- Windshield washer fluid linked to deadly Legionnaires’ disease – Automotive News: Windshield washer fluid may be a breeding ground for bacteria that causes the deadly pneumonia known as Legionnaires’ disease.
- Inquiry by General Motors Is Said to Focus on Its Lawyers – NY Times: The automaker’s legal department has become a focus of a broad internal inquiry into how the company handled a vehicle safety defect linked to 13 deaths, said people with knowledge of the inquiry.
- US: GM ignition repair parts on round the clock production – Just-auto: With parts production running seven days a week on multiple shifts, General Motors plans to produce enough repair parts by October to have the ability to repair the majority of the vehicles impacted by the ignition switch and ignition cylinder recalls.
- SWEDEN: Volvo Group studies ‘electric roads’ for buses – Just-auto: Volvo Group is getting closer to testing an electric road that would enable city buses to be charged wirelessly in operation using inductive charging.
- US: NHTSA fines GM record $35m over ignition switch defect – Just-auto: General Motors has agreed to pay the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) a US$35m fine for failing to report in a timely manner the ignition switch defect.
- Porsche readies facelifted 911 for 2015 launch – Autocar: Updated 911 flagship receives bodywork and mechanical upgrades, which will provide some models with as much as 425bhp. A facelifted version of the Porsche 911 is in development and will launch next year, as these first spy pictures show.
- Jaguar’s new XE needs to be a global hit rather than a UK success story – Autocar: While the launch of Jaguar’s new 3-series rival is still some months away, the brand needs to think about how it will win buyers on facts and figures rather than on emotions.· Gan Maomao opens Car Dealer in Yunnan, China – CarNewsChina.com: The beautiful Chinese car model Gan Maomao was hired to open a car dealer in the great city of Yuxi in Yunnan Province. The dealer sells Lexus, Jaguar, Land Rover, Honda, and the Honda sub-brand Cimo.
- Feinberg’s dilemma: Who are GM’s victims – Automotive News: GM’s acknowledgement of its ignition switch defect raises questions about whether the flaw could have played a role in any unexplained crash involving its recalled vehicles.
- Google’s self-driving experiment heads towards next phase – Automotive News: Google’s self-driving car has never driven in the snow and gets puzzled by parking lots. Yet so much progress has been made in this 5-year experiment that the technology is ready to move out of tricked-out test vehicles and into real-world cars.
- Suppliers invest in brick and mortar — finally – Automotive News: Parts makers can no longer simply run an extra shift to keep pace with expanding North American vehicle production; they have to build or expand factories.
- GM’s wide price range for 4G service reflects uncertainty about demand – Automotive News: When General Motors rolls out an embedded high-speed Internet connection across most of its lineup beginning next month, there will be a range of subscription options available for everyone from hard-core tech geeks to the technologically curious.
- Nissan to go on ‘offensive’ in U.S. – Automotive News: A bullish Carlos Ghosn, emboldened by bumper profits and booming sales in North America, vowed a continuous offensive until Nissan Motor Corp. achieves 10 percent market share in the United States.
- Low-profile GMC flying high – Automotive News: As General Motors tries to revitalize the images of Chevrolet, Buick and Cadillac, executives might want to take a page from the playbook of their lowest-profile brand: GMC.
- Sputtering auto education leads to skills breakdown – Automotive News: Dealership service managers say traditional schools are turning out a generation of auto mechanics whose skills aren’t keeping pace with the cars they’re assigned to fix.
- Ford design’s global outlook – Automotive News: Ford Motor Co.’s new global design boss, Moray Callum, has begun to reshape his senior leadership team with an emphasis on product versatility and global experience, particularly in Asia.
- Volkswagen to add 300.000 cars per year to Foshan plant in China – CarNewsChina.com: Volkswagen has started construction of Phase II of the car factory in Foshan city in Guangdong Province. The project will be completed in 2017 and add 300.000 cars to the plant’s production capacity, bringing the total to 600.000 cars per year. Total investment is 15.3 billion yuan or 2.45 billion USD.
- FAW delivers eight Hongqi H7 sedans to the Chinese army – CarNewsChina.com: First Auto Works (FAW) has delivered eight Hongqi H7 sedans to the Chinese army. The vehicles will be used to transport top army officials who are no longer allowed to buy foreign brands.
- GM legal department under scrutiny in company’s recall probe: report – Reuters: General Motors’ legal department is the focus of an internal inquiry into how the company handled a vehicle safety defect linked to 13 deaths, the New York Times reported, citing two people with knowledge of the inquiry.
- GM to Pay Maximum Penalty in Safety Probe – WSJ: The U.S. slapped General Motors with a $35 million fine to settle a U.S. auto-safety investigation that found the auto maker had schemed to keep secret its information on faulty ignition switches installed on 2.6 million vehicles.
- Mega suppliers pose threat to carmakers – FT: Sixteen major car manufacturers sell more than 1m vehicles a year, but those cars are built from parts supplied by just 10 major component makers.
- Audi SQ5: How the Sausage Is Made – WSJ: The SQ5 seems to be made of the same homogenous breakfast link as other Audi, VW and Porsche products, just cut to the compact crossover length. The saving grace for Audi? The sausage is still really good.
- G.M. Is Fined Over Safety and Called a Lawbreaker – NY Times: In a civil settlement in which General Motors will pay a $35 million penalty, federal regulators said the automaker also agreed to change its internal review process after a defect was linked to 13 deaths and a recall.
- City Now Expects to Authorize More Green Cabs by the Fall – NY Times: The Taxi and Limousine Commission said it hoped to issue new permits for the street-hail livery service outside Manhattan by summer’s end.
- Buick makes rear backup cameras standard on all 2015 models – KBB: Buick has announced that all vehicles in its 2015 lineup will come standard with a rear backup camera.
- Start-Ups: GreenTech Scatters New Seeds – NY Times: After the merger with VL Automotive, GreenTech Automotive promises to deliver a mix of electric city cars, plug-ins converted into muscle machines and performance-tuned cars for the Chinese market.
- Nissan Delivers Surprise with Debut of 2015 370Z NISMO – thedetroitbureau.com: Nissan made the day for fans attending the annual ZDAYZ festival with the surprise world debut of the 2015 Nissan 370Z NISMO. TheDetroitBureau.com takes a closer look.
- BMW investing $200 million to triple U.S. carbon fiber production – KBB: BMW has announced it will expand involvement with partner SGL Group by making a $200 million investment that would triple the annual capacity of its existing carbon fiber production facility in Moses Lake, Washington.
- Buffett, Soros Sell GM Shares – But JPMorgan Bank Calls Maker’s Stock “Very Inexpensive” – thedetroitbureau.com: Investors don’t like unrest or turmoil: two qualities that GM has in spades these days. They may be the reason for the sales of large chunks of the maker’s stock by high-profile investors, like Warren Buffet. However, JPMorgan noted the stock was “inexpensive.”