“We presented to the trade unions a part of our new industrial and strategic plan, the one concerning the Italian industrial system for the period 2019-2021 and is based on our current market forecast, which predicts a stable trend, but with a decline in 2020 with entry in force of the new rules on emissions… Continue reading FCA, Gorlier: “Electric and hybrid for all our factories and full employment, a way to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the 500”
Tag: FCA
The trade unions on the FCA plan: “We believe in full employment, even in Mirafiori”
“We were looking forward to this meeting and we received a detail on the 2019-2021 plan and we had confirmation of a very important amount of investments as regards Italy”, is the first comment of the unions at the end of the meeting with the top management FCA and in particular for voice of Rocco… Continue reading The trade unions on the FCA plan: “We believe in full employment, even in Mirafiori”
FCA, the future will be sustainable with the first all-electric Fiat 500 at Mirafiori
Electric and hybrid, with a 500 that will arrive at Mirafiori with the first installation of a “full BEV” platform, that is completely electric batteries. This is the core of a morning of comparisons at the table to finally know the future of FCA in Italy and in particular in Turin, now closely linked to… Continue reading FCA, the future will be sustainable with the first all-electric Fiat 500 at Mirafiori
Fiat Chrysler to spend 5 billion euros on new models, engines in Italy
File photo: A Fiat Chrysler assembly worker works on the interior of a partially assembled minivan at the Windsor Assembly Plant in Windsor, Ontario, February 9, 2015. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook TURIN, Italy (Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler pledged on Thursday to spend more than 5 billion euros ($5.7 billion) on new models and engines in Italy between… Continue reading Fiat Chrysler to spend 5 billion euros on new models, engines in Italy
Top Automotive Industry News for Week of November 5 – November 11, 2018
Here is the most important news associated with the automotive industry
identified by the AEA for the week of November 5, 2018 -November 11, 2018.
We hope it helps you stay up to speed on the key developments in our
industry:
-Automotive Manufacturing News-
First ex-UAW official sentenced in FCA-related scandal; gets 1 year
(Detroit Free Press)
Ford plans construction on Michigan Central Depot by year's end
(Detroit Free Press)
Former Tesla employee charged with embezzling $9.3 million from Elon
Musk's company
(MarketWatch)
Is Toyota Next to Pare Back its Passenger Car Line?
(The Detroit Bureau)
Tesla picks an insider to be chairwoman, fueling doubt Elon Musk will
be reined in
(LA Times)
The gas engine still has a long life to live, Aston Martin CEO says
(CNBC)
VW planning $21K EV to challenge Tesla
(The Detroit News)
VW takes another shot at compact pickup market
(The Detroit News)
White House, California to discuss vehicle emissions rules next week
(autoblog)
Why GM is moving 3,000 workers from Pontiac to Warren
(Detroit Free Press)
-Automotive Evolution News-
8 concept cars that show how technology will dominate the drive of the
future
(CNBC)
Autonomous Cars Face Big Hurdles; They Will Succeed, But When?
(Forbes)
Daimler And Bosch Choose San Jose For Their Silicon Valley Robo-Taxi
Service
(Forbes)
GM's future lineup will run on electricity, drive itself — and fly
(Detroit Free Press)
Mercedes-Benz, Bosch to offer self-driving car rides in San Jose,
California
(USA Today)
Tesla Drivers Report Autopilot Disengaging While Driving Due To
Software Bug
(Forbes)
This Robot Truck Startup May Have An Edge Over Waymo In Bad-Weather
Driving
(Forbes)
Uber rival Taxify says it can grow 100 times bigger in the scooter and
ride-hailing market
(CNBC)
Uber ups its driver perks with 'Pro' program, including free college
education
(USA Today)
-Automotive Retail News-
Better inventory listings, lead management anchor more sales
(Auto Remarketing)
CarGurus Helps Dealerships Solve for Attribution with More Insight
(PR Newswire)
Dealertrack Looks to Speed Car Buying Process
(Auto Finance News)
Jumpstart: Car Buyers Want to Negotiate
(Auto Dealer Monthly)
Lithia and Shift to operate separately and share technology
(Auto Remarketing)
Luxury car owners trade up for American pickups as Ford, GM and Ram
trucks dominate market
(CNBC)
Millennials Spending Big on Cars — With Auto Loans to Match
(The Detroit Bureau)
Used car payments hit record $400 per month as prices top $20,000
(USA Today)
Used-Car Prices Reach 13-Year High in Third Quarter
(Vehicle Remarketing)
Used Vehicle Prices Rising, Pushing Buyers to Look at Leasing
(The Detroit Bureau)
-Automotive Wholesale News-
Compact Van Values Dip at Start of November
(Vehicle Remarketing)
-Automotive Ownership News-
Where your car is most likely to be stolen in every state
(USA Today)
-Automotive Enthusiast News-
Inside the World's Most Valuable Hot Wheels Collection
(Car and Driver)
With millions at stake, car collectors scour Earth for lost classics
(Detroit Free Press)
-Automotive Servicing News-
Mazda to recall 640,000 vehicles globally over diesel engine issue
(Reuters)
Subaru recalls nearly 400K vehicles to fix stalling problems
(Detroit Free Press)
U.S. agency probes 1.7 million GM SUVs over wiper failures
(Reuters)
-General Business & Executive News-
CDK Global Names Brian Krzanich President and Chief Executive Officer
(CDK)
Ford buys electric scooter startup Spin, joining competitors Bird and
Lime
(USA Today)
Harley-Davidson's electric motorcycle signals a big change for the
legendary, but troubled, company
(CNBC)
Tesla’s Booming Model 3 Sales and More This Week In The Future Of Cars
(Wired)
Time Dealer Of The Year
(Automotive News)
VW Considers Investing in Ford-Backed Autonomous Unit Argo
(Bloomberg)
-AEA Reminder-
Did we miss something? Let us know via our
Contact Us Page >>
. If you have specific important news going public soon that you would like
to share with your fellow AEA Members, submit your
PR Distribution Request >>
Have a great week,
Member Services
memberservices@automotiveexecutives.com
Automotive Executives Association
www.automotiveexecutives.com
AFL-CIO worries GM job cuts are a ‘smokescreen for offshoring’
AFL-CIO’s policy director on General Motor’s decision to lay off thousands
4 Hours Ago | 05:13
The AFL-CIO labor union is worried that General Motors' decision this week to halt production at several factories and cut thousands of jobs in the U.S. could be a pretext for sending work outside the country where labor costs are significantly cheaper.
“This situation is really about whether or not GM is going to put new work into these plants or whether this is a smoke screen for offshoring work,” AFL-CIO policy director, Damon Silvers said on CNBC's Power Lunch.
GM was not immediately available for comment. The automaker said Monday it will begin phasing out the production of several vehicles at a number of factories in the United States and Canada.
GM has said it is cutting production of these vehicles in part because they are slow-selling, but Silvers said GM recently decided to start making the Chevrolet Blazer SUV in Mexico, rather than the plant in Lordstown, Ohio that it plans to wind down.
GM has a “particularly bad history” compared with Ford and Chrysler of looking to move jobs off shore he said.
Successful auto companies worldwide pay decent wages and benefits to high-skilled workers, Silvers said.
“The bottom feeders do things like exploit $2-an-hour wages, which is what GM pays in some of its factories in Mexico,” he said. “What we want them to do is to be in a first tier strategy that really takes advantage of the skills and capacity … of America's workers and America's communities.”
Wrangler-flipper improves productivity at Jeep plant
Wrangler-flipper improves productivity at Jeep plantToledo — The rotisserie skillet at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Toledo North Assembly Plant isn't as appetizing as it sounds.
Moving platforms on an assembly line for the Jeep Wrangler JL are equipped with rotating “skillets” that flip partly built Jeeps 90 degrees onto their sides. That allows line workers to install components in the roof and underbody without raising their arms above their head or bending at the waist, movements that line operators say cause long-term repetitive stress injuries.
Other skillets in the industry often move up and down, but don't flip onto their sides like these. Fiat Chrysler says the technology isn't found anywhere else in the auto industry — one reason the automaker invited media to the Toledo plant Friday to tout its efficiencies and manufacturing processes in Jeep's historic hometown.
The Wrangler poses a particularly unique challenge for line operators at the roof and underbody installation stations, because the open roof and off-road capabilities under the car put components in harder-to-reach places. That spot on the assembly line was previously one of the least popular, said Tom Hall, a Toledo North worker who helped lead the assembly launch for the Wrangler JL.
“What would happen is … the harder areas would be lower-seniority employees,” he said. “Those would be the areas operators would want to (get out) of.”
When the Wrangler JL moved to the Toledo North plant, operators shared these concerns with the automaker's manufacturing and engineering teams, and worked together to come up with the rotisserie skillet.
“Every time an operator has to do an irregular movement — bend, stretch, turn — that’s not value added to the vehicle,” Hall said. “So what we tried to do is reduce the movement of the operator to be more efficient.”
Using the rotating skillet for the roof and underbody systems for the Wrangler JL eliminated 500 possible risks — situations where the line operator is in an awkward, uncomfortable or potentially unsafe position — to which operators otherwise would have been exposed.
And making the line safer also makes business sense. Fiat Chrysler says workers on the part of the line that uses the rotating skillet are 59 percent more efficient.
The workers “definitely love it,” Hall said. “Before, they were overhead-working all day long, head craned back. So this does make a difference.”
Workers who interact with the rotisserie skillet now stand in one location, with the parts and tools directly in front of them. They ride the moving platforms about 20 feet down the line until they are done installing and then move back to the station where they started.
Making those comfort improvements can attract more skilled workers to that part of the line, said Kristin Dziczek, vice president of Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research.
“If it's a job that no one wants to do — that's uncomfortable — you will get the least experienced people doing that job,” she said. “Making it a better job can eliminate that, and it can make the line more accessible to different body types.”
nnaughton@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @NoraNaughton
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Fiat Chrysler aims to boost margins, keep jobs with European production plan
MILAN (Reuters) – Fiat Chrysler (FCA) (FCHA.MI) is expected to commit to producing a raft of new models in Italy, including Jeeps and an Alfa Romeo SUV, union sources said, as the carmaker strives to fill underutilized plants and lift profit margins in Europe. FILE PHOTO: A logo of Fiat is pictured on the Fiat… Continue reading Fiat Chrysler aims to boost margins, keep jobs with European production plan
Ghosn's alleged scheme cost Nisson 'millions'
Ghosn's alleged scheme cost Nisson 'millions'Yokohama, Japan – Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who became one of the auto industry’s most powerful executives by engineering a turnaround at the Japanese manufacturer, was arrested Monday and will be fired for allegedly underreporting his income and misusing company funds, the automaker said.
The scandal reverberated across the globe and abruptly threw into question Ghosn’s future as leader of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, which sold 10.6 million cars last year, more than any other manufacturer.
Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa said Ghosn was taken into custody after being questioned by prosecutors upon arriving in Japan earlier in the day. Ghosn is of French, Brazilian and Lebanese background and lives in both France and Japan.
Nissan said Ghosn, 64, and another senior executive, Greg Kelly, were accused of offenses involving millions of dollars that were discovered during a monthslong investigation set off by a whistleblower. Kelly was also arrested.
“Beyond being sorry I feel great disappointment, frustration, despair, indignation and resentment,” Saikawa said, apologizing for a full seven minutes at the outset of a news conference.
Yokohama-based Nissan Motor said it is cooperating with prosecutors in their investigation.
Read: Disgraced pioneering UAW official faces reckoning
Saikawa said Nissan’s board will vote Thursday on dismissing Ghosn and Kelly, whom he described as the mastermind of the alleged abuses.
“This is an act that cannot be tolerated by the company,” he said. “This is serious misconduct.”
Saikawa said three major types of misconduct were found: underreporting income to financial authorities, using investment funds for personal gain and illicit use of company expenses.
He said that because of the continuing investigation, he could not disclose many details. But he promised to tighten internal controls, saying the problems may have happened because too much power was concentrated in one person.
“We need to really look back at what happened, take it seriously and take fundamental countermeasures,” he said.
Read: Corrupt Fiat Chrysler exec gets 5.5 years in prison
Ghosn officially still leads the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance as CEO and chairman. But experts said it is unlikely he will be able to stay on there or at Renault, where he is also CEO. Renault said its board will hold an emergency meeting soon.
“The last thing one of the world’s biggest automakers needs is the disruption caused by an investigation into the behavior of a man who has towered over the global auto sector,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets in London.
The companies in the alliance own parts of each other and share investments in new technologies, among other things. Renault owns 43 percent of Nissan, which owns 15 percent of Renault and 34 percent of Mitsubishi.
Renault SA stock plunged more than 8 percent in France. Japanese markets had already closed when the scandal broke.
Ghosn was at Nissan for 19 years and signed a contract this year that would have run through 2022. His compensation, high by Japanese standards, has been a source of controversy over the years.
According to NHK and the Kyodo News Service, Nissan paid Ghosn nearly 10 billion yen ($89 million) over five years through March 2015, including salary and other income, but he reported receiving only about half that amount.
The allegations are a serious blow at a time when Nissan is still getting over a scandal in which it admitted altering the results of emission and fuel economy tests on vehicles sold in Japan.
Ghosn is credited with helping bring about a remarkable turnaround at Nissan, resuscitating it from near bankruptcy by cutting thousands of jobs and shutting plants. His triumph made him something of a national hero in a country where foreign CEOs of major Japanese companies are relatively rare.
He also looms large in France, where he previously turned Renault around and made it into a global player, notably in electric vehicles. He led the French carmaker through major job cuts and an expensive and contentious bailout, earning the nickname “Le Cost Cutter.”
Ghosn became a nemesis of French unions and left-wing politicians, who saw him as a symbol of capitalism’s excesses, particularly its rich executive pay packages.
Renault shareholders in 2016 voted against Ghosn’s pay package as too generous, but the board ignored the move.
That angered then-President Francois Hollande. Hollande’s socialist government imposed limits on executive pay at state-run companies and tried to do the same in the private sector but backed down amid concerns such action would scare away foreign investment.
Ghosn served as Nissan’s chief executive from 2001 until last April. He became chief executive of Renault in 2005, leading the two major automakers simultaneously. In 2016, he became Mitsubishi Motors’ chairman.
Saikawa said the scandal was a “negative outcome of the long regime of Mr. Ghosn.”
Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.
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Ghosn scandal could trigger a series of crises for Nissan, Renault, Mitsubishi
Marlene Awaad | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Carlos Ghosn, chairman of the alliance between Renault SA, Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., pauses during a Bloomberg Television interview at the Paris Motor Show in Paris, France, on Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2018.
There aren't many automotive executives who can claim to have saved a company, let alone three. But now, Carlos Ghosn might also prove to be the man responsible for shattering the global alliance that transformed Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi into an industry powerhouse.
A day after prosecutors arrested Ghosn and another senior Nissan executive, accusing them of serious financial irregularities, the fallout was escalating. Some auto analysts questioned whether the alliance between the three carmakers could survive the affair, leading nervous investors to pare back their holdings. U.S. traded shares of Renault have slid by about 11 percent since news of Ghosn's arrest in Tokyo broke Monday while Nissan's shares in the U.S. fell by about 6 percent.
Self-destruction
“You're witnessing the single greatest act of self-destruction in modern automotive history,” said Eric Schiffer, chairman of Los Angeles-based Reputation Management Consultants. “Not only has [Ghosn] destroyed his life, but he puts those companies in uncharted and dangerous waters.”
His swift fall from grace places the carefully constructed alliance he built between the three automakers at risk and will have far-reaching repercussions across the industry, auto executives and analysts say.
Perhaps only Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne, who died last July, came close to matching the high-profile persona of the 64-year-old Ghosn. Born in Brazil of Lebanese parents, he began his career in France with the tire-making giant Michelin.
In 1996, Ghosn was recruited by Paris-based Renault and tasked with pulling together a turnaround plan for the struggling automaker. His strategy worked so well that Renault was back in the black in barely a year.
Ghosn got the chance to prove he wasn't a one-shot wonder when Renault assigned him to lead its efforts to revive debt-laden Japanese automaker Nissan in 1996. With only three of its product lines making money, many observers expected that country's second-largest manufacturer to go broke. There was widespread skepticism when Renault announced plans to purchase a 38.6 percent stake – which has since grown to 43.4 percent.
Skeptics
At the time, former General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said Renault would be better off “taking $5 billion, putting it on a barge and sinking it in the middle of the ocean.” But within three years, Ghosn's Nissan Revival Plan had taken hold. The automaker halved its debt and was delivering profit margins of around 4.5 percent.
“I said it would never work” Lutz said on CNBC's “Squawk on the Street” on Monday “and to my amazement it has worked fabulously well for both companies.”
Originally working as Nissan's chief operating officer, Ghosn was soon its CEO and, a few years later, added the title of chief executive of Renault, as well as head of their Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Ghosn had long left open the possibility of adding a third leg to the stool and, in 2016, he made his move, directing Nissan to purchase a controlling stake in Mitsubishi, the small Japanese automaker teetering on the brink of bankruptcy after a series of financial and regulatory scandals.
While still too soon to tell whether Mitsubishi is completely out of the woods, it added enough volume to the alliance total that, in 2017, it nudged past both Volkswagen and Toyota to claim the crown as largest automotive group in the world by unit sales.
Forcibly removed
But that celebration could be short-lived. Ghosn, who has repeatedly sidestepped questions about his potential retirement, is now being forcibly removed from all his posts in the wake of this week's breaking scandal.
On Monday, Yokohama-based Nissan issued an initially terse release stating that, “Based on a whistleblower report, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (Nissan) has been conducting an internal investigation over the past several months regarding misconduct involving the company's Representative Director and Chairman Carlos Ghosn and Representative Director Greg Kelly.”
Within hours, reports began circulating that Ghosn and his hand-picked lieutenant had been arrested by authorities in Tokyo where they faced a number of potentially serious allegations. Ghosn — who was now serving as Nissan chairman — was accused of concealing as much as 5 billion yen, or about $45 million, in income, as well as misusing corporate funds. Precise details have yet to be released, however.
For the past two decades, Carlos Ghosn was seen as one of the biggest rock stars in a Japanese business world normally skeptical of “gaijin,” or foreigners. He even became a star of his own comic book series. Since the accusations were made public, however, his image has been washed away by a tsunami of bad news. Reputation expert Schiffer told CNBC, “There will be blood because it is about preserving honor and trust with the public.”
Anger and disappointment
That became apparent within hours. “I feel strong anger and disappointment,” Ghosn's handpicked successor as Nissan CEO, Hiroto Saikawa told reporters at Nissan headquarters in Yokohama. “I am very sorry.”
The Japanese automaker quickly moved to fire Ghosn, even as pressure mounted on Renault to do the same thing a half a planet away. The French government, the automaker's biggest shareholder, called for a shake-up in management. Renault plans to name its chief operating officer Thierry Bollore as an interim replacement for Ghosn, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.
“Carlos Ghosn is no longer in a position where he is capable of leading Renault,” Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told France Info radio. But he added that the government “(has) not demanded the formal departure of Ghosn from the management board for a simple reason, which is that we do not have any proof and we follow due legal procedure.”
The fallout could, and likely will, continue according to several observers. During a meeting with reporters in Tokyo on Tuesday, Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko said the very alliance that Ghosn strung together is in jeopardy. “I don't think there is anyone else on Earth like Ghosn who could run Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi,” he said.
Dire warnings
Whether such dire warnings prove true is uncertain. Though they legally operate as independent manufacturers, after nearly two decades working together it can be difficult to distinguish between Nissan and Renault in many areas. They share most of their product platforms, as well as an extensive array of components. They work closely together on advanced research programs, including electric, hybrid and autonomous driving. And they are intertwined in global manufacturing and distribution. Since being pulled into the group, Mitsubishi has also begun mingling its operations.
Many of those activities were carefully crafted by Ghosn, especially the alliance's focus on the technology needed for future mobility, such as battery-electric vehicles like the Nissan Leaf.
“He was an asset in navigating globalized markets,” said Jeremy Acevedo, manager of data strategy for automotive service Edmunds. “So really this is coming at a terrible time.”
Daimler
It's not just the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance at risk. For the past nine-years, Ghosn has carefully sculpted a separate partnership with Daimler AG, the parent of the Smart and Mercedes-Benz brands.
Though there are none of the financial cross-holdings found in the alliance, the partners are today working together on a variety of projects. Engines made by Nissan in Smyrna, TN, for example, are being used in Mercedes vehicles assembled in Alabama. Mercedes and Nissan's Infiniti brand share a Mexican assembly plant. And a platform developed by Daimler underpins the Smart fortwo and Renault Twizzy.
At least initially, the partnership with Daimler was nurtured by Ghosn and his German counterpart, Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche, who said at a news conference during the Paris Motor Show last month, “Without the chemistry between us, maybe this wouldn't have happened.”
There have been questions about whether it would survive Zetsche's scheduled move to relinquish the CEO post next year, moving into the post of Daimler chairman. Last month, he told reporters at a joint news conference with Ghosn, “I don't see from my perspective why the momentum in this relationship should change.” But with the Nissan boss enveloped in scandal and the future of the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance itself uncertain, all bets are now off.
It is, of course, possible that Ghosn could survive the scandal, the alle..