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  • GM, Stellantis give $15 million lifeline to insolvent supplier

    GM, Stellantis give $15 million lifeline to insolvent supplier

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    As part of the accommodation agreement, customers also agreed not to “exercise certain rights of set off, recoupment or deduction” and not to resource parts components to other suppliers.

    The deal imposes a deadline of Oct. 31 for the company to be sold to a qualified buyer. The agreement may be terminated by a customer if a default occurs. The company must formulate a restructuring plan, hire a chief restructuring consultant and engage an investment banker within 30 days.

    “The accommodation agreement provides for specified price increases to be paid by customers during the term or other funding to be provided by customers to the company through the purchase by customers of a junior tranche of debt to be established under the credit agreement of up to $15 million in the aggregate,” the filing said.

    The financial struggles of Unique Fabricating, which supplies plastics, rubber and foam, became apparent earlier this year when it failed to report its financials for the fiscal year ended Dec. 31 due its statements being investigated for inaccuracies. Additionally, the company is being investigated for alleged labor rights violations at plants in Mexico.

    In its most recent financial report — the one under review — company executives said it took a $6.2 million operating loss and $10.6 million net loss in the third quarter, with projected full-year sales of $136 million. It had just $500,000 in cash and $1.3 million in liquidity under its revolving credit facility.

    The company, which also counts Rivian Automotive Inc. and Bosch as customers, aims to continuing operating amid the restructuring process and potential sale.

    Unique Fabricating could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

    “GM is aware of the developments at Unique Fabricating and is supportive of it as a going concern,” GM spokesman David Barnas said in an email. “As such, we are working with several of Unique Fabricating’s other customers and its creditors to allow them to be viable long-term through either a restructuring or sale. We do not expect any interruption to GM supply during this process.”

    Stellantis declined to comment.

    Like other automotive suppliers, Unique Fabricating has struggled with production volatility, shrinking volumes and inflation, which have had an outsize impact on smaller companies further down the supply chain.

    The accommodation agreement indicates that automakers and Tier 1 suppliers are still willing to make financial concessions to suppliers to keep them afloat, as they did during the supply chain snarls over the past couple of years. When Gissing North America LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last August, GM, Toyota and BMW agreed to fund Gissing’s projected liquidity shortfall of more than $14 million as a bridge to it being sold.

    Unique Fabricating shares were trading at 23 cents per share as of Tuesday, having lost nearly all of its value since launching its initial public offering in 2015 at $11 per share.

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  • Kyle Kirkwood reveals 80G impact flipped his car in Indy 500

    Kyle Kirkwood reveals 80G impact flipped his car in Indy 500

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    Speaking at Monday night’s Indy 500 Victory Celebration banquet, Kirkwood paid tribute to the AMR safety crew and all the medical team at IndyCar, having been trapped upside down after sliding along the track following the Turn 2 crash when he clipped a spinning Felix Rosenqvist.

    The second year driver, who scored his maiden IndyCar win at this year’s Long Beach round, was eventually classified 28th.

    “When I first had the impact, it was about 80G, obviously you’re flying around a little bit inside the car,” said Kirkwood.

    “I think my right knee hit the steering column and banged it up a little bit.

    “But 20 minutes later I’m walking around just fine. Thankfully I was OK.

    “I have to thank IndyCar Medical. What you guys have done in the past 20 years is absolutely phenomenal, to have these wrecks to walk away from, hats off to you guys, you’re awesome.”

     

    When asked to explain the accident, in which his right-rear wheel was torn from his car upon impact with Rosenqvist and flew over the debris fence, he replied: “It felt like an eternity to be honest.

    “I saw Felix go high and into the wall, and the most common thing is for a car to stay up in the wall and ride into Turn 2.

    Kyle Kirkwood, Andretti Autosport Honda

    Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images

    “But his car came down, so in my mind he committed low, and my spotter is saying ‘ho high, go high’ so I committed to that and Santino [Ferrucci] is slowing down too, so it was a small gap whether I could miss around Felix as he was spinning and not hit Santino, because if I woulda went any higher I’d be in the wall myself.

    “So it was a super-unfortunate situation.”

    Insight: Can Kirkwood become America’s next truly great IndyCar driver?

    Kirkwood felt that he was in the reckoning for the win on Sunday until the crash, having worked his way through the field and bounced back from a slow pitstop.

    “We started 15th and drove all the way up to second a the last stop, and we felt we had a race-winning Andretti Autosport car there,” he said.

    “I was very hopeful [of the win], we went from 12th to second in one stint but had a little bit of a slow stop, but I think sixth was plenty high enough to contend in those last 17 laps.”

    Team-mate Colton Herta, who was Andretti’s best-placed finisher in ninth, also felt he was in the mix for victory until he collided in the pits with team-mate Romain Grosjean, and was given an unsafe release penalty.

    “It was crazy,” he said. “I started 21st and got up to fifth, sorry to Romain for running into you in the pits, back to 28th, a lap down, and then up to ninth by the end.

    “Had a great car, a car that I think was able to win, so it stings to be talking about ninth place.”

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  • Guest commentary: Critical minerals and the future of our EV industry

    Guest commentary: Critical minerals and the future of our EV industry

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    The enactment of new tax credits for electric vehicles in the Inflation Reduction Act is a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s commitment to fight climate change by revolutionizing the way we fuel our trucks and cars. These incentives of up to $7,500 per vehicle will provide a huge boost to clean-car production, making the goal of a low carbon future for the auto industry far more realistic.

    But in the haste to ensure such incentives will benefit domestic production, Congress created a daunting new obstacle to that very goal. The law’s complex and restrictive sourcing requirements may actually slow domestic EV production, handing a competitive advantage to China, which already has a huge lead in EVs. While this was obviously not the intent, Biden and Congress must work together to implement the act in a way that avoids such a perverse outcome.

    While allies continue to fume over the Inflation Reduction Act’s North American assembly requirement, perhaps a greater obstacle is the law’s restrictive rules on the sourcing of critical minerals essential to battery manufacturing. By mandating that within seven years 80 percent of these minerals be sourced within the United States or from free-trade partners, the law risks bifurcating global pricing, raising domestic input costs for U.S.-based auto companies while lowering them for producers elsewhere. This could render the credit unusable for many U.S. auto producers, creating higher sticker prices and even shortages of our EVs while we watch China, Japan and Europe expand their output, the exact opposite of the IRA’s objective.

    How bad can this dichotomy become? Analysts broadly acknowledge that we cannot power an EV revolution based solely on the minerals accessible under current rules. And not only EVs require battery production, but solar and wind farms needed to meet higher electricity demand. Moreover, the EV revolution is occurring worldwide, intensifying the scramble to secure long-term supplies of critical minerals. Even with new lithium mines coming on stream, the U.S. will probably produce less than a quarter of future demand for that crucial input. Meanwhile, the U.S. has less than 1 percent of global cobalt and nickel reserves. An even bigger problem is that China is already the dominant world refiner of critical minerals, refining 73 percent of the world’s cobalt, 68 percent of its nickel and 60 percent of its lithium.

    While some of our free-trade partners, such as Canada, Australia and Chile, have significant reserves of certain minerals, they also have existing markets with long-term buyers. We can count on them for a share of our needs, but locking out other lower-cost suppliers who don’t enjoy free-trade agreement status puts us in a perilous position. Many of these countries hold huge shares of global reserves in key minerals. They are crucial to our success, and if we don’t bring them inside our supply chain it will only strengthen reliance on China as the market for mining output. Partnership with these potential critical mineral suppliers is crucial to breaking China’s stranglehold over global battery production.

    So far, Indonesia, the Philippines and Argentina have asked to initiate critical mineral agreement talks with the U.S., and negotiations are ongoing with Europe. Securing critical mineral agreements quickly, as was done with Japan, can be part of the solution to the materials challenge. We must acknowledge that without building a network of critical minerals suppliers the promise of the Inflation Reduction Act from an environmental and jobs standpoint will not be realized. By engaging as many trade partners as possible through critical mineral agreements, the U.S. has a major opportunity to impact the way in which countries exploit their resources, while also securing our own supply chain. Further, this would give us a chance to promote higher environmental and worker standards in these markets vs. China.

    In short, if the United States truly wants to succeed in becoming the world leader in EV production and other battery driven technologies, the Biden administration has no choice but to widen the U.S. supply chain and start competing for access to key sources of critical minerals around the world by aggressively pursuing critical mineral agreements with as many trading partners as possible.

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  • Rossi: Indy 500 rivals were “getting away with crazy restarts”

    Rossi: Indy 500 rivals were “getting away with crazy restarts”

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    Rossi, who won the centenary Indy 500 in 2016, finished this year’s race in fifth position in his first start in the event for McLaren since his switch from Andretti Autosport.

    He was particularly annoyed about a lap 101 restart, following the first caution of the day for Sting Ray Robb’s Turn 1 crash, when Marcus Ericsson swept past him and Rinus VeeKay around the outside of Turn 4, giving the Swede – who went on to finish runner-up – a run into Turn 1 where he passed both Penskes of Will Power and Josef Newgarden.

    “For me, it’s the jump starts that we need to look into,” he told NBC Peacock after the race. “I felt that Marcus had a huge one. [Alex] Palou had one… I dunno, maybe we weren’t doing a good enough job. It’s certainly something to look into.

    “When the chaos started, after Felix’s crash, it was a lap and then a crash and then a lap and then another crash. And people, in my mind, were getting away with some pretty crazy restarts.”

    Rossi had less issue with the controversial decision to red flag the race for a green-white-chequered flag finish, which pushed IndyCar’s mantra of trying to finish races under green to its absolute limit.

    It meant the cars didn’t even get a full warm-up lap before they were racing for the final lap.

    “I don’t know, you can see arguments on both sides,” he said. “And it didn’t affect us much as we were restarting in fourth, it’s not like we were leading. But I’ve never seen a leave pitlane to a white flag before.”

    Alexander Rossi, Arrow McLaren Chevrolet

    Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

    McLaren lost its strongest entries when both Pato O’Ward, who led a race-high 39 laps, and Felix Rosenqvist, who led for 33, were both taken out by crashes inside the final 15 laps.

    Rossi was its best-placed driver in fifth, while Tony Kanaan was on the lead lap in 16th in the final race of his IndyCar career.

    “Arrow McLaren had three cars to beat, it just sucks to come away with a fifth when our cars were that good,” admitted Rossi. “It’s good in a sense, but it also sucks.

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    “We come away annoyed and disappointed. But through all of those restarts, red flags, and, to my mind, stupidness, it kind of got away from us.

    “I’m so grateful for the cars that we had, and obviously it’s amazing for Team Chevy to have the win, it was an amazing showing from the team all month.

    “We’ll take the positives from what we, as a group, managed to accomplish this month, and go forwards to Detroit. But it certainly feels like a missed opportunity and it’s frustrating. We’ll try and learn from it and move on.”

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  • Ericsson: Final-lap Indy 500 restart was “unfair and dangerous”

    Ericsson: Final-lap Indy 500 restart was “unfair and dangerous”

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    Chip Ganassi Racing driver Ericsson was beaten to victory by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden by 0.0974s after leading him to the green flag for a green-white-checkered finish.

    Although Ericsson held the lead through Turn 1 and 2, Newgarden got a run to pass him on the backstretch into Turn 3, which proved to be the decisive move.

    But Ericsson didn’t think the race should’ve been restarted with no time for a full warmup lap.

    “It was an unfair and dangerous end to the race,” said Ericsson, the 2022 event winner.

    “We’ve never done a restart straight out of the pits. We don’t get the tyres up to temperature.

    “I think it was a tough way to end the race, I don’t really agree with how they did that.

    “I don’t think there was enough laps left to do what we did, I don’t think it’s safe to go out of the pits on cold tyres for a restart when half the field is trying to get out on track as we come to green.

    “I don’t think that’s a fair or right way to end a race. I don’t agree with it.

    “I think I did an awesome last restart and caught Josef completely off guard and by surprise, kept the lead into one, but I just couldn’t hold it after that – it wasn’t enough so it’s hard to swallow.”

    Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

    Photo by: Josh Tons / Motorsport Images

    Ericsson, who led for 30 laps in his bid to score back-to-back Indy 500 wins, thinks there was nothing else he could have done differently – having grabbed the lead from Newgarden just before the final red flag for a multi-car crash.

    “I feel disappointed because I thought we did everything right,” he said.

    “I think we did an awesome race, I had a great car and race strategy and pitstops, some good restarts.

    “I tried to catch Josef by surprise going early and it worked. After he passed me, I tried to get a run back on him, but it wasn’t enough unfortunately. He did his job well.”

    Ericsson also said it was tough to bring the field to the green without the risk of being passed immediately.

    He added: “The cars, with the aero spec we had this month, it’s really hard to lead so I think previously it was a little bit easier.

    “I knew for that last restart it would be almost impossible to keep the lead. I tried to get a jump, and didn’t get overtaken into Turn 1, but it wasn’t enough.”

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  • New Mazda CX-5 Planned, Could Launch In 2025 With Hybrid Powertrain

    New Mazda CX-5 Planned, Could Launch In 2025 With Hybrid Powertrain

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    The CX-5 is Mazda’s most popular vehicle, selling 365,135 units last year. Even with that volume, it was rumored to be living on borrowed time thanks to the launch of several newer models. But now it looks like the CX-5 will get a reprieve in the form of a new, third generation. 

    According to Drive, the official launch date has yet to be finalized, but Mazda confirmed a new version of the CX-5 would be in showrooms along with the CX-50 and larger CX-90 SUVs. The new CX-5 will likely utilize a configuration similar to today’s model, including a four-cylinder engine, front-wheel drive, and optional all-wheel drive. 

    It’s also highly likely the new Mazda CX-5 will feature a hybrid powertrain, similar to the one in the Toyota RAV4 or Corolla Cross. Toyota owns a five percent stake in Mazda, and the two companies have collaborated on several vehicles, including a Japan-market-only Mazda 3 hybrid. In the US, both the Toyota Corolla Cross and Mazda CX-50 are assembled at the Mazda Toyota Manufacturing plant in Huntsville, Alabama.  

    Previously, Mazda announced plans to produce three electric vehicles, five plug-in hybrids, and five conventional hybrids by 2025. However, it has not indicated which models would offer versions of those powertrains. There are also rumors of several rotary-powered hybrids. Mazda has hinted that it might offer a rotary engine hybrid version CX-30 in the US and has filed patents for a sportscar using a rotary PHEV.  

    Unlike past rotary-engined cars, the internal combustion engine will not power the CX-30’s wheels. Instead, it will generate electricity to recharge a 17.8 kWh battery, which provides an electric-only range of up to 53 miles. Jeff Guyton, Mazda’s North American CEO, said the automaker has not ruled out the return of the rotary to the US market but is currently prioritizing the CX-30’s launch in Europe and Japan. 

    Instead, the US market gets the CX-90, a three-row SUV, a hugely popular vehicle in North America. It will be joined later this year by the CX-70, a two-row version of the CX-90, giving Mazda a complete lineup of SUVs, including the CX-5, for the foreseeable future. 

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  • The latest numbers on the microchip shortage: Big cuts in Europe, none in N. America

    The latest numbers on the microchip shortage: Big cuts in Europe, none in N. America

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    More than half of the new factory cuts seen in Europe this week are occurring in Eastern European plants.

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  • Team Penske cars will join Indy 500 “dogfight”, says O’Ward

    Team Penske cars will join Indy 500 “dogfight”, says O’Ward

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    Qualifying for the race last weekend was a battle for pole between Chip Ganassi Racing, McLaren and Ed Carpenter Racing – with cars from each team filling the front row on Sunday.

    But even though the highest-placed Penske is 12th, with Will Power, and Andretti car is 15th, with Kyle Kirkwood, O’Ward believes they will still be a threat in the race.

    “It’s going to be a dogfight for sure, I think the Penskes are going to be there,” said O’Ward. “They’re going to have very strong race cars.

    “It’s one thing to have a strong qualifying car but I think there’s more than a handful of cars that are very, very strong [in the race].

    “There are so many strong cars that there’s not really one car you can pick and say ‘they look the best’. So many people look somewhat similar, so I think it’s going to be a really tight race, I really do.

    “We can’t count the Penskes out, we can’t count the Andrettis out. And [Rinus] VeeKay in the Carpenter car, that’s going to be very strong.

    “All four of our Arrow McLaren cars have been just very solid, I don’t think we’ve been the best, but we haven’t been bad, and we’ve just been working hard on making them better.

    “I think we’re very conditioned for when the green flag drops on race day. We wanna win, you’ve got to be there at the end and capitalise on it.”

    Will Power, Team Penske Chevrolet

    Photo by: Brett Farmer / Motorsport Images

    Power is adamant that Penske will be in the mix for victory, and that the speed missing in qualifying will return in race trim – having been third quickest in final practice on Carb Day yesterday and topped Monday’s session when the turbo boost was reset to race levels.

    “The expectations are to be running at the front with 50 [laps] to go, that’s absolutely what we expect,” he said. “I’m actually very comfortable with the race car.

    “I feel like it’ll be a race of no mistakes that will put you in a position to win. It is the toughest field in the history of IndyCar right now, I think it’s great. If you win any of these races you’ve done an exceptional job.

    “I started 12th last year and I think you can move up pretty quickly with a good car, through the pit sequences and be there at the end.

    “I believe we’re going to see a lot of back and forth, like a game of chess, and then it’s going to be a case of how you place your car on that last lap.

    “There’s a few different scenarios and you can’t really plan for that.”

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  • Gronholm crashes out of rally return

    Gronholm crashes out of rally return

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    The two-time world rally champion reunited with his 2000 and 2002 championship winning co-driver Timo Rautiainen to make a return to competitive rallying at the all-new event in northern Italy, celebrating Group A and WRC car era machinery.

    The rally, held in the town of Varzi, is the brainchild of former Hyundai Motorsport boss Andrea Adamo, and marked Gronholm’s first rally outing since Rally Sweden in 2019 when he and Rautiainen campaigned a Toyota Yaris WRC car.

    Competing in a 2008 WRC specification Subaru Impreza, Gronholm went off the road at the flying finish of the rally’s opening stage on Friday night. It has been reported that the 55-year-old and his co-driver are okay following the incident.

    Gronholm has however been forced to retire from the rally after the car, a similar model to which he drove on Rally Portugal in 2009, sustained significant damage.

    The accident occurred after the pair had clocked what ultimately proved to be the stage winning time, 8.1s faster than Frenchman Patrick Magnou, driving a Peugeot 306 Maxi.

    Gronholm previously rallied in Impreza on Rally Portugal in 2009

    Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

    Former WRC driver Andreas Mikkelsen was third fastest, 14.0s adrift, driving an S2000 specification Skoda Fabia.    

    Ex-factory Hyundai and Mitsubishi WRC driver Alister McRae ended the stage in fifth overall (+23.1s) driving a version of the iconic Subaru Impreza his late older brother Colin drove to win the 1995 world title. 

    The rally continues with six more stages on Saturday.  

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  • Ericsson wants to be “treated as a top driver” in IndyCar contract talks

    Ericsson wants to be “treated as a top driver” in IndyCar contract talks

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    Ericsson, who won the 2022 Indy 500 and has finished sixth in the IndyCar standings with Ganassi for the past two seasons, has no deal in place for next year but can’t formally negotiate with other teams until August.

    After remarking recently that his phone has been “quite busy” with interest from elsewhere, Ericsson has gone on record saying that he wants to remain at Ganassi for 2024 – but his drive there has thus far been bankrolled by support from Swedish billionaire Finn Rausing.

    Ericsson wants better terms going forward, and when team owner Chip Ganassi was question by media at Indianapolis, he said that “Marcus has a big future in the sport and I want it to be on this team” but that “we just need to finalise some sponsorship”.

    When asked by Autosport what Ganassi meant by that latter remark, Ericsson replied: “Yeah, it’s a good question. But I don’t think it’s a question for me, really.

    “I’ve said a few times now that I want to be treated as a top driver, because that’s what I am in this series. It’s where I wanna be and hopefully we’ll get to that point with Ganassi. I feel like I deserve that.”

    Marcus Ericsson, Chip Ganassi Racing Honda

    Photo by: Jake Galstad / Motorsport Images

    Ericsson said he’s been hardened by his earlier career, which included five years racing in Formula 1 with Caterham and Sauber/Alfa Romeo, before he switched to IndyCar competition in 2019.

    “It would’ve been nice to have everything sorted already for the future, but I think – at least in my career – I’m used to running most of the season and not knowing what I’m doing the next season,” he added.

    “Would I like to have it different? Yeah. But it’s not the case, so I can’t really focus too much on it.

    “For me, I need to focus on delivering on track, I feel I’ve done that this year, I’ve been strong this season with leading the points until the last race and we’re in good shape and looking good for the 500 again this year.

    “I need to keep my head on that, and focus on that and I think, if it was 10 years ago, I’d have been more affected by the situation, but now I feel like it doesn’t really affect me. I’m focused on what I need to do.”

    Ericsson is in his fourth season with CGR, with whom he has scored four wins.

    “I’ve loved my time so far with Ganassi, it’s been great,” he said. “I’ve been building every year and getting stronger every year with the #8 team. It’s been working very well.”

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