Trade News

What will Super Bowl LVI's ads look like? Join Ad Age on Feb. 8 to hear what was on the minds of brands, agency leaders and creatives for the 2022 game, featuring Nissan's Allyson Witherspoon. Watch live 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. EST from your laptop, phone or other connected device.

A 180-day suspension on Carvana's operations in Raleigh, N.C., expired on Saturday, leaving the online used-retail giant free to continue selling in the area.

The suspension was handed down last August, after a North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles investigation found the company didn't deliver title work on time, issued out-of-state, temporary tags for a vehicle sold in North Carolina and offered a vehicle for sale without a state inspection.

Nazneen Ahmed, a spokeswoman for the state attorney general's office, confirmed to Automotive News that Carvana's dealer license was renewed Monday.

The division did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.

The division began investigating Carvana's Raleigh location in February last year, after a consumer raised a complaint about not being able to obtain a vehicle registration and license plates.

Carvana appealed the suspension decision in Wake County Superior Court, but la…

MEXICO CITY -- More than 6,000 General Motors workers in Mexico will elect a new union this week as an upstart group supported by international activists aims to beat one of Mexico's biggest labor organizations that held the contract for 25 years.

The vote is one of the first under a labor reform that underpins a new trade deal with Canada and the U.S., and aims to help improve pay by breaking the grip of unions that critics say signed deals with companies behind workers' backs.

The GM vote, set for Tuesday and Wednesday at the pickup truck plant in the central city of Silao, comes after workers in August dissolved their contract with the Confederation of Mexican Workers. The vote was monitored by U.S. officials, who threatened to impose tariffs on GM exports under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade deal if the automaker did not protect worker rights.

The U.S. government is watching Silao again.

The vote by nearly 6,300 workers could…

The next-generation Nissan Z sports car receives top billing in the brand's Super Bowl commercial, which will be aired during the game Feb. 13.

Nissan Motor Co. released two teasers of the commercial, called "Thrill Driver," which is set up as an action-packed, comedy-thriller movie premiere.

The 60-second ad features actors Eugene Levy, Danai Gurira and Dave Bautista. Nissan Brand Ambassador Brie Larson will also have a starring role.

Levy plays the role of super-cool action hero Dragon, transformed by a 2023 Nissan Z. He teams with Gurira as Hotshot and Bautista as Pointman.

Nissan's new electric crossover, the Ariya, makes a cameo in the commercial, the brand's first Super Bowl ad since 2015.

The seventh-generation Z is the most powerful in the line's history, a twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 speedster that delivers 400 hp.

The Z is expected to arrive in the U.S. in the spring, with global sales focused mainly on the U.S. and Japan.

Jaguar Land Rover swung to a quarterly loss as global semiconductor shortages continued to hit sales.

The UK automaker reported a 9 million pounds ($12 million) loss before tax for the quarter ended Dec. 31, compared with a profit of 439 million pounds in the same quarter last year.

JLR's earning before interest and tax (EBIT) margin was 1.4 percent for the quarter.

Retail sales fell 38 percent to 80,126 vehicles as the automaker suffered from low inventories because of chip shortages, JLR owner Tata Motors said in a statement on Monday.

The Jaguar brand suffered its lowest quarterly sales since 2013 as Jaguar Land Rover focused scarce microchips on the more profitable Land Rover brand.

Jaguar Land Rover production during the quarter jumped by more than 40 percent from the preceding quarter, indicating a recovery in deliveries, P.B. Balaji, Tata Motors's CFO, said during an earnings call. 

"We are seeing an easing of pressure o…

The U.S. public charging network for electric vehicles is becoming more robust, but significant differences in reliability and performance remain between providers, an industry ranking by engineering consulting firm Umlaut found.

The group tested chargers by Volkswagen's Electrify America, ChargePoint, EVgo, Blink Charging, EVconnect, Greenlots and Tesla's Superchargers across seven U.S. states in September.

Electrify America reached the highest score in the ranking, followed by Tesla's Supercharger and ChargePoint, said Umlaut, which was acquired by Accenture in October. 

The ranking considered the technical performance of chargers, as well as the charging station environment, such as lighting, roofing and nearby amenities. It also took into account the performance of charging networks' apps, which car owners use to look for nearby chargers and make payments.

"Across all categories we see the system becoming more mature and stable," said H…

Executive Editor Jamie Butters gives you the top headlines and talks about Tesla's stellar earnings announcement, sprinkled with extended delays for the Cybertruck and other models with Automotive News reporter Laurence Iliff.

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It's morning again in Orion

Orion Assembly already has helped breathe new life into General Motors twice since opening nearly 40 years ago to build Buick Electras and Cadillac Fleetwoods. GM is betting $4 billion that the plant in Detroit's far northern suburbs can do it a third time.

Dedicated by President Ronald Reagan during his 1984 "Morning in America" reelection campaign, Orion helped GM rebound from what was then the country's worst recession since World War II.

"It took great courage for all of you to make this kind of an investment," Reagan said after GM CEO Roger Smith introduced him, during "a time of great uncertainty."

But in 2009, GM shut down Orion (pronounced OR-ee-in, not like the constellation) and about a dozen other plants as part of its bankruptcy reorganization.

The closure was short-lived, though. After winning a three-state battle of tax incentives, Orion came back to life as a symbol of New GM, to show that the a…

Michigan’s lieutenant governor explains the state’s unprecedented $600 million direct grant for GM’s EV expansion, discusses the state’s readiness for an electric-vehicle influx and describes government efforts to support transportations startups.

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Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

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A few years ago, Nissan's U.S. business was in free fall — its balance sheet hemorrhaging, a rebellious dealer body and customers largely uninterested in the brand.

Nissan's outlook today is decidedly brighter. The Japanese automaker is at the tail end of a product overhaul that is drawing more customer attention. Tight new-vehicle supplies and management's decision to abandon controversial sales policies have boosted deliveries and prices along with the spirits of the brand's dealers.

The optimism is evident in the mergers and acquisitions market. Twenty-two percent of retailers polled in Kerrigan Advisors' 2021 Dealer Survey expect Nissan franchise valuations to increase. In 2020, just 8 percent of dealers shared that sentiment.

"It's reflective of a nice turnaround in Nissan's financial performance and demand for the franchise," said Erin Kerrigan, managing director of the Irvine, Calif., company. "You're going to see more buy-…