Rob Bostelaar

Ford of Canada will open a $95-million parts distribution centre near Ottawa as part of a plan to close a Toronto-area depot and transfer operations to eastern and western Ontario, according to a developer and the union representing workers at the current facility.

Customers also expect to find on dealer websites the same pricing specifics they would see for a yoga mat on Amazon, or, for that matter, for a Model 3 from Tesla, which from its 2008 start has operated with fixed prices.

With online sales and EVs, being paid a fee per vehicle sold might already be in the cards. But there are other key issues, according to CADA.

Canadian software specialist BlackBerry is joining forces with a U.S. firm in the race to turn cars into mobile "wallets" that will automatically pay parking fees and bridge tolls and even collect payments for ride-sharing and parcel delivery.

Online shopping should be a seamless experience, but the various automaker and dealer programs complicate that.

The industry's pandemic-hastened embrace of e-commerce has shown that remote selling is possible – and for many dealers, profitable.

One analyst thinks QNX software will remain a top choice for automakers in need of a strong, secure platform for car operations — and one they maintain control over — even as they let Google move into infotainment with a consumer-friendly platform that might not be especially secure.

Numerous automakers have had to idle plants because of a lack of semiconductors for today’s tech-heavy vehicles, but metals and chemicals have also become sought-after commodities as manufacturers broaden their hunt for materials.

Amazon Web Services and BlackBerry created Ivy, a vehicle data platform that will generate predictive insights for automakers and third-party developers.

The Waterloo, Ont.-based tech giant said its QNX Hypervisor technology underpins the digital instrument cluster and more in the high-end electric sport-utility from China's Beijing Automotive Group Co.

Opened in 2019 as the L5 Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Test Facility, the 4,200-acre site in the capital's Greenbelt has been renamed Area X.0.

With an extensive background in government, 36-year-old Brian Kingston will live in Ottawa instead of Toronto to make politicians‘fully aware’ of the importance of the auto sector.

Honda said it will reimburse out-of-pocket expenses for customers, some of whom have had to make repeated visits to dealer service departments to replace inflators that can explode with too much force and injure occupants of the vehicle.

Among the general population, the elderly are the most susceptible to the novel coronavirus. In the business world, it’s the young, small start-ups, often with limited access to credit and government financial help, that are most at risk of going under. Some have shifted gears to make medical parts just to stay afloat.