Tag: car industry news

Automotive News

SPOTLIGHT: 15 questions with Corey Smith

SPOTLIGHT: 15 questions with Corey Smith

Corey Smith is the national fixed operations training manager at National Auto Care.

First car: Eagle Summit

First concert you attended: Joan Jett

Name a pet peeve: Chewing sounds

Most thrilling/adventurous thing you’ve done: Ziplining in Mexico

your personal heroes: My stepfather Craig A. Smith

First job: Raking blueberries in Maine

One thing you learned on the job you never forgot: Pay attention to small details

If you could pick up a new skill, what would it be? Being able to fix cars

3 people you’d invite to dinner, living or dead: Steve Jobs, Shaq, Ed Roberts

What did you

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Automotive News

Germany’s auto industry must defend itself in moving to EVs

Germany’s auto industry must defend itself in moving to EVs

Germany for decades led on well-engineered combustion cars. It’s now facing a watershed year in the quest to retain an edge in the age of electric vehicles.

Europe’s biggest economy is under growing pressure to retool dozens of fossil fuel-era factories employing tens of thousands of workers in a race for clean-technology leadership with the US and China.

Volkswagen Group, Mercedes-Benz and BMW are rolling out several new battery-powered models in the coming months that will be pivotal to proving they can finally start to narrow the gap to Tesla and China’s BYD, the two clear leaders in EV sales.

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Automotive News

Nissan preps Canton, Miss., plant to build EVs

Nissan preps Canton, Miss., plant to build EVs

Pivoting the factory to battery vehicles is a complex endeavor.

Nissan must expand the facility’s physical footprint to accommodate the assembly of battery packs and other components.

“We will drive for more localization to reduce CO2 emissions in the supply chain,” Johnson said.

New technologies, such as laser brazing, will be introduced in the body shop to create parts that are “unique to the styling of our vehicles,” Johnson said. “We’re going to modify our onsite presses for full aluminum capability,” he said.

The assembly line will require modification rather than a rip-out.

The heaviest changes will be in trim

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Automotive News

Stellantis Free2move Charge suite to launch

Stellantis Free2move Charge suite to launch

Free2move Charge is broken down into three arenas: home, business and a public-facing component for customers wherever they go that includes access to charging networks.

Free2move Charge Home will support consumers with installation, financing and warranty of home charging and other energy hardware and services. The company said options can involve AC charging cables and wall boxes that consumers have today. Future options could also include Vehicle-2-Home, Vehicle-2-Grid and complete energy management systems with features such as touch-free wireless solutions.

“It’s not just about the hardware there, but it’s about the care plan, 24/7 support, it’s about making it easy

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Automotive News

Building a digital vehicle purchase path

Building a digital vehicle purchase path

Digital Retail Solutions to Consider

Companies catering to auto finance clients could look for an all-in-one digital retail product. Search for a solution that offers consumers intuitive tools for financing, trade-in, credit applications, and aftermarket sales that can all live on a dealership’s website. Businesses should be able to set the best course for their goals, such as tracking consumer progress and leads, custom notifications, prequalification, payment calculators, protection of product education and selection, and more. Arming consumers with the tools they need to find their next vehicle in their own environment successfully helps instill long-term satisfaction and loyalty.

If

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Automotive News

Insurers sue Hyundai and Kia over costs of easily hot-wired vehicles

Insurers sue Hyundai and Kia over costs of easily hot-wired vehicles

The widespread theft of vulnerable older Hyundai and Kia models not equipped with a crucial anti-theft device could end up costing the US insurance industry up to $600 million.

Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, American Family and 65 other auto insurers, which comprise only a fraction of the country’s insurance companies, estimate that just their portion of the payout to owners who have been affected by the social media-driven crime wave could top $300 million .

The insurers, who filed a lawsuit in US District Court in Orange County, Calif., in March, say they have already paid out $190 million. They are

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Automotive News

Stellantis, LGES implementing ‘contingency plans’ for EV battery plants in Ontario

Stellantis, LGES implementing ‘contingency plans’ for EV battery plants in Ontario

OTTAWA — Stellantis and South Korea’s LG Energy Solution (LGES) are implementing “contingency plans” related to a more-than $5-billion battery plant investment in Canada because the federal government has not delivered on its promises, a Stellantis spokesperson said May 12.

“As of today, the Canadian Government has not delivered on what was agreed to, therefore Stellantis and LG Energy Solution will immediately begin implementing their contingency plans,” Stellantis said in a brief emailed statement, without elaborating.

LGES and Stellantis announced the investment last year to establish a large-scale, domestic, electric vehicle battery manufacturing facility in Canada.

At the time, Canada’s

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