Trade News

Editor's note: This story is part of a special "Help Wanted" section running in the Oct. 4 edition that details the lengths auto companies are going to find new workers.

The auto industry has been talking about "reshoring" in recent years as if it were a kind of patriotic movement — pulling manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. from China, Indonesia and Mexico as way to bolster the American economy.

Garry Craft wishes it were that simple.

"We just transferred a lot of business from Mexico to our plant in Gadsden, Ala., because the company there couldn't get enough people to do the work," said Craft, director of sales at Koller-Craft South. "They were having problems getting employees. And once their product got to the border, the trucks were sitting there for five to seven days because of staffing issues at the border."

Koller-Craft, a Tier 2 molder and assembler of components that include interior trim pieces, decorative parts, cupholder assemblie…

TOKYO — Honda Motor Co., which will phase out internal combustion products by 2040, has now unveiled plans to reinvent the company in business areas that are truly out of this world.

Under a road map unveiled last week, the automaker said it will branch into electric air mobility vehicles, avatar robots and even reusable rockets to launch satellites into space.

Topping the list of new directions, which will be handled by Honda R&D, is electric vertical take-off and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft. It is a sector increasingly being explored by rival automakers, including South Korea's Hyundai Motor Group.

But with Honda, it parlays nicely with the company's long-standing jet business.

To overcome the limitations of short-range battery-powered flight, Honda will equip its eVTOL aircraft with a gas turbine hybrid power unit. Honda wants to conduct a test flight in 2024 and decide on the viability of the business by 2025. If it gets the green light, …

VW's U.S. sales dipped 8.2 percent in the third quarter to 79,321, as car sales plunged by nearly half while crossover deliveries jumped 18 percent on new sales contributions from the Taos and ID4. Meanwhile, Audi sales fell 14 percent in the third quarter to 41,019.

Brands: Volkswagen, down 8.2%; Audi, down 14%.

Notable nameplates: VW Atlas (combined), down 5.3%; Tiguan, down 29%; ID4, 6,049 sales (new); Taos, 13,104 sales (new); Audi Q3, up 14%; Q5, up 44%; A6, down 65%

Incentives (including Porsche): $2,939 per vehicle, down 34% from a year earlier, TrueCar says.

Average transaction price (including Porsche): $40,892, up 1.2% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar.

Fleet mix: 2.2%, according to TrueCar.

Did you know? The five crossovers in VW's lineup account for 71.6 percent of VW sales so far this year, including 78.1 percent in the third quarter. That's about four times the crossover sales mix the automaker had in the U.S. f…

Tesla Inc. is expected to report record deliveries of roughly 224,000 vehicles in the most recent quarter, another milestone for CEO Elon Musk and his trailblazing electric-car brand.

Deliveries are one of the most closely watched metrics at Tesla: They underpin the company’s financial results and are widely seen as a barometer of consumer demand for electric vehicles amid a global shift away from the internal combustion engine.

Twelve analysts surveyed by Bloomberg expect Tesla to report 223,677 deliveries in the third quarter. The company sent its own consensus figure, 221,952, to investors.

Tesla delivered a record 201,250 vehicles in the second quarter. The carmaker typically counts sales until midnight on the last day of the three-month period, the latest of which ended Thursday. It could announce production and delivery figures as soon as Friday.

A strong figure would show that Tesla is holding up well as it and other automakers face globa…

Subaru sales dipped 30 percent in September to 42,054 because of the global microchip shortage, the Japanese automaker said, with only one of its models showing a year-over-year gain. For the year, Subaru's sales are still up 6 percent.

Notable nameplates: Forester down 27%, Outback down 58%, Crosstrek down 0.7%; WRX/STI up 20%

Q3 incentives: $1,382 per vehicle, down 25% from a year earlier, TrueCar says

Q3 average transaction price: $30,795, up 2.5% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar

Quote: "Our retailers continued to show record sales efficiency in September, despite the continued challenges from the global supply chain disruptions," Subaru of America CEO Tom Doll said in a written statement.

Did you know? WRX/STI, Outback and Crosstrek sales still remain up for the year through September.

Tesla Inc. will hold off on rolling out a beta version of its so-called Full Self-Driving system to more customers by a week to align with a delayed software update, CEO Elon Musk said.

The carmaker will expand access to what it refers to as FSD beta when it releases version 10.2 of the software, Musk wrote Friday on Twitter.

He announced earlier in the week that this will take place on Oct. 8.

Tesla has for almost a year allowed roughly 2,000 people to beta-test features the company has charged customers as much as $10,000 to be able to use sometime in the future. The company has said that while FSD is designed to someday handle trips without driver intervention, it’s not yet capable of rendering Tesla cars autonomous.

A week ago, Tesla released a button to customers allowing them to request to participate in the beta-testing program. They must agree to let the company assess their driving behavior for seven days and acknowledge they’re resp…

As automakers scramble to make electric vehicles with longer ranges and speedier charging times, the chip industry has a message for them: You’re doing it wrong.

Semiconductor companies are urging EV makers to ditch traditional silicon chips and embrace materials that will make cars more efficient, helping ease consumers’ “range anxiety” and someday making recharges as quick as a gas-station fill-up. But there isn’t an agreement yet on which approach to use. Silicon carbide is the front-runner, with gallium nitride emerging as a key contender.

What are these new materials? Well, silicon carbide — as the name suggests — is a combination of two elements, silicon and carbon. And it does a better job as a power converter, meaning chips using the material can move energy around with less of it getting lost along the way. The same is true of gallium nitride, which is made of gallium and nitrogen and — like silicon carbide — has a distinct edge over traditional silic…

Editor's note: This story is part of a special "Help Wanted" section running in the Oct. 4 edition that details the lengths auto companies are going to find new workers.

Nissan North America took to the airwaves last month in search of new employees, with ads on radio, TV and social media to promote career opportunities at its large assembly plant in Smyrna, Tenn.

Nissan, which reduced its manufacturing headcount as the pandemic disrupted the industry, now needs several hundred more plant employees, spokesman Brian Brockman said.

The ads don't simply say that jobs are available; they tout the cushier perks of a technician's job at Smyrna.

They tell the local community that employees have access to an on-site gym and golfing range, discounted rates on new-vehicle leases, paid college tuition and raises every six months.

"We see strong demand for production, and we have a need to expand production," Brockman said. "Our traditional recruitment…

Lordstown Motors Corp. agreed to partner with Foxconn Technology Group in a $280 million deal that has the startup selling its former General Motors factory in Ohio to the Taiwanese company in exchange for cash while also receiving an equity investment.

Under terms of the transaction, Lordstown Motors will sell the Lordstown factory to Foxconn for about $230 million after buying it from GM for just $20 million two years ago. The maker of Apple Inc.’s iPhone will buy $50 million worth of common stock in its new partner and will assemble the Lordstown Endurance electric pickup truck. The deal is contingent on the two sides reaching an agreement on manufacturing the vehicle. Foxconn plans to start mass production in April, according to a person familiar with its schedule.

Lordstown shares were up 4.6 percent in premarket trading Friday. The stock rose 8.4 percent Thursday, closing at $7.98 after Bloomberg had earlier reported a deal was in the work…

The global chip shortage continued to hammer automakers last month, with Hyundai and Kia reporting lower U.S. sales in September for the second straight month.

Volume dropped 1.8 percent at Hyundai and 4.7 percent at Kia, though both automakers racked up overall gains for the third quarter behind strong July deliveries.

Hyundai said retail sales slipped 5 percent to 49,439 last month as a result of what Randy Parker, head of sales, called a "challenging inventory environment." Genesis posted a 332 percent increase in Sept. volume, with sales of the GV70 and GV80 crossovers each outpacing combined deliveries of the brand's three sedans.

Most other automakers will report September and third-quarter sales later Friday. Ford Motor Co. will release results on Monday, followed by Daimler later in the week.

U.S. sales are forecasts to fall about 25 percent in September, based on estimates from J.D. Power, LMC Automotive, TrueCar and Cox Automotive, capp…