COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF

Nissan plots digital course for car sales As Covid-19 threw a wrench into the cogs of car retailing, a senior Nissan board member challenged the chief operating officer to explain what the automaker was doing to adapt to a new era where customers may be reluctant to roam showrooms.The operating chief, Ashwani Gupta, told the board meeting in late July that Nissan was racing to create a "complete, end-to-end digital journey", according to three people familiar with the discussions.He said this would allow consumers to research cars online, have models delivered to their homes for test drives and make purchase plans without ever having to visit a dealership, if they chose not to do so, the sources told Reuters.The meeting offers an insight into how the pandemic is pressuring automakers in all major markets to revamp their strategies to handle more vehicle sales online, veering away from the traditional showroom approach.The number of cars sold via Nissan's websites in China, Europe and North America combined accounted for 11% of the company's overall sales in those markets in the first half of this year, according to the sources, who declined to be named because they are not authorized to speak to reporters. - Nampa/ReutersUzabase sells Quartz news site to co-founderJapanese media company Uzabase Inc is selling loss-making US -based online business news publisher Quartz to its co-founder and editor-in-chief nearly two and a half years after Uzabase bought the site in a deal valued at up to US$110 million.Terms of the sale, which was confirmed by Quartz yesterday were not disclosed. The news was reported earlier by The Wall Street Journal.The sale by Uzabase, which bought Quartz from Atlantic Media in 2018 in a move to boost business overseas, comes after Quartz operations suffered from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.Quartz co-founder and chief executive Zach Seward is partnering with editor-in-chief Katherine Bell, currently a minority owner, in a management buyout to operate the publication as a private company, Quartz spokesman Ashley Huston.Uzabase's filings show that Quartz reported a loss based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of US$18.6 million for 2019 and a loss of US$11.2 million in the first half of this year. - Nampa/ReutersSamsung to launch flagship phone Samsung Electronics Co Ltd may launch its flagship Galaxy S smartphones more than a month earlier than expected in a bid to grab market share from Huawei and fend off competition from Apple Inc, three sources familiar with the matter said.Huawei Technologies Co Ltd once challenged Samsung's top position in the global smartphone market, but the Chinese rival is in survival mode with US restrictions choking off its supplies of chips used in smartphones and telecom equipment.South Korean chip industry officials hope Joe Biden's presidency will ease some of those restrictions, although they are far from certain as they also expect the incoming US administration to maintain a tough stance on China.Samsung is preparing to launch its new Galaxy S21 as early as late January next year, whereas it previously launched its flagship S20 phone in early March this year, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the plan is not public.The South Korean company shipped 59% fewer Galaxy S20 5G series handsets in the United States in the second quarter compared to the previous model's performance a year earlier, according to research firm Canalys. - Nampa/ReutersAirbus in tussle over jet deliveries to China Chinese airlines are shunning some deliveries of Airbus aircraft, citing fears of coronavirus infection for their staff in the latest tussle over efforts to keep delayed deliveries on track despite the pandemic, industry sources said.Airbus has pushed Chinese airlines to take delivery of jets now that the domestic market has rebounded to pre-Covid levels.Many airlines are using the pandemic as an excuse to delay deliveries, said one source with direct knowledge of the matter.Airbus deliveries surged in September to a peak since the crisis began but deliveries to China have lagged despite the fact that airlines there are leading a recovery in jet usage.Most Airbus planes being delivered to Chinese airlines come from an A320 assembly line in Tianjin, but for other aircraft airlines need to send staff to Europe. -Nampa/ReutersVolvo recalls 54 000 US vehicles Volvo Cars is recalling 54 000 US vehicles for an air bag defect after one crash death tied to the issue, according to a filing with US regulators.The unit of Geely Automotive is recalling 2001-2003 model S80 and S60 vehicles sold or registered in high humidity US states because the driver side frontal air bag inflator may rupture, sending metal fragments flying, when the air bag is deployed.According to the Volvo filing with the government, Volvo will replace the inflators with a modern propellant and inflator. Parts are expected to be available by March.The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it confirmed one person in the United States was killed when a ZF/TRW FG2 twin driver air bag inflator containing the propellant 5AT-148N exploded.The agency said the fatal incident was the only known rupture incident for this type of inflator around the world. NHTSA and Volvo are gathering and reviewing data about other vehicles with this inflator to determine if additional actions are needed, the US agency said. - Nampa/Reuters

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