Trade News

WASHINGTON -- A group of key U.S. House Democrats introduced legislation on Friday to authorize $547 billion in additional spending over five years on surface transport, a plan that would mostly go to fixing existing U.S. roads and bridges and increase funding for passenger rail and transit. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Peter DeFazio said in a statement the proposal seizes on a "once-in-a-generation opportunity to move our transportation planning out of the 1950s and toward our clean energy future."

The bill adopts some proposals made by Democratic President Joe Biden as part of his broader $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan. Congress faces a Sept. 30 deadline to reauthorize surface transportation programs. Other committees have jurisdiction over other aspects of infrastructure spending.

The 1,249-page proposal comes as Biden and Senate Republicans are in talks over a massive jump in U.S. infrastructure …

President Joe Biden's strategy to make the U.S. a powerhouse in electric vehicles will include boosting domestic recycling of batteries to reuse lithium and other metals, according to government officials.

As Biden makes fighting climate change and competing with China centerpieces of his agenda, the administration is set to wrap up a 100-day review on Friday of gaps in supply chains in key areas, including EVs.

These gaps include the minerals used in EV batteries and consumer electronics. The administration is also looking for ways to reduce metal usage in new battery chemistries.

Reports from various government agencies will be submitted to the White House, a process Biden ordered in an executive order earlier this year. Parts of the reports could be released publicly as soon as next week.

Democrats are pushing aggressive climate goals to have a majority of U.S.-manufactured cars be electric by 2030 and every car on the road to be electric by 20…

WASHINGTON -- U.S. traffic deaths soared dramatically after coronavirus lockdowns ended in 2020, hitting the highest yearly total since 2007 as more Americans engaged in unsafe behavior on U.S. roads, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Thursday.

For all of 2020, 38,680 people died on U.S. roads -- up 7.2 percent or nearly 2,600 more than in 2019, even though Americans drove 13 percent fewer miles, preliminary data shows. The fatality rate hit 1.37 deaths per 100 million miles, the highest figure since 2006.

In the second half of 2020, the number of traffic deaths was up more than 13 percent.

NHTSA said the main behaviors that drove this increase include: impaired driving, speeding and failure to wear seat belts.

"We intend to use all available tools to reverse these trends and reduce traffic fatalities and injuries,” said acting NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff.

In an open letter to drivers in January, NHTSA urged actio…

Ford Motor Co. passed a significant milestone in its conversion to electric vehicles, producing more battery-powered Mustangs so far this year than gasoline-fueled versions of its iconic pony car.

Ford has built 27,816 electric Mustang Mach-E models at a plant in Mexico this year compared to 26,089 copies of the traditional internal combustion engine Mustang at a factory in Michigan, according to production data the automaker released Thursday.

CEO Jim Farley said last week that he expects four-in-10 models Ford sells to be electric by 2030, as he revealed plans to boost spending on battery-powered models by 36 percent to $30 billion. The Mach-E went on sale late last year and was the top-selling vehicle in Norway last month. In the U.S., where EV adoption is slower, the gas Mustang still outsells the electric version by nearly three-to-one.

“Mach-E has been much stronger than we expected, so we’ve totally run out of stock,” Farley told reporters at…

Lithia Motors Inc. has sold a Honda store it purchased less than two years ago from an ailing dealership group.

Lithia on May 17 sold Hazleton Honda in Hazle Township, Pa., to Fred Timbrook, Lee Wilson and David Ainsworth of Timbrook Automotive.

That's according to DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group company, which brokered the transaction.

Timbrook Automotive has 11 new-vehicle dealerships in Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia and sells vehicles from Honda, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Ford, Kia and Nissan brands, according to its website. In February 2020, Timbrook bought Altoona Honda in Pennsylvania from Bill Barnes and Paul Ritchie.

Terms of the Lithia-Timbrook deal weren't disclosed.

The public auto retailer bought Hazleton Honda from industry veteran Michael Saporito and former NFL linebackers Jessie Armstead and Antonio Pierce. It was the only dealership in a Hazle Township auto mall to rema…

BAIC Motor Co. has become the first automaker to adopt vehicle cockpits with an operating system developed by technology giant Huawei Technologies. The operating system, dubbed HarmonyOS, will be installed in a new fossil fuel-powered SUV, BAIC announced Thursday, without releasing additional details on the vehicle. BAIC, a state-owned company, made the announcement a day after Huawei presented and demonstrated a wide array of consumer electronic products run on the self-developed operating system. The products include Huawei’s flagship smartphones, smart watches and tablets. Huawei developed the HarmonyOS operating system after it was barred by the Trump administration from accessing U.S. technology including Google’s Android operating system in 2019. At an online event on Wednesday, Huawei also said it has developed smart vehicle cockpit technology based on HarmonyOS. HarmonyOS, when used in a vehicle cockpit, can be connected to smart homes a…

The new-vehicle market grew at a slower pace of 0.5 percent in May after robust gains in the first four months, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturer’s estimates. Last month, only 2.2 million vehicles were sold across the country, according to a preliminary tally the industry trade group released Thursday. Demand for new light vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses rose 6 percent. But deliveries of new commercial vehicles including trucks and buses dropped 8.8 percent. Because of robust sales in the first four months, especially a strong rebound in the first quarter, new-vehicle sales through May still surged 38 percent. During the five-month period, deliveries of new light vehicles spiked 40 percent while sales of new commercial vehicles jumped 32 percent. CAAM didn’t disclose further details of its estimates and is expected to release final tallies for vehicle sales and production in May lat…

WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it could face up to $1.3 billion in penalties in a long-running dispute over import duties paid on Ford Transit Connect vehicles.

The No. 2 U.S. automaker said after the Supreme Court declined to hear its appeal in 2020 that it paid increased duties for some prior imports, plus interest.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is now seeking additional duties of $181 million and is considering seeking a monetary penalty of "as much as $652 million to $1.3 billion," Ford said. The automaker added that it would vigorously defend its actions and noted any penalty "would be based on our level of culpability as determined by the courts."

CBP ruled in 2013 that Transit Connects imported as passenger wagons and later converted into cargo vans were subject to the 25 percent duty applicable to cargo vehicles, rather than the 2.5 percent passenger vehicle duty.

The vans were assembled in Turkey.

The Justice…

VW Group’s China unit appointed two veteran managers to run its electric-vehicle joint venture with JAC Motor Co. Erwin Gabardi was named CEO of the partnership while Jorg Graf was tapped to become chief digitization officer, VW China said this week. Gabardi was previously general secretary and vice president for corporate strategy at VW China. In 2015, he was hired by VW Group from consultant McKinsey & Co. to help the German auto giant improve auto manufacturing efficiency in Europe and China. Graf was previously chief information officer and head of organizational development at FAW-VW, VW Group’s joint venture with China FAW Group Corp. Last month, VW’s EV partnership with JAC kicked off construction on a new assembly plant in the east city of Hefei. The factory, slated to launch output in the second half of 2023, will have capacity to produce up to 350,000 EVs annually after reaching full capacity.  It will become VW’s third p…

Upstream Security CEO Yoav Levy explains how data from connected vehicles can provide auto insurance companies key insights on driver usage and behavior.

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