Trade News

U.S. auto safety regulators have opened a special investigation into a fatal pedestrian crash in California involving a 2018 Tesla Model 3 where an advanced driver assistance system is suspected of use.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) cited the California incident in an emailed update on Thursday but did not identify the specific crash.

The San Diego Union-Tribune reported June 7 that a Tesla went airborne and struck and killed a woman. NBC-7 in San Diego said a 39-year-old man was charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of drugs in the incident.

NHTSA had previously opened 35 special crash investigations involving Tesla vehicles in which advanced driver assistance systems like Autopilot were suspected of being used since 2016.

NHTSA typically opens more than 100 special crash investigations annually into emerging technologies and other potential auto safety issues that have, for instance, pre…

TOKYO — Akio Toyoda praised former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, assassinated Friday in a rare shooting on the street in Japan, for his leadership in trying to revive the country's economy.

Abe, Japan's longest-serving prime minster, was gunned down shortly before noon in the western prefecture of Nara as he was delivering a campaign speech on behalf of a candidate.

Japan's parliamentary elections are this Sunday.

Gun violence is extremely rare in Japan, where firearms are strictly regulated. The killing in broad daylight during a campaign stump stunned a nation that prides itself on safety.

Toyoda, in his role as chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, issued a statement expressing shock and sadness at the killing. Toyoda eulogized Abe for his efforts in diplomacy and national security, while commending his moves to shore up Japan's economy.

Toyoda, who also is president of Toyota Motor Corp., the nation's biggest automake…

Tesla Inc. tightened its grip on the U.S. luxury sales crown in the second quarter, according to new-vehicle registration data that suggests the automaker's original plant in Fremont, Calif., has been humming along while its factories in Berlin and China have struggled.

U.S. registrations of Tesla's four-vehicle lineup rose 66 percent in the first five months of the year to 179,574 vehicles, according to data from Experian this week. BMW was in second place in the luxury segment with an 11 percent drop in new registrations to 133,209 compared with last year.

The numbers include all models, including gasoline and hybrid vehicles from legacy automakers.

Since Tesla does not break out sales data by region, new-vehicle registrations serve as a proxy for comparison purposes, but they lag behind the official U.S. sales data posted by most automakers on a monthly or quarterly basis.

Lexus was No. 3 in the U.S. luxury race with 112,296 registrations in t…

U.S. stock markets closed June 30 to the worst first half of the year since 1970, with the S&P 500 falling 21 percent as rising inflation and high interest rates plagued the U.S. economy.

All the major segments of the U.S. auto industry suffered their share of Wall Street's distress.

From the ongoing semiconductor shortage to the war in Ukraine, the auto industry has faced numerous challenges over the past two years. With market volatility expected to continue through at least next year and economic experts predicting a recession in the first half of 2023, Automotive News spoke to industry experts to see where auto equity markets are headed for the second half of the year and beyond.

Automotive News compiled a sampling of equities in each automotive category.

Automakers

According to the Automotive News analysis, U.S. automakers' stock prices on average fell 48 percent in the first half of the year and over 27 percent in a year-over-y…

Four dealership groups expanded their portfolios with second-quarter acquisitions, each buying one store.

Here's a look at the deals involving import and domestic brand dealerships and stores in Oregon, Iowa, Florida and Ohio.

Mario Hernandez and Teton Auto Group added a fourth Toyota dealership to their portfolio with the acquisition of Coos Bay Toyota in Oregon on May 26.

Hernandez, dealer principal of Teton Auto, and the group bought the dealership from brothers Guy and Lee Hawthorne, according to Jesse Stopnitzky of Performance Brokerage Services, a buy-sell firm in Irvine, Calif., who represented the Hawthorne brothers in the transaction.

Teton will keep the store's name. Coos Bay, along the Pacific Ocean, is north of the California border and is southwest of Portland.

Hernandez and Jim Parker founded Teton Auto in 2005 when they opened their first store, a Toyota dealership, in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Teton Auto has since expanded into …

TOYOTA CITY, Japan — Lexus' new yoke-style steering looks funky, and it drives a little funky.

But the Japanese premium brand plans to advance the technology by combining jet-age looks with an advanced, ultraprecise steer-by-wire system in the upcoming RZ all-electric crossover.

The high-tech setup, tested by Automotive News in June at Lexus’ proving ground, also one-ups the yoke steering system deployed by Tesla by resolving one of that system’s confounding issues. Tesla's butterfly design, reminiscent of an airplane control or Formula One wheel, earned lackluster reviews when it debuted in the Model S and Model X because drivers must awkwardly spin it all the way around. But since the yoke has a flat top and bottom, there is no easy handhold.

Tesla also dropped the wheel's turn indicator stem and moved that function to buttons on the face of the yoke. That meant that the buttons can confusingly end up on the opposite side of the steering control when …

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Americans want EVs but face barriers, survey says

A survey from Consumer Reports shows that interest in electric vehicles and low-carbon fuels continues to be strong, but help from policymakers and automakers is crucial.

"Automakers need to make more classes of electric vehicles. Not just sedans; we need a whole breadth because people have different needs," said Quinta Warren, Consumer Reports' sustainability policy team leader. "We need to make the process of using incentives easy and add more incentives. I can file my taxes and get money back maybe a year after I bought my car. But for some people, that's not feasible."

The survey found 71 percent of Americans expressed interest in buying or leasing an EV. But within that group, 14 percent said they would definitely buy or lease an EV — a 10-point increase from the 2020 survey.

The most significant barrier for those not interested in EVs is charging accessibility, said…

Self-driving tech company Argo AI said it laid off about 150 employees on Thursday.

In a written statement, an Argo spokesperson said the layoffs were part of “prudent adjustments to our business plan” as the company plotted for future growth.

Former Argo employees who worked in the company’s human resources, recruiting, technical sourcing and communications divisions shared news of their layoffs on their respective LinkedIn profiles.

Argo’s workforce remains at more than 2,000 employees across the globe, according to the spokesperson.

The Pittsburgh-based company has developed and launched new operations at a fast clip over the past year.

In September, it started a partnership with Walmart that focused on delivery services in Miami, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. That came in the same month Argo began autonomous testing in Munich.

In December, Argo partnered with Lyft and Ford on launching ride-hailing service in Miami, a ci…

China’s new-vehicle market staged a strong rebound in June after a two-month pandemic-triggered lockdown was lifted in Shanghai and new government incentives were launched early in the month.

New car and light-truck shipments industrywide rose an estimated 21 percent to 2.45 million last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday.

The tally also represents a surge of 34 percent from May volume, the trade group added.

Reflecting steep declines in April and May, when Shanghai and other areas were under strict lockdowns to contain COVID-19 outbreaks, new-vehicle sales through June dropped 7.1 percent year on year to roughly 12 million, according to CAAM’s estimates. 

To revive the market in the wake of the latest coronavirus outbreak, Beijing on June 1 halved vehicle sales taxes to 5 percent for new gasoline light vehicles with engine sizes of up to 2.0 liters and priced at 300,000 yuan ($44,709) or below. 

…

China sales at General Motors and its two joint ventures shrank 35 percent to some 484,000 in the second quarter from a year earlier, reflecting a two-month lockdown of Shanghai and other government measures to curb a resurging coronavirus outbreak. 

Shanghai and other parts of the country imposed strict travel restrictions and testing rules for much of the spring, stifling economic activity, disrupting vehicle output and shipments and curbing showroom traffic.

Each of GM’s brands posted double-digit declines during the April-June period, according to results released by the U.S. automaker’s China unit. 

GM produces and markets Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet cars and trucks at SAIC-GM, a passenger vehicle partnership with SAIC Motor Corp. 

It also builds and distributes minibuses under the Wuling brand and entry-level cars for the Baojun marque at a joint venture with SAIC and Wuling Automobile Industry Co.

Cadillac’s second-q…

Chinese consumers have increasingly opted for electrified vehicles over traditional cars and light trucks, according to the latest vehicle registration data from China’s Ministry of Public Security.

In the first half, while overall newly registered vehicles across the country dropped 21 percent to 11.1 million amid a resurging coronavirus outbreak, electrified-vehicle registrations doubled to top 2.2 million, the Ministry said this week.

As of June, the fleet of electrified vehicles in China expanded to exceed 10 million. Of that number, 81 percent are full electric vehicles and the rest are mainly plug-in hybrids, according to the ministry’s tally.