Trade News

A report last week succeeded in stirring public anger over Toyota Motor North America's donations this year to federal lawmakers, although it tells only part of the story.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released an article headlined "This sedition is brought to you by…," which tabulated corporate money given since Jan. 6 to 147 Republican members of Congress who voted against certifying Joe Biden's victory in the 2020 presidential election. Media reports zeroed in on Toyota, which as of a Thursday, July 1, tally had donated to 38 of those lawmakers, more than any other company, for a total of $56,000, according to the group.

Consumers who were outraged by those politicians' behavior took to social media to blast Toyota, as well as Walmart, insurance giant Cigna and similar corporate donors — as they have done throughout the year as companies, including Ford Motor Co., declined to blackball legislators who failed to accept the legally count…

Nissan's next-generation Z car will formally debut at the New York auto show in August. The sports car has been spotted undergoing road tests in the U.S., and it's clear it closely tracks the Z Proto concept shown in September.

The makeover — due in showrooms early next year — will be the first for the car since 2009. The Z is expected to be powered by a 3.0-liter twin-turbo V-6 engine, similar to the engine used in the Infiniti Q50 Red Sport 400.

The design features retro styling elements that hark back to previous-generation Z's, such as the signature silhouette — a long hood, pointy nose and short and sloping rear deck — and the original hood bulges from 1970s editions. Twenty-first century touches include LED headlamps, lightweight carbon-fiber bodywork and a 12.3-inch digital meter display.

TOKYO — Did fallen auto titan Carlos Ghosn dupe two Americans into aiding his escape in a desperate bid to evade jail in Japan before they themselves were arrested and put on trial?

That was the explanation offered by the father-son freelance security team of Michael and Peter Taylor, in emotional testimony last week before the Tokyo District Court. The duo apologized profusely to judges and prosecutors for helping Ghosn jump bail by packing him into a box and secretly flying him out of Osaka in a chartered jet. But looking back, they said, Ghosn misled them about numerous matters in the case.

Father Michael Taylor, 60, said they were led to believe Ghosn was tortured in Japan, after the former Nissan chairman's arrest in November 2018 on charges of financial misconduct.

Taylor said he was erroneously told that helping someone jump bail in Japan was not a crime in the country. And on the day of the escape, Dec. 29, 2019, he said …

HORSESHOE BAY, Texas — Forget the boring training videos and bulleted brochures.

To better acquaint its retail network with the 2021 Bronco SUV, Ford Motor Co. ditched the standard informational materials for a unique, hands-on boot camp in the mud and rocky crags of Texas Hill Country.

The automaker invited representatives from each of its more than 3,000 U.S. dealerships to come to the Bronco Off-Roadeo, a 360-acre driving school it created outside of Austin as a free perk for new Bronco owners. Dealers got the first crack at traversing miles of curated trails before the site opened to customers so they could better sell the new SUV and build excitement for a subbrand that Ford hopes will steal sales and market share from Jeep.

"Most of us are not experienced off- roaders," said Brian Farnsworth, an inventory manager at Marcotte Ford in Holyoke, Mass., who attended in May with the store's president and general manager. "When you talk about terms like…

Tesla is based in California, and California is part of the U.S., sources tell Automotive News.

But that didn't stop a security guard at a General Motors plant in Missouri from believing a California-made Tesla Model 3 was imported from overseas.

The guard cited the Model 3 as "foreign in domestic lot," The Drive reported last week.

Tesla's work force is nonunion, unlike employees of GM and the other Detroit automakers, but Tesla's Fremont, Calif., factory is nowhere near foreign soil, of course. Auto plants created domestic-only lots mainly to keep out vehicles made by nonunion workers, though that issue has become complicated now that so many vehicles sold by GM, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis come from Mexico and other countries.

A GM spokesperson said the ticket, which carries no fine or other penalty, was a mistake.

"Wentzville, like many of our manufacturing sites, has a parking policy and designated park…

Harry Truman, when he was president, is said to have demanded a one-armed economist. He was frustrated, the legend went, because none would give him straightforward policy advice — they all said "on the one hand" this "and on the other hand" that.

Jonathan Smoke still has both of his arms, but the chief economist for Cox Automotive has a decidedly bullish outlook on the auto industry. I interviewed him for the "Daily Drive" podcast last week, and it was almost like pulling teeth to get him to utter a discouraging word.

"We have at current count $3.6 trillion sitting in bank accounts that did not exist prior to the pandemic, because of the massive amount of savings that consumers have accrued," he said. He projects years of growth to come, and said "we've got more risk to the upside, frankly, than I think we have to the downside."

But let's talk about the risks a little.

The labor market is still walking a bit of a tightrope, with several states …

For dealers who still had cars and trucks to sell, June brought booming consumer demand and another jump in the industry's average transaction price — which topped $40,000 for the first time.

But for dealers with showrooms mostly surrounded by empty asphalt, it was a prelude to a summer of missing out on the party.

"June was the first month where inventory was uncomfortably tight. We had been operating with one less car than everybody wants, which is a good thing," said Larry Zinn, general manager of Warren Henry Auto Group in Miami. "June was where it really caught up to us. Days' supply was at its lowest point."

Warren Henry, which sells 13 brands at five stores, has had only about a 15-day supply of new vehicles, vs. the 45 to 65 days' worth it had before the global microchip shortage ate into production.

Across the country, General Motors entered July with 211,974 vehicles in inventory, only about half as much as it started t…

Experts say the growing risk of cyberattacks means dealerships and their software vendors should stay on top of data security practices.

Volvo Cars is not just changing its product lineup — it's also rethinking how its vehicles are designed and who will make their components.

In short, Volvo intends to take over the development and production of some of its key components to get closer to emerging technologies.

Roiling the company's evolution is the dawning of the electric vehicle age.

In an online presentation to journalists last week, the Swedish automaker pulled back the curtain on its R&D activity, showing that its second wave of EVs will look different, be constructed on a new vehicle architecture and rely increasingly on components Volvo will take the lead in developing.

Volvo aims to be an electric-only brand by 2030. And to increase the speed of that undertaking and reduce complexity, Volvo is adopting a more hands-on role in developing the components it will need, such as batteries, electric motors and computer systems, the company said. Read more

LOS ANGELES — As the world's largest maker of internal combustion engines, Honda Motor Co. has been reluctant to join its automotive peers on the electrified bandwagon. In the U.S. market today, 93 percent of Honda's sales come from gasoline-powered vehicles and just 7 percent from hybrids. EVs are zero.

But all that's going to change.

Honda's new global CEO, Toshihiro Mibe, has pledged to sell only zero-emission vehicles by 2040 and executives in the U.S. have been given their marching orders.

By early 2024, the Honda brand is expected to sell its first volume EV, aptly named the Prologue, followed by an Acura EV later that year.

"Our viewpoint is that it signals the start of a change, the start of a transition for Honda," Dave Gardner, executive vice president of American Honda Motor Co., said on Automotive News' "Daily Drive" podcast last week. "It's almost like a startup business. We're at zero today, and it's going to be 100 percent of our …

DETROIT — Ray Curry, who last week became the UAW's fourth president in three years, will be challenged to grow the troubled union in a time of unprecedented change as the industry shifts to electrification. That's assuming he can win reelection next year in what could be the first direct vote by rank-and-file members in decades.

Curry, 55, was selected by the UAW International Executive Board to serve the final year of Rory Gamble's term. Gamble, 65, was barred by union age limits from running again next year and chose to retire early in the hopes of setting up Curry as a potential multiple-term leader.

The format for next year's election will depend on the outcome of a referendum later this year, when members will decide whether to adopt a new one-member, one-vote system for choosing their leaders. The referendum is one condition of the UAW's six-year settlement with the government over the corruption scandal that resulted in prison sentences for Gamble's tw…