Category: Auto News

For the uninitiated, Singer is just a tuning company focused on modifying vintage Porsches. But if you’ve ever seen a Singer in the metal, you probably know the attention to detail is pure perfection. And in order to achieve this unbeatable quality, the company operates a factory that doesn’t look like a tuning shop at all – it is more like an actual production facility and there’s a new video from TopGear showing us what’s going on behind the doors.

Rob Dickinson started Singer some 12 years ago when he presented a tuned Porsche 964 to the world. Ever since then, demand has been rapidly growing to the point where the company decided to stop taking new orders for its Classic model. Or, to put it simply, if you somehow manage to put an order today, it won’t be completed until the end of 2027. 

In the world of mass-produced mainstream vehicles, a four-year waiting list is unacceptable. But everyone who wants a classic sports car that has been thoroughly restored, modified to feature modern technologies, and hand assembled to the industry’s highest quality standards will probably have to be patient and wait. The good news, however, is that Singer now builds its cars in a new and larger facility in Torrance, California. 

This is the place where the firm now holds all its operations under one roof – from the spare and new parts inventory to the paint shop, to the general assembly, and finishing touches. Singer’s CEO Mazen Fawaz claims that as long as a car hasn’t been involved in a heavy accident, the company can handle everything else and turn it into a million-dollar gem. Seeing how meticulously arranged and operated this new facility is, we have zero doubts this statement is indeed true.

What’s in Singer’s future? As mentioned, the Classic model is now out of order because the company wants to preserve its value in the future. Instead, you can buy the Turbo model but bear in mind there are around 200 people on the waiting list already.

BMW is weighing to start serial production of hydrogen models in the second half of this decade, but any sales push makes sense only once adequate infrastructure becomes available, said Frank Weber, the automaker’s technology chief.

Just 750 hydrogen refueling stations were in operation globally last year, according to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory researcher.

Getting the hydrogen-powered iX5 in front of the public is one way of highlighting the technology’s strong points, BMW said.

Filling up the iX5 with hydrogen takes only four minutes, compared with about 30 minutes for charging the most advanced battery powered vehicles.

BMW expects the adoption of hydrogen long-haul trucks to speed up installations of refueling stations, in a boon also to passenger cars. The company hopes that the cost of fuel cell components comes down once hydrogen rigs are produced at scale.

“We are confident that at the end of the decade, prices for an electric vehicle with a larger battery and fuel cell cars will be on par,” Weber said.

Still, BMW’s small test fleet suggests the German company is not expecting larger-scale adoption anytime soon. It’s also keeping the vehicles on a tight leash: aside from company-organized test drives, the cars will not be handed out to drivers for everyday use.

“Fuel cell cars are always going to be more expensive than battery powered ones,” said BNEF analyst Martin Tengler.

“Maybe BMW is targeting a niche segment, there might some money to be made. But the big picture is that it’s best to leave hydrogen cars where they have always been — just around the corner.”

European auto plants took a fresh hit from the global semiconductor shortage and will cut nearly 91,000 vehicles out their production schedules for this week as a result.

The worldwide impact of the chip shortage continues to inconvenience the auto industry, according to the newest forecast from AutoForecast Solutions, which has tracked the crisis since it materialized in early 2021. 

Recent weeks of regional flare-ups of the problem have taken a toll on the global total so far this year. One week ago, AFS tallied another 147,000 chip-related factory cutbacks, much of them in North America. 

But with chip supplies and workarounds improving, AFS’ year-end global forecast for lost production has not materially changed. It still estimates that worldwide production cuts due to missing microchips will reach 2.8 million cars and trucks by the end of 2023, more than 900,000 of them occurring at North American factories.

Audi is considering building a factory in the United States to take advantage of tax incentives offered under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Automotive News Europe reports. The IRA, which was passed in August 2022, offers subsidies and tax incentives for domestically produced green industry products, including a $7,500 consumer tax credit to buyers of North American-made electric vehicles.

However, Audi is currently not eligible for these incentives since it does not have a plant in the US. Markus Duesmann, CEO of Audi, told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in an interview that the IRA has made “building a US plant for electric cars very attractive.”

Duesmann plans to produce electric cars in all of Audi’s locations globally by 2029, with no new combustion-engine models to be introduced beyond 2026.

Audi is considering building the plant either by itself or with other Volkswagen Group brands. It was previously reported that VW plans to build its own plant in the US for the Scout brand, which will sell electric pickups and SUVs.

An Audi spokesperson said the companies were still evaluating options and various scenarios were possible. Carmakers have been localizing production and supply chains to reduce transport and logistics costs, and a growing number of companies are announcing heightened investment in the US over Europe in light of the IRA, which is worrying European officials.

The VW Group has already invested in North America to build up its regional electric vehicle production capacity, including the construction of a battery plant and overhauls of its assembly plant in Puebla and an engine plant in Silao, Mexico.

Plans call for introducing more than 25 new EVs through 2030 across VW’s brands that sell in the US: VW, Audi, Porsche, Bentley, and Lamborghini. It wants to localize “all major design and engineering responsibilities” for top-hat development of EVs for North American consumers by 2030. The Volkswagen brand’s plant in Chattanooga began producing the ID.4 electric crossover last year and is targeting 90,000 EVs in 2023.

Chinese battery parts manufacturer Gotion Inc. is reassessing plans for a $2.4 billion factory in Michigan’s Big Rapids area after scrutiny from a township board.

The company, which originally planned to build a portion of the plant on 115 acres in Big Rapids Township, is now focusing solely on the core 500 acres in Green Township, said township Supervisor Jim Chapman.

Chapman said he learned of the company’s decision to pause plans in the neighboring township during a phone call with Gotion executive Chuck Thelen this week.

“My take on it all is they are not shutting the door on Big Rapids Township, merely putting that on hold and moving forward on Green Township to get the project going,” Chapman said.

Thelen could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

Gotion announced last year it would build a battery parts plant in Big Rapids and create up to 2,350 jobs across four new manufacturing plants spanning a combined 2 million square feet. It was approved for $715 million in state incentives.

Since then, the project has been subject to some opposition, primarily for its ties to China and environmental concerns.

The company notified the Big Rapids Township board of trustees this week that it would not focus on the township property, the Big Rapids Pioneer reported Friday.

Last week, the Big Rapids Township board voted to have the township’s attorney request a review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

“They keep saying it’s China; it’s the Chinese …” Big Rapids Township Supervisor Bill Stanek told Crain’s Detroit Business last week in reference to those opposing the plant. “They’re just worried about the future, basically is what it is. We don’t know what the future is gonna be, and they’re determined to make sure that we don’t have anything coming to our town.”

Last week, Stanek said board opposition could cause the company to take the entire project to Green Township. Such a move would cause  Big Rapids Township to lose more than $1 million from the sale of the land and a water tower.

Stanek could not be reached for comment Friday.

The Big Rapids Township board appears to be the sole pocket of resistance to the project, which has support from the city of Big Rapids, Green Township and Mecosta County, Chapman said. The township voted unanimously a month ago in favor of a resolution to support the plant.

“Eighteen Mile Road is an arbitrary line,” Chapman said of the road that bisects the counties and original project footprint. “The goal is to bring this project to the community. It’s important to the community, the county and the region. The fact that its north of, south of, or both sides of one blacktop road is not relevant.”

“We’re committed to actively managing production levels to balance supply with demand,” Jacobson said on the call.

“Within this portfolio target, trucks are expected to run at higher levels, reflecting greater customer-driven variation requirements, and sedans and SUVs are expected to run at this range or lower,” Jacobson added. “Throughout the year, sales seasonality, production schedules and timing of fleet deliveries may take us out of this range from time to time, but that is the targeted range at which we’ll manage.”

Keith McCluskey, CEO of McCluskey Chevrolet in Cincinnati, said Silverado supplies have reached a balanced level, with his days’ supply running at about 45 to 60 days, up from about 15 to 20 days at the height of the chip crisis. Idling the plant, he said, is “the right thing to do to just, again, keep a healthy balance on supply and demand and inventory levels.”

Cox Automotive estimated that the Sierra has more than an 80-day supply, while inventory levels top 100 days for the Silverado. GM said those and other third-party estimates are too high, but the company wouldn’t disclose more precise figures for competitive reasons.

“We have a very manageable level of inventory,” said GM spokesperson Jim Cain. “We’re trying to keep it at an optimal range to support strong pricing.”

GM also builds heavy-duty Silverado and Sierra pickups in Flint, Mich.; light- and heavy-duty versions of the Silverado in Oshawa, Ont., in Canada; and light-duty Chevy and GMC full-size pickups at its Silao plant in Mexico. All four plants typically operate on three shifts, Flores said.

Analysts said demand has not softened yet for large pickups, though concerns about the economy, higher interest rates and vehicle affordability could dent demand this year.

Sales tend to be slower in the early months of the year, and pickup sales also correlate to housing starts, which are down, said Michelle Krebs, an executive analyst with Cox Automotive.

GM’s move signals interest in preserving the elevated average transaction prices and profits on its full-size pickups that the industry has experienced while supplies were low in recent years, Krebs said.

The automaker has said its gasoline-powered full-size pickups are helping to fund its transition to electric vehicles.

GM has said, “ ’We don’t want to overproduce these vehicles and make it a situation where we do have to heavily discount them,’ ” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights for Edmunds. “At this point, they are holding to what they said, but time will tell if that will carry on.”

Numerous issues over the last few years have wreaked havoc on new vehicle production, forcing manufacturing slow-downs and pauses that left many dealership lots empty. Now, General Motors will implement another temporary production pause at a major pickup truck plant in Indiana. Only this time, it’s not because of supply chain problems. It seems GM now has too many trucks.

As reported by The Detroit News, the automaker will idle production for two weeks at its large Fort Wayne Assembly location, starting March 27. This is to help “maintain optimal inventory levels” according to a letter obtained by the news outlet. The Fort Wayne plant builds half-ton versions of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, two of the most popular vehicles sold in North America.

Motor1.com contacted Chevrolet for a comment on the report. We will add updated information as it becomes available. A GM spokesperson confirmed the pause with The Detroit News, further stating that truck production was up in the last 30 days while demand remained steady. This aligns with a GM statement from January 31 regarding total 2022 revenue, in which the automaker pledged to maintain inventory levels consistent with demand. A supply of 50 to 60 days is targeted by the end of 2023.

Is this a sign that vehicle inventory levels are returning to normal? A representative from Cox Automotive told The Detroit News that Chevrolet Silverado 1500 inventory was over 100 days as of the end of January, but that’s not an official figure supported by GM. Furthermore, it’s unclear as of yet what might be fueling the stabilizing demand. Inflation and fears of a recession are ongoing in the US market, which could certainly lead to declining sales despite a healthy supply of vehicles.

While the Fort Wayne Assembly plant will pause for two weeks, that doesn’t mean Silverado and Sierra production will come to a complete stop. The trucks are also assembled at plants in Michigan, Canada, and Mexico, and production in those areas is reportedly unaffected.