Trade News

LOS ANGELES — The redesigned Honda Civic is getting a more grown-up design and feature set for its 11th generation as it battles to stay relevant amid America's crossover surge.

Long popular among younger drivers as easy on the wallet and entertaining on the roadway, the Civic is not taking a radical departure in the new iteration. But it does take a step toward Honda's more stylish Accord midsize sedan.

For the 2022 model, the Civic offers an all-digital instrument panel, a sport driving mode, a premium Bose stereo system and a tasteful metal honeycomb accent across the dash as part of a simplified interior design.

"Inspired by classic elements of past Civics, you can really see how the Civic's new thin and light body has taken shape," said Gary Robinson, assistant vice president of Honda Automobile Product Planning. "We've stretched the wheelbase and adopted a cleaner, more sophisticated look."

The new-gen Civic was …

CEO Elon Musk often uses Tesla Inc.'s earnings calls to make wild, headline-grabbing predictions, many of which never come to pass.

Here's a closer look at four notable assertions from the company's first-quarter report last week, as Tesla posted record net income of $438 million yet continued to lose money on its core business of selling vehicles.

Musk previously said he expects the Model Y crossover to outsell all other Tesla vehicles combined. Now he's aiming higher.

"We think Model Y will be the bestselling car or vehicle of any kind in the world and probably next year," he said on the call. "So I'm not 100 percent certain next year, but I think it's quite likely. I'd say more likely than not that in 2022, Model Y is the bestselling car or truck of any kind in the world."

He later amended the claim on Twitter, saying it would be the bestselling vehicle by revenue in 2022 and No. 1 by volume in 2023.

Either way, it's a tall task.

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen expects semiconductor supplies to the car sector to remain tight in coming months, the head of the autormaker's namesake brand was quoted as saying on Saturday.

"I think the situation will remain tense," Ralf Brandstaetter, CEO of the Volkswagen brand and member of the carmaker's management board, told German news agency dpa.

He said a fire at a factory operated by automotive chip maker Renesas Electronics Corp., as well as snowstorms in Texas that have hurt factory production, had effectively idled output.

"The impact will certainly be felt in the coming months," Brandstaetter said, adding Volkswagen's procurement task force was busy around the clock dealing with the issue which remained at the top of the agenda of Volkswagen's management board.

Volkswagen AG has been unable to build 100,000 cars due to the shortage, CEO Herbert Diess said in March, adding the group would not be able to make up for the shortfall in 2021. Read more

Hyundai, Kia and Genesis, behind light trucks and robust retail demand, posted sharply higher U.S. light-vehicle sales last month compared with April 2020, when the market bottomed out early in the pandemic and showrooms and factory floors were mostly shuttered.

Hyundai Group, the parent of all three brands, has been largely untouched by a chronic shortage of semiconductors that has curtailed light-vehicle production worldwide, allowing the company to rebound strongly more than a year into the coronavirus outbreak.

A 146 percent rise in retail volume drove an overall gain of 128 percent at Hyundai, with total April deliveries of 77,523, the second straight monthly record for the company. Fleet shipments dropped 27 percent and represented just 3 percent of April sales, the company said.

A Hyundai Motor America spokesman said Saturday U.S. dealers had 123,046 cars and light trucks in stock at the end of April, down 13 percent from 141,425 when March close…

Kia's ad push for the Carnival MPV has a flair normally seen in spots for versatile utility vehicles.

The stylish people hauler breezes down a desert road pulling a boat, showcasing its towing chops as well as blind-spot monitoring and lounge-style seating that reclines. Throughout the ad, a series of life moments such as camping and dirt-bike riding play out as the Carnival passes by.

Despite the prominent sliding door on each side, the M-word is never uttered. Kia says the minivan label doesn't quite fit the Carnival, which replaces the Sedona in its North American lineup this year, and it says some consumers agree. So it's using the term MPV, which stands for multipurpose vehicle — and even treating it as part of the vehicle's name.

"Most of our customers, when we did clinics, they looked at it and they didn't see it as a minivan," Russell Wager, vice president of marketing for Kia Motors America, told Automotive News. "That's …

Out of 15 companies developing automated driving systems, Waymo is in the lead, while Tesla comes in last, according to the latest leaderboard report from consulting company Guidehouse Insights.

The report, released last week, evaluated the companies and categorized them as leaders, contenders, challengers or followers.

Leaders scored 75 or above in strategy and execution, while contenders earned between 50 and 75. Challengers scored higher than 25 but were deemed not yet contenders, and followers scored below 25.

Guidehouse focused on companies developing automated driving systems rather than on companies directly commercializing autonomous vehicles. The report also focused only on companies developing for light- to medium-duty vehicles.

Waymo was also ranked the top vendor of automated driving vehicles on Guidehouse's leaderboard last year.

"The trend I've seen from Waymo over the last four or five years is building not just the techno…

Volvo Car Group is helping chart a new path in vehicle electronics as an early adopter of Google's Android Automotive operating system. By getting in on Android's ground floor, Volvo also is playing a role in shaping an infotainment platform that will populate across auto brands.

Infotainment systems have become a high-tech battleground for automakers seeking differentiation and new revenue sources from subscription services. Not all manufacturers are convinced that outside suppliers are the way to do battle.

Volvo's luxury competitors Tesla, Mercedes-Benz and BMW have plowed millions of dollars into developing powerful and bespoke systems to turn their dashboards into oversized smart devices.

The Swedish company took a more pragmatic approach, choosing to abort further development of its Sensus Connect infotainment system in favor of hooking up with Silicon Valley.

Stellantis has also adopted Android Automotive via its Uconnect 5 system. While …

A high-volume Fiat Chrysler Automobiles salesman in suburban Detroit has been charged with defrauding the automaker out of $8.7 million by giving employee discounts on vehicles to customers who weren't eligible.

Apollon Nimo, 34, a salesman at Parkway Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, illegally used discount codes meant for family members of FCA employees in sales and leases to nonqualified buyers thousands of times from 2014 to the present, a federal investigator wrote in an affidavit filed Friday in U.S. District Court. Nimo closed more deals using employee discounts than any other FCA salesperson in Michigan, and at times was No. 1 nationwide, according to the affidavit.

Officials at the dealership in Clinton Township, Mich., did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Nimo has been removed from the staff listing on the store's website.

“FCA US is committed to preserving the integrity of our employee purchase programs and is cooperating with the U.S.…

Dick's Auto Group of suburban Portland, co-owned by a pair of second-generation dealer siblings, acquired its fifth dealership Monday.

Shannon Inukai-Cuffee and Scott Inukai, owners of Dick's Auto, bought Bruce Chevrolet in Hillsboro, Ore., from longtime owner Bruce Patchett. Terms were not disclosed, but the store was renamed Dick's Hillsboro Chevrolet.

Scott Inukai said adding the Chevrolet dealership complements the rest of the group's franchises. Dick's Auto now has brands from each of the Detroit 3, and Chevrolet gives the group another lineup of pickups to sell. The group also owns a Honda store and a Hyundai store.

"It fits well with our auto group," Scott Inukai said. "We have a Ford store, a Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-[Ram] store and now a Chevy store, so all the trucks. We're definitely a truck town and a truck auto group."

The acquisition is the group's first expansion since 2013, when it bought Honda and Hyundai stores from Larry H. Miller …

WASHINGTON -- The UAW said Friday it wants tax incentives for electric vehicles revised to require U.S. assembly for those vehicles to qualify.

The current $7,500 tax incentive does not require EVs to be made in the United States. "The UAW is working with the Biden administration and Congress to make sure that the final legislation extending electric vehicle subsidies is clear that those investments subsidize the jobs of U.S. workers," said UAW Vice President Terry Dittes.

General Motors announced Thursday it would invest $1 billion in its Mexico operations and begin building EVs there in 2023.

Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, said "electric vehicles must be built here in America by the finest workforce in the world – the American worker. Not one American dollar should support our own jobs being shipped off to Mexico."

The White House did not immediately comment Friday, but President Joe Biden has called for $174 billion to boost U.S…

DETROIT -- Credit Acceptance Corp. announced this week that longtime CEO Brett Roberts will retire and the company reached a $27 million settlement with the Massachusetts attorney general tied to alleged deceptive loan practices.

Roberts, 54, will leave the top position at the subprime auto lender effective May 3, the company said in a Thursday press release. The company's board of directors named current CFO Kenneth Booth, 53, to succeed Roberts as Credit Acceptance's president and CEO. He will also join the board. The board increased the seats on the board to five and named Vinayak Hegde, president and COO of Seattle-based Blink Health, as a director.

Roberts leaves the company as it battles regulators and short sellers over its lending practices. Credit Acceptance's main business is to acquire consumer auto loans from dealerships, typically high risk loans. The company repossesses upward of 35 percent of the vehicles it finances, Plainsite reported in 2018…