A Jeep Renegade rolls down an assembly line at Fiat Chrysler’s Melfi assembly plant in Italy in 2015. Michael Wayland / CNBC Fiat Chrysler said Wednesday that it will “intensify measures” against the spread of the coronavirus in Italy, including temporarily closing plants there, where the government has implemented a national quarantine. The shutdowns are… Continue reading Fiat Chrysler idling Italian plants as coronavirus outbreak intensifies
Author: CNBC Online news
General Motors tightens travel protocols as coronavirus spreads
Flags fly outside the General Motors world headquarters building. Bill Pugliano | Getty Images General Motors is tightening its travel protocols for employees as global cases of the coronavirus top 100,000, including at least 233 in the U.S. Domestic and international travel for GM employees effective Friday “requires senior leader approval,” a company spokesman told CNBC.… Continue reading General Motors tightens travel protocols as coronavirus spreads
Project Blackjack: GM’s top-secret redesign of its mid-engine Corvette was disguised in an Australian pickup truck
The eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette started its life as a Frankenstein test vehicle that parts of the previous generation sports car and Australian-made pickup called the Holden Ute, codenamed internally as “Blackjack.” That included exterior features of the pickup. Michael Wayland / CNBC LAS VEGAS – General Motors took unprecedented steps in an attempt to hide… Continue reading Project Blackjack: GM’s top-secret redesign of its mid-engine Corvette was disguised in an Australian pickup truck
Ford expects $2.2 billion pretax hit due to pension plans, retirement benefits in Q4
An employee works on the assembly line installing parts on the Duratech 35 V6 engine at the Ford Motor Co. Engine Plant in Lima, Ohio, U.S. on Friday, March 28, 2014. Ty Wright | Bloomberg | Getty Images DETROIT — Ford Motor expects to take a pretax hit of about $2.2 billion in the fourth-quarter… Continue reading Ford expects $2.2 billion pretax hit due to pension plans, retirement benefits in Q4
Fiat Chrysler, UAW reach new tentative labor deal
UAW President Gary Jones (left) and FCA North America Chief Operating Officer Mark Stewart opened 2019 contract talks with a ceremonial hand shake during an event on July 16, 2019 at the company’s North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. Fiat Chrysler DETROIT – Fiat Chrysler and the United Auto Workers union have reached a… Continue reading Fiat Chrysler, UAW reach new tentative labor deal
Alphabet’s self-driving car project Waymo is shuttering its Austin operations
John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo speaks at a press conference at the 2017 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan, January 8, 2017. Geoff Robins | AFP | Getty Images Waymo, Alphabet‘s self-driving car project, is shuttering its operations in Austin, Texas. The Alphabet subsidiary is removing employees at the facility and says it… Continue reading Alphabet’s self-driving car project Waymo is shuttering its Austin operations
UAW cites ‘significant progress’ in talks with Ford as GM strike, negotiations continue
Striking United Auto Workers members and supporters attend a speech by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders outside General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant on Sept. 25, 2019 in Detroit. Michael Wayland / CNBC DETROIT – As the United Auto Workers and General Motors continue negotiations to potentially end an 18-day strike against the automaker, the head of… Continue reading UAW cites ‘significant progress’ in talks with Ford as GM strike, negotiations continue
Car dealers struggle to sell 2018 new-car inventory to make room for 2020 cars
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesAs dealerships look to sell off cars from the 2019 model year to bring in 2020's shiny new models, they're running into a problem. They still have cars from 2018 clogging up their lots.
A full 3.5% of all July's new car sales were 2018 model years, according to Tyson Jominy, vice president of automotive data and analytics consulting for J.D. Power. That means roughly 49,000 of the 1.4 million new cars sold in the U.S. in July were last year's models.
It's the highest percentage of older models of new cars since 2005 when J.D. Power first started collecting data. The percentage of new 2017 models that sold last July was 2.5%, he said Monday.
Having a lot of 2018 models on the lot isn't good for business. As Jominy points out, automakers are spending about $1,100 more per car in incentives to move 2018 cars of their lots than 2019 models, cutting into profits for automakers.
“Consumers know what expired produce looks like” Jominy said in an interview.
Jominy estimates that there may be another 30,000 cars from 2018 still waiting to be sold.
With so much 2018 inventory still on dealer lots, dealers are hesitant to stock new 2020 models, he said. For perspective, dealerships were able to move older models off their lots faster during the Great Recession than now, in July 2008 only .9% of all new car transactions were cars from 2007.
“This is the time of year to sell down model year 2019 cars and move to the 2020 models, but there are no 2020 models,” said Jominy.
He's right, six car segments haven't rolled out their 2020 vehicles at all, most notably large light duty pickups and muscle cars according to J.D. Power data. The Chevy Equinox and GMC Terrain SUV are the only 2020 compact utility vehicles on dealer lots now.
New car sales of 2018 models have been high all year, he said, which could be evidence of falling demand.
“We may need to see production cuts, the industry isn't getting any bigger and hard choices might have to be made,” he said.
Jaguar Land Rover is working on 3D tech that will alert drivers to road hazards
The interior of a 2020 Jaguar XE sports sedan is seen during a Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC event in New York, U.S., on Tuesday, April 16, 2019.David Dlegado | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesEngineers at Jaguar Land Rover are developing 3D, “head up” technology that could project real-time safety alerts to drivers.
The car manufacturer is working with researchers from the University of Cambridge on the technology, it said in an announcement Tuesday.
The research is aiming to create an immersive display that would “closely match” real world experiences, which would in turn enable drivers to react to prompts and hazards in a more natural way.
If implemented, the display could provide drivers with information on lane departures, satellite navigation directions and road hazards.
“This program is at the forefront of development in the virtual reality space,” the University of Cambridge's Daping Chu said in a statement.
“We're looking at concepts and components which will set the scene for the connected, shared and autonomous cars of the future,” Chu, who is director of both the Centre for Photonic Devices and Sensors and the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics, added.
As technology develops and vehicles become increasingly connected, manufacturers are working on a number of innovative systems to improve safety.
In March, for example, Volvo Cars announced it would be installing in-car cameras and sensors to check drivers for signs of intoxication and distraction.
The firm said the technology would be used to monitor drivers and, when needed, enable the car “to intervene if a clearly intoxicated or distracted driver does not respond to warning signals and is risking an accident involving serious injury or death.”
Actions the car could take include limiting speed to slowing down and then parking the car in a safe place. Installation of the technology will start in the early 2020s.
Uber shares slide after reporting disappointing quarterly results
VIDEO3:2503:25Uber reported a $5.2 billion loss—What five experts are watching nowTrading NationUber shares dropped as much as 12% in extended trading Thursday after the company delivered disappointing second-quarter results.
Shares remained down roughly 8% in premarket trading Friday.
It was a miss on both top and bottom lines for Uber. Net losses for the ride-hailing company soared to $5.24 billion, largely owing to stock based compensation.
Here's how the numbers stacked up otherwise versus analysts' expectations (according to consensus estimates compiled by Refinitiv):
Loss per share: $4.72, versus $3.12 expectedRevenue: $3.17 billion versus $3.36 billion expected “We think that 2019 will be our peak investment year and we think that 2020, 2021, you'll see losses come down. I think our break even is something that we can push the company to break even if we really wanted to frankly,” said CEO Dara Khosrowshahi in a conversation with CNBC's Deirdre Bosa. “No doubt in my mind that the business will eventually be a break even and profitable business.”
VIDEO21:1121:11Watch Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's full interview following Q2 earnings missSquawk on the StreetExcluding stock-based compensation, Uber's losses were around $1.3 billion, roughly 30% worse than in the preceding quarter.
While Uber helped establish ride-hailing in markets all over the world, over the past decade, the company has been investing in and operating myriad “on-demand” businesses including food delivery, bike-sharing and a freight service that matches shippers with carriers who can haul their goods.
Uber's core ride-hailing business generated $12.19 billion in gross bookings during the second-quarter of 2019, beating analysts' estimate of $12.11 billion in gross bookings. But the newer, Uber Eats business generated $3.39 billion in gross bookings falling short of analysts' expectations of $3.51 billion in gross bookings.
Khosrowshahi said in the call with CNBC, “The Eats business is still a business that carries very significant growth going forward and that continues to attract a lot of capital. Not just in the US, but all over the world. With the eats business there's a lot of capital chasing a lot of growth and we're the leader on a global basis. So, I don't expect that business to be profitable in the next year or year after frankly.”
In recent weeks, Uber cut approximately 400 jobs from its marketing team.
The company boasted over 30 million riders in 2018. In July, the Uber platform reached over 100 million “Monthly Active Platform Consumers” for the first time, the company reported on Thursday.
Still, Uber has been working to keep riders, and drivers, loyal to its app with membership offerings and loyalty rewards, while battling formidable competitors including Lyft in North America, and Grab and Didi in Asia.
Uber previously recorded a $1 billion loss on $3.1 billion in revenue in its first report as a public company in May 2019.
Now, Uber must convince investors that, under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi's leadership, it is on a path to profitability with a realistic long-term plan for generating returns for investors. That's no easy feat since Uber, like other ride-hailing providers, has long subsidized its rides.
Uber priced its IPO shares at $45 in its market debut, and shares closed on Wednesday ahead of the second-quarter update at $39.15, trending higher after hours after its chief U.S. competitor, Lyft, reported lower than expected losses, higher than expected revenue, and gave a rosier outlook for the rest of 2019.
–Paayal Zaveri contributed to this report.
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