Trade News

TOKYO – New Toyota Motor Corp. CEO Koji Sato, warning that the industry is in a “life or death situation,” plans to turbocharge the company’s EV sales to 1.5 million vehicles in 2026 with the help of a newly developed platform and local production of a three-row, full-electric crossover in North America.

The new dedicated EV architecture will enable Toyota’s future EVs to double their range, thanks to more efficient battery use, and require half the investment and development resources.

In the next three years, Toyota and Lexus will add a total of 10 new EVs, including models on the new platform and others on evolved versions of the current e-TNGA one.

Sato and two top lieutenants, Chief Technology Officer Hiroaki Nakajima and CFO Yoichi Miyazaki, outlined the EV ramp up on Friday in Tokyo as they unveiled a new business vision for Toyota.

It was Sato’s first news conference since taking the helm of Toyota Motor Corp. on April 1, when Akio T…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Plans for Zoom, TikTok in cars raise safety questions

For businesses, Zoom rapidly became the blessing and the bane of the pandemic as companies pivoted to conducting hours of daily meetings virtually. It kept operations going, but there was no escape.

Automakers noticed, and now they are bringing the office into the car by making Zoom available on dashboard screens.

Both Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen Group are now integrating third-party video apps including Zoom and TikTok into their vehicle infotainment systems but with safety precautions that the automakers say will prevent distracted driving.

"There is a demand from our customers that they would like to use conferencing tools" in the car, said Alexander Schoenhals, a Mercedes-Benz engineer who worked on the third-party app integrations.

German brands are scrambling to compete with U.S. luxury leader Tesla, which announced in December that an over-the-air softw…

CARLSBAD, Calif. — When it arrives in U.S. dealerships in June, the new 2023 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid won't be the cheapest new Toyota with a fuel-saving hybrid powertrain.

But it will be No. 2 — and the least expensive one that's not a sedan.

Starting at $29,305 including shipping, the 2023 Corolla Cross Hybrid crossover comes standard with on-demand all-wheel drive and is expected to deliver a combined 42 mpg fuel economy from its fifth-generation hybrid system, the same system underpinning the redesigned 2023 Toyota Prius.

The crossover comes standard with a hybrid 2.0-liter engine paired with a continuously variable transmission, allowing it to deliver up to 196 combined hp.

Sharing the TNGA-C platform with similarly sized Toyota vehicles including the Corolla, the Corolla Cross Hybrid comes in three trim levels — the base S, the SE starting at $30,625 and the XSE starting at $32,400, all with shipping.

All trim levels come standar…

After a period of relative quiet, new signs are emerging that Illinois is on the hunt for one or more new electric vehicle production plants — and that the state may be making some progress.

The renewed chatter stems fromreports today that Stellantis wants to begin making an electric version of its popular Ram pickup truck in America soon. The automaker recently idled its Belvidere Jeep factory but has said it’s considering a possible conversion of the plant to other production

A Detroit paper said today's Stellantis news meant “speculation immediately turned” to the company’s plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. But Illinois and Belvidere also are competing.

Multiple, independent sources with first-hand knowledge report Illinois has put on a major push for the facility, with talks intensifying and near-daily communication among officials here and in Stellantis.

Illinois’ prospects are said to have been improved by General Assemb…

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is on track to propose the toughest-ever U.S. curbs on car pollution, while stopping short of an electric-vehicle mandate or ban on gas-powered models.

The proposed standards on cars and light trucks, set to be announced Wednesday in Detroit, are expected to govern tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide, smog-forming nitrogen oxide and other pollution from vehicles manufactured for model years 2027 through 2032. The plan was described by people briefed on elements of the proposal who asked not to be named because it isn’t yet public.

Major U.S. automakers have pleaded for requirements extending just a few years, while EV manufacturers such as Tesla Inc. insist the administration should take advantage of new federal-government investments in charging and battery production to push for even stricter limits on car emissions. 

The plan is part of a multipronged Biden administration strategy to clamp down on planet-wa…

Seventy-three of the world's 2,640 billionaires are in the automotive industry, according to this year's Forbes ranking of the richest people on Earth.

The wealthiest of those 73 remains Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk, though his $44 billion purchase of Twitter helped reduce his net worth to $180 billion. That dropped him to second place overall, behind French luxury goods magnate Bernard Arnault.

Meanwhile, BMW heirs Susanne Klatten (No. 51) and Stefan Quandt (No. 59) increased their fortunes to a combined $52 billion. Geely Automobile Chairman Li Shufu, whose net worth of $19 billion puts him 84th, is among 18 automotive billionaires in China, compared with 13 in the U.S. Shahid Khan, who owns supplier Flex-N-Gate, is the next highest in the U.S. after Musk at No. 144 with $12.1 billion.

The list includes six U.S. billionaires involved in auto retailing, along with four dealers in Asia and one in Switzerland. Gulf States Toyota owner Dan Friedkin tied with…

LOS ANGELES — Electric vehicle maker Polestar is witnessing the downside of the "asset-light" strategy that is key to its rapid growth plan.

To operate fast and easy, Polestar is reliant on global partners to help produce its models. But when those partners can't deliver according to plan, Polestar's strategy can kneecap its growth.

That is what is happening to the Swedish startup.

Polestar is part of a portfolio of brands controlled by China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, which includes Volvo Cars, Lynk & Co and Lotus. The Chinese conglomerate's network of global factories, supplier networks and R&D centers allow the young brand to focus on product and technology rather than manufacturing or logistics, according to the plan.

But software-related hiccups in the development of Volvo's new SPA2 vehicle platform could complicate Polestar's ambitions to expand in the U.S. market.

The Polestar 3 midsize crossover, based on the SPA2 arc…

Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart reacts to the UAW's recent elections and talks about making the automaker's EVs profitable in the U.S. Supplier Unique Fabricating faces insolvency after failing to make loan payments and dealing with allegations of improperly reporting finances. And Walmart plans its own EV charging network.

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The Illinois state Senate last week unanimously approved a bill to codify vehicle home delivery and e-commerce sales procedures, such as collecting electronic signatures, a step forward in attempts by some such as Carvana Co. to update state law.

Senate Bill 1896 passed 57-0 and moved into the Illinois state House, where it is sponsored by state Rep. Anthony DeLuca, a Democrat whose district includes the Chicago Heights suburb and part of Will County.

The bill was referred last week to the chamber's Rules Committee.

The legislation — if also approved by the House and signed into law — would amend the Illinois Vehicle Code, adding text to clearly state that licensed vehicle dealers are permitted to conduct sales, including collecting electronic signatures, via the Internet.

The bill also would stipulate that dealers may deliver vehicles to a customer at their residence, if requested in writing. If a vehicle is delivered to an address other than the…

I still remember Lee Harkins' warning in September when I interviewed him for a segment on customer retention for our old Fixed Ops Journal Forum.

He didn't say it in any hysterical way; Harkins, CEO of dealership training company M5 Management Services, is not one for histrionics. Instead, he calmly stated in his Alabama drawl that dealership service departments were about to get hit with a 2-by-4 between the eyes.

And it made sense. Dealerships rely on new vehicles under warranty to return for service for at least the typical three years of coverage. But with fewer vehicles being sold the past couple years because of chip shortages and kinks in the supply chain, that means fewer vehicles under warranty coming in for maintenance and repairs.

In today's newsletter, read Ken Wysocky's story with Harkins' insights, learn why it's important to work on customer retention now and hear from service managers and directors on how they're trying to counteract the…

Tesla Inc. assures its millions of electric car owners that their privacy “is and will always be enormously important to us.” The cameras it builds into vehicles to assist driving, it notes on its website, are “designed from the ground up to protect your privacy.” 

But between 2019 and 2022, groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system sometimes highly invasive videos and images recorded by customers’ car cameras, according to interviews by Reuters with nine former employees. 

Some of the recordings caught Tesla customers in embarrassing situations. One ex-employee described a video of a man approaching a vehicle completely naked. 

Also shared: crashes and road-rage incidents. One crash video in 2021 showed a Tesla driving at high speed in a residential area hitting a child riding a bike, according to another ex-employee. The child flew in one direction, the bike in another. The video spread around a Tesla …

"There are people that are interested in this career path, but the schooling, the tuition, the investment obviously is a roadblock for a lot of people. So maybe being a little bit more flexible with tuition reimbursement, job guarantee, tool program — something like that to incentivize them to get started with you. And I think you just have to create a culture where their opinion matters and that they have a voice. Doing team-building; we do cookouts. We do a lot of stuff to keep people together and getting to know each other and feeling more confident." — Debbie Tufts, executive manager at Rudy Luther Toyota near Minneapolis, speaking on the "Get in Her Lane" podcast about combating the technician shortage and attracting more female techs