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A conversation with Daimler Truck North America CEO John O’Leary, who says a lack of charging infrastructure is delaying the push for zero-emissions trucking. Nissan expects a sales surge in North America. And Subaru plans four new crossover EVs while other automakers delay their own models.

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Canadian auto supplier Linamar Corp. plans to break ground “immediately” on a new plant in Welland, Ont., that will house three giga-casting presses capable of producing very large aluminum structural parts for electric vehicles. 

The Guelph, Ont.-based parts supplier announced the new site in the city south of Niagara Falls as it reported its first-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

Company CEO Linda Hasenfratz said the state-of-the-art plant will be a “flagship location” for the company’s structural castings business.

"As the first supplier to invest in this equipment in North America, Linamar will naturally take a market leadership position in this technology,” she told analysts on a conference call Wednesday.

Pioneered by Tesla, giga-presses are used to produce large structural vehicle components, replacing parts that previously required numerous welds with a single aluminum piece.  

Linamar COO Jim Jarrell said the inve…

The widespread theft of vulnerable older Hyundai and Kia models not equipped with a crucial anti-theft device could end up costing the U.S. insurance industry up to $600 million.

Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, American Family and 65 other auto insurers, which comprise only a fraction of the country's insurance companies, estimate that just their portion of the payout to owners who have been affected by the social media-driven crime wave could top $300 million.

The insurers, who filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Orange County, Calif., in March, say they have already paid out $190 million. They are demanding that Hyundai Motor America, Hyundai Motor Co., Kia America and Kia Corp. reimburse them for funds paid to owners for replacement or repair of damaged or stolen vehicles.

The lawsuit said repairing broken windows and busted steering columns resulting from an attempt to break into a vehicle and hot-wire its ignition often costs an insurer more than…

Rear-seat passengers are not well protected by small cars' safety systems, new moderate overlap tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found.

The IIHS rated the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla acceptable. The Kia Forte, Nissan Sentra and Subaru Crosstrek earned poor ratings.

The IIHS put the five popular small car models through a crash test and rated the vehicles on how well the vehicle's structure held up, injury measures recorded by two dummies inside the vehicles and how well the restraints controlled the movement of those dummies.

The test propelled vehicles down a 600-foot runway and crashed them into a barrier at 40 mph with 40 percent impact to the front of the vehicle. Driver and rear-seat passenger dummies and cameras in the vehicles helped measure the success of the vehicles' safety systems.

Last year, only 3 of 15 small crossovers earned a good or acceptable rating on the same test. The IIHS plans to test small pickups, mid…

Sales at Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. showed no signs of recovery in April despite a strong rebound in the overall Chinese car market from a year earlier.

Nissan sales dipped 1.5 percent to 61,313 last month while Honda deliveries were flat at 94,879, according to numbers released by the China offices of the two major Japanese automakers this week.

Through April, Nissan and Honda both saw China sales plunge 30 percent from a year earlier. Nissan and Honda delivered 223,274 vehicles and 315,245 vehicles in China in the first four months of 2023, respectively.

In contrast to the sales slump at Nissan and Honda, new-vehicle deliveries in China rebounded 56 percent to 1.63 million in April, with year-to-date volume sliding 1.3 percent to 5.9 million, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

With the Chinese market fast pivoting to full electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, Nissan and Honda plan to accelerate the introducti…

Wholesale new-vehicles shipments in China bounced back to approach 2.16 million in April, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said on Thursday.

The volume constitutes a 77 percent jump from a year earlier when Shanghai and Changchun, two of China’s auto production centers, were both locked down to contain resurging coronavirus cases, the CAAM said. 

Last month, shipments of new sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multi-purpose vehicles and minibuses jumped 79 percent year on year to some 1.81 million. 

Deliveries of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks surged 61 percent to 348,000. 

Through April, new-vehicle shipments industrywide rose 7.1 percent from a year earlier to top 8.2 million, with light-vehicle sales gaining 6.8 percent to 6.94 million while commercial-vehicle demand increased 8.8 percent to 1.29 million.

Electrified vehiclesDemand for electrified vehicles remains strong, with shipments last month soar…

Stockpiles at new-vehicle dealerships dropped to a 45-day supply in April from 53 days the previous month, the China Automobile Dealers Association said on Thursday. 

It was the second-sraight monthly decline in dealership inventories tracked by the trade group after China abandoned strict pandemic controls in December.

In April, inventories at stores stocking luxury brands and imported vehicles decreased to a 29-day supply from 38 days in March.

The average backlog at stores under Chinese brands slid to 38 days from 39 days the previous month. 

Stockpiles at dealerships marketing foreign mass-market brands producing in China dipped to 50 days from 62 days a month earlier.

Last month, dealerships at SAIC Motor Corp.’s Roewe brand carried the highest average inventory at 76 days. 

They were followed by Buick and Nissan dealerships, which reported an average backlog of 74 days and 71 days, respectively, according to the …

General Motors aims to bring in more revenue from commercial and fleet buyers with a new unit designed to simplify the sales process and create a "one-stop" experience.

The initiative, called GM Envolve, will give businesses a dedicated sales account executive who can reach across multiple divisions, whether the customers are buying vehicles or in need of help with energy management. The unit will handle sales of internal combustion products as well as electric vehicles such as GM's BrightDrop delivery vans and the upcoming Chevrolet Silverado EV.

The automaker planned to unveil GM Envolve on Wednesday at its annual Fleet Solutions Summit in San Diego.

GM said its commercial business is on the upswing, with sales rising for five consecutive quarters. In recent years, the company said it has attracted more than 300 fleet customers that buy at least 300 GM vehicles each year.

One goal of GM Envolve, officials said, is to help commercial customers i…

Self-driving technology company Cruise is expanding its operations to more cities in Texas.

The company, backed by General Motors, said Wednesday that it will begin "supervised testing" with a safety driver at the wheel next week in Houston, followed by Dallas at a future date. A Cruise spokesperson told Automotive News the initial deployments in those cities represent "the first step to launching driverless operations with no safety driver in the car."

Cruise currently operates commercial driverless robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, as well as San Francisco and Phoenix.

"Exciting news for Team Cruise!" GM CEO Mary Barra wrote Wednesday in a LinkedIn post. "Another step closer to the autonomous future as people experience driverless rides in new areas."

Cruise expanded its San Francisco operations last month to add daytime service and cover a larger geographic area. The company said employees now can ride at all hours in San Francisco, while da…

CarGurus Inc.'s first-quarter net income tumbled 37 percent to $11.9 million as its digital wholesale division revenue plunged 76 percent, contributing to a worsening loss for that segment vs. a year earlier.

The vehicle listings company insists that its wholesale digital trading platform, CarOffer — which is a big part of digital wholesale — has turned a corner, along with overall operations.

"While we recently faced operational challenges with our CarOffer business, progress this quarter demonstrates our agility in responding promptly and effectively to navigate the year ahead," CEO Jason Trevisan said during the company's Tuesday earnings call.

CarOffer's "strong execution" helped it exceed forecast guidance for the quarter and focus on overall growth goals, Trevisan said.

Wall Street seemed pleased with the results. CarGurus' stock price traded at $18.94 late Wednesday afternoon, up nearly 16 percent from the previous day's close.

…

The pace car for the 107th running of the Indy 500 scheduled for May 28 will be, for the 20th time since 1978, a Chevrolet Corvette. But this one is a bit different from past pace cars.

It's a 2023 Corvette Z06 hardtop convertible, the first time a Corvette with a folding metal roof has paced the race.

With a top speed of 189 mph, the 670-hp Corvette featuring a 5.5-liter V-8 is nearly fast enough to keep up with the open-wheel cars in the race. A carbon aero package provides 734 pounds of downforce at 186 mph, more than any other Corvette.

The pace car is painted red mist and sports a two-tone interior. This marks the 34th time since 1948 that a Chevrolet has set the pace for the Indy 500.

SAN FRANCISCO/TOKYO - Panasonic said on Wednesday that it will delay the commercial production of its 4680 battery cells championed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk and begin operations during the April to September period in 2024, later than previously scheduled, as the company aims to improve their performance.

Tesla's Japanese supplier, Panasonic, previously planned to start volume production for Tesla between April 2023 to March 2024.

"Mass production rescheduled to begin during 1H FY3/25 to introduce performance improvement measures that will further enhance competitiveness," Panasonic said on its earnings presentation materials, referring to the first half of the fiscal year ending March 2025.

Panasonic is running a pilot 4680 production line at its Wakayama factory in Japan, while Tesla is already producing the 4680 battery cells, which Musk has touted as being key to making cheaper and compelling electric cars. But the carmaker struggled to meet its target…