Ford will invest $1.2 billion to build or modernize three facilities in Michigan where it plans to assemble trucks and SUVs, and to store consumer data, a reflection of the trends that are fundamentally reshaping the auto industry’s business model and manufacturing operations in the U.S. More at Washington Post

Workers at Hyundai Motor Co.’s Czech plant will get on average a 12 percent pay raise this year, local management said on Tuesday, the latest big increase at a major manufacturer in Europe’s tightest labor market. Unemployment in the Czech Republic is the lowest in the European Union at a rate of 3.4 percent, according […]

WHEN DOES A six second video send the car and tech communities into a frenzy? When it’s posted by Elon Musk, and it shows his long-gestating new baby, the Tesla Model 3, peeling away from a standstill under heavy acceleration before braking to a hard stop 100 feet up the street. more at Wired

Magna International sees onboard cameras as a significant segment for growth in the supply chain. The Canadian parts giant has been supplying automakers with cameras for about a decade but projects it to be an increasingly bigger piece of the supply chain as autonomous vehicles gain acceptance and eventually, government approval. Magna CEO Don Walker […]

UK car production rose by 8 percent in February to its highest level in 17 years, extending a recent trend of surging output as a strong rise in exports once again compensated for a slump in demand at home, the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said in a statement on Thursday. more at Automotive News […]

President Trump’s plan to conduct a second midterm review of federal fuel-economy and carbon-dioxide emissions standards arguably sets right a wrong because the previous examination was rushed through with limited industry input, but whether easing those goals will create jobs is considered debatable. “EPA pulled a fast one,” Rebecca Lindland, analyst with Kelley Blue Book, […]

BAIC Motor Co. has too many models and too many assembly plants, and now the state-owned automaker’s sales have begun to tumble. In the first two months of this year, sales of Beijing Auto’s own brands fell 43 percent to 43,500 vehicles. By contrast, industry light-vehicle deliveries in China rose 6.3 percent. You might expect […]

Toyota Motor Co. said it will invest 240 million pounds ($294 million) in its UK car plant to allow it to build vehicles on a new platform, helping to boost competitiveness and promote the use of locally-built components. more at Reuters

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will reopen a review of Obama-era auto emissions mandates, welcome news for automakers that argue the strict standards are costly and out-of-touch with market realities. The president, speaking at the American Center for Mobility — a planned $80 million autonomous vehicle testing ground on the site of the former […]

German prosecutors raided the headquarters of Volkswagen Group and its Audi unit as part of investigations into the company’s diesel-rigging scandal. VW said on Wednesday that prosecutors were searching offices at its headquarters in Wolfsburg, Germany. The search coincided with a raid by prosecutors at Audi’s headquarters in Ingolstadt, Germany, and offices at its Neckarsulm […]