Trade News

Chip shortages have delayed the launch of a key new McLaren model — again.

Deliveries of the Artura have gotten pushed to early July, the third delay of McLaren's plug-in hybrid supercar.

The original October 2020 market launch was delayed to June 2021 because of operating challenges caused by the pandemic. Supplier-related issues then pushed U.S. deliveries to early fall.

The Artura introduces McLaren's Carbon Lightweight Architecture platform and combines a twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter V-6 engine — the first in a McLaren — with an electric motor and a 7.4-kilowatt-hour battery.

McLaren spokesman Roger Ormisher confirmed the latest delay.

"We held on longer than everybody else in terms of stopping production, but unfortunately, our semiconductor supply dried up," Ormisher said. "That made us have to reduce production across the board."

McLaren is far from alone in its predicament. Supply-chain shortages have gummed up assembly lines …

Stay with Automotive News for the latest auto technology, mobility and policy updates from CES 2022, Jan. 3-8, whether the news is in Las Vegas or online.

Sign up for our daily CES newsletter and bookmark our CES page for complete coverage. We also will host an online forum Jan. 6 at 1 p.m. EST on the future of mobility featuring experts from the automotive and tech industries.

Tune in for a live chat on our LinkedIn page at noon EST Jan. 7 for a discussion on the biggest reveals and developments from the show.

And listen to the Shift podcast Jan. 3-6 for fresh interviews from the show. For a show primer, play our podcast with Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Technology Association, which runs CES.

Fred Anderson Toyota of Sanford in North Carolina changed its schedule to give sales staff two days off in a row and also disbanded its business development center — all in an attempt to change the store's culture and performance.

The move has worked, General Manager Greg Davison said. The schedule change, which began in January 2021, has sales reps, sales managers and finance-and-insurance managers working four days, then taking two consecutive days off. The move has given those staffers a better work-life balance and has improved the store's retention rate, Davison said."I wanted to create a culture change that allowed salespeople to make a great living as well as enjoy their earnings," Davison told Automotive News in an email.

In addition to better retention, the dealership, which is open on Sundays, has benefited by attracting new hires who want better hours than many dealerships offer, Davison said. He estimated that Fred Anderson Toyot…

The global microchip shortage cost the auto industry millions of lost vehicles and billions in lost revenue last year. The latest estimates have the problem lingering through the first half of 2022.

To understand why the problem is now stretching into its second year, and why the industry's urgency to fix it hasn't delivered results, take a closer look at why it's all so complicated.

European chip supplier STMicroelectronics, the French-Italian semiconductor maker that is Europe's second-largest after Germany's Infineon, is moving aggressively to address the world shortage. STM is investing up to $3 billion into its new fabrication plant, or "fab," in Agrate, Italy, near Milan.

But semiconductor plants are slow to build, hugely expensive, complex to operate and compared with the mass-production assembly lines that automakers are accustomed to, only modest in their output. Agrate is no exception.

A vehicle plant normal…

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has stepped up its probe into engine fires that have plagued some Hyundai Motor Co and Kia Motors Corp vehicles for more than six years.

The U.S. auto safety agency said it had opened an "engineering analysis" covering about 3 million vehicles to evaluate, among other things, the efficacy of recalls initiated by the two automakers. The agency added that it was aware of 161 fires occurring potentially due to engine failures.

An engineering analysis is the next step in a process that could lead to a recall, although sometimes NHTSA closes such probes without requiring any action.

The agency had opened an investigation in 2019 covering the 2011-2014 Kia Optima and Sorento and the 2010-2015 Kia Soul, along with the 2011-2014 Hyundai Sonata and Santa Fe to investigate instances of non-crash fires.

Hyundai said on Monday it continues to fully cooperate with NHTSA in reg…

BEIJING -- BYD and autonomous driving startup Momenta established a 100 million yuan ($15.7 million) joint venture to deploy autonomous driving capabilities across certain BYD vehicles, according to a Momenta statement and a person familiar with the matter.

The new venture, called DiPi Intelligent Mobility Co. and located in Shenzhen, combines BYD's capabilities as an automaker with Momenta's experience in intelligent driving, said the statement on Monday.

BYD has invested 60 million yuan in the venture while Beijing-based Momenta is investing 40 million yuan, the person said.

The person said the initial scope of work will include deploying “Level 2 plus” autonomous driving capability across some vehicle model lines.

Level 2 semi-autonomous cars have technology that can take care of nearly all aspects of driving, from steering to acceleration and braking, but the driver needs to be ready to intervene if needed.

Asked about the tie-up, a BYD…

When General Motors Corp. filed for bankruptcy and reorganized in 2009, the makings of a Wall Street darling emerged from the wreckage.

Aptiv Plc, which grew out of the parts unit spun off from the iconic automaker, soared to $48 billion in market value earlier this year after transforming into a savvy technology company built for the shift toward electric, autonomous vehicles.

Now, though, the industry is being upended anew in ways that could challenge Aptiv. Carmakers, taking lessons from the chip shortage and the playbook of insurgent rival Tesla Inc., are moving software and engineering tasks in-house. Silicon Valley giants are elbowing into the sector, with the likes of Intel Corp., Qualcomm Inc. and Nvidia Corp. seeing opportunity in cutting-edge vehicles that are essentially giant computers on wheels.

Those forces are reordering the $1.3 trillion auto supply chain, creating openings for newcomers and threatening an entrenched industry pecking ord…

German executive Michael Lohscheller is stepping down as CEO of VinFast Global, the automotive arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup.

Lohscheller will leave the position and return to Europe due to personal reasons, Vingroup said in a statement on Monday.

Lohscheller quit his job as CEO of the Stellantis brand Opel in July to lead VinFast's push to become a "global smart electric car company," with an emphasis on growing the brand's business in Europe and North America, according to a release. He moved to Vietnam for the post.

Vingroup said Le Thi Thu Thuy will take over Lohscheller's position of VinFast Global CEO. Thuy will remain Vingroup vice chairwoman.

Thuy will directly be in charge of overseeing VinFast's business activities in its current markets, including Vietnam, the U.S., Canada, France, Germany and the Netherlands, Vingroup said.

In the coming time, she will also lead market survey activities and expansions into other pote…

Ferrari has signed a multi-year accord with Swiss technology firm Velas Network to create digital content for its fans.

Starting next season, Velas, a provider of digital products and services, will become a partner of Ferrari's Formula 1 racing team.

"In addition, Velas will be Title Sponsor of the Ferrari Esports Series, the online mono-brand series of the Prancing Horse, and of the Esports team that will compete in the F1 Esports Series, the official digital championship competed in by all teams participating in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship," Ferrari said in a statement.

Velas is a leading provider of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptographic assets stored on a blockchain which have an identification code that makes them unique and have gained popularity as a way to sell digital art.

Not surprisingly, the 2021 Automotive News Top Suppliers ranking of the industry's biggest producers of original equipment content for automakers shows that the vast majority of major world parts companies posted sales declines in 2020.