Trade News

The National Transportation Safety Board member and President Biden’s nominee to become the board’s new chair discusses increased traffic fatalities, ongoing examinations of new automotive technology and the NTSB’s “Most Wanted List” of safety improvements.

How do I subscribe?

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.

Spotify: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" can be streamed through Spotify on your desktop, tablet or mobile device. Click here to subscribe.

Google Play: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" is available on Android devices through the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe.

Volkswagen Group plans to create two new top posts to supervise its brands more closely, according to company sources.

The automaker will install two new COOs to oversee its premium brands and volume brands, the sources told Automobilwoche, the German affiliate of  Automotive News.

The group's 12 brands include luxury marques Audi, Porsche, Bentley and mass-market brands VW, Skoda and Seat.

The new COOs will be appointed directly below the management board level.

Two long-serving managers  are envisaged for the new roles, according to people familiar with the automaker's plans.

VW Group CEO Herbert Diess aims to reduce overlap between brands and find more synergies as he pushes to improve profitability at the automaker.

In particular, Diess wants to boost the VW brand by reducing competition with sister brands Skoda and Seat, reports in the German press have said.

VW Group has been increasing joint development activi…

OYAMA, Japan — It is a familiar racetrack scene. But this time, Toyota has a new twist.

The automaker's petrol- head president, Akio Toyoda, is barreling down the straight at Fuji Speedway in a souped-up Toyota racer, clocking 140 mph with thunderous engine growls and bone-rattling vibrations before slamming on the brakes to tuck into the corner.

His tire-smoking No. 32 race-spec Corolla looks, sounds and drives like any other car in the field. But there is one important, invisible difference. While the rival racers are all burning gasoline, Toyoda's engine is powered by hydrogen — and it is churning out virtually no carbon dioxide.

Note the distinction: It's not a silent hydrogen "fuel cell" under the hood, but a freshly minted "hydrogen-burning" three- banger.

The engine is still just a prototype, but Toyoda believes it holds big promise for his company, for the industry and for carbon neutrality in a world seemingl…

Elon Musk's disdain for lidar has been well documented. Now the Tesla CEO has cooled on another sensor most automakers deem essential for underpinning certain safety features.

Tesla said last week it stopped equipping Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with radar sensors in April. The change sparked a swift response. Three leading automotive safety organizations stripped the vehicles of their safety designations.

NHTSA, the federal regulatory agency charged with ensuring vehicle safety, revised its five-star crash safety ratings. It removed checkmarks the vehicles had earned for offering features such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, crash avoidance braking and dynamic brake support.

Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety followed by revoking the "Top Pick" and "Top Safety Pick+" designations, respectively, for the Model 3.

"If a driver thinks their vehicle has a safety feature …

Uber and Lyft have both pledged to electrify their ride-hailing services by the end of the decade as part of efforts to reduce pollution and counter climate change.

A smaller startup has accomplished that today.

Earth Rides launched its ride-hailing service in Nashville in October with an all-electric fleet that now has nine Teslas, a Polestar 2 and a Ford Mustang Mach-E that's used on the weekends.

Launching a transportation network in the depths of a pandemic that decimated ridership among larger companies came with some trepidation. But Raven Hernandez, CEO and co-founder of the company, says the novelty of the fleet has caught the attention of passengers more accustomed to nondescript ride-hailing vehicles and car enthusiasts alike.

That they're traveling in a way that's less environmentally damaging? That's a nice byproduct.

"A lot of people don't get in the car because they're electric vehicles and they'r…

At Hiester Automotive Group, philosophical discussions about purpose and doing the right thing have become the norm.

In January, the four-store North Carolina dealership group started a book club for employees to discuss best practices that they can apply to daily operations.About 90 of Hiester's 300 employees have joined the book club so far, breaking into various teams at the group's stores, centralized accounting office, wholesale parts warehouse and reconditioning center.

The book clubs have led to a cultural shift and higher employee engagement, said Brandon Wright, executive assistant to dealer principal John Hiester.

"The goal for John is to inspire them to be better. That's our core focus," Wright said. "If you're walking through the dealership long enough and consistently enough, you'll hear them bring up comments from the book or topics from the book."

Hiester and Wright are frequent listeners of audiobooks on leadership. They often cha…

Are American consumers ready to buy a car at a shopping mall?

The company that owns Mall of America in Minnesota and American Dream in New Jersey said it is in discussions with potential auto-retail tenants for its massive shopping and entertainment centers. Triple Five Group, based in Edmonton, Alberta, has already drawn a Toyota dealership to its West Edmonton Mall, a high-profile theme-park retail venue in Canada.

"We've always wanted car dealerships in our shopping centers, but what has made [this attractive] is it is taking up excess space left by traditional anchor-type retailers," said Triple Five spokesman Daniel Person.

While the explosion in online shopping has challenged shopping centers across North America — Triple Five disclosed that it lost $64.3 million on American Dream last year — partnerships between dealerships and malls could reap cross-marketing opportunities, according to retail experts.

"The COVI…

Rivian Automotive Inc., the EV startup backed by Amazon.com Inc., has selected underwriters for an initial public offering that could come later this year, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Rivian is working with advisers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Irvine, Calif.-based Rivian could seek a value of about $70 billion when it goes public, according to the people. Bloomberg News previously reported it could seek a valuation of about $50 billion.

No final decision has been made and the details of its potential listing could change, the people said.

Representatives for JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. A representative for Goldman Sachs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rivian was worth $27.6 billion when it announced in January that it had raised $2.65 billion…

Auto data developer Wejo, backed by General Motors, will go public through a reverse merger with blank-check company Virtuoso Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values the British company at $800 million including debt, the companies said on Friday.

The deal will raise $330 million in proceeds for Wejo, the companies said. That includes $230 million from Special-Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Virtuoso and another $100 million referred to as Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE).

Wejo CEO and founder Richard Barlow said institutional investors make up most of the PIPE, but declined to identify the firms involved. An additional $25 million could be raised within the next month as talks continue with other potential investors, he said.

Investors in the PIPE include GM, which previously invested in Wejo, as well as data management company Palantir Technologies Inc, which billionaire Peter Thiel co-founded, Wejo and Virtuoso said. The sizes of their in…

A trio of single-dealership transactions in the South and one near Columbus, Ohio, are among recent dealership buy-sells completed in April and May.

Here's a quick look at four transactions involving domestic- and import-brand stores. One also involves a new dealer.

Stephanie Morris acquired her first dealership on May 5, buying James Hodge Chevrolet in Okmulgee, Okla., south of Tulsa. Morris bought the dealership from Jack Hodge. The store has been renamed Stephanie Morris Chevrolet. Andy Church of Dealer Solutions Mergers and Acquisitions, a buy-sell firm based in Markham, Ontario, and with an office in Jupiter, Fla., represented the seller in the transaction. Tony Thomas, a former partner at Hyundai of Silsbee in Silsbee, Texas, on May 19 bought Plaza Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Orangeburg in South Carolina. Orangeburg is a rural area south of the state's capital city of Columbia. Thomas acquired the store from Joseph Nolette who sold it to focus on his Fl…

MEXICO CITY -- Nissan Motor Co. said Friday it is planning temporary work stoppages at three Mexican plants for several unspecified days in June because of production adjustments needed to manage a shortage of semiconductor chips.

Nissan's Aguascalientas Plant 1 will shut down for seven days in June, while the same facility's Plant 2 will close for one day in the month. The company did not give details of which days.

Meanwhile, the company said its Cuernavaca plant in Morelos state will temporarily halt operations for seven days in June. It also did not specify the dates.

"We will continue to making adjustments to our production process in order to minimize impacts to the auto industry both locally and globally," the company said in a brief statement to Reuters, adding that it will work to recover lost production.

The Aguacalientes Plant 1 assembles Nissan's Versa, Kicks and March models, Plant 2 puts together the Sentra. The Cuernavaca facility…