Car

Mexico’s president revs up car industry, and wider economy

By Katherine T. Burrows 2 weeks ago

By Anthony Esposito, Daina Beth Solomon and Sharay Angulo

MEXICO CITY, May 13 (Reuters) – President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will lay out a roadmap on Wednesday for Mexico to re-open its economy, with a focus on the automotive sector whose supply chains are closely interwoven with U.S. carmakers.

The U.S. government and automotive companies have called on Mexico to reopen factories serving the U.S. market, despite the Latin American nation still dealing with a rising number of infections from the coronavirus pandemic. Mexico on Tuesday registered 353 coronavirus deaths in its most lethal day yet.

Mexico sends 80% of its exports to the U.S. and became the United States’ biggest trade partner last year, with bilateral commerce worth over $600 billion.

Lopez Obrador has been eager to get Mexico’s businesses firing again amid forecasts the economy could contract by as much as 10% in 2020, plunging the country into

… Read More

Coronavirus slashes UK car output as industry warns of big hit

By Katherine T. Burrows 3 weeks ago

By Costas Pitas

LONDON, April 30 (Reuters) – The British car industry faces losing output worth more than 8 billion pounds ($10 billion) due to the coronavirus outbreak, which cut production in March by a third, falling to its lowest level since 2009, an industry body said on Thursday.

The sector, Britain’s biggest exporter of goods which employs more than 800,000 people, saw factories and dealerships begin to close from mid March with only some having set reopening dates for May.

Automakers around the world have warned of the scale of the challenge affecting manufacturers already struggling to deal with tougher emissions rules, the hit to diesel sales and the cost of electrification and autonomous technology.

In Britain, volumes fell by an annual 37.6% to 78,767 vehicles in March and the sector, which made 1.3 million cars last year, faces a loss of more than 250,000 cars and vans, the

… Read More

These are the longest-lasting car brands for 2020

By Katherine T. Burrows 4 weeks ago
Ford Raptor.
Ford Raptor.

Ford

  • Automotive search engine iSeeCars.com analyzed more than 15.8 million car sales in 2019 to identify which brands build the longest-lasting cars. 

  • The company found that models from Toyota, Honda, and GMC were the most likely to last for at least 200,000 miles. 

  • German luxury cars from Porsche, Audi, and BMW were some of the least likely to be sold with 200,000 miles on the odometer, according to iSeeCars.com. 

  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Shoppers looking for a reliable, durable, and long-lasting vehicle may want to prioritize SUVs and pickups from five key brands, according to a study from the automotive search engine and research outfit iSeeCars.com. 

The company looked at more than 15.8 million used-car transactions from 2019 to identify the makes and models that are most likely to last for at least 200,000 miles. It found that on average, only 1% of used

… Read More

BMW Joins Car Peers With Warning of Coronavirus Profit Slump

By Katherine T. Burrows 4 weeks ago

(Bloomberg) — BMW AG lowered its profit outlook for the year and warned it will have difficulty generating cash as the German carmaker said the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is lasting longer than expected.

BMW now sees an earnings before interest and taxes margin for the automotive segment of between 0% and 3%, from 2% to 4% earlier. The company no longer expects to achieve positive free cash flow from car sales this year, Chief Financial Officer Nicolas Peter said Wednesday.

BMW is bracing for tough times after carmakers from Ford Motor Co. to Daimler AG forecast falling profit in the past days because of the pandemic. The crisis is hitting BMW and its peers at a sensitive time — manufacturers are ramping up spending on electric vehicles to meet tougher emissions regulations and need profits from conventional cars to fund those investments.

“The situation remains serious,” Chief Executive

… Read More