental rates costing him $1,200 a month, the single father says he’s now looking to buy a car and stay off public transit.

“I have no interest in getting on the bus or a ride-sharing system unless I’m in a hazmat suit,” Rogers said in a phone interview. “I’m very much erring on the side of caution. I know where the car has been and who has been in it.”

Welcome to present-day America, where people are avoiding other humans and anything they might have touched, including steering wheels, bus railings and…

BEIJING -- China will cut subsidies on new energy vehicles such as electric cars by 10 percent this year, the finance ministry said Thursday, following a decision last month to continue providing incentives to buy cleaner light vehicles.

The government had announced plans in 2015 to end the subsidies this year, but said in March it would extend them.

China has set a target for NEVs, which include plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, to account for a fifth of auto sales by 2025, compared with 5 percent currently, as it seeks to cut pollution and cultivate the domestic auto industry.

Under the new plan, China will extend subsidies on NEVs to 2022, and exempt sales taxes for two years.

However, the subsidies will apply only to passenger cars costing less than 300,000 yuan ($42,376). That is likely to exclude premium electric vehicles such as those built by Germany's BMW and Daimler.

Tesla Inc.'s China-made Model 3 sedans, meanwhile…

Daimler said it expects first-quarter earnings to plunge as customers shunned Mercedes-Benz showrooms amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Preliminary quarterly earnings before interest and tax fell 78 percent to 617 million euros ($664 million), the automaker said in a statement on Thursday. Adjusted EBIT declined by 70 percent to 719 million euros ($774 million.)

Preliminary adjusted EBIT for Mercedes-Benz cars and vans fell more than 56 percent to 603 million euros ($649 million).

Daimler said it expects total unit sales and revenue for 2020 to be lower compared with last year.

Daimler's forecast provides further evidence of the financial damage inflicted by the pandemic on the auto market, as global vehicle sales and production get pummeled by tight restrictions governments have had to impose on business activity and the movement of people to control the spread of the virus.

Earlier this month, luxury rival BMW reported a 21 pe…

PARIS -- Renault posted a plunge in first-quarter revenue and said it's too early to judge the impact the coronavirus pandemic will have on its earnings this year.

Revenue fell 19 percent to 10.1 billion euros ($10.9 billion), the company said in a statement on Thursday.

Renault is seeking billions in government-backed loans from the French state, its most powerful shareholder, which has pledged to help. To clear the way, Renault scrapped its dividend earlier this month.

Renault said it had 10.3 billion euros ($11 billion) of liquidity reserves, as of the end of March, 5.5 billion euros ($5.9 billion) less than at the end of 2019. The first quarter is traditionally a period when automakers use cash to bump up stocks.

Renault's vehicle sales in Europe fell 36 percent, compared with a 26 percent decline in the market. The low-cost Dacia brand showed the biggest drop.

Renault sold more cars in Russia than in its French home mar…

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor said its first-quarter net profit slumped to its lowest quarterly level in a decade, as the coronavirus hit demand in China and losses at its financial business cut earnings.

Net profit fell 42 percent to 552.7 billion won ($448.7 million), the automaker said in a statement on Thursday.

As the coronavirus pandemic prompted governments to order lockdowns and other social distancing measures, consumer demand began tumbling in January -- first in China, then in South Korea and from March in Europe and the U.S.

Hyundai said first-quarter operating profit rose 5 percent to 864 billion won ($701 million) on a one-time gain related to its autonomous driving joint venture, along with a favorable currency environment and enhanced product mix as revenue climbed 6 percent.

Revenue was helped by a stronger product mix with higher sales of crossovers and Genesis luxury models. A weaker Korean won against the U.S. dollar offset …

DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. is losing two director-level executives to a pair of tech giants.

Amy Marentic, a marketing and sales executive in charge of some of the automaker's key vehicles, is leaving for a position with Google. Separately, Crystal Worthem, head of global brand experiences and who helped Ford develop a key sponsorship with singing competition show "American Idol," is leaving for a position at Facebook.

It was not immediately clear when the moves take effect or if Ford plans to fill the positions.

"Both of them have done a variety of exceptional things, both domestically and internationally," Ford spokesman T.R. Reid told Automotive News late Wednesday. "We're sorry to see them go, but also flattered to see people from one leading company go to other leading companies."

Marentic for the past year has served as North America product line director for Ford's "Icons" line, which includes the Mustang, the new Mustang Mach-E electric cr…

Automakers are headed for a less-drastic U.S. sales collapse than feared, helped by online sales, 0 percent financing and other incentives, according to market researchers.

U.S. retail sales are down about 50 percent, a drop-off that wouldn’t be as steep as China or Western European countries saw in the first full month following their coronavirus outbreaks, according to Jeff Schuster, senior vice president of forecasting with LMC Automotive, a partner of J.D. Power.

“We’re now expecting a pattern that is more of a sustained level of a 40 percent to 50 percent decline over a longer period of time, instead of the really deep hit and then a relatively quick recovery,” Schuster said by phone.

The industry caught a break last week when Department of Homeland Security guidelines added vehicle sales to its list of essential services. All U.S. states now allow cars and light trucks to be delivered through showrooms or online, according to J.D. Power.

Re…

Volkswagen of America said it plans to begin recalling workers at its Chattanooga assembly plant the evening of May 3, with production set to resume in limited fashion May 4.

The plant builds the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport crossovers as well as the Passat sedan. Production at the Tennessee plant has been shut down since March 21, with employees placed on temporary emergency furlough on April 11.

Volkswagen said Wednesday that the factory's initial production schedule will be a five-day, eight-hour workweek for most shops. Shift and break times will be staggered.

The automaker will provide personal protective equipment for employees, institute temperature checks for those entering and exiting the plant, and keep six-foot distances between workers. It will suspend an internal shuttling service, add more cleaning of contact surfaces and replace the plated cafeteria with packed lunches.

Volkswagen's assembly plant in Puebla, Mexico, remains halted fo…