Trade News

What does Zeekr even mean? The word can’t be found in any dictionary yet Zhejiang Geely likes it so much that it’s applied for several dozen sub-brands under the moniker, commercial registration data show.

One of those brands is for an electric vehicle. That makes sense -- while Geely is China’s biggest manufacturer of local-branded conventional automobiles, it’s plowing resources into EVs, like all carmakers. But it’s also applied to use the Zeekr name for air conditioners, clothing, furniture, fast food, beer and even firecrackers. What is the company playing at?

Geely isn’t changing direction, quite the contrary. The Hangzhou company is making a renewed push into EVs under the Zeekr brand, and may absorb its existing Geometry EV brand into the mix as part of that. But just as Tesla aims to create an aura and lifestyle around its brand, so too does Geely wish to snare consumers and convert them. Imagine, a Zeekr car owner could wear a Zeekr hoodie while driv…

Volkswagen said its new Amarok pickup will be clearly different in design from the next Ford Ranger pickup it will be based on.

VW's commercial vehicles division has released a sketch of the new pickup, which it will launch next year.

The design hints at a beefy, off-road performance version in line with the Raptor top-spec model of the current Ford Ranger.

The Amarok will be developed and built by Ford as part of a wider agreement between the two companies.

"It's not going to be just a fantastic pickup. It's going to be a genuine Volkswagen too -- with clear DNA in both technology and design," VW Commercial Vehicles CEO Carsten Intra said during the unit's annual media conference on March 25.

The pickup will be "exactly what our customers would want," Intra said.

Ford said in January that it will build the Amarok at its plant in Silvertown, South Africa, where it is investing $686 million to raise annual production capacity to 200,0…

DETROIT — Leftover paint particles won't land on pickups, SUVs and vans built at General Motors' electric vehicle Factory Zero plant when robots switch from a pallet of red to blue.

Factory Zero is the first new GM plant in the U.S. to get a Kaiser Compact Eliminator, which is a technology from paint finishing supplier Gallagher-Kaiser that removes overspray. The compact eliminator helps with paint shop cleanliness. But more importantly, it ensures that paint colors do not mix. A white GMC Hummer won't have a speck of red, for example, that workers have to remove.

"It's all about getting first-time quality," Alonso De Avila Jr., GM's senior project manager for sustainable workplaces, said of the push behind the new technology. "Any time we can produce a product that's of top quality the first time around, that avoids rework, avoids waste — that's a lean manufacturing idea."

Factory Zero, formerly Detroit- Hamtramck, has been under construction since ear…

Longtime California dealer Adam Simms has a familiar and growing problem: He needs to upgrade a store in Silicon Valley, where the dirt below is worth more than the thriving business above.

His creative solution is not for those with a thin wallet or an aversion to risk: It's a $279 million project that can be summed up as "go big and go home."

Welcome to tomorrow's Toyota of Walnut Creek, a world away from the busy but dated dealership in the heart of Silicon Valley.

If all goes according to plan, it will become a modern 165,000-square-foot full- service Toyota store by 2026. It will more than double its service bays to 54, including eight for quick-lane operations, and will have nearly 800 display and storage parking spaces for inventory on about 7.5 acres of prime downtown real estate.

But another revamped Toyota store is not the story — it's what is planned to rise above it that makes Toyota of Walnut Creek so int…

Tesla has given the auto industry a steady stream of competitive shocks over the past decade. But one that has probably gone unnoticed by consumers has occurred in the decidedly unglamorous world of factory construction.

Tesla has been building its auto plants at jaw-dropping speed.

Case in point: Tesla Gigafactory Texas, its $1.1 billion assembly plant now under construction in Austin.

The site was chosen in July. Construction began immediately on the project, consisting of three parallel buildings totaling 4 million square feet. Barely two months later, Tesla estimated the plant would be substantially completed by May. CEO Elon Musk said in January he expected production to start by the end of this year.

Auto plants typically take twice that long to build from raw ground to consumer sales. Tesla's pace represents a new benchmark for U.S. automakers, said Sandy Munro, a former Ford engineer who consults on manufacturing issues as CEO of Munro &a…

Bosch says it is making headway on one of the key barriers to the auto industry's adoption of hydrogen fuel cells: the high cost of manufacturing them.

Producing fuel cells is expensive largely because of the cost of hydrogen — especially the sourcing of green hydrogen, according to the German megasupplier.

To offset that expense and bring down the cost of the emerging technology, Bosch is focusing its efforts on its manufacturing processes. The company is devising new production efficiencies in how the chemistry of the cells is managed, how metal is processed and how the units will be assembled.

The company is not revealing details of its factory innovations yet. But they will be critical in making the fuel cells more affordable, said Sujit Jain, regional president of powertrain solutions for Bosch North America.

"If one is looking to have a CO2-free society down the road, then it behooves us to make sure that the h…

In normal times, Nellie Brown goes around to people's workstations, adjusts their furniture and changes their lives.

That's what ergonomic experts — in her case, a certified industrial hygienist — do. They help people place their bodies on furniture properly, so their work doesn't injure them and take them out of the work force.

Controlling that optimal fit has gotten harder over the past year as millions of Americans started working from home, where they may not have an office, spare bedroom or other quiet space to work at their computer.

I think Ford Motor Co. is doing the right thing in proceeding with a hybrid model that has people come in to an office when it's necessary or beneficial and work from home or elsewhere when that makes the most sense.

But it is going to be challenging, and ergonomics is just part of it.

There are economic matters, for instance. Who pays for that proper-fitting home office chair? Who pays for the addition…

Toilets are apparently a central issue in an effort by Stellantis to cut costs at Fiat's factories in Italy.

The FIM union that represents workers at the Fiat New 500 plant in Turin, said Stellantis — the company formed through the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group — had reduced the number of toilets available to workers, decreased cleaning shifts and adjusted the temperature to save money.

"This is happening during COVID-19, when you should be increasing toilets available and cleaning services, rather than cutting them," union representative Davide Provenzano told Reuters.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has promised nearly $6 billion in savings from the merger, which closed in January, without shutting plants or cutting jobs. Company officials declined to comment on the Reuters report.

At a Fiat van plant in central Italy, Nicola Manzi of the UILM union said Stellantis had cut cleaning work by more than a third but didn't take away…