News

The Justice Department has abandoned its antitrust probe of four automakers that sided with California over President Donald Trump in a fight over the future of fuel economy and emissions requirements.

The inquiry had targeted Ford Motor Co., Honda Motor Co., BMW Group and Volkswagen Group over their agreement last year with California regulators to voluntarily meet the state’s targets for fuel economy and tailpipe emissions. The decision was seen as undercutting Trump’s plan to relax the national requirements and was decried by the administration at the time as a “PR stunt.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom cheered the Justice Department’s decision to back down, calling it “a big loss for the president and his weaponization of federal agencies.”

“These trumped up charges were always a sham -- a blatant attempt by the Trump administration to prevent more automakers from joining California and agreeing to stronger emissions standards,” Newsom said in an e…

The Paslin Co. plans to invest $45 million to expand its operations in suburban Detroit to supply assembly line robotic systems for EV startup Rivian Automotive LLC.

The supplier recently secured a contract to supply Rivian with vehicle and battery frame assembly robotic systems. The automaker, which has received more than $1 billion in investments from Amazon, Ford and others, plans to begin production if its all-electric truck and SUV in late 2020 with deliveries beginning in 2021. The vehicles will be assembled at Rivian's plant in Normal, Ill., a former Mitsubishi Motors plant it acquired in 2016.

The Paslin project, which is supported by a $1 million grant from state of Michigan, is expected to create 200 jobs in Warren, Mich., over a three-year period. The city of Warren is supporting the expansion by expediting permitting and hosting a job fair.

The new jobs are expected to pay $10 more than the average hourly wage in the surrounding cou…

WASHINGTON -- A U.S. House panel will hold a hearing Tuesday on autonomous vehicles as lawmakers try to hammer out legislation to advance self-driving cars.

An Energy and Commerce subcommittee overseeing automotive issues will hear from officials of trade groups representing automakers and tech companies, as well as safety advocates and a San Francisco transit official.

Congress has worked for four years on legislation that would remove regulatory barriers but has not reached agreement. Last summer, a bipartisan group of lawmakers released sections of a draft self-driving car bill for discussion.

The bills that have been under consideration would clear the way for automakers and tech firms to deploy tens of thousands of self-driving vehicles without human controls on U.S. roads if they could demonstrate the vehicles were at least as safe as human-driven vehicles. They would also bar states from setting performance standards for self-driving cars.

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BEIJING -- Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. said on Friday its sales in China, the world's biggest auto market, fell 12 percent in January, as the Lunar New Year holiday began earlier than usual and the coronavirus outbreak stymied economic activity.

The company, which has embarked on a turnaround to reverse a sales slump, is counting on strong Chinese business.

Last year, it sold around 1.55 million cars and light trucks in China, 1.1 percent lower than a year earlier, but bucking the overall Chinese new-vehicle market that fell 8.2 percent.

Nissan sold 118,143 vehicles in China last month. It is expected to announce October-to-December financial results on Feb. 13.

The company, which has a joint venture with the Dongfeng Group, based in Wuhan where the coronavirus has been concentrated, said is considering restarting production in China sometime after Feb. 10.

Production in Hubei province of which Wuhan is the capital, will start someti…

NEW  YORK -- Tesla Inc. has always had one foot in the automotive world and the other in technology. But when it comes to the company’s valuation, neither truly fits.

The stock’s stunning ascent -- doubling in just the first 23 sessions of the year on record vehicle deliveries, the opening of a China plant and an earlier-than-expected profit at a jointly operated battery factory -- has cooled off as exuberance gives way to caution. But the still-meteoric advance of the last five weeks has prompted more comparisons with high-growth technology names, and even has tech-focused market watchers looking more closely at the stock’s fundamentals.

“With Tesla’s extraordinary rise from $180 last year to nearly $1,000 this past Tuesday, we are receiving an increasing volume of calls from tech PMs and analysts who have begun to pick up coverage of Tesla from the traditional industrials/autos cohort,” Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote in a report, referring to po…

DETROIT --  Ford Motor Co.’s Joe Hinrichs, 53, will retire as president of automotive, and Jim Farley, 57, president of new business technology and strategy, will become COO, Ford said.

The changes are effective March 1. Farley will report to CEO Jim Hackett.

Ford said the changes are meant to "accelerate its transformation into a higher-growth, higher-margin business." 

On Wall Street, Ford shares fell 2.5 percent in early trading to $8.04.

Hinrichs had been at Ford for 19 years while Farley joined the company in 2007.

"Jim Farley is the right person to take on this important new role," Hackett said in a statement. "Jim's passion for great vehicles and his intense drive for results are well known. He also has developed into a transformational leader with the imagination and foresight to help lead Ford into the future." 

Farley is expected to retain his role as head of Ford Smart Mobility, the company's  auto…

LONDON -- Jaguar Land Rover will reduce or stop production on certain days at two of its British factories over the next few weeks as the U.K. automaker pursues cost-cutting measures in response to falling demand.

JLR posted a 2.3 percent drop in retail sales in the three months to the end of December and has targeted billions of pounds worth of savings to tackle falling diesel demand in Europe and a tough sales environment in China.

The company will halt production on selected days over a four-week period from late February at its Castle Bromwich factory in central England and stop production on some half or full days at its nearby Solihull facility until the end of March.

"The external environment remains challenging for our industry and the company is taking decisive actions to achieve the necessary operational efficiencies to safeguard long-term success," the company said in a statement.

"We have confirmed that Solihull and Castle Bromwich wil…

DETROIT -- The threat from the coronavirus crisis is closing in on the global auto industry, as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles warned Thursday that a European plant could shut down within two to four weeks if Chinese parts suppliers cannot get back to work.

Meanwhile, Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. are were among carmakers extending shutdowns at their China plants as the country steps up measures to fight the deadly coronavirus.

Toyota, which initially halted its Chinese plants until Feb. 9, said it now plans to resume production as soon as Feb. 17. Honda said it will reopen its factory on Feb. 14 with an eye toward restarting output during the week of Feb. 17.

South Korea's Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia Motors also said on Friday that they plan to restart production at their Chinese factories on Feb. 17, from a previously planned Feb.9.

"We will take preventive measures against infection at factories," a spokeswoman said.

The sh…

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co. reported a 2.1 percent decline in operating profit in the latest quarter as falling sales, higher r&d outlays and swinging foreign exchange rates hit earnings.

Operating profit slipped to 166.6 billion yen ($1.53 billion) in fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31, Honda said Friday in its earnings report.

Net income fell 31 percent to 116.4 billion yen ($1.07 billion) in the three-month period, partly because the company was hit by higher income tax expenses in the U.S.

Revenue decreased 5.7 percent to 3.75 trillion yen ($34.4 billion), as worldwide sales retreated 11.4 percent to 1.25 million vehicles in the October-December quarter.

Despite the downturn in operating profit, Honda raised its full fiscal year profit outlook, citing a return to more favorable foreign exchange rates and better-than-expected sales in Japan. But the company still expects global sales to decline 6.4 percent this fiscal year.

North America…

A decked-out Jeep Wrangler is on the way for Mopar lovers.

Mopar is debuting the Wrangler Jeep Performance Parts 20 limited edition variant at the Chicago Auto Show. The Wrangler JPP 20 is loaded with an array of parts and accessories from the JPP portfolio.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said that in addition to full-aluminum doors, JPP steel tube doors and a new mirror kit are standard equipment on the 2020 model.

Dealer orders open in the second quarter, the company said, and vehicles will arrive in dealerships this summer.

Kim Mathers, Mopar's head of accessories and performance, said consumer reception to Jeep's performance parts, which are Jeep's "key functional off-road performance components," has been strong. "So much so that customers want them, they want them all and they want them immediately when they purchase the new vehicle."

Mathers said during a January briefing that the Wrangler JPP 20 is a "response to that request."