Trade News

When Genesis' second-generation G80 was launched for the 2021 model year, the interior was enhanced and it gained more refinement. Yet the popular Sport model was missing on the midsize sedan.

The Sport model has been revived for 2022 and now every V-6-powered G80 will be either a Sport or a Sport Prestige. The changes include aggressive styling cues — unique diffuser, 19- or 20-inch alloy wheels, red or black brake calipers, and a three-spoke steering wheel — and some mechanical tweaks.

One notable change: available rear-wheel steering, a first on a Genesis, to optimize driving stability. The sport sedan's rear wheels can now turn up to 2 degrees in the opposite direction of the front wheels at low speeds and the same amount in phases at higher speed. Its turning circle has also been cut by nearly 2 feet, to 36.2 feet.

The entry-level G80 Sport is a mechanical clone of the 2021 G80 3.5T AWD, with the same four-piston monoblock fron…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. previewed the Bronco Everglades SUV by sharing some lightly camouflaged photos with The Bronco Nation enthusiast website.

It's the second time in recent months that the automaker has teased a Bronco variant through the site, billed as the first Ford-certified online Bronco community.

The photos show the vehicle's factory-installed winch and snorkel, meant to help with water fording and vehicle recovery. The vehicle appears to have unique fender flares, wheels and 35-inch Goodyear Territory MT tires.

Based on an ordering guide allegedly leaked and posted to a Bronco forum this year, it will come in an exclusive "Desert Sand" color and only be available as a four-door model.

Ford has said the Bronco Everglades will be available in summer 2022. A spokesman this year told Automotive News that Everglades will be a new series trim, such as Badlands or Wildtrak.

Although Ford this year …

Unvaccinated workers at General Motors’ CAMI Assembly Plant have been forced onto unpaid leaves of absence following the automaker’s Sunday vaccination deadline, according to the union that represents hourly workers at the plant.

Mike Van Boekel, Unifor chairperson for the Ingersoll, Ont., assembly facility, confirmed Monday an undisclosed number of Local 88 members have been place leave, but would not comment further. Last week, he estimated roughly 100 unvaccinated workers had not secured medical or religious exemption to the mandatory vaccination policy.

Though the vaccine mandate went forward unaltered for unvaccinated staff, the union secured “quite a few” changes from GM, including a last-minute reprieve for members who have received only one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Van Boekel told members in a Dec. 9 update. With the changes, workers with a single dose will be allowed to continue working, but will eventually need to prove they are fully vaccinated, h…

Penske Automotive Group Inc. has acquired a BMW dealership in its headquarters city of Bloomfield Hills, Mich., marking a return to dealership ownership in Michigan for the auto retailer.

Penske on Monday bought Erhard BMW of Bloomfield, which it said it expects will add $100 million in annual revenue. The dealership was owned by the Dahm family. Terms were not disclosed, but the store was renamed BMW of Bloomfield Hills.

"This dealership has a strong legacy of serving BMW enthusiasts in the metropolitan Detroit market for over 50 years," Penske President Rob Kurnick said in a statement Tuesday. "We are thrilled to expand our presence and relationship with the BMW brand."

Also on Monday, Fox Motors, of Grand Rapids, Mich., entered the metro Detroit market with the purchase of Erhard BMW of Farmington Hills and Jaguar-Land Rover Farmington Hills, also from the Dahm family. Terms of that transaction weren't disclosed. The BMW store was renamed BMW of Farm…

Electric vehicle leasing startup Hive Technologies Inc said on Tuesday it closed a $30 million funding round to expand its fleet for ride-hail drivers who can otherwise not afford the vehicles' higher upfront costs.

Backed by environmental, social and governance (ESG)-focused investors, the company leases EVs to Uber Technologies Inc and Lyft Inc drivers on a per-mile cost basis offering a potentially cheaper option than taking out a loan to buy a new EV.

"The more you drive, the faster the car payment goes to zero. So instead of going under the water on a loan, you're benefiting," Hive Chief Executive Mathias Thomsen said in an interview with Reuters.

The company only operates with General Motors' Chevrolet Bolts in California, but is talking to other automakers to broaden its vehicle line up and plans to expand to several other states in the coming years, Thomsen said. The funding will increase Hive's fleet to 1,000 vehicles from 100 at present.

China’s efforts to build a thriving market for secondhand vehicles, pretty much from zero, are slowly starting to deliver results, including in the electric car segment.

Sales of pre-owned vehicles jumped by 30 percent in the first ten months of this year and are expected to reach 17 million units in 2021, according to the China Automobile Dealer Association, or CADA.

Trading in secondhand electric or hybrid models rose to 47,000 units last year, the organization’s data shows. While that’s still relatively small, it’s almost double the volume in 2017 and is expected to grow rapidly as China’s electric fleet begins to mature.

You could see — and actually feel — that rising level of interest in the pre-owned sector at CADA’s packed conference earlier this month in Haikou, a city with typically tropical temperatures on the southern Hainan Island. Event organizers were forced to continually boost the air conditioning as delegates crowded into sessions, incl…

WASHINGTON — NHTSA has opened an investigation to assess potential safety risks in more than 325,000 Nissan Pathfinder midsize crossovers from the 2013 to 2016 model years.

The agency's Office of Defects Investigation said it has received 14 complaints from vehicle owners alleging hood latch failures while the vehicles were being driven, resulting in the hoods opening and obstructing the driver's view.

"Sudden and unexpected opening of the hood can startle drivers, block their visibility and could lead to a crash into other vehicles or objects," the agency said in its investigation report.

The investigation was opened Thursday, Dec. 9. No injuries, crashes or fatalities related to the issue have been reported, according to the NHTSA document.

The agency said Nissan is "collecting field parts to assess the alleged failure of the hood latch" and that a root cause has not been identified.

Nissan did not immediately respond to a request for com…

Elon Musk was named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year,” capping a run during which the head of Tesla Inc. solidified his standing as the world’s richest person and turned his onetime electric-vehicle startup into a $1 trillion company.

“Few individuals have had more influence than Musk on life on Earth, and potentially life off Earth too,” Time said in an article explaining its choice of the groundbreaking and often controversial executive. “He sees his mission as solving the globe’s most intractable challenges, along the way disrupting multiple industries.”

The accolade, often reserved for world leaders such as Barack Obama and occasionally business titans like Mark Zuckerberg, adds another trophy to Musk’s increasingly full case. He surpassed Jeff Bezos in January to become the richest person alive and has added more than $100 billion to his wealth this year alone.

In October, Tesla became one of just a handful of companies with a market value over $…

BARCELONA -- Great Wall Motor has withdrawn its interest in taking over Nissan's main plant in Barcelona which is scheduled to shut by year-end, the automaker's unions said on Monday.

Great Wall, Spain's Industry Ministry and Catalonia's regional government business department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Coming just weeks before Nissan's three Barcelona plants are scheduled to close, the decision is a blow to authorities and leaves the fate of around 1,600 direct jobs up in the air, as GWM was the main contender to take over the largest factory.

Industry Minister Reyes Maroto said last week she expected a "positive response" from Great Wall by Dec. 17 when a meeting on the plants' future will be held.

Her ministry had made an improved proposal to the Chinese company after it had reportedly cast doubts on its initial interest in the plant.

BERLIN -- Daimler's Chinese shareholder BAIC Group, has agreed not to further increase its stake in the Mercedes-Benz maker beyond the 9.98 percent stake it has held since 2019, Daimler said.

Daimler said it holds a 9.55 percent stake in BAIC Motor and a 2.46 percent stake in BAIC BluePark.

Daimler's announcement is the first public confirmation of the acquisitions since 2019.

"This underlines the successful partnership to continue the long-term success of Mercedes-Benz in China," Daimler said in a statement.

State-owned BAIC has been Daimler's main partner in China for years and operates Mercedes-Benz factories in Beijing through Beijing Benz Automotive.

The two companies have collaborated in areas such as production, research and development and sales since 2003.

"The partnership between BAIC Group and Daimler Group has always been a model of Sino-German cooperation," BAIC said in a statement on Monday, confirming the stake figure.…