Trade News

Ford Credit posted a $962 million profit in the first quarter, fueled by strong vehicle prices amid the semiconductor shortage and favorable comparisons to 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic first impacted balance sheets.

The captive's results came as parent Ford Motor Co. reported a $3.3 billion net income, its best first-quarter performance in a decade.

Ford Credit benefited from an improving economy, foregoing the need to set aside as much money to cover credit losses as it did a year ago amid the COVID-19 outbreak. It also was aided in the quarter by higher auction values, which jumped 14 percent from the same period last year to $21,925.

Ford CEO Jim Farley said the lender "delivered an outstanding quarter," calling it "the best automotive finance captive in the industry."

Ford CFO John Lawler said Ford Credit also benefited from strong residual values, as used-vehicle sales soared amid a worsening inventory crisi…

We revisit our July 2020 conversation with Tesla's boss, who defended the name of the electric vehicle maker's Autopilot driver-assistance system and said criticism of the software is 'idiotic.'

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President Dwight Eisenhower once implemented a bold idea — a system of highways that brought America together. Six decades later, it's time to reimagine that idea and electrify our entire national highway system.

Simply put, the climate crisis is not waiting, and our vulnerable and disadvantaged communities that have been hardest hit by COVID-19 and environmental racism are suffering the most. As our country attempts to rebound from the pandemic and economic crisis, clean energy investments can power short- and long-term economic and environmental recovery, like creating family-supporting jobs to manufacture and install electric vehicle chargers and the cars that plug into them.

That's why I'm glad President Joe Biden has reiterated his pledge to deploy 500,000 new public electric vehicle charging outlets and called for a $15 billion investment from Congress. My EV Freedom Act, which I introduced with New York Congresswoman Alexandria-Ocasio Co…

DETROIT — General Motors on Wednesday reported first-quarter net income of $3 billion and said it still expected to earn as much as $11 billion in adjusted earnings for the full year despite the microchip shortage that is hampering production industrywide.

GM's earnings in North America increased 43 percent from a year earlier to $3.1 billion, despite the automaker having to shut down output at some plants. The company said it expected continued downtime in the coming months because of the shortage but that it would be profitable in the second quarter on an adjusted basis.

CEO Mary Barra said the company expected to finish the first half of the year with about $5.5 billion in adjusted earnings before interest and taxes, including $4.4 billion earned on that basis in the first quarter.

"We are also reaffirming our guidance for the full year," Barra said in a letter to shareholders, "and based on what we know today, we see results comi…

Clarios, the former automotive battery unit of Johnson Controls Inc., said on Wednesday it had confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering.

The company, backed by Canada's Brookfield Asset Management Inc., did not disclose other details about the proposed offering.

The flotation of Clarios, which could be valued at over $20 billion in its IPO according to a person familiar with the matter, would mark one of the biggest automotive stock market debuts this year.

EV maker Lucid Motors struck a $24-billion merger deal with a blank-check firm in February, while another high-flying startup Rivian is also lining up to go public later this year.

Brookfield had bought Glendale, Wis.-based Clarios in 2019 from former auto supplier Johnson Controls, for $13.2 billion, in one of the biggest deals clinched by the asset manager.

One in three cars on the road globally uses a battery made b…

All dollar figures in Canadian currency.

General Motors said Wednesday it plans to begin pickup production at its Oshawa, Ontario, assembly plant sooner than originally planned.

“We are accelerating the start of production of full-size trucks at Oshawa Assembly to the fourth quarter of this year, ahead of the previous target of January 2022,” the automaker said in a brief statement.

GM Canada officials weren’t immediately available for comment.

“Oshawa Assembly is on track to deliver one of the fastest plant launches in GM history,” the automaker said.

The $1.3-billion investment is expected to create nearly 1,700 new jobs. — 1,500 of them production workers.

The automaker is investing $1.3 billion in the factory so it can once again build full-size pickups there. Trucks are expected to begin rolling off the line in early 2022.

General Motors says it also needs 110 certified electricians and 60 certified industrial…

Canadian production of the 2022 Honda Civic sedan has officially started, after a lead-up that saw executives and engineers from Japan and the United States unable to easily enter the country due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The vehicle is built at Honda’s assembly plant in Alliston, Ontario, approximately 110 km (70 miles) northwest of Toronto. Honda also builds the 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine that produces 158 hp and 138 lb.-ft. in Alliston.

Honda Canada Manufacturing (HCM) said in a statement that its engineers “took on a larger role in preparing the 2022 Civic sedan for mass production.”

As a result of the restrictions, HCM says that, among other things, it “took leadership in ensuring all tooling met stringent requirements pertaining to quality control and manufacturing.”

The company said all in-house tools involved in stamping and plastics injection — for door skins, hoods, side panel skins, bumpers a…

Lucid Motors Inc., the Saudi Arabia-backed electric-vehicle maker going public via a reverse merger, has hired a former executive of Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo as its chief financial officer.

Sherry House, who was treasurer and head of investor relations at the Google parent’s prized self-driving arm, starts in her new role at Lucid this week. House will focus on Lucid’s listing later in the year and expanding the business. Michael Smuts, a former Ford Motor Co. finance executive, will continue in the role of vice president of finance.

“We are delighted to have Sherry join us. Her rare combination of financial and technical experience bolsters our core leadership team in a pivotal year for Lucid as we prepare to transition to a publicly traded company and launch the Lucid Air,” Lucid CEO Peter Rawlinson said in a statement.

Newark, California-based Lucid is one of a wave of EV startups that have chosen to go public via a special purpose acquisition compa…

Argo AI, the self-driving startup backed by Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen Group, has developed a sensor it believes will be key to commercializing autonomous transportation in cities, suburbs and on the highway.

The Pittsburgh-based company, which plans to go public as soon as this year, unveiled a lidar sensor Tuesday capable of “seeing” 400 meters (437 yards) down the road with almost photographic detail. Lidar bounces light off objects to create an image of the road ahead, providing critical information to computers that pilot next-generation technology in vehicles without human drivers.

The new sensor will be at the heart of the self-driving system that will debut on Ford’s ride-hailing and delivery vehicles next year and on VW models in the middle of the decade. Argo’s lidar could remove some roadblocks holding back more widespread adoption of driverless technology, in part by improving the visibility of other vehicles in low-light conditions.

“It …

MILAN -- Ferrari has postponed by one year its financial targets initially set for 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic, despite a record order book at the end of the last quarter.

"We expect the prudent steps we took in 2020 and are continuing in 2021 to adjust our expenditure in response to the COVID-19 emergency will postpone by one year the achievement of our year-end 2022 guidance," Chairman John Elkann said in a statement on Tuesday when presenting the company's first-quarter results.

The company delayed plans to earn at least 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 2022. It said it now plans to reach that threshold a year later because of effects of the pandemic.

Adjusted Ebitda rose to 376 million euros in the first quarter, Ferrari said. Shipments in the period were 2,771 units, up slightly from a year ago.

Ferrari already eased its target in September 2018, when Louis Camilleri was…