Trade News

DETROIT -- General Motors became the latest automaker hit by the global shortage of semiconductor chips as the U.S. automaker said on Wednesday it will take down production next week at four assembly plants.

GM said it will take down production entirely during the week of Feb. 8 at plants in Fairfax, Kan.; Ingersoll, Ont., in Canada; and San Luis Potosi, Mexico. It will also run its Bupyeong 2 plant in South Korea at half capacity that week.

GM did not disclose how much volume it would lose or which supplier was affected by the chip shortage, but said the focus has been on keeping production running at plants building the highest-profit vehicles - full-size pickup trucks and SUVs as well as the Chevrolet Corvette sports car. GM said it intends to make up as much lost production as possible.

AutoForecast Solutions, which tracks production, estimated GM's combined lost volume would total almost 10,000 vehicles next week.

Affected GM vehicles include…

PARIS -- Renault plans to introduce an electric vehicle built by one of the group’s Chinese joint ventures specifically for ride-hailing services in 2022, CEO Luca de Meo said.

The midsize sedan was first developed by JMEV, a venture with Jingliang Motors in which Renault holds a majority stake. It is known in China as the EZoom Yi and is expected to go on sale this year in China, according to news media reports there.

Renault has not released any details on the coming model, which is dubbed the “Queen” as part of four “cards to play” in the group’s new Mobilize mobility brand and business unit. Mobilize, which includes RCI Bank’s credit operations as well as services such as short-term rentals or car-sharing and last-mile deliveries, will be led by CFO and deputy CEO Clotilde Delbos. 

De Meo says that Mobilize will account for 20 percent of Renault Group turnover by 2030.

According to reports in Chinese media, the Ezoom Yi has a power outpu…

Jeep, whose Billy Murray Super Bowl ad won widespread praise last year, is coming back to the big game.

The brand will run a single spot in the second half, brand owner Stellantis confirmed Wednesday. Jeep did not reveal the length of the ad, the agency handling it, or any creative details. 

The automaker, formerly known as Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, has a history of putting out big-production, celebrity-filled Super Bowl ads under Chief Marketing Officer Olivier Francois.

Jeep’s 2020 ad starred Murray reprising his role in the 1993 movie “Groundhog Day,” seizing on the fact that the Super Bowl fell on the holiday. The ad, from Chicago-based Highdive, was shot only about a week before the game, but went on to win the USA Today Ad Meter.

Jeep is only the third auto brand to confirm a Super Bowl buy, following General Motors, which is running two ads (including a corporate spot and one for Cadillac) and Toyota Motor Corp.

Daimler plans to split up into the world’s largest makers of luxury cars and commercial vehicles, renaming itself Mercedes-Benz and separately listing its truck unit by year end.

The plan to distribute a majority of Daimler Truck to shareholders is the most significant shakeup CEO Ola Kallenius has made since taking over the top job at the German giant almost two years ago.

The spinoff will appease investors who long advocated for the move, citing a stubbornly low valuation for the group company. While Daimler recently tweaked its corporate structure to give more independence to its main divisions, it was viewed as a half measure and did little to boost sentiment.

A final decision on the separation will be taken at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting that could be held at the end of the third quarter and the business could be listed on the Frankfurt stock exchange by the end of 2021, Daimler said.

The move represents the start of a "profound re…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. forged the performance pickup market 12 years ago with the first F-150 Raptor.

Now the automaker is hoping the third-generation truck will help restore dominance in a field that's grown more crowded.

The 2021 F-150 Raptor, introduced Wednesday, features an exclusive rear suspension, upgraded Fox racing shocks, available 37-inch tires and a host of new connected technologies that all stand to improve the performance pickup.

What remains to be seen, however, is whether the redesigned Raptor — or more likely the high-performance Raptor R variant promised for 2022 — can knock off Ram's 702-hp TRX as the most powerful full-size performance pickup on the market.

Ford declined to provide any performance specs during the vehicle’s unveiling, but the 3.5-liter V-6 engine is unlikely to top the TRX’s 6.2-liter Hemi V-8. The company did confirm, however, that the Raptor R coming in 2022 will have a V-8 to directly match the TRX.

WASHINGTON -- Pete Buttigieg, a former mayor who challenged Joe Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, was confirmed by the Senate on Tuesday on a 86-13 vote to head the Transportation Department.

Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., will oversee aviation, highways, vehicles, pipelines and transit, as well as efforts to ensure safe transportation in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. He is also the first openly gay Senate-confirmed Cabinet secretary.

"I'm honored and humbled by today's vote in the Senate—and ready to get to work @USDOT," Buttigieg wrote on Twitter.

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation said the group looks forward to working with Buttigieg on key industry issues. “As outlined in our recently released Innovation Agenda and AV Policy Roadmap, our focus remains on safety and environmental policies that will enable a cleaner, safer, and smarter future,” he said in a statement.

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The Marmon Motor Car Co., famous for building the car that won the first Indianapolis 500, is formed on Feb. 2, 1926, from the Nordyke and Marmon Co.

Billed as a "A Mechanical Masterpiece" in early advertising, a Marmon competed with Cadillac, Packard, Lincoln, and Pierce-Arrow for luxury buyers. They were widely recognized for speed, solid engineering, advance materials and durability.

Marmon, like many other auto companies, faced hard times during the Great Depression and was forced into receivership in May 1933.

The Marmon Motor Car Co. traced its roots and early operations to Richmond, Ind., where in 1851 it started out as a manufacturer of millstones. Nordyke and Marmon Co. was founded by Daniel Marmon and Addison Nordyke. The company moved to Indianapolis in the 1870s where it became one of the world's top makers of milling machinery.

Daniel Marmon's sons, Walter and Howard, both engineers and fascinated by the horseless carriage, be…

HAMBURG -- Volkswagen plans to develop most of the software needed for autonomous cars in-house, the head of the German carmaker's luxury unit Audi said on Tuesday.

The automaker is not rejecting collaborations in some areas outright, said Markus Duesmann, who as well as running Audi is also on Volkswagen's management board, where he is responsible for research and development.

"But we'll make the bulk of the software on our own in the future," he said during an industry event.

Asked whether Volkswagen was looking to Alphabet's Google as a benchmark in software development, Duesmann said it wanted to be at least on the same level.

"We accept the challenge," he added.

Daimler and Volkswagen are working on their own operating systems for autonomous cars to make sure they have a chance to compete with large tech firms such as Apple and Amazon in the area of electric vehicle data.

Despite calls to team up with rivals, Volkswagen is so fa…

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story contained incorrect figures detailing the company's adjusted fourth quarter results in 2020 and 2019. The corrected 2019 figures included a $600,000 gain from a legal settlement.

Net income doubled at Asbury Automotive Group Inc. in the fourth quarter of 2020, driven by strong gross profits on new- and used-vehicle sales along with its parts and service business.

The company reported an all-time record $89.1 million in net income during the recent quarter, up from $43.6 million in 2019. Asbury, the first public retailer to report fourth-quarter and full-year earnings, said total revenue of $2.2 billion marked an 18 percent increase from the same period the previous year.

Asbury CEO David Hult said in a statement Tuesday the fourth quarter was a "pivotal" time for the company, from the launch of its omnichannel retailing platform, Clicklane, and rollout of its five-year plan to reach $20 billion in revenue b…