Trade News

Beijing is expected to offer subsidies to spur vehicle sales in rural areas, bidding to shore up an auto market that sank to a ten-year low in April amid resurging coronavirus outbreaks, according to an official media report.

Beginning in June, consumers that purchase vehicles priced at 150,000 and below will qualify for 3,000 yuan ($444) to 5,000 yuan in subsidies, China Securities, a financial newspaper run by state-owned Xinhua news agency, reported this week.

The subsidy will be available to buyers of gasoline-powered vehicles as well as electrified vehicles, the Beijing-based newspaper noted.

Shanghai and the northeast city of Changchun, two of China’s major auto production centers, were locked down in April as the Chinese government pursues a zero-tolerance policy to control COVID-19.

The move sent April new-vehicle sales across China tumbling 48 percent to 1.18 million, a 10-year low for the month. 

The market has contracted 12 …

"Jimmy Car Car" is taking his show on the road. Or rather, the man who still answers to that childhood nickname — Ford CEO Jim Farley — is now doing a show about the road.

Farley, 59, has taken on podcast hosting in addition to his role leading America's second-biggest auto manufacturer. His weekly show "Drive" debuts May 25 on Spotify.

Ford Motor Co.'s CEO has interviewed celebs (podcaster Dax Shepard and late-night host Jimmy Kimmel), a fellow chief executive (Harley-Davidson's Jochen Zeitz), race-car drivers (actress Emelia Hartford) and royals (the Duke of Richmond) for the show, as well as one GOAT (quarterback Tom Brady). In seven snappy 20- to 25-minute episodes, Farley will delve deep into what drives his guests.

This all might sound like a marketing ploy by Ford, but the automaker says it isn't contributing a penny to production. Farley did interviews in his spare time on Saturdays from a conference room just outside his office atop the company'…

Executive Editor Jamie Butters gives you the top headlines and talks about the Nissan EV consumer experience, the automaker's role in reaching ambitious climate goals and offering customers long-term value with Nissan Americas chief Jeremie Papin.

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Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

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WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it was recalling 39,000 SUVs after reports of 16 fires, and has advised owners to park their vehicles outdoors and away from structures until a fix is completed.

The recall, which covers some 2021 model year Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator vehicles, was prompted as an engine compartment fire could occur while the car is parked or being driven, even with the ignition off, the No. 2 U.S. automaker said.

There was one injury but no accidents related to the fires, it said, and 14 of the 16 affected vehicles were owned by rental car companies.

Click here for coverage of all U.S. vehicle recalls.

A remedy was still under development and Ford was working to establish the cause.

This year, Ford has issued 30 U.S. recalls covering 3.5 million vehicles -- the most of any automaker.

Ford this week issued two other recalls, including 310,000 2016 Super Duty F-250, F-350, F-450, and F-550 trucks be…

Tesla Inc. fans and supporters in the financial community are calling on Elon Musk to stop divisive political attacks and to walk away from his contentious Twitter acquisition for the long-term health of the automaker.

The calls come as Tesla's stock price plummets with the rest of the market and the controversial CEO steps up his criticism of the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden and Twitter executives.

"In the past I voted Democrat, because they were (mostly) the kindness party," Musk wrote on his Twitter account Wednesday. "But they have become the party of division & hate, so I can no longer support them and will vote Republican. Now, watch their dirty tricks campaign against me unfold."

Musk also called Yale University "the epicenter of the woke mind virus attempting to destroy civilization" in response to a critical comment from a Yale professor. The Twitter topic "Poor Elon," in which users mostly mocked the world's richest person for his…

TOKYO – The troubled, ever-evolving Tokyo Motor Show will rebrand itself yet again in an attempt to breathe life, energy and attendance into Asia’s onetime premier auto expo.

When the show returns in 2023, it will open under a “Japan All-Industry” banner, said the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, which has hosted the event since its inception in 1954.

In announcing the update May 19, JAMA Chairman Akio Toyoda said it was important to bring together different sectors at a time when collaboration is needed to achieve carbon neutrality.

“We want to rename next year’s Tokyo Motor Show the Japan All-Industry Show, going beyond the mobility industry, with all of Japanese industry working as one team, including startups,” Toyoda said. “We aim to make a totally new show, transforming it in both name and reality.”

Toyoda did not elaborate on the scope of how many sectors and companies might be included.

In April 2021, JAMA canceled the bi…

Honda's all-electric Prologue crossover is taking shape as the Honda brand prepares for an electrified future that targets half a million EV sales in North America by 2030.

The 2024 Prologue, Honda's first volume EV, will leverage General Motors' Ultium platform and batteries as part of a partnership between the two automakers. Honda has said it expects to sell 70,000 Prologues.

The Prologue's exterior styling was handled by the Honda Design Studio in Los Angeles with influence from a Japan-based design team. Honda will design the interior as well.

"We announced a plan two years ago, positioned as a smart strategy, to co-develop an electric vehicle with GM," Mamadou Diallo, American Honda's head of sales, said in a statement. He said the collaboration with GM resulted in an attractive vehicle and a more efficient product development and manufacturing process.

According to a digital rendering, the Prologue mixes clean lines with a long wheelbase, …

NASHVILLE -- General Motors believes having a full portfolio of electric vehicles on sale at the same time will allow each of them to succeed more than previous, singular efforts have.

After selling the EV1 by itself in the late 1990s, followed by the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid in 2010 and the Chevy Bolt in 2016, "we have learned a lot from ourselves," GM President Mark Reuss said Wednesday at the Automotive News Congress in Nashville. In each case, having no other electrified offerings in the lineup made it hard for the automaker to promote that one model at the expense of its profitable, gasoline-powered vehicles.

"The company, at that time when we launched the original Bolt, was afraid and didn't really get behind it," Reuss said. "We would have liked to have had a portfolio of electric vehicles to go to market with. It's hard to put one car in market and have anybody get behind it in a sales network."

Now, GM is preparing to launch a slew of EVs…

NASHVILLE — A host of startups and newcomers to the auto industry are shaking up the automotive supply chain, but established companies aren't standing pat.

Indeed, the supply chain is in for a major overhaul as longtime suppliers look to maintain their positions in the electric vehicle era, manufacturing executives said during a panel at the Automotive News Congress here.

Take, for example, Denso Corp., the world's second-largest auto supplier by annual global sales to automakers. As the supplier giant looks to become "more agile and more flexible" in the EV era, it is investing in 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, to help it to build spare parts and cooling systems, for instance. 

"Materials and manufacturing processes continue to evolve to help us to do things lighter and faster," said Andrew Clemence, Denso International America's electrification business unit leader. "We really believe this is going to unlock a new era of product design…

NASHVILLE — Nissan Motor Co. will announce a U.S. battery supplier for its next-generation electric vehicles "in a few weeks," the automaker's Americas chief Jeremie Papin said at the Automotive News Congress here Wednesday.

This year, Nissan said it would invest $500 million to turn its Canton, Miss., assembly plant into a "center for EV manufacturing and technology." Under that overhaul, Canton will produce two new EVs, one for the Nissan brand, the other for Infiniti, starting in 2025.

"There is a need to have a very close connection between the battery supplier and the car manufacturer," Papin said. "The knowledge that is being shared between the two is very much at the heart of a battery-electric vehicle."

Nissan currently sources batteries for the U.S.-made Leaf hatchback from the Smyrna, Tenn., battery plant majority-owned by Chinese energy company Envision Group. That battery factory was originally built and owned by Nissan at the outset of the…

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Wednesday it has opened a special crash investigation into a fatal Tesla crash this month in California that resulted in three deaths.

The crash, involving a 2022 model Tesla Model S, is one of more than 30 under investigation by the NHTSA involving Tesla vehicles in which advanced driver assistance systems like Autopilot were suspected of use.

A total of 14 crash deaths have been reported in those Tesla investigations, including the most recent three.

Of the 35 special crash investigations by the NHTSA into Tesla since 2016 involving advanced driver assistance systems, Autopilot use has been ruled out in three.

NHTSA separately said on Wednesday that in April it had opened another special crash investigation involving a 2016 Tesla Model X in Florida that resulted in a minor injury.

NHTSA did not immediately identify the crash that killed three in the new probe …

Executive Editor Jamie Butters gives you the top headlines and talks about the ACT Expo, a clean transportation gathering that focused on solutions like battery-electric trucks and renewable diesel with Automotive News Reporter John Irwin.

How do I subscribe?

Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

iPhone / iPad

“Daily Drive” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Android

“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"

Spotify

"Daily Drive" is available on Spotify. Click here to subscribe to "Daily Drive"