Mitch McConnell Says the Senate Could Pass the USMCA Trade Deal This Week
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell expects his chamber to approve a new North American trade deal this week, he said Tuesday. According to CNBC, the Senate still needs to ratify the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement after the House passed it last month. The Kentucky Republican thinks Congress can pass the trade pact before the expected start of President Donald Trump’s Senate impeachment trial next week. “We are, it looks like, going to be able to process the USMCA here in the Senate this week,” McConnell told reporters after the GOP’s weekly policy lunch. “That’ll be good news for the Senate and for the country, and something I think we have broad bipartisan agreement on.” The timing of the trial on whether to convict Trump and remove him from office had raised questions about the Senate’s ability to pass the trade deal. Impeachment takes precedence over other Senate business. The House is expected to send the articles of impeachment it passed last month to the other side of the Capitol on Wednesday. Read more here.
BMW's U.S. Plant Sets Record for Output in 2019
BMW's largest plant in the world, in Spartanburg, S.C., delivered a record 411,620 vehicles last year, as global demand for crossovers soared, reports Automotive News. The 7 million square-foot factory, which assembles five BMW X-series crossovers, produced 15 percent more vehicles in 2019 than the prior year. Production volume topped the previous record, set in 2016, by 449 units. The plant has an annual capacity of 450,000 units. Since 2017, the Spartanburg plant has launched five new or redesigned BMW X models, four Motorsport X models and two electrified vehicles. Luxury crossover and SUV sales in the U.S. rose 6.6 percent to 1.386 million last year from 1,300,901 in 2018, according to the Automotive News data center. The X5 was the volume leader in Spartanburg last year, accounting for 161,096 units produced. The compact X3 came in second, accounting for 115,088 units. The X7, BMW's largest SUV to date, arrived in U.S. stores last year. That model accounted for 52,619 units of production at Spartanburg last year. Read more here.
Hyundai Takes on Porsche, Lexus with New SUV
Hyundai Motor Co. introduced the first sport utility vehicle for its premium Genesis marque, taking on brands such as BMW, Porsche, and Lexus in the high-margin product segment, reports Bloomberg. The Genesis GV80 will launch with a 3-liter diesel engine in South Korea, and two gasoline variants with turbocharged engines will join the lineup soon afterward, the Seoul-based carmaker said in a statement Wednesday. The vehicle will start selling in the U.S. later this year. Read more here.
BMW, Daimler's Self-Driving Venture May Attract Fiat Chrysler
BMW AG and Daimler AG’s self-driving car venture may attract more partners, with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV a front-runner to get on board at a time when the German automakers are working to select suppliers by the end of the year, reports The Detroit News. While many car-component makers are hesitant to put large sums toward the development of highly automated driving due to regulatory uncertainty, several vehicle manufacturers expressed an interest in the alliance, BMW’s development chief, Klaus Froehlich, said in an interview. BMW has worked with Fiat Chrysler in the same field since 2017, indicating the U.S.-Italian manufacturer may be willing to join a project that aims to enable automated driving on highways as early as 2024, he said. In BMW Group's #NEXTGen Level 4 mobility automation, occupants no longer have to be directly involved in the driving process, the drive is initiated via an ODM tablet. Read more here.
Audi Bringing Two New Performance Editions to U.S.
Audi is unleashing two new performance-oriented SUVs on the U.S. for 2020, starting with the SQ8. According to The Detroit Bureau, Audi is preparing to launch new performance-oriented variants of a couple of its popular SUVs in the U.S. for the new model year. The 2020 Audi SQ7 serves as the first performance variant of the brand’s newly updated three-row SUV to be sold in the U.S. The Audi SQ8 slots between the Audi Q8 flagship SUV, and the first ever RS SUV, the all-new RS Q8. On the inside, the SQ7 and SQ8 have standard front S sport seats each with heating and ventilation, keeping passengers comfortable. The seats feature cross-stitched leather, unique to the S models. Balancing premium performance, utility and design, the SQ7 and SQ8 arrive in U.S. Audi showrooms in the late spring, with final pricing and packaging to be announced closer to their on-sale dates. Read more here.
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