#automotive-manufacturing

#automotive-manufacturing

Less than a year ago, automakers found themselves on the cusp of tariff hell. Car companies were suddenly hit with a gut-punch of tariffs on their supply chains and completed vehicles. The U.S. imposed some hefty import duties on all things China in the hopes of protecting domestic manufacturers. Now President Trump is welcoming Chinese cars into the U.S.as long as they build them here.

When Hyundai acquired the robotics giant Boston Dynamics in 2021, very few observers thought that using mechanical dogs to spot-check welds in car factories would be the endgame. Today, at CES 2026, Hyundai offered a detailed look at what it really wants to do with robots: make them more humanlike, and then put them to work building cars. The goal, Hyundai officials said, is simple: better safety, better quality, more durability and reliability, and at lower production costs.

Tesla has achieved a new milestone, rolling out its nine millionth vehicle worldwide from Giga Shanghai. The achievement, announced by Tesla Asia on X, celebrated not just the Shanghai team's output but the company's cumulative production across all its factories worldwide. The milestone came as 2025 drew to a close, and it inspired praise from some of the company's key executives.

Tesla acquired the Fremont Factory from the defunct NUMMI joint venture between General Motors and Toyota in May 2010 for $42 million. The facility had produced more than 8 million vehicles under GM and Toyota over 26 years. Following its acquisition, Tesla retooled the 5.3-million-square-foot plant to support the production of the Model S sedan. Over the past 15 years, the factory has evolved into Tesla's primary North American production hub, assembling the Model S, 3, X, and Y. Annual output has exceeded 550,000 vehicles,

A VW spokesperson said: Volkswagen is adjusting the production programme at its plants to match current customer demand for the models built there. In some plants, this will lead to shift cancellations in the coming weeks, while in others it will result in additional shifts. Weekend shifts will be added at VW's Wolfsburg plant, which is considered the home of the company and its combustion engine cars.

When Hurricane Helene barreled through North Carolina in September 2024, General Motors' artificial intelligence system had already predicted that one of its key suppliers, Auria Solutions, would take a direct hit. The automotive acoustics and textiles company manufactures carpets for General Motors' full-size SUVs - like the Chevy Tahoe and Suburban, GMC Yukon, and Cadillac Escalade - at its plant in North Carolina. When the storm pummeled the town, the factory lost water and power, but General Motors was prepared for the production-halting damage.

The impact of an immigration raid on a sprawling Hyundai factory on Thursday is reverberating far beyond its home in rural Georgia. The operation, called by one US official the "largest single-site enforcement operation" in history, detained nearly 500 workers, most of them South Korean. It also jolted a company that has poured billions into America's South, helping transform the region into a major global auto manufacturing hub.

Japanese carmaker Toyota said on Wednesday it will invest 680 million euros ($792 million) on a new production line in the Czech Republic to make a battery electric car.The line will be built with a government incentive of up to 64 million euros ($75 million) to expand Toyota's existing plant in Kolin, around 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of Prague, the Czech government and the company said in a joint statement.