TOP NEWS
* Nissan Motor Co. Ltd. will cut production in North America by up to 20% as U.S. sales slid for the first time in eight years in 2017, the Nikkei Asian Review reported. Production cuts are underway in five assembly plants — two in the U.S. and three in Mexico — where the Japanese carmaker builds most of its passenger vehicles, but no production lines will be completely terminated, according to the Nikkei. No layoffs are planned, but workers will work "two or so" fewer days a week.
* Chinese electric vehicle company NIO, backed by internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd., applied to the U.S. SEC confidentially for an IPO that could be worth about $2 billion, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The Tesla Inc.-rival reportedly expects to receive orders from investors by the summer or early autumn of 2018, and the size of the filing might change. A representative of the company declined to comment to Bloomberg News.
CARMAKERS
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* Volkswagen AG opened a new factory in China with its Chinese partner FAW Group and plans to add two more facilities in the next few months to handle production of sports utility and electric vehicles. The German automaker unveiled its new Bora model on the MQB platform while opening the factory in Qingdao, Shandong Province. This factory will make combustion engines and battery systems. Other two facilities will be set up in Foshan, Guangdong Province, and Tianjin, scheduled to open in June and August, respectively.
* General Motors Co.'s South Korean unit said it will issue preferred stocks worth 4.3 trillion South Korean won, or nearly $4 billion, as part of a deal between the U.S. automaker and state-run Korea Development Bank, or KDB, to save the embattled unit, Yonhap News Agency reported. GM Korea said the preferred shares, which do not carry voting rights, will be issued in June.
* India's Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. posted a profit after tax, excluding that earned from its unit Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Ltd., of 10.59 billion Indian rupees for the fourth quarter ended March 31, compared with 6.22 billion rupees a year earlier. The profit narrowly beat a consensus estimate of 10.58 billion rupees compiled by S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly sales grew to 134.79 billion rupees from 123.58 billion rupees in the same period in 2017.
ELECTRIC AND AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
* Tesla Inc. shipped six planes of robots and machinery to California from Europe to speed up the production of its Model 3 sedan, Reuters reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Tesla declined to comment to Reuters on the reported shipments. Meanwhile, Tesla said it appointed James Zhou as the CFO of its China business in April and named Kevin Mukai as director of production engineering at its Gigafactory.
* Tesla reached an agreement to settle a class-action lawsuit over allegations that the company's autopilot driver-assistance technology was unsafe and inoperable, Reuters reported. Under the proposed agreement, Tesla agreed to place more than $5 million into a settlement fund, which will also cover attorney fees. Class members, who paid to get the autopilot upgrade on their Tesla cars between 2016 and 2017, will receive between $20 and $280 in compensation. The company also asked a federal court to dismiss a securities fraud lawsuit by shareholders claiming that Tesla misled them about the production progress of its Model 3 sedan through its public statements, Reuters reported.
* BMW Brilliance Automotive, a joint venture between Bayerische Motoren Werke AG and Brilliance China Automotive Holdings Ltd, began work on expanding a facility in China to make electric batteries for the BMW iX3 model. Production at the high-voltage battery center phase II is expected to begin in 2020.
REGULATIONS AND SAFETY
* German motor vehicle watchdog KBA called in Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche for a closed-door meeting over the recall order of the automaker's Mercedes-Benz Vito vans allegedly containing emissions defeat devices, Reuters reported. The country's Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer reportedly said "concrete results" will be available by June 15, the time granted to Daimler to present solutions for the emissions concerns.
* The European Automobile Manufacturers' Association said any "trade-restrictive measure" stemming from the U.S. probe into American imports of foreign vehicles and parts will have a "serious negative impact" not only on the EU, but also on the U.S. and the global economy. The auto industry body said EU-U.S. auto-related trade makes up about 10% of overall bilateral trade between the two economies and European automakers help create "hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs" through their manufacturing operations in the U.S.
* Volkswagen AG-owned luxury car unit Audi's CEO Rupert Stadler said he will continue at his position amid the possibility of further vehicle recalls and added that the "diesel crisis" is yet to end, Reuters reported, quoting Stadler's comment to the German newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine. Meanwhile, European Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska said diesel cars are "finished," adding that diesel-run vehicles will "completely disappear" in the future, Bloomberg News reported.
AUTO PARTS AND EQUIPMENT
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AUTOMOTIVE RETAIL
* French car-maker Peugeot SA's retailing unit PSA Retail opened the first Opel-branded dealership in Paris at an outlet that previously sold the company's Citroën models. The dealership will continue to sell Citroën cars albeit as a separate customer service channel. Peugeot expects to open two more Opel dealerships in Paris in 2018 and said a European retail expansion of Opel is in the works.
In Asia, Hang Seng lost 1.00% to 30,484.58, while the Nikkei 225 fell 0.55% to 22,358.43.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 dropped 1.36% to 7,625.13, and the Euronext 100 shed 1.16% to 1,054.14.
On the macro front
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