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TOKYO – Mitsubishi Motors Corp. executives are having pay cut almost in half after the company slashed its full-year earnings outlook on tumbling sales triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Japanese carmaker said Friday it will cut base compensation to representative executive officers, executive officers and corporate officers by 20 to 30 percent in the fiscal year started April 1 and eliminate performance-based pay for the 12 months.

Several other automakers have announced similar cuts in executive compensation in recent weeks. 

“Recognizing the severity of the situation, in which even a year-end dividend has to be canceled, we will reduce the compensation of our officers and directors,” CEO Takao Kato said. “As a result of this, the officers will see their compensation cut by up to 45 percent.” 

Nonexecutive directors, including outside directors, will return 10 to 25 percent of their compensation. The carmaker also said it will eli…

Unifor President Jerry Dias on Thursday said he is “cautiously optimistic” that Canadian plants will be able to re-open in the early May timetable sought by several automakers.

“We will give the green light at the end of the day if our local union leadership feels comfortable with that,” Dias told Automotive News Canada. “I’m going to have another call tomorrow with the heads of all of our locals at the auto plants to make sure things are still moving properly. But as of now, we haven’t heard this big outcry saying, ‘Don’t do it, it’s too early.’ We haven’t heard any of that.”

His comments come after UAW President Rory Gamble said it would be “too risky” for U.S. workers and their families if auto plants restarted in early May. Auto factories in Canada and the U.S. have been shut down since mid-March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and companies and unions in North America have been grappling in recent weeks with finding ways to safely restart production whi…

The House overwhelmingly passed and sent to President Donald Trump a $484 billion coronavirus aid package, even as members are already at odds over the next phase of rescue legislation.

Thursday’s bipartisan 388-5 vote was delivered by lawmakers wearing masks and entering the House chamber under strict health precautions. Several members lamented people who’ve died from or are critically ill with the virus, including one lawmaker’s sister. Yet the day was also marked by partisan sniping.

Trump is expected to swiftly sign the bill, the fourth coronavirus-related spending measure since early March. This bill would replenish funding to the Paycheck Protection Program for small businesses and provide other spending for hospitals and virus testing.

Several trade groups, including the National Automobile Dealers Association and the American International Automobile Dealers Association, advocated more funding for the program and sent a letter to Congress last w…

DETROIT — The UAW on Thursday said restarting U.S. auto production in early May, a target much of the industry has been aiming for, would be "too risky" for workers and their families.

The union's opposition threatens to upend plans by the Detroit 3 to end a near-total shutdown that already has lasted more than a month. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles had said it was aiming to restart several U.S. factories May 4, and information given to employees and suppliers indicated that Ford Motor Co. and General Motors were considering a similar time frame.

"At this point in time, the UAW does not believe the scientific data is conclusive that it is safe to have our members back in the workplace," UAW President Rory Gamble said in a statement. "We have not done enough testing to really understand the threat our members face. We want to make sure the scientific data is supportive and every possible health protocols and enhanced protections are in place before UAW members …

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…