Trade News

TOKYO — When Afeela, the new electric vehicle brand created by Honda Motor Co. and Sony Corp., starts delivering cars in 2026, it won't just consider Honda and Acura dealers to service them.

In the U.S., the new EV venture may also look to brands outside the Honda and Acura dealer networks — including retailers from rival automakers.

"Not only Honda dealers. There may be several opportunities," Yasuhide Mizuno, CEO of Sony Honda Mobility Inc., said about plans for Afeela's critical after-sales network.

"It might be that is the best way for the customer," he said.

Rethinking retail, even if it means disrupting relations with franchised dealers, exemplifies the nothing-is-sacred mindset of Sony Honda Mobility in its quest to reinvent the auto business.

Super-powerful computer chips, extra-long leases, exporting from the U.S. to Japan, video game tie-ups — not to mention, the temerity to team two of Japan's most iconic brands from vastly diff…

SHANGHAI -- China's Xiaomi said on Thursday it had imposed a 1 million yuan ($149,000) penalty on a supplier after it leaked early design drafts of an upcoming vehicle model.

On its official Weibo page, a spokesperson wrote Xiaomi had "dealt seriously" with a Beijing-based molding technology company which on Jan. 22 publicly revealed images of an upcoming vehicle's front and rear bumpers, violating a confidentiality agreement.

Xiaomi did not disclose the name of the company and Reuters could not identify it.

As punishment, the smartphone-turned-car maker said it would impose "economic compensation" of 1 million yuan ($148,763) on the supplier.

The spokesperson added it had instructed the supplier to strengthen its information security management, and develop plans to upgrade its confidentiality measures.

Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun also circulated the note on his personal Weibo page.

Over the Chinese New Year, images purportedly showing mock …

Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company owned by Warren Buffett, has sold 1.55 million Hong Kong-listed shares of electric vehicle maker BYD for HK$351.81 million ($44.85 million), a stock exchange filing showed.

The sale lowered Berkshire's holdings in BYD's H-shares to 12.9 percent on Jan. 27, down from 13.04 percent, the filing with the Hong Kong Stock Exchange showed on Thursday.

Berkshire, which started selling the BYD shares in late August, has accumulatively reduced its holding by more than a third.

Buffett's company acquired 225 million BYD shares in 2008, giving it a 7.73 percent stake, equal to the 20.49 percent stake in H shares, according to BYD's annual report.

BYD was the world's largest plug-in hybrids and pure electric vehicles maker in 2022, with a total of 1.86 million cars sold, growing faster than Tesla.

Tesla may grab all the attention when it comes to electric vehicles, but Hyundai just bested the market leader on who has the more efficient EV.

Hyundai's Ioniq 6, which goes on sale this spring, has been rated higher than Tesla's most efficient Model 3 on the EPA MPGe scale.

With a combined MPGe rating of 140, the 2023 Ioniq 6 SE rwd also matched the industry's top two nameplates on the EPA efficiency scale — the 2023 Lucid Air Pure awd with 19-inch wheels and the 2023 Lucid Air Touring awd with 19-inch wheels. Both Lucid models are also rated at 140 combined MPGe.

Tesla's popular Model 3 rwd has an MPGe of 132.

MPGe, or miles per gallon equivalent, is the EPA's calculation of an EV's energy efficiency, equal to miles per gallon on an internal combustion engine vehicle. The measurement equates 33.7 kilowatts to 1 gallon of gasoline.

Hyundai said the base SE Long Range version of its 2023 Ioniq 6 with rwd has an EPA-estimated range of 361 …

McLaren's next vehicle takes the 720S, a keystone of the British supercar marque's lineup, and gives it more power, updated styling and a new name.

The new vehicle, internally named 750S, will carry over the 720's 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V-8 engine with 710 hp, but it will have an additional 30 hp, a person briefed on the matter told Automotive News.

The 750S features an exterior and interior that borrows design cues from other McLaren vehicles.

The source said the new car is the "perfect blend" of the 720S and the more powerful and lightweight 765LT.

"It's not as extreme as 765, but it is a little more aggressive than 720," they said.

The 750S will be the last non-electrified mainstream McLaren model. The exotic sports car maker has said future vehicles will be either hybrid or all-electric.

A McLaren spokesman declined to comment on future product.

The 750S will take over as McLaren's flagship production model when it …

TOKYO – Honda will use a new hydrogen fuel cell system jointly developed with General Motors in a U.S.-built CR-V crossover.

The fuel cell CR-V will be built in Ohio and will launch in in the U.S. and Japan by the end of next year. Europe sales are still under consideration, Honda said in a statement.

Honda executives said engineers have cut the cost of the next-generation system to one-third that of the system used in Honda's previous fuel cell car, the Clarity sedan that debuted in 2016.

Among other improvements, the durability of the system will be doubled and the low-temperature performance will be boosted, executives said at a briefing here.

The new system starts up significantly faster at temperatures as low as minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 30 degrees Centigrade).

The new technology is an outgrowth of a joint development between Honda and GM dating back to 2013.

Honda and GM have been pooling resources on hydrogen fuel ce…

Renault and Nissan’s boards are set to approve a landmark deal to reshape their troubled two-decade alliance just hours before an official event unveiling more details of the plan, according to people familiar with the situation.

Renault directors are gathering Sunday followed by Nissan’s board early on Monday, Feb. 6, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing information that has not been made public. Both boards are expected to agree to the proposals, according to the people.

Renault and Nissan this week outlined their in-principle agreement on a deal to rebalance cross-capital ties and cooperation on future projects with a goal of resetting their alliance that also includes junior partner Mitsubishi Motors.

The votes will come shortly before executives from the three companies hold a media conference in London on Feb. 6 to share more about their plans, with final details on timing and venue being ironed out, the people said.

A …

Volvo Cars is gearing up for an electric blitz to convert all its mainstay models -- three crossovers and two sedans -- into battery-electric vehicles and to introduce a luxury electric van aimed at boosting sales in Asia, two people with knowledge of the plans said.

The Swedish carmaker, 82-percent owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is expected to launch at least six new battery-electric vehicles through 2026, the two people told Reuters.

Volvo has announced an objective to make its entire lineup fully electric by 2030. The company’s Australia unit has said it plans to sell only EVs in that market by 2026.

The previously unreported product plans amount to the largest revamp of Volvo’s model line-up since Geely acquired the brand from Ford Motor in 2010. Under its new owners, Volvo started to share technologies such as car platforms with Geely.

The makeover for Volvo, a Swedish brand that built a reputation for safety and utilitarian …

SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla Inc. suppliers are bracing for pressure from Chief Executive Elon Musk and his team to cut their prices further after the EV maker aggressively slashed vehicle prices in a slowing economy, industry officials who work with the automaker and its suppliers said.

The suppliers saw as ominous last month's comments by Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn that the automaker was "attacking every other area of cost" including the supply chain, and would work closely with suppliers. During Tesla's earnings conference call last week, Musk said a recession could lead to "meaningful decreases" in almost all its input costs.

"It is never good for suppliers when (automakers) cut vehicle prices because that pressure rolls downhill," said Dan Sharkey, an attorney who represents suppliers to Tesla and other automakers. "I never like it, because I know eventually they're going to try to get it out of one of us."

"My message is, there's not goin…

Porsche dealers came to the brand's make meeting at the NADA Show with one thing on their minds — product supply, or the lack thereof.

Most questions from retailers centered around the sports car maker's sales and production outlook, Mike Sullivan, Porsche Board of Regents chairman, told Automotive News.

The dealers' message to the factory was: We need more cars.

For a niche purveyor of six-figure, high-performance metal, tight vehicle supply is typically a feature, not a bug. Scarcity creates desirability and lifts profitability.

Porsche is the master of the "one-short model," said Sullivan, referring to the brand's desire to build one car fewer than the market demands.

But in the era of microchip shortages and COVID-19-related production disruptions, it's more like "10 short," said Sullivan, managing partner of the LAcarGuy group and dealer principal of Porsche South Bay in Hawthorne, Calif.

A…

LAS VEGAS—Daimler Truck North America unveiled its SuperTruck II Wednesday, showing off an efficient diesel big rig intended to demonstrate fuel-saving technologies that can be deployed as the trucking industry pivots to zero-emission vehicles.

The sleek cab, painted in a pixelated rainbow livery to evoke a sense of effortless motion, is more of a proof-of-concept vehicle rather than the typical pie-in-the-sky concepts common in the auto industry.

"We focused on technologies and ideas that could be realistically implemented. We don't do science projects at DTNA," said Daimler Truck North America CEO John O'Leary.

The concept truck is based on Daimler's Freightliner Cascadia model, which with nearly 40 percent of the market is the leading seller among Class 8 trucks in the U.S.

The project's aim is to develop a tractor-trailer combination that demonstrates advances in aerodynamics, diesel engine technology, tire rolling resistance and other system…