Trade News

If the world is indeed throwing an electric vehicle party, it's pretty clear by now that someone forgot to invite most of Japan.

While Nissan pioneered the segment with the Leaf and Toyota had a short-lived dalliance with Tesla almost a decade ago, most of the largest Japanese brands find themselves lagging behind in the rapidly growing EV race.

And they seem armed with last-minute offerings that look less than competitive against more advanced EVs on sale from Europe, the U.S. and their competitors elsewhere in Asia.

But if this industry has learned anything over the last half a century, it is this: Japan's largest automakers and their tagalong premium brands rarely stay behind for long in any automotive technology competition.

Toyota and Lexus, Nissan and Infiniti, and Honda and Acura have all laid out strategies to greatly expand their EV offerings and promise dramatic range advances if solid-state battery technology becomes commercially viab…

A Michigan Supreme Court opinion could help suppliers get what they've been longing for over the past few years: more leverage to extract price concessions from their customers.

Michigan's high court ruled this month that buyers must be explicit in contracts in saying what they intend to buy from a seller. Contracts between auto suppliers and their customers sometimes use "wishy-washy language," said Dan Rustmann, co-chair of Detroit law firm Butzel's global automotive group.

But because of the court ruling, customers in Michigan must now either state a specific number of parts that they intend to purchase or specifically say what percentage of parts they will buy over the course of the contract.

"You have to use very specific language that says you're buying your [contractual] requirements," Rustmann said. "You have to use clear language now."

The ruling in MSSC Inc. v. AirBoss Flexible Products Co. — a dispute betwee…

Five of the six major publicly traded franchised dealership groups reported double-digit percentage declines on new-vehicle gross profits during the second quarter, as inventories grew and rising interest rates cut into shoppers' buying power. That came as all of the publics except Asbury Automotive Group Inc. posted new-vehicle sales gains in the quarter.

The six publics — Penske Automotive Group Inc., Sonic Automotive Inc., Asbury, Group 1 Automotive Inc., Lithia Motors Inc. and AutoNation Inc. — collectively averaged about $5,000 in profit on each new vehicle sold during the second quarter, compared with about $2,000 in the second quarter of 2019, before COVID-19 disrupted the industry in 2020.

All of the publics except Sonic also experienced year-over-year drops in second-quarter gross profit per used vehicle, but the group's combined average profit of about $2,000 was about $500 higher than the average in the second quarter of 2019.

The emergence of U.S. government industrial policy designed to slash greenhouse gas emissions will push the country's most polluting and carbon-intensive sectors to hydrogen as their fuel choice.

By subsidizing the production of clean hydrogen, the government is encouraging its use by the steel, cement, iron, ammonia, petrochemical and specialty fuel industries. Combined, heavy industry accounts for about 23 percent of annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the federal government.

Shipping and logistics companies and heavy-vehicle manufacturers — transportation accounts for about 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions — also stand to benefit from producers expanding production and using government subsidies to reduce the cost of clean hydrogen.

Federal financial support will make hydrogen one of the most cost-effective decarbonizing fuels, said Patrick Molloy, manager for the climate-aligned industries program a…

Once considered a niche environmental play as the automotive industry focused on battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles, hydrogen internal combustion engines have gained renewed attention as a green vehicle technology.

A pending European Union regulatory change would classify heavy-duty trucks using the engines — which burn hydrogen to push pistons — as zero-emission vehicles. That could spark an echo in pickups and smaller vehicles in other markets.

"It was a light-switch moment," said Jim Nebergall, general manager of Cummins Inc.'s hydrogen engine business.

EU regulators have proposed changing their zero-emission definition to ensure that buses and heavy-duty trucks equipped with hydrogen internal combustion engines qualify. They said such vehicles should be included because hydrogen is a fuel with no carbon content. The proposal is passing through the legislative procedure in the European Parliament and Council of the European Union. The vehicles w…

As the U.S. auto industry attempts to do its part to slow the warming of the planet, there's room for debate about how big that role needs to be.

The head of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the industry umbrella group for many automakers and suppliers, argues that the EPA's proposed emissions rules for the 2027 to 2032 model years are pushing manufacturers too hard. The group calls the EPA's draft rule "a de facto battery-electric vehicle mandate" that is "neither reasonable nor achievable in the time frame provided."

By the EPA's own projections, its proposed regulatory scheme would require EVs to make up more than half of new-vehicle sales by the 2030 model year and two-thirds by 2032.

The alliance says the tougher regulations will force large parts of the industry to rely on Chinese suppliers, giving an even bigger advantage to an already dominant player in mining and processing batteries' critical minerals.

T…

Toyota will see several new nameplates and a widening of the brand's collection of crossovers in the next four years, including new battery-electric offerings, while it also finishes the redesign of its body-on-frame vehicles.

Led by the return of the Land Cruiser nameplate — albeit on a different vehicle — after a three-year absence, the brand will add a square-backed version of the Crown Crossover and an electric three-row crossover over the next three years. A Corolla-based pickup remains a possibility, but its appearance is a work in progress.

Toyota will also remain in the sedan segments, where the departure of most competitors has allowed it to gobble up market share, though look for the product cadence for sedan nameplates to be extended to lower costs.

bZ4X: The electric compact crossover launched in the first half of 2022, but it tripped out of the gate when a stop-sale order was issued because of a problem unrelated to its electric powertrain…

More used-car buyers were in negative equity positions on their vehicles at loan origination in the first quarter, said Satyan Merchant, TransUnion senior vice president and auto business lead.

In the first quarter, used-car borrowers had on average of almost $9,000 in negative equity at origination, according to a J.D. Power and TransUnion study released in June. Consumers buying more expensive used cars with less or no money for a down payment contributed to this, he said.

The TransUnion/J.D. Power Impact of Unsettled Vehicle Values on Lenders and Consumers study showed the percentage of used vehicles with a loan-to-value greater or equal to 140 percent at origination more than doubled to 30 percent in the first quarter from 14 percent a year earlier.

Merchant spoke with Staff Reporter Gail Kachadourian Howe. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: What's the trend for loan-to-value ratios?

A: There are more and more loans on the used side being ori…

Diesel engine exhaust contains pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and soot particles. Although governments from the late 1990s onward encouraged their uptake in the belief they were more environmentally friendly than gasoline equivalents, it has since been argued that diesel cars produce more than four times as much pollution.

For the automotive sector, the solution was the introduction of regulations to discourage the use of diesel vehicles, while accelerating the uptake of electric vehicles. For commercial vehicles, however, it is not so simple. For all the bad publicity diesel has generated in recent years, there is simply nothing that can match this fuel for its energy density, reliability and durability.

Electrifying smaller, lighter vehicles is one thing. For buses and long-haul vehicles though, diesel is far superior at generating the torque needed to keep them moving. That's not to rule out the viability of electric, hybrid or hydroge…

ARCADIA, Calif. — If you want a traditional gasoline-powered pony car, you'll soon be down to just one option: the 2024 Ford Mustang.

Still, engineers and designers at Ford gave the seventh-generation stallion a number of unique features that they hope attract new buyers and help it stand out, even as the Chevrolet Camaro and Dodge Challenger will be discontinued — nameplates that have long battled the Mustang for market share.

Journalists had the opportunity here this month to drive the latest Mustang, which goes on sale in the next few months. Here are four cool features.

Ever dream of drifting like Vaughn Gittin Jr.? Now even novices have that opportunity. Ford added an electronic drift brake as part of the vehicle's optional High-Performance Package. The e-brake replaces the traditional parking brake on those models. Simply lift up, and the brake locks the rear wheels, allowing you to drift through corners. Release it, and you're instantly back to …

Robust second-quarter earnings from the Detroit 3 were tempered last week by the growing realization that their pivot to electric vehicles will be slower and costlier than anticipated.

Ford Motor Co., which said its quarterly net income tripled from a year earlier, delayed its EV production goals and cautioned that its EV business would lose $1.5 billion more than previously expected this year, citing pricing concerns and investment costs.

General Motors, which posted a 52 percent surge in net income, said supplier issues were causing unforeseen delays in battery cell production, though it maintained production targets and said CEO Mary Barra was personally reviewing module assembly lines.

And at Stellantis, which announced a 37 percent first-half net income gain, CEO Carlos Tavares warned analysts that the automaker's volume goals could hinge on the ability to build an affordable EV "around $25,000," or about half of what the ave…

Waymo, Alphebet Inc.'s self-driving unit, is slowing development of autonomous trucking being done by its Via subsidiary.

"With our decision to focus on ride-hailing, we'll push back the timeline on our commercial and operational efforts on trucking, as well as most of our technical development on that business unit," the company said in a statement July 26. "We'll continue our collaboration with our strategic partner, Daimler Truck North America, to advance technical development of an autonomous truck platform."

The move comes as Alphabet is prioritizing financial discipline. The company said it promoted Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat to president and chief investment officer, saying it will stick to the more thrifty culture she has instilled.

Self-driving technology has taken a step back in the past several years. Autonomous ventures like Waymo have spent billions of dollars in capital only to bring in little, if any revenue. Waymo has made more …