DETROIT——General Motors' Chief Executive Mary Barra announced Monday that the company has agreed to sell its European manufacturing arm Opel to rival PSA Group, maker of Peugeot and Citron. The announcement prompted claims that GM has shied away from the region due to proposals by the new Trump administration to impose punitive tariffs on importers into the U.S. However, GM will continue to distribute its iconic Chevrolet and Cadillac brands in Europe and will be on the lookout for "future collaborations" in the region.

BOWLING GREEN, KY——The Corvette assembly plant here will shut down for 3 to 4 months beginning in June, and then undergo a multimillion-dollar expansion and retooling for the production of its 2018 models.

Industry 4.0 technology promises to transform plant floors during the next two decades. It will also change the way that engineers and assemblers interact with machines.

Designing and building a multistation automated assembly system takes time. A simple project might take 12 to 14 weeks. A complex one could take three or four times that long.

During the early decades of the 20th century, Skoda Auto was a Czech automobile manufacturer with a few small plants (in Mlada Boleslav, Kvasiny and Vrchlabi) and a strong desire to meet the mobility needs of its citizens. But, that all changed after World War II.

On the campaign trail, President Donald Trump promised to bolster U.S. manufacturing; slash the corporate tax rate; build a wall on our southern border to keep out illegal immigrants; and invest more than $1 trillion to upgrade the nation’s aging infrastructure.

FARMINGTON HILLS, MI—Mahle Service Solutions has started a technology venture using wire harness data to let assembly technicians zoom to the heart of vehicle test failures.