Automotive Supplier to Add Manufacturing Operations in Fort Wayne

Detroit-based American Axle & Manufacturing plans to boost its manufacturing operations in Fort Wayne, Ind., and create up to 96 jobs. The company will upgrade a differential gear manufacturing operation at the former 50,000 square-foot FormTech facility on the city's northwest side and will operate the site as AccuGear, a wholly owned subsidiary. American Axle plans to retain and retrain the approximately 45 existing workers and begin hiring additional employees in early 2009. More

Obama Calls for Shared Sacrifice in Auto Bailout

President-elect Barack Obama says he wants to keep tough conditions on automakers that get federal loans. The companies must develop sustainable business models because it would be unacceptable "to keep them on their lifeline through taxpayer dollars in perpetuity," Obama told The Washington Post. Obama said industry restructuring will require "everybody, from labor to management to creditors to shareholders, giving something up." More

For Auto Industry, Best is Yet to Come

Everyone expects the number of auto companies to shrink. But a few decades from now the world will probably have more carmakers than it does today. More

Chrysler Financial Gets Federal Loan

Chrysler LLC announced new sales incentives Friday following the U.S. Treasury's decision to lend the automaker's financing arm $1.5 billion, a much-needed cash infusion to finance new consumer auto loans. Chrysler Financial received an initial $100 million Friday, a U.S. government official said. The money is coming from the government's $700-billion financial bailout fund. More

Boeing to Rein In Dreamliner Outsourcing

Boeing, beset by repeated snarls that have delayed commercial deliveries of its 787 Dreamliner into early 2010, is rethinking the global outsourcing model that critics say has caused much of the nearly two-year holdup. The company is making plans to bring more work back in-house. Frustrated by production and design snafus that Boeing engineers say have led the company repeatedly to send staffers out to suppliers to iron out difficulties, the company's top executives are suggesting they will rely less on their outside suppliers. More

House Bill to Include Billions in Grants for Wind Projects

House lawmakers are proposing to give solar and wind energy producers billions in government grants instead of tax credits to build renewable energy capacity, potentially transforming the way renewable energy projects have been financed for years. The new grant program, which will be administered by the Department of Energy, is part of House economic stimulus legislation announced recently, details of which are still emerging. More

Credit Might Blossom Into More Auto Sales

Car buyers who suddenly saw credit dry up last fall might describe that disastrous feeling as something akin to having no oil in a car. "The oil was taken away, and the engine was locked up," said John McDonald, a spokesman for General Motors Corp. in Detroit. So as the Detroit auto show highlights a new world of hybrids and high-tech battery-powered cars, the major concern for most consumers continues to be last year's pitiful model for auto financing. Can they get a car loan? And if so, how many hoops will they have to jump through to get it? More

Eclipse Auction Draws No New Qualified Bidders

As the deadline for filing intentions to bid for the assets of insolvent Eclipse Aviation in U.S. Bankruptcy Court, District of Delaware, expired at close of business on Tuesday, Jan. 13, EclipseJet Aviation International, a subsidiary of Roel Pieper's Luxembourg-based ETIRC, remained the sole bidder. More