Trade News

TOKYO — To critics who believe Toyota has been dragging its feet on electric vehicles, the Japanese giant's new plan to plow nearly $14 billion into battery output offers a clear sign of its determination to go electric.

The investments will give Toyota a battery production capacity of 200 gigawatt-hours a year — compared with just 6 GWh today — and expand its battery-making network to 70 assembly lines from only two lines now.

The ramp-up, outlined last week, underscores Toyota's rapidly evolving outlook for soaring EV sales. But it also reflects a conservative approach to investment, as well as the automaker's continuing commitment to hybrid vehicles — the segment it pioneered by introducing the Prius in 1997 and still its go-to green technology.

Despite the major leap forward in its battery capacity, Toyota's expansion will be done in incremental steps for flexibility.

Toyota's move comes as rivals increasingly make big-block investments into…

Tesla Inc. has ambitious plans to continue adding vehicles that upend the status quo and challenge legacy automakers, but it's running into some familiar problems: namely, an inability to deliver on CEO Elon Musk's production promises. Musk has said the ongoing global semiconductor shortage will be a factor in Tesla's ability to produce vehicles through the end of the year and has already delayed plans for the Cybertruck, the next-generation Roadster and a semitruck.

Beyond that, the company continues to toy with the idea of adding some sort of van as well as an inexpensive compact vehicle, but those tenuous plans are subject to change anytime Musk sends off a tweet.

Compact vehicle: Musk first floated the idea of a compact vehicle, priced at less than $25,000, at Tesla's Battery Day event last year. The price point would be achieved by the company's new battery technology, which aims to cut costs. Musk, on a call with Tesla employees, reportedly said the vehi…

DETROIT — Cadillac is setting a new design tone with the Lyriq, the electric vehicle that will be a launch pad toward its plan to eliminate internal combustion engines by 2030.

The crossover, due out early next year, kicks off the latest of many reinvention efforts that have had varying levels of success for the General Motors luxury brand in recent decades. But the conversion to all EVs is not the kind of transformation that can be easily unwound or brushed aside later if brand leaders' execution falls short.

Designers borrowed embellishments from Cadillac's heritage while leveraging the styling freedom created by the new battery architecture to give the Lyriq a low, wide stance. They added touches such as a lined jewelry drawer and a cantilever console inspired by grand balconies. Each component of the midsize crossover — and all future Cadillac EVs — is unique. It won't share parts with Chevrolet, Buick or GMC.

"We've got a whole strategy of how we w…

Tesla had nearly twice as many electric vehicles registered in the U.S. during the first seven months of 2021 as the rest of the industry combined — accounting for two out of every three EV registrations.

Tesla's U.S. registrations soared 75 percent through July to reach 168,021. Because Tesla doesn't report monthly sales results or sales by country, the registration data provides the most accurate view into its U.S. performance.

According to data gathered by Experian, EV registrations in the country more than doubled in the first seven months, outpacing the 30 percent rise in overall vehicle registrations.

Registrations of zero-emission vehicles climbed to 255,393 through July, up from 119,628 a year earlier, Experian reports. EVs accounted for 2.6 percent of total industry registrations, up from 1.6 percent last year.

The EV market is on the cusp of a growth spurt as the auto industry pivots en masse from combustion…

The murder of George Floyd in police custody in May 2020 sparked discussion across the auto retail world about how to best address employment gaps of underrepresented groups in the industry.

There was confusion on how — and where — to start.

Many diversity, equity and inclusion programs that flourish in corporate environments tend to fall short of dealership expectations, said Fleming Ford, president of ESI Trends, an employment research and consulting firm in Clearwater, Fla., that works with more than 500 dealerships. Dealerships differ greatly from more "corporate" environments with fixed roles, schedules and benefits, Ford said.

"It's a struggle to bring people from outside to talk to our dealers because everyone's automatic response is, 'You don't get it,' " Ford said. "And there really wasn't anybody that we could find in automotive who specialized in this already."

This spring, ESI Trends joined forces with p…

Lawyers for Bob Brockman say the ailing former CEO of Reynolds and Reynolds Co. is unable to assist in his defense against federal tax evasion charges.

But prosecutors are skeptical about those claims, writing in court filings that despite a diagnosis indicative of Parkinson's disease or Lewy body dementia, Brockman continued at the helm of the privately held dealership management system giant until after he was criminally charged nearly a year ago.

The case against Brockman, 80, is on the cusp of determining whether he is competent to stand trial. A federal judge on Friday, Sept. 10, delayed a competency hearing that had been scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 13, instead scheduling a status conference for Monday to discuss details of the hearing.

"The judge's overriding burden is to make sure that the system gets a fair trial, which means we don't prosecute the sick. But if he can assist in his own defense and he can participate in the trial and he know…

Tesla Inc. is raising the price of its Model Y Performance car in China by 10,000 yuan ($1,552), effective immediately, the company announced on social media service Weibo Saturday.

The vehicle’s new price will be 387,900 yuan ($60,200), according to the statement.  

Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker reported a rebound in domestic China shipments in August, a bright spot after a torrid few months for the company in one of its key markets that came as the country’s overall auto sales slumped. The company shipped 12,885 units, an increase of almost 50 percent from July, when deliveries plunged 69 percent. 

Exports from the company’s Shanghai factory also jumped to 31,379 vehicles, with most destined for Europe, data from China’s Passenger Car Association showed Wednesday.

WASHINGTON -- Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. on Saturday sharply criticized a proposal by Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives to give union-made electric vehicles in the United States an additional $4,500 tax incentive.

Toyota said in a statement that the plan unveiled late Friday discriminates "against American autoworkers based on their choice not to unionize."

The bill, set to be voted on Tuesday by the Democratic-led House Ways and Means Committee, would benefit Detroit's three automakers, which have union-represented auto plants.

In a statement, Honda called the bill "unfair" and said it "discriminates among EVs made by hard-working American auto workers based simply on whether they belong to a union. ... The Honda production associates in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio who will build our EVs deserve fair and equal treatment by Congress."

The proposal, estimated to cost $33 billion to $34 billion over 10 years, would…

Short of Apple's secretive foray into automated and electric vehicles, perhaps the most interesting ongoing mystery in the automotive industry revolves around Sony Group Corp. and its Vision-S prototype.

The Japanese entertainment and consumer electronics behemoth dropped the surprise of CES in January 2020, unveiling an all- electric sedan that made public its ambitions in the automotive space. But more than a year and a half later, exactly what Sony intends to do with the Vision-S remains unclear.

Izumi Kawanishi, an executive vice president at Sony, remains tight-lipped on specific plans for the vehicle. He chuckles at attempts to unearth fresh insights.

"We don't have a concrete plan at this time because our current phase is a research and development phase," he told Automotive News. "We have to investigate what is our purpose in contributing to mobility service. That is our basic idea, and we have to continue the R&D phase."

Of course ,…