Trade News

SHANGHAI — A few years ago, automakers in China still heavily relied on manual labor to assemble electric axle drives.

That has changed dramatically as annual EV output topped 1.1 million in 2020, quadruple the number in 2015. The explosion has prompted auto companies to look for ways to automate assembly of e-axle drives, which combine electric motors, transmissions and power electronics in a single unit.

This has created opportunities for industrial automation companies. Among those at the forefront of this trend is Comau, a major supplier of powertrain machining and assembly equipment for automakers in China. The company's robotic technology has helped EV makers significantly expand output, said Wang Junwu, engineering director of Comau's powertrain assembly division in China.

By using its own proprietary technology and forming partnerships with other automation providers, the Italian company has developed robotized e-axle assem…

Understandably, the idea of self- driving large trucks has garnered tremendous attention throughout the coronavirus pandemic and its reverberations through the supply chain. One of the major players in the automated freight realm believes in that long-term road map but intends to take an important interim step.

Plus will launch a driver-assist product this year that keeps humans in control but supports their driving habits and helps them save fuel.

The company intends to commercially deploy its driver-assist systems during the second quarter in partnership with FAW Group, the largest Chinese truck manufacturer. Shortly thereafter, company officials say their technology will reach U.S. roads.

Many companies believe that systems that keep humans in the driving loop are so distinct from autonomous ones, in which humans never have a role, that their development cannot be commingled.

Plus COO Shawn Kerrigan disagrees. H…

Gautam Narang has little interest in solving the vexing and vast challenges awaiting self-driving vehicles as they're deployed across the broad transportation landscape.

He does intend to solve them, however, in specific areas.

The co-founder and CEO of self-driving truck startup Gatik believes the technical complexities of autonomous operations can be substantially reduced when vehicles are deployed along repeatable routes. The best way to deploy autonomous vehicles: one road at a time.

"We are not trying to boil the ocean and solve every tricky autonomous-driving scenario," he said. "We are constraining the problem. If that means sticking to the right-most lane or making three right turns to make a left, all of that is fair game."

Such logistical twists might annoy human passengers, but in the freight world, no one cares so long as their goods get delivered. That's why Gatik has concentrated on launching self-drivin…

TURIN – Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares has told Italian unions that he will work with them to improve competitiveness and cut production costs at factories in Italy, where they currently are up to four times more than in France or Spain for a similar model.

Tavares, who met with union representatives at two former Fiat Chrysler factories in the Turin area this week, said the problem was primarily not labor costs but production costs on models that did not sell in anticipated numbers.

Unions have been worried that the merger of PSA Group and FCA to form Stellantis, which was finalized last month, could result in job losses, especially in Italy. Tavares has pledged not to close any assembly plants in Europe as a result of the merger.

A union source who attended the meeting told Automotive News Europe that Tavares gave workers several examples of the cost discrepancy between the Turin-area plants and those at PSA plants in Europe.

Tavares said the Ma…

In committing billions of dollars to their Ontario assembly plants, the Detroit 3 have signaled that they see Canada as central to their electrification plans — thanks in part to enhanced government incentives.

In January, General Motors committed to a $781 million investment in CAMI Assembly in Ingersoll, Ontario, to build its new BrightDrop EV600 all-electric cargo vans starting in November. That announcement came just a few months after Ford Motor Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now Stellantis, vowed to spend up to a combined $2.58 billion on two of their plants to build electric vehicles this decade.

"It's part of the whole package of Canada becoming an electric vehicle center," said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions. "There's a wave of investment going into Canada now to become a center of excellence for electric vehicles."

But that wave was not inevitable. Indeed, until recently, ma…

It's been a year of storms for Greg Luther.

The first one hit his immune system in January, when the body shop director at Helfman Dodge-Chrysler-Jeep-Ram-Fiat in Houston missed three weeks of work after contracting COVID-19.

Luther had to stave off severe headaches and congestion while losing his abilities to taste and smell.

He was still bouncing back from that episode when another storm hit, this one carrying a load of snow, ice and astoundingly frigid temperatures to Texas that devastated the region's power and water systems in mid-February.

It also left Luther with burst pipes that caused flooding at his ranch-style home an hour's drive north of Houston — a place that became unreachable for a few days after the winter blast.

"I'm 47 years old and lived here my entire life and don't recall anything like this," Luther told Automotive News. "Our government just wasn't set up, or whoever's responsible to m…

Range anxiety remains a potential roadblock to the widespread adoption of electric vehicles. It's a situation brought into sharp relief during disasters such as the recent power outages in Texas, which may keep drivers from accessing charging stations, thus limiting their ability to travel long distances to evacuate stricken areas.

A J.D. Power survey issued in January found that EV drivers cite range as the major factor in their purchase decisions.

"It's still about peace of mind," said Brent Gruber, the company's senior director of global automotive. "Even though most owners drive less than the stated range of their vehicle's battery, they still want to know that the actual battery range is close to the stated battery range."

J.D. Power's U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Ownership Study said that range accuracy accounts for 20 percent of customers' overall satisfaction in their EVs, rising above other metrics such as charging options, driving enjoyme…

Self-driving tech company Aurora is firming up plans for manufacturing lidar sensors at scale.

The company on Friday said it agreed to acquire lidar-on-chip startup OURS Technology, a move intended to pave the way for producing large quantities of the sensors, which allow vehicles to perceive their environment and detect obstacles in their path.

Aurora, in a statement, said the planned acquisition will help it move past basic development of its lidar technology and toward an automotive-grade commercial product. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Aurora said it expects to close on the acquisition in a matter of weeks.

This won't be Aurora's first purchase of a lidar startup. In May 2019, the company purchased Blackmore, a Montana lidar company that helped pioneer a particular lidar technology called frequency modulated continuous wave.

The FMCW lidar enabled Aurora's vehicles to perceive objects at distances of more than 300 meters, a critical e…

Jaguar Land Rover will slash its manufacturing capacity by 25 percent over five years and write off investment in products it’s decided to scrap under new CEO Thierry Bollore.

The British carmaker will take a non-cash charge of about 1 billion pounds ($1.4 billion) in the quarter ending in March related to higher previous spending and projects it won’t complete, according to an investor presentation. The company said last week it was calling off plans to build a battery-powered replacement of the Jaguar XJ sedan.

The Tata Motors Ltd.-owned manufacturer’s new business plan under Bollore, 57, includes making the Jaguar marque all-electric within four years while giving the Land Rover SUV brand more time to make the jump. On Friday, the carmaker said it has lowered its breakeven point to about 400,000 vehicles a year, from 600,000.

JLR’s pivot away from the internal combustion engine is the latest seismic shift in the auto industry driven by stricter emissi…