By 2020, the average car will incorporate nearly 350 kg of plastics, up from 200 kg in 2014, according to analyst IHS Chemical. Meanwhile, the market for carbon fiber in car manufacturing will increase to 9,800 tonnes in 2030, up from 3,400 tonnes in 2013.

Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), a global carrier of roll-on/roll-off cargoes and provider of logistics services, has opened a third vehicle processing center (VPC) in China.

Ford Motor Co. is moving to automatically update its cars' infotainment systems using Microsoft's Azure cloud service.

Reverse logistics last year was punctuated by the record-breaking recall activity in the automotive industry, which created momentum that is now carrying into 2015. According to the Q4 Recall Index analysis from Stericycle, there was an unprecedented 74 million automotive units recalled throughout the year, an increase of 166 percent from 2013. Top affected products included air bags, which made up 34 percent of the total units recalled, and electrical systems, which impacted 31 percent of the units.

Automotive suppliers are under mounting pressure to satisfy two conflicting customer demands: to cut costs and to open more factories in fast-growing emerging markets so that they can be closer to their customers' production plants. Striking the right balance between cost and proximity in global manufacturing networks will be one of the industry's greatest challenges, according to a report by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), conducted in partnership with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation IPA. The report is titled The Proximity Paradox: Balancing Auto Suppliers' Manufacturing Networks.