Trade News

TOKYO — Nissan Motor Co. has stopped taking U.S. preorders for its new Japanese-built Ariya electric crossover, as the critical EV launches into an industry beset by supply chain mayhem.

Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta said it is better to limit orders to what can realistically be delivered in a timely manner rather than potentially aggravate eager customers by making them wait too long.

"Every customer wants to have it, and we don't want customers to wait," Gupta said, adding that Nissan is simultaneously juggling high demand for the model from the U.S., Japan and Europe. The model will go on sale this fall in the United States.

"Ariya has been successfully accepted around the world," Gupta said. "Even in the United States, we had to request our customers to stop the orders."

The crossover is Nissan's second EV after the Leaf, which has grown long in the tooth. The automaker also faced delays in getting the vehicle's new p…

While Acura speeds toward an all-electric future, it's first putting some emphasis on what will be the brand's last gasoline-powered new vehicle: the return of the Integra as a 2023 model.

That's because premium Acura needs to fill the void left by its more conservative entry-level ILX compact sedan and grab the last remaining millennial buyers who still care about driving performance.

"Positioning the Integra is really an important thing, as a true gateway to the brand, and a worthy successor of the original Integra," Emile Korkor, assistant vice president of Acura national sales, told Automotive News.

"We are excited about what this latest generation is going to do for building a loyal customer base as we build toward electrification," Korkor said.

The Integra — a nameplate last offered in 2006 — gets a different personality from the ILX it replaces. The ILX was a much more conservative entry into the Acura brand, according to Stephanie Brinle…

Does anything around here ever really happen at lightning speed?

We've been telling you a lot lately about the lightning speed of change that's roiling the auto industry. And it's true, of course.

But in this week's issue, it's interesting to observe that rapid change in the car business isn't always a slam dunk. Auto companies, decision makers, investors, dealers, suppliers and — most of all — customers are a diverse bunch with a lot of different perspectives.

On Page 1, reporter Larry Vellequette captures the moment at Volkswagen, where Group CEO Herbert Diess is moving rapidly to establish a new SUV and truck brand in the U.S. called Scout. No details yet, but Diess hopes to have a site selected by year-end for a new multi-billion dollar manufacturing plant.

But — hold on. VW's American dealers are saying to the mighty automaker: Can you just pause for a minute to tell us where we fit into these big plans?

Their questions aren't going…

The automotive policy advisor with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago discusses the ways in which electric vehicles must reach parity with their conventional counterparts to ensure a widespread growth trajectory.

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Stellantis last week said it will spend $2.8 billion to retool a pair of assembly plants in Canada in preparation for making electric vehicles.

The automaker said it will turn its Windsor and Brampton plants into "flexible, multi-energy vehicle assembly facilities" and build two new R&D centers in Windsor focusing on EVs and battery technology.

The governments of Canada and the province of Ontario each will give Stellantis up to $398 million toward the projects. Stellantis, during contract negotiations with Unifor, committed to spend up to $1.1 billion to retool Windsor Assembly Plant, which builds Chrysler minivans.

Stellantis said the Windsor retooling will "diversify the company's capacity by introducing battery-electric or hybrid models to the production line to meet growing consumer demand for low-emissions vehicles."

It didn't say which new products will eventually be assembled in Windsor.

"We are i…

As automakers rush to roll out electric vehicles faster than their rivals, they're also scrambling to build enough plants to make all the batteries needed to power them.

They might not be able to keep up, said Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who last week revealed plans to open a battery plant in Kokomo, Ind., in 2025. It's one of more than a dozen North American battery plants that automakers are in the midst of planning or building.

Yet Tavares said he expects the industry to face a shortage of batteries and raw materials needed for EVs this decade.

At the same time, he's on alert for more disruption on the economic front, saying "the macroeconomic fundamentals that could trigger" a recession are "quite common" to all of the Western economies.

If a recession does emerge, Tavares said automakers simply will have to roll with it.

"We are in the Darwinian world," he told reporters last week. "The guys who survive are the guys that adapt, an…

Tesla Inc.'s Chinese operations are struggling to pump out cars because of coronavirus shutdowns, and its new plants in Austin, Texas, and Berlin face long production ramp-ups. The automaker is also under fresh regulatory scrutiny over its driver-assistance software, and its stock price has fallen far further than equities markets overall.

CEO Elon Musk, meanwhile, has been posting his thoughts about a variety of topics on Twitter while pushing to take control of the social media platform.

Among his tweets last week, he observed that "politics is a sadness generator," that "assault rifles should at minimum require a special permit" and that "Italy will have no people" if falling birthrates continue there.

While Musk has long used Twitter to talk about his multiple companies, the prospect of him becoming Twitter's interim CEO and injecting himself into thorny political and social issues has analysts worried about his auto company's f…

Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. warned Friday it may run out of cash in June, at least one month sooner than previously projected, unless it can raise additional capital.

The latest projections reflect higher costs in a number of areas, including employee retention and payments to suppliers, the suburban Detroit EV startup said in a filing.

"The company expects that, without obtaining additional financing, it has sufficient cash to continue operations into June 2022," it said in the filing, adding that it was "actively pursuing potential sources of liquidity" to bolster its finances.

Electric Last Mile had said in March that it had enough cash on hand to fund operations through sometime between July and September. The company is under SEC investigation and has been without an auditor since February.

The stock has fallen 90 percent so far this year as the company faces several financial reporting challenges, including a long-past deadline to file…

For more than 20 years, Teton Motors, nestled in the scenic mountain city of Jackson, Wyo., has offered an unusual employee benefit that has become increasingly critical to retain and attract talent: housing.

The dealership group, which operates Chevrolet and Subaru stores, first began offering on-site housing to employees in 1998. Today, Teton Motors owns 12 housing units that it rents to workers at below-market rates in the pricey tourist town — a perk that has attracted new employees and helped the dealerships keep existing staffers.

"It definitely has helped with retention, because everybody knows what the market is like and they do appreciate what we offer them," said Dave Auge, Teton Motors president. "It's a win-win."

Back in 1998, the group was leasing a plot of land in Jackson as a used-vehicle lot to complement its Chevrolet store, Auge recalled. When the land's owner died, Teton Motors bought the parcel and made plans to build an office for t…

Tucked beneath the floor of most electric vehicles today is a nickel manganese cobalt battery, a type of lithium ion battery. The chemistry has had a dominant run as EVs have proliferated because of its ability to hold an ample charge.

But nickel manganese cobalt, called NMC, is being challenged, experts say, as lithium iron phosphate, known as LFP, batteries provide a cheaper alternative, although they trade some range.

"LFP, from a manufacturer standpoint, is a great compromise," said Conrad Layson, senior alternative propulsion analyst at AutoForecast Solutions, a global consultancy and forecasting firm.

"From a user standpoint, it might be too much of a compromise. We won't know that yet until it really propagates out here in the Western market."

LFP batteries, which also fall under the lithium ion umbrella, are already powering a substantial number of EVs in China. But they have not reached the U.S. in any appreciable volume, said Dan Blond…

Toyota is adding special editions and trim levels to its car and light-truck lineup for the 2023 model year, including two which mark significant anniversaries of vehicles in the U.S.

4Runner: The brand plans a run of 4,040 special editions of the midsize off-roader to mark the 4Runner's 40th anniversary in the U.S. The vehicles will be 4x4s equipped with bronze alloy wheels and will feature yellow/orange/red striping. The cabin will get special badging and floor mats.

Sienna: Toyota will mark the 25th anniversary of its minivan with a run of 2,525 Silver Anniversary editions in Celestial Silver or Wind Chill Pearl. Based on the XSE trim, these will have special badging along with features normally requiring a higher Limited trim level, including heated and vented seats trimmed in black leather.

Tundra SX: This new trim level slotted between the SR5 and Limited features dark gray 18-inch alloy wheels and black instead of body-co…

Call this a reality check: At less than a month old, Volkswagen's nascent Scout brand doesn't have employees, offices, executives, a factory or even a publicly disclosed product plan.

What it does have is a purchased semi-famous name, a rough sideview sketch of a planned battery-electric SUV and pickup, and a commitment from the head of the world's second-largest automaker to make it all happen in the United States at lightning speed.

That commitment, from Volkswagen Group CEO Herbert Diess and unaccompanied by deeper details, has been enough to roil hundreds of U.S. dealers of the automaker's eponymous brand over the last few weeks like nothing since the German automaker's costly diesel emissions scandal.

Diess this week was in Davos, Switzerland, committing to have a site chosen by the end of this year for a multibillion-dollar U.S. assembly plant and likely an accompanying battery plant. At the same time, his VW dealers in the U.S. and their allies …