Trade News

MINE, Japan — Internally at Mazda, engineers and executives have a name for the small brand's traditional slow-and-steady upmarket move. They call it the "inchworm strategy."

With each model's redesign, they keep the base price planted in the range of the previous generation. But top-grade stickers reach higher, capturing the value of ever-better vehicles.

The tactic has not only lifted transaction prices in recent years, it has burnished Mazda's image as something approaching premium. Employees have their own name for that: Mazda Premium.

But now, Mazda the inchworm is coiling up for more than a caterpillarlike crawl.

This year, it will attempt a big leap forward in a bid to remake the lineup and its brand image for an industry under siege by change. The overhaul centers around a range of larger and electrified new vehicles that Mazda bets will boost U.S. sales 35 percent to a record 450,000 in just four years.

In a word, Mazda Motor Cor…

European assembly plants were hammered by the ongoing microchip shortage last week, even as the rest of the world got a reprieve, according to the latest estimate by AutoForecast Solutions.

In a new production forecast, AFS added about 98,900 vehicles to its global tally of vehicles that have been removed from automakers’ production schedules this year. About 1.4 million vehicles have been axed so far in 2022, on top of the 10.5 million vehicles lost during 2021, AFS said.

European factories accounted for 97,600 of the increase. So far this year, they have eliminated some 747,000 vehicles because of the global chip shortage.

Assembly plants elsewhere in the world saw relatively little chip-related disruption, however. Only about 1,300 more vehicles were axed at North American factories, while no additional cuts were reported in Asia, South America the Middle East or Africa.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com

Tesla's long-delayed, wildly styled Cybertruck pickup will finally reach production in pickup-crazy Texas next year, CEO Elon Musk promised while inaugurating the electric automaker's massive Austin factory last week.

Musk, who had previously hedged over Cybertruck timing due to supply-chain shortages, expressed far greater certainty last week in front of thousands of cheering fans who are looking for their next Tesla product to love. The angular Cybertruck was first shown in 2019 and slated for launch two years later.

"We're going to have an incredible Cybertruck product for you next year," Musk said at the event, which featured colored lights, electronic music and the latest Cybertruck prototype. "It's going to blow your mind."

In a new announcement, the billionaire CEO said the automaker is also working on a dedicated robotaxi model using the company's autonomous vehicle software.

Tesla is also trying to make current…

TOKYO — Internal combustion stalwart Mazda Motor Corp. will introduce a range of recently developed electrified powertrains with its new large product platform debuting this year.

Last year, Mazda revised its electrification plan, saying electric vehicles would account for a quarter of global sales in 2030, with the rest of its portfolio employing some other form of electrification.

But executives are now saying that outlook is already in need of another upgrade.

"Frankly speaking, considering the latest trends of regulation in Europe and the United States, 25 percent should not be enough," Yasuhiro Aoyama, Mazda's global sales and marketing chief, told Automotive News. New targets are expected to be floated when the carmaker updates its midterm business plan this spring, he said, although he declined to say what they might be.

The new rear-wheel-drive platform will be Mazda's bridge to a separate dedicated EV platform, called Skyactiv EV Scala…

For Augusta Technical College in Georgia, the biggest news to come out of the Masters Tournament being played a few miles away had nothing to do with Tiger Woods.

Augusta National Golf Club and Jim Hudson Automotive Group each announced $1 million donations to the college last week for new automotive training programs.

The gifts will support a service training center set to open this year that aims to help fill demand for technicians.

"Cars have always been in my blood, and this partnership with Augusta Technical College will allow young men and women the opportunity to be educated and trained in the automotive world," Jim Hudson, founder of the group with 11 locations in Augusta and South Carolina, said in a statement.

The college will be able to quadruple its service training footprint, offering 16 certification programs to about 1,270 students annually. It also is working with Toyota, General Motors, Honda and other au…

When the National Automobile Dealers Association revealed last month it was partnering with the National Urban League to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in auto retailing, the public announcement at the NADA Show was the easy part.

Now, the association must work with the league and other key stakeholders to fill in the details of a work force development initiative aimed at recruiting, hiring and training more women and minorities at franchised dealerships.

"NADA, to their credit and to their leadership's credit, they've been a very willing participant. They want to find solutions and achieve results," said Don Cravins Jr., COO of the National Urban League, a historic civil rights organization that, in part, works to connect African Americans and other underserved groups to education and job training. "NADA looks like they're ready."

The death of George Floyd, an African American man who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis in 2020, …

Qualcomm Inc. last week closed on its acquisition of Swedish tech supplier Veoneer's Arriver software stack, giving the tech giant a larger foothold in the emerging mobility space.

Don't expect Qualcomm to stop there.

"Qualcomm is focused on this market and this space for the long haul, and this is just the start," said Nakul Duggal, the company's general manager of automotive.

Duggal spoke with Automotive News on Monday, April 4, the day Qualcomm finalized the acquisition of Arriver and its computer vision, drive policy and driver-assistance assets, which will be integrated into the company's Snapdragon Ride platform.

Qualcomm agreed to buy Arriver as part of a deal with Veoneer and New York private equity firm SSW Partners, which bought the remainder of Veoneer's business.

Qualcomm said it would provide more financial details about the deal in its next quarterly earnings call, though it was reported in October that SSW and Qualcomm would…

Two of the largest automotive seating suppliers are building out new plants in Detroit and looking to joint ventures to capture more business from automakers increasingly conscious of their spending with minority-owned companies.

Magna International Inc. formed a joint venture with LAN Manufacturing Group LLC called LN Manufacturing LLC, which plans to open a plant in southwest Detroit next year to make seats for Ford Motor Co. trucks and SUVs.

On the city's east side, Lear Corp. is expected to open its plant at the former Cadillac Stamping site later this year to make seats for General Motors and is exploring a joint venture.

"It's competition, in one word," said Michelle Sourie Robinson, president and CEO of the Michigan Minority Supplier Development Council, which certifies minority companies and JVs. "They're all trying to prove that they have the greatest competitive advantage and can do that work and provide the most value to the customer, and (m…

SHANGHAI — Nio Inc. said on Saturday it suspended production after China's measures to contain the recent surge of COVID-19 cases disrupted operations at key suppliers.

"Since March, due to reasons to do with the epidemic, the company's supplier partners in several places including Jilin, Shanghai and Jiangsu suspended production one after the other and have yet to recover," the company said on its mobile app.

"Due to the impact of this Nio has had to halt car production."

The Chinese manufacturer will postpone EV deliveries to users and will work together with suppliers to strive for resumption while meeting the government's COVID curbs, it added. 

China has adopted strict lockdown measures to contain the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant in several places including Jilin province and Shanghai where plants of major auto part makers and automakers are located.

Tesla has suspended production at its Shanghai plant si…

As an automotive finance veteran of nearly 30 years, Sue Wilke opposed the hybrid model of individual dealership employees managing both sales and finance and insurance.

"I was a hundred percent against it," Wilke, finance director and sales manager of Lompoc, Calif.-based RocketTown Honda, told Automotive News.

She recalled an encounter with Cindy Merry, finance director of a dealership group in Alaska that has thrived for years with a hybrid format. "I told her, 'You're crazy,' " Wilke said.

Then COVID-19 struck in March 2020. RocketTown was forced to adopt appointment-only sales and lay off a sales force of about 10 people, two finance staffers and an Internet sales manager. But when conditions improved in 2020 and RocketTown Honda needed to add staff, it seemed sales personnel wouldn't have enough volume to earn a decent living, Wilke said.

The dealership switched to a hybrid format as it brought back three of its staffers throughout 2020. On…