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UAW Council to Vote on Ending Walkout
The UAW and General Motors on Wednesday reached a tentative deal on a new four-year labor contract covering wages and benefits for 46,000 hourly workers after a 31-day national strike against Detroit’s largest automaker. According to Automotive News, it was not immediately clear when the work stoppage, currently the longest against GM since 1970, would end. The union’s national GM council will gather in Detroit Thursday morning to decide if they'll accept the tentative deal and vote on whether to immediately end the walkout or continue it until the tentative agreement is ratified by members. Union officials plan to discuss the contract journalists following the meeting. “We can confirm the UAW’s statement regarding a proposed tentative agreement," GM said in a statement. "Additional details will be provided at the appropriate time.” GM shares rose 1.1 percent to close at $36.65 on Wednesday. Read more here.
Typhoon Flooding Forces Subaru to Suspend Japan Production
Subaru is suspending production in Japan for about a week because some suppliers were inundated with water from a deadly typhoon that swept the country dumping record rains. Subaru halted output at its Gumma plant in Japan after the morning shift on Wednesday, the Japanese carmaker said in a news release. It expects to be down until around Oct. 25. Automotive News reports that the temporary shutdown does not affect operations at Subaru’s plant in Indiana, which will continue production as normal, a Subaru spokeswoman in Tokyo said. In the U.S., Subaru imports the BRZ sporty coupe, Crosstrek crossover, WRX performance car and Forester crossover from Japan. Although the suspension lasts roughly a week, Subaru will lose only about four and a half days of output, because work was not scheduled for the weekend or the following Monday and Tuesday, in observance of the enthronement ceremonies for the nation’s new emperor. The plant produces about 2,500 vehicles a day, meaning a possible loss of 11,250 vehicles. Read more here.
Volvo Shows an Electric SUV and Plans to Drop Cars Running on Just Gas or Diesel
Volvo showed its first fully electric vehicle in Los Angeles on Wednesday, part of a new branding effort to back the Swedish company’s lineup of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles. The XC40 Recharge compact SUV is an electric version of a gas-powered vehicle that went on the market earlier this year. According to The Los Angeles Times, Volvo said it intends to reduce the “life cycle carbon footprint” of its vehicles by 40% per car and make its global manufacturing network carbon-neutral by 2025. That’s in line, it said, with the global climate agreement struck in Paris in 2015. Volvo has marketed its reputation for safety over the decades. Now it wants to be known for commitment to the environment too. “Safety is part of our DNA,” Håkan Samuelsson, chief executive of Volvo Cars, told The Times. “Let’s do exactly the same thing with sustainability.” Read more here.
NHTSA to Jumpstart Its Slow-Rolling Revamp of New Car Crash Ratings
The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said Wednesday it is reviving a long-stalled effort to overhaul the five-star crash rating program for all new vehicles. In 2015, under President Barack Obama, NHTSA proposed requiring automakers to add crash avoidance technologies to gain top, five-star ratings as part of its New Car Assessment Program (NCAP). According to Autoblog, those changes were set to start in the 2019 model year but have been on hold as the auto safety agency held additional public hearings. NHTSA's acting chief, James Owens, said in a statement Wednesday the agency would propose "propose significant updates and upgrades" in 2020 "by creating additional market-based incentives for automakers to continue investing in innovative safety technologies that will save lives and prevent injuries." On Thursday, a consumer group plans to hold a press conference in Washington criticizing NHTSA's failure to update the ratings. The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended pedestrian collision avoidance systems and forward collision avoidance systems to be added to the program. Read more here.
AutoNation Says Consumer Group Report on Recalls is 'Inaccurate'
AutoNation says a report issued by a consumer group about recalled used cars at the nation’s largest vehicle retailer is “inaccurate” and does not provide the full set of facts as to how such vehicles are handled at its stores. According to Auto Remarketing, the United States Public Interest Research Group, a consumer group also known as U.S. PIRG, alleges the dealer group is “selling recalled, used vehicles that contain dangerous safety effects.” However, the vehicle retailer said in a statement provided to Auto Remarketing that the company “is in full compliance with all laws and regulations regarding recalls and with all recall directives provided by the vehicle manufacturers,” and that the U.S. PIRG report does not provide context into the sales process at its stores. In a statement, AutoNation said the report “does not accurately depict the buying process at AutoNation dealerships. The groups responsible for the report did not attempt to thoroughly review the purchasing process at any of AutoNation’s 200+ locations across the country. Nor did they reach out to AutoNation to obtain information about our policies and procedures surrounding recalls. Had they done so, they would be aware of AutoNation’s robust policies and procedures that are designed to provide a transparent buying process for our customers,” the statement said. “No new vehicle is sold with an open recall. No CPO vehicle is sold with an open recall unless permitted by the OEM.” Read more here.
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Watch a Lamborghini Urus Outrun a Porsche 911GT2 RS on the Nürburgring [Car and Driver]
VW Boss: "We Should Be Making More Enthusiast Cars" [MotorAuthority]
Roadshow's Favorite Cars and Trucks of the Last Decade [Road Show]
Tata Looks for Jaguar Land Rover Partners, But Rules Out Sale [Bloomberg]
