Trade News

Many employees at Planet Ford-Lincoln in Spring, Texas, believe they are their co-workers' keepers.

So much so that it led them to bankroll a stash of cash they call the Superfund. Employees can voluntarily contribute $10 per month, and those participants can withdraw funds during a personal financial crisis — think sickness, death or a significant other losing a job.

The money doesn't have to be repaid, but the need must withstand the scrutiny of a panel of co-workers empowered to approve or deny a request.

Since its creation in 2003, the fund has returned more than $100,000 to participating employees facing troubles such as mortgage foreclosures, hurricane-damaged homes and medical emergencies. The largest single payout was $8,000 for funeral expenses, said Shawn Burns, Planet Ford-Lincoln's general manager and operating partner.

Burns says the fund is welcome relief for participating workers who need it and satisfies employees' desire to help…

Vehicle electrification is not only dominating the conversation about the auto industry's future, it's also now dominating North American factory investment.

In the first six months of this year, 95 percent of all automaker plant site investment in North America was for electric vehicle-related products, representing more than $12 billion.

That's up from 65 percent of investment in the two previous years, according to the Book of Deals, a database that monitors new plants and manufacturing investment projects.

"We're seeing an acceleration," said Bernard Swiecki, director of the Automotive Communities Partnership, which maintains the database to help states and communities track economic development opportunities in the auto industry. "And when you consider that the Biden administration is committed to EV technology and CO2 reduction, we have to assume the industry's investment in that area is only going to increase. You have to wonder if people might …

WASHINGTON -- U.S. auto safety regulators on Friday disclosed they are investigating a July 26 fatal crash in New York involving a Tesla that may have been using an advanced driver assistance system.

In July, several media outlets reported a 52-year-old man fixing a flat tire on the Long Island Expressway in New York was killed when he was struck by a Tesla.

An agency spokeswoman told Reuters Friday the agency was aware of the "July 26 incident involving a Tesla vehicle on the Long Island Expressway in New York, and has launched a Special Crash Investigation team to investigate the crash."

The agency's probe into the New York crash has not been previously reported.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico expects the United States to comply with automotive rules in the new North American trade pact, a senior official said, taking a firm line ahead of high-level talks next week clouded by a dispute over the future of the car industry in the region.

Mexico and Canada have been at odds for months with the United States over the application of regional content requirements for the auto industry, one of the cornerstones of last year's United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade pact.

The two countries favor a more flexible interpretation of the rules than the one taken by U.S. officials.

When asked late on Thursday whether a new methodology could be used to avoid taking the row to an international tribunal, Deputy Economy Minister Luz Maria de la Mora told Reuters:

"No, because we're not renegotiating (USMCA). It's about honoring what was agreed in the treaty."

"The text of the agreement made very clear what scope f…

Ram CEO Mike Koval Jr. shares how the brand eclipsed rivals to top one of the industry's most closely watched reports for the first time.

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Tesla Inc.’s Cybertruck pickup has fallen about a year behind schedule, the blog Electrek reported, citing remarks CEO Elon Musk made on a companywide call with employees.

The truck is expected to start production at the end of 2022 and won’t be made in volume until late 2023, Electrek said, citing unidentified sources who were on the call with Musk. The CEO told employees that ramping up output will be complicated by the amount of new technology the company will put into the pickup.

Tesla has dropped several hints that its wedge-shaped pickup will be delayed. In April, Musk said both the Cybertruck and the Semi will run on new, larger battery cells that the carmaker is making on a pilot line in California. The CEO cautioned that volume manufacturing of those cells appeared to be roughly 12 to 18 months away. Tesla also recently updated its online configurator where customers can reserve their pickup to refer to production nearing in 2022 rather than late…

Editor's note: This article is part of a Monday special section on the latest challenges to profitability in the F&I office and potential future hurdles.

Ford told investors this summer it plans to focus more on build-to-order vehicles amid what Safe-Guard Products International called a greater interest in online retail among automakers.

CEO Jim Farley said Ford replaced a reservation system with an order bank format for models such as the Bronco. The company then wondered, " 'My God, why don't we do this for all the vehicles, not just those vehicles?' " he said during the July 25 earnings call.

Farley said the company had order banks of 1,000 to 2,000 per month in the years following the financial crisis last decade.

"We are now at 70,000 units on our way to 80,000 units," he said. "That gives you the order-of-magnitude difference in the way we're looking at this order bank change for the company."

Farley said many people are making …

Mere days after striking the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Ida's remnants on Wednesday inundated parts of New York and New Jersey, including auto dealerships, with several inches of rain.

The post-tropical cyclone's rapid deluge was so severe that the National Weather Service in New York issued its first-ever flash flood emergency for New York City and its first-ever for northeast New Jersey.

Areas of New Jersey that don't typically see extensive flooding were overwhelmed. In some instances, dealers moved cars out of low-lying spots, but it was futile.

"In some cases, even the locations dealers were moving cars to which [were] presumed to be high and dry were neither high enough nor dry enough to prevent a loss," New Jersey Coalition of Automotive Retailers President Jim Appleton told Automotive News.

Appleton, who spent Thursday talking to dealers, estimated at least 10 to 15 dealerships in the state would experience significant losses. One dealer told …

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico hopes to soon reach agreement on the interpretation of how automotive content rules in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade pact are applied, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Thursday.

Speaking at a regular news conference, Lopez Obrador said he did not want differences over the interpretation to go to an international arbitration panel.

Mexico sought formal consultation with the United States in August over the interpretation and application of tougher content rules for autos set out in the USMCA trade pact, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico had voiced disagreement on the issue in a three-way virtual meeting in May when it cited differences with the U.S. methods. Canada and Mexico use more flexible interpretations.

Mexico would have the option of requesting an independent panel of experts to weigh in if it could not resolve the dispute in a period of 75 days.

"An…

DETROIT — General Motors said it will cut output at its light-duty pickup plants next week as the global microchip shortage continues to cripple production.

The plants, Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana and Silao Assembly in Mexico, are expected to resume production of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra on Sept. 13. During the downtime, GM will complete unfinished vehicles at the plants and ship them to dealers. GM has also scheduled additional downtime at crossover and midsize pickup plants.

"These most recent scheduling adjustments are being driven by the continued parts shortages caused by semiconductor supply constraints from international markets experiencing COVID 19-related restrictions," GM spokesman Dan Flores said Thursday.

AutoForecast Solutions expects that the chip shortage could result in 8.1 million vehicles being slashed from global production plans. About 2.5 million of those are forecast to be eliminated from plants in North America.<…