Trade News

TOKYO — The engineering guru leading Nissan's quest for solid-state batteries wants to disabuse people of the notion that solid state is inherently safer than today's lithium ion packs.

True, next-generation solid-state batteries don't have a flammable liquid electrolyte. But they do cram in a lot more energy, and that could make for some unpleasant fireworks if something goes haywire.

"Energy density is double, so you have a potential bomb that's more dangerous," said Kazuhiro Doi, corporate vice president in charge of advanced battery research at the Japanese automaker.

"If a big accident occurs, it could become much more catastrophic than with today's batteries."

But Doi insists Nissan Motor Co. can now lick that safety problem and other key issues that make solid-state batteries difficult to deliver. 

His team has been racing to solve conundrums as Nissan tries to deliver on its pledge to bring the lightweight, comp…

Ohio State University running back TreVeyon Henderson is among the top football players in the country, but at Ricart Automotive Group he's just one of the "interns."

Henderson, several of his teammates and other Ohio State athletes star in a series of advertisements that show them fetching coffee, pushing cars and being silly with group President Rick Ricart.

The "Rick's Interns" videos are a byproduct of the NCAA's June 2021 decision to allow student athletes to profit from the use of their name and image. Since then, Ricart Automotive and many other dealerships have begun leveraging the star power of collegiate sports standouts through promotional deals and compensating them in a variety of ways that previously would have broken NCAA rules.

Athletes across the country are getting free access to vehicles and being paid in some instances for appearing in commercials or wearing clothing with dealership branding.

The "na…

Wholesale used-vehicle prices slipped further in March, the second month in a row they've declined after a long period of record elevation.

Cox Automotive said Thursday that its Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, which tracks vehicles sold at Manheim's U.S. auctions, fell 3.3 percent in March compared with February. The decline in February pric-es was the first the index had recorded since August.

Still, wholesale prices were nearly 25 percent higher in March than they were one year earlier. Those numbers are adjusted for mix, mileage and seasonality. On a nonadjusted basis, the Manheim Index rose 0.6 percent from its February level, with prices up 23 percent year over year, according to Manheim.

"As we move into the next several weeks, prices are likely to move up with the spring selling season, though the magnitude of the monthly increases are likely to be lower than we've experienced over 2021," said Chris Frey, Cox Automotive's senior manager of econo…

EV juggernaut Tesla accounted for more than 20 percent of total U.S. luxury segment sales in the first quarter, according to Automotive News Research & Data Center estimates.

Meanwhile, last year's luxury sales champ BMW managed to deliver an uptick in sales while most of its legacy rivals fell. The German marque was one of just three major luxury brands to post a year-over-year sales gain in a market roiled by tight inventory and parts shortages.

BMW secured a 9,349-vehicle advantage over Lexus in the first quarter.

According to Cox Automotive data, as of March 21, BMW had a 30-day supply of vehicles, compared with a 37-day pool for the overall luxury segment.

BMW is doing a "tremendous job" of working around supply chain problems, said Mark Smith, president of Principle Auto in San Antonio, which operates two BMW stores.

In the latest quarter, BMW sold 73,714 vehicles, up 3.2 percent. Light trucks accounted for 61.5 percent of the b…

Findlay Automotive Group of Henderson, Nev., has acquired two Larry H. Miller dealerships in Washington state from Asbury Automotive Group Inc.

Findlay CFO Tyler Corder announced the acquisition in a Twitter post on Thursday. He confirmed to Automotive News that the transaction closed on Friday to buy Larry H. Miller Downtown Toyota Spokane and Larry H. Miller Lexus Spokane.

Corder said the dealerships will be renamed Findlay Toyota Spokane and Findlay Lexus Spokane.

Asbury bought the dealerships as part of its December megadeal to acquire Larry H. Miller Dealerships of Sandy, Utah. Asbury has sold a handful of dealerships it acquired in that transaction, including Larry H. Miller Toyota Albuquerque, which it sold Friday to Group 1 Automotive Inc. Last month, Asbury sold a Larry H. Miller Toyota dealership in Colorado to Baxter Auto Group and two other Colorado Larry H. Miller Toyota stores to Corwin Automotive Group.

This is Findlay Automotive's …

Renault SA’s top executives are planning their first in-person meetings since the pandemic with their counterparts at Nissan Motor Co. in Japan next month as the French carmaker’s weak financial position and possible breakup threaten to further strain their alliance.

Among topics for discussion will be emerging plans for a possible separate listing of Renault’s electric-vehicle unit and potential new partner for the legacy operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussions on Renault’s costly retreat from Russia will also feature prominently, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

There are no signs of any imminent structural change in the three-way alliance that includes Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

The executive meetings next month would be the first trip to Japan for Luca de Meo since he became CEO and his first in-person meeting with Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta. Renault Chairman Jean-Dominiqu…

TOKYO — Mazda kicks off an upmarket portfolio shift that bets that bigger is better with a global blitz of new large-sized crossovers.

The strategy will begin unfolding this year in Europe and Japan with the launch of the new two-row CX-60. That model will be followed by two U.S.-focused stablemates, the CX-70 and CX-90 starting next year.

A three-row CX-80 is also in the mix, for Europe, Japan and other global markets.

Underpinning all the new nameplates is a large-vehicle platform that will sustain Mazda's electrification plan and its brand-building efforts through this decade and beyond.

The so-called large-product architecture has a newly developed rear-wheel-drive platform for vehicles sized above the recently introduced CX-50 made at Mazda's new plant in Alabama.

The new architecture supports all-wheel drive-setups and a range of powertrains that include turbocharged gasoline engines, a newly developed diesel engine, a 48-volt mild h…

DETROIT — Chevrolet on Thursday plans to debut two advertisements to relaunch the 2022 Bolt EV and EUV after a recall related to battery fires shut down production of the electric vehicles for about seven months.

In its effort to move past the recall, which represented a black mark on General Motors' EV ramp-up, the brand said it expects media spending for the Bolts to top all other nameplates except the Silverado pickup.

The ads are designed to "bring forward the broader Chevrolet EV message," Steve Majoros, director of Chevrolet marketing, told reporters Wednesday.

They will debut during Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season. One ad, titled "Mom," shows a driver talking with his mother on the phone for nearly an hour with plenty of battery life left in his Bolt. The other, called "Life Changes," shows a Bolt technician explaining the ease of EV ownership to an expectant mother.

The two spots will "put EV ownership angst at ease," Majo…

Toyota Motor Corp. revised its annual sales forecast for the industry downward by about 6 percent as supply constraints are expected to limit the industry's ability to meet high consumer demand.

Bob Carter, head of sales for Toyota Motor North America, said the automaker anticipates 15.5 million light-vehicle sales in the U.S. this year, down from the 16.5 million it estimated in October.

"That is an adjustment that is, quite frankly, not based on consumer demand," Carter told journalists on Wednesday during a media roundtable. "It's based solely on our projections of what the supply environment is going to be in 2022."

The downward revision reflects the continued constraints resulting from the global semiconductor shortage, higher raw materials prices and the war in Ukraine's ripple effects on the supply chain.

Those issues have led to tight new-vehicle inventory, which resulted in a year-over-year U.S. new-vehicle sales decline of 16 percent in…

Porsche has joined a group of investors making a $260 million equity bet on a startup that aims to harness wind power to make a gasoline substitute.

Porsche is investing $75 million for a 12.5 percent stake in electricity-based fuel developer HIF Global, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

HIF is building a plant in Chile to produce electricity-based synthetic fuels from hydrogen and carbon dioxide using wind energy, starting midyear.

HIF Global plans to build 12 commercial sites in Texas, Chile and Australia, representing $50 billion of investments, to produce 150,000 barrels of fuel a day using 25 gigawatts of renewables and about 25 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, HIF Global's Executive Director Meg Gentle said in an interview.

The firm also attracted backing from funds managed by EIG Global Energy Partners, Baker Hughes and majority shareholder Andes Mining & Energy of Chile, the startup said in a separate statement.

The aggressive fuel-economy regulations the Biden administration rolled out last week are intended to spur faster development of electric cars, but they rely on a credit program that some environmentalists say undercuts the program's pollution-fighting purpose.

The system allows carmakers to claim an equivalent of more than 100 miles per gallon for each EV in their lineup, potentially allowing them to meet the 49 mpg fleetwide mandate by 2026 even if the rest of the lineup is crowded with internal combustion vehicles.

"Automakers have delighted in a system that allows them to evade the rules with generous credits they can buy from other companies or create themselves that allows them to avoid meeting stricter requirements," said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity's Safe Climate Transport Campaign.

Under the updated regulations, carmakers will be required to raise the average fuel efficiency of their fleets 8 percent annually for …