Trade News

Lear Corp. said Thursday it will acquire a Kongsberg Automotive business unit specializing in producing comfort seating solutions.

Lear, a Southfield, Mich.-based supplier of seating and electrical systems, said the deal will aid its vertical integration and help grow product offerings to include a larger suite of comfort seating solutions to enhance vehicle performance and packaging.

Lear said it will pay $203 million for Kongsberg Automotive's Interior Comfort Systems unit. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

"This acquisition represents an opportunity for Lear to capture more content-per-vehicle by providing an optimized solution with a better value proposition for our customers, in terms of cost, quality and performance," Lear CEO Ray Scott said in a news release.

Kongsberg Automotive is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. Its ICS business unit employs more than 3,800 people in facilities …

LONDON -- Soaring costs of materials such as lithium and nickel used to make electric vehicle batteries are starting to feed through into prices of batteries in China, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said this week.

This is contrary to expectations that prices of the lithium ion rechargeable batteries used to power electric vehicles, vital for the energy transition, would keep falling over time as economies of scale kicked in.

However, the initial cost gains from large scale battery production have been achieved with the construction of gigafactories, said Benchmark Mineral Intelligence CEO Simon Moores.

Now costs of raw materials, particularly lithium, are rising and feeding into battery costs, he added.

EV batteries typically use lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. BMI's assessment of the lithium carbonate price in China shows a jump of more than 300 percent over the last year to $28,675 a ton in mid-October due to supplies falling short of …

Predicting vehicle maintenance and catching quality issues months in advance. These are just some of AI-startup Viaduct's goals as it collaborates with automakers and Tier 1 suppliers.

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Three dealerships groups added stores in October transactions in Pennsylvania, New York and Indiana.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import brands.

Spitzer Management Inc., doing business as Spitzer Autoworld, has continued to grow in DuBois, Pa., buying two dealerships this month in the city northeast of Pittsburgh.

Spitzer, of Elyria, Ohio, on Oct. 19 bought Murray's Ford-Lincoln and Murray's Honda from Greg Murray.

The stores will be renamed Spitzer Ford-Lincoln DuBois and Spitzer Honda DuBois.

"Last fall we acquired a Chevy-Buick-GMC-Cadillac and a Subaru store one mile up the street," Spitzer COO Andrew Spitzer said in an email to Automotive News. "Over the last year we've learned about what an amazing area and community DuBois is. So when the opportunity arose to add another two locations [with great brands], it was an easy decision."

Murray's dates to 1968, when Harvey…

STOCKHOLM -- Volvo Cars gained in its trading debut after raising 20 billion kronor ($2.3 billion) in an initial public offering, as investors bought into the company's successful turnaround and promise of an electric future. 

The shares jumped as much as 22 percent in Stockholm and traded at 63 kronor as of 12:45 p.m. local time, above the listing price of 53 kronor. The IPO valued the automaker at 158 billion kronor, according to a Volvo statement.

Volvo CEO Hakan Samuelsson said the listing symbolized a recognition of its transformation plans, in the rapidly changing car sector. "It's a very exciting journey and now we have the money for it," he told journalists and investors in a webcast opening ceremony.

The debut follows Volvo's move to cut the size of its offering by a fifth after investors balked at the prospect of the automaker's owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, retaining a hold on to the bulk of the voting rights. The Chinese group e…

Daimler reported a higher third-quarter profit despite a 30 percent drop in Mercedes-Benz vehicle sales due to the microchip shortage, as the company focused on more profitable cars and cut costs.

Quarterly operating profit was 2.6 billion euros ($3 billion), up 18 percent from 2.2 billion euros for the same period in 2020, Daimler said in a statement on Friday.

Revenue was almost flat at 40.1 billion euros versus 40.3 billion in the third quarter of 2020.

Daimler said it expects chip supplies to improve in the fourth quarter. It said the shortage will continue in 2022 but should improve compared to 2021. The company has previously warned the global chip crunch could last into 2023.

"This [chip] issue will continue to be a top priority for us moving forward," CFO Harald Wilhelm told analysts during a conference call on Friday.

Daimler now expects Mercedes to post slightly lower sales in 2021 versus 2020, but said its forecast of an adjust…

TOKYO — Toyota has disclosed fresh details about its first serious foray into the expanding world of electric vehicles — saying its new bZ4X midsize crossover EV will get a 71-kilowatt hour battery, 300-mile driving range and a funky steer-by-wire system.

The futuristically styled battery-powered utility offering is the first EV to ride on the company's e-TNGA dedicated electric vehicle platform. It kicks off a batch of seven bZ-badged pure electrics the world's biggest carmaker plans to launch by 2025 as it dives into the global EV race.

The bZ4X goes on sale in mid-2022, targeting worldwide markets including the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. The bZ in the subbrand's nomenclature derives from Beyond Zero, a reference to zero emissions. The numeral stands for the vehicle class, the X for the body type.

The 4 in bZ4X approximates the size of the Toyota RAV4, but Toyota said that creative packaging allowed by the all-electric layout helps deliver a room…

James Kuffner once reprogrammed a Prius to turn it into a driverless vehicle for Google. Now, he's a top executive at Toyota Motor Corp., charged with hacking the very way it approaches the business of carmaking.

As chief digital officer, handpicked by President Akio Toyoda, the 50-year-old tech-industry veteran has a mandate to keep the world's No. 1 automaker on top as vehicles become more like computers.

The shift to electrified, autonomous vehicles is a disruptive force sweeping the industry, with Apple Inc. and other Big Tech challengers muscling in. At stake for Toyota is a global manufacturing empire churning out more than 10 million vehicles a year.

After showing the world a path away from gasoline with the Prius, Toyota is doubling down, betting billions of dollars on everything from hydrogen and battery-powered vehicles to entire cities built around self-driving cars. Key to it all is Kuffner.

"The potential for technology to change th…

CATL, China’s largest battery supplier for electric vehicles, will license technology for integrating battery cells directly into packs to Hyundai Mobis, the auto parts unit of Hyundai Motor Group.

Under a letter of intent signed Wednesday, Hyundai Mobis will use the supplier’s patented “cell-to-pack” technology to build battery units for Korean and global markets, CATL said. 

By integrating cells directly into battery packs rather than modules, the energy density of battery packs can be increased while simplifying manufacturing and saving costs, it added.

CATL introduced the “cell-to-pack” technology at the Frankfurt auto show in 2019. 

By eliminating module assembly, the technology could improve volume utilization efficiency by 15-20 percent, raise energy density by 10-15 percent, and cut the number of parts by 40 percent for battery packs, CATL said at the time.

Used light-vehicle sales remained robust in September, advancing 10 percent to top 1.25 million. 

Growth was driven by demand for used crossovers, SUVs and minibuses, according to a tally from the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

Used crossover and SUV sales spiked 36 percent to around 183,200 last month while deliveries of second-hand minibuses jumped 20 percent to some 39,000.

Sales of used multi-purpose vehicles rose 10 percent to roughly 91,600 while deliveries of second-hand sedans gained 6.1 percent to 938,400.

After nearly doubling in the first quarter from the coronavirus virus-battered year-earlier period, the Chinese market for used light vehicles has kept growing at a double-digit pace this year.

Through September, the market expanded 39 percent to approach 10.03 million.