Trade News

MOSCOW -- Russian automaker Sollers is in talks with Mazda about buying the Japanese company's stake in their Russian joint venture, Sollers said, as Mazda prepares to wind down operations in Russia.

Mazda, which sold 30,000 cars in Russia last year, said in March that exports of parts to the venture's Vladivostok plant were going to end and production would cease when stocks ran out.

The Nikkei newspaper on Saturday first reported the talks with Sollers.

Sollers said on Monday that it was in talks with Mazda over stopping car production in Vladivostok and on buying out Mazda's stake in the venture.

"At the same time, Sollers Auto has already developed a plan to relaunch the factory for production of other automobile brands and negotiations on this issue are currently being finalized," Sollers said in a statement.

It did not give a timeframe for stopping production at the Vladivos.

Mazda and Sollers began production at the factory in…

The Federal Trade Commission's new amendments to its Safeguards Rule, which require dealers to undertake a series of procedural, technical, and contractual steps to protect consumer and other personal data, will take effect on December 9, 2022.

Gauge your dealership’s cybersecurity readiness — and learn how you can steer your store to compliance with the amended rules — in this 10-question quiz. 

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EV owners and prospective buyers expect automakers to offer both an online and in-person shopping experience, according to the 2022 EVForward Dealer DeepDive.

The EVForward team, part of advisory firm Escalent, works to capture the attitudes, behaviors and opinions of the next generation of EV buyers.

The 2022 Dealer DeepDive report surveyed 1,289 people, of which 88 are EV owners. The survey grouped participants into EV intenders, or those who are most likely to shop for an EV, as well as EV opens, who are somewhat likely to purchase an EV, and EV resistants, drivers who are more comfortable with internal combustion engine vehicles.

The results? Prospective buyers want to use both online and in-person resources to buy an EV. The report suggests both legacy and EV specialist automakers offer an omnichannel buying experience, said K.C. Boyce, Escalent's vice president of powertrain innovation and energy transformation.

The dealership will remain …

In the past, a brand that produced powertrains of awesome performance, or rarefied designs of outstanding touch and feel, or luxurious construction that translated to stratospheric pricing, was known as an exotic.

Today, the segment is identifying new products, new powertrains and new strategies to meet regulatory and competitive changes around the world while still meeting the high expectations of customers.

An SUV for McLaren? Maybe. An electric crossover for Rolls-Royce? Definitely. A future for Rolls' V-12 engines? And is there still a place of relevance for Maserati's elegant Ghibli sedan?

Meanwhile, new players are gravitating into the exotic orbit, including Lucid Motors. Although Lucid and fellow electric vehicle startup Rivian face challenges in getting their new production plants up to speed, Lucid is already calculating plans to introduce a $250,000 version of its Air sedan, called the Air Sapphire, for a new ultraperformance subbrand.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars built its legacy on throaty fossil fuel power, but it will be fully electric starting next decade.

The venerable British automaker will launch its first electric vehicle — a two-door coupe — late next year. A battery-powered crossover is likely to follow by mid-decade.

"Electric drive is uniquely and perfectly suited to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, more so than any other automotive brand," CEO Torsten Mueller-Oetvoes said. "It is silent, refined and creates torque almost instantly, going on to generate tremendous power."

Like much of the industry, Rolls-Royce's shift to electrification is less about near-term consumer demand than it is a nod to governments racing to decarbonize. Many cities globally seek to limit or ban sales of new high-emission combustion-powered vehicles by early next decade.

Rolls-Royce will switch to electric power when it replaces core models, Mueller-Oetvoes said.

"We will go from combustion engin…

Bentley will transition to an all-electric lineup by 2030, reveal its first full electric vehicle in 2025, and use the interim to hybridize its lineup and roll out a number of special editions and limited runs to say goodbye to its legacy gasoline-guzzling powertrains, including its W-12.

Bentley will take full advantage of its place in the Volkswagen Group for its first EV, which is expected to be built on the group's PPE platform. A second EV, due in 2026, is expected to be built on the SSP unified EV platform.

EV SUV: Bentley's first EV is predicted to be an SUV when it arrives in late 2025 or early 2026. It is expected to live alongside the Bentayga initially in the lineup before fully replacing the model by 2030. According to executives, the EV will boast a range in excess of 300 miles.

EV sedan: The luxury brand's second fully electric vehicle is expected to be a sedan built on Volkswagen Group's SSP platform but isn't expected to arrive until ve…

Wood. Leather. Timeless styling. Brutal performance. And a brand image admired the world over thanks to the James Bond connection.

These are some of the strands of Aston Martin's DNA. And so is another not so happy one: turmoil. Much has changed since last year's report on Aston Martin's future products.

Tobias Moers, Aston's CEO for less than two years, departed in early May, his place taken by former Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa.

There were money troubles. The company posted a loss of $347 million for the first half of the year. But it's getting a fresh injection of capital, about $800 million, to pay down old high-interest debt and invest in new, mostly electrified models.

Here is a look at what is on tap for Aston Martin through 2026.

Electric vehicle: Aston Martin says its first electric vehicle will be launched in 2025. But the British automaker has not said anything about the vehicle. Speculation in the press is that it could be a ful…

Lucid Motors has only one model on sale, the Air sedan in its top trims, but it has plans for a more balanced lineup with a high-end SUV and more mainstream vehicles to better take on EV leader Tesla and legacy luxury brands quickly shifting to EVs.

Lucid plans to deliver the first base version of the Air, called the Air Pure, that will bring the sedan's price below six figures. The automaker will then have to work through a big backlog, given that it expects to build only 6,000 to 7,000 vehicles this year at its Arizona plant.

The EV startup's next big move will be the striking Gravity SUV, scheduled for delivery in 2024. Lucid has yet to detail the vehicle's features or open the order bank, but it's likely to be quite expensive. The first trims of the Air to go on sale starting last year topped $170,000, and Lucid is now developing a $250,000 version called the Air Sapphire for its new ultraperformance subbrand.

Lucid executives have said they are de…

Ford Motor Co.'s warning last week that its third-quarter earnings will be marred by higher-than-expected supplier costs and a lack of parts is the latest sign of the lingering supply chain woes plaguing the industry.

The automaker said that inflation-related supplier costs during the third quarter will run about $1 billion higher than it had expected. Separately, it expected to finish the period with 40,000 to 45,000 unfinished vehicles waiting on parts, most of which will be high-margin pickups and utility vehicles.

As a result, Ford cautioned that adjusted earnings before interest and taxes will be about half of the $3 billion that analysts had estimated. Ford's stock suffered its largest one-day decline in more than a decade on the news.

"Ultimately, this news is somewhat surprising as broader macro news suggest supply chains have gotten incrementally better over the last few months," John Murphy, research analyst at Bank of …

Lamborghini plans to continue to hybridize its lineup, but it won't have a full battery-electric vehicle until the second half of the decade, even as it continues to produce limited runs and special editions of current and previous models.

After a bad bit of luck with the sinking of the Felicity Ace cargo ship in March, Lamborghini had to extend its Aventador run to replace vehicles that were purchased and on their way to be delivered.

It's unclear how that will impact the exotic brand's product plan, but the executive team felt it was a move it had to make to keep customers happy.

The last combustion-only Lamborghini will be the Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae, then the brand's entire range will be electrified in 2024, CEO Stephan Winkelmann has said.

2+2 GT: Lamborghini continues to work on an electric vehicle in the form of a 2+2 GT, in cooperation with Porsche and Audi. The vehicle will likely take advantage of Volkswagen Group's new SSP architec…

Maserati is going fully electric by 2030. All of its vehicles will offer a battery-electric version by 2025.

Next year, the GranTurismo coupe and its convertible counterpart will be Maserati's first vehicles to get battery-electric powertrains. The line of electric vehicles will bear the Folgore name.

Levante: The crossover's top Trofeo trim gets 580 hp. The Levante may move to the STLA Large platform that will underpin a range of Stellantis electrified vehicles around 2026.

Grecale: The new Grecale midsize crossover, which has conventional and mild-hybrid powertrains, will go on sale in November. It will get an electric variant in 2023.

Quattroporte: A redesign could arrive in 2025.

GranTurismo: The coupe and its convertible counterpart get all-electric variants next year. The electric option will top 1,200 hp.

Ghibli: Production of the sedan is expected to continue through 2024.

MC20: The sports car's gasoline-powered vers…

Rivian Automotive, which has only been making vehicles since last year, already has three models on the road — the electric R1T pickup that beat bigger automakers to the new segment, the electric R1S SUV launched in the summer after delays and the Electric Delivery Van, or EDV, being built for Amazon in three sizes.

The electric vehicle startup has plans for several more on an upcoming R2 platform for smaller and more inexpensive vehicles that will likely include a pickup, possibly named the R2T, along with SUVs. Rivian says it's on track to launch its R2 vehicles out of a future Georgia factory by 2025.

Rivian, which hasn't detailed plans for its future models, has undergone significant growing pains this year — falling behind on production targets, cutting staff and reorienting its business to focus limited resources on increasing output and moving quickly on the second plant.

Analysts say this will keep the company occupied for a while, but there ar…