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Although U.S. sales declined for most automakers because of weather and parts disruptions, a growing number of electric vehicles reaching dealerships has begun helping the auto industry recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

EV sales rose 34 percent last month, according to Morgan Stanley, while overall sales for the seven automakers that reported February results declined 9.3 percent, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. The investment firm noted that battery- electrics accounted for 2.6 percent of the market last month compared with 1.8 percent a year earlier.

The growth is driven by automakers not named Tesla. Morgan Stanley said the Elon Musk-led company's share of the U.S. electric vehicle market fell 12 percentage points year over year to 69 percent in February, virtually all a result of the ramp-up of Ford Motor Co.'s new electric crossover, the Mustang Mach-E.

Ford said it sold 3,739 of the Mach-E …

Aston Martin is undergoing a transformation under former Mercedes-AMG head Tobias Moers, who joined as CEO in August last year after the struggling UK automaker was bailed out by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Aston's closer technology links with Daimler, a new focus on efficiency, along with promoting the company through Formula One, can bring about sustainable profitability that has previously been difficult for the company to reach, Moers told Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs.

Your predecessor Andy Palmer said that Aston Martin's historical problem was that it never generated enough money to invest in the next generation of cars. What is your solution?

What is different are the building blocks. One is efficiency -- how we run our factories and logistics. It will be a different company. We will make 30 percent efficiency gains over the course of the next six months. The ultimate goal is to make Aston Martin the most efficient and most a…

More restrictive regulations and enhanced enforcement are likely on the horizon for the auto industry under President Joe Biden, which could have a significant impact on the nation's dealers. But maintaining proper procedures and managing compliance programs in the finance and insurance office should ease anxiety provoked by any uptick in federal scrutiny.

Experts from the National Automobile Dealers Association as well as several industry advisers spoke last month on a stack of concerns awaiting the vehicle finance sector and what can be done to prepare as the new administration and Congress settle in and consider changes in their regulatory and enforcement priorities.

"You've got the perfect storm of lack of enforcement shifting now with a new administration," said Clayton Friedman, a partner at Crowell & Moring law firm in Irvine, Calif.

Friedman said the administration's primary tool is going to be enforcement, with finan…

Americans are afraid to ride in autonomous vehicles, but they're far more enthusiastic about driving with the help of building-block technologies.

That's the mixed-message takeaway from a AAA survey of consumers on their attitudes toward the influx of technology proliferating in today's vehicles and future ones.

Only 14 percent of respondents told researchers from AAA, the nation's largest motoring organization, they would trust a vehicle to safely drive itself. Most — 54 percent — are unsure about their feelings, while 32 percent say they'd be afraid.

Despite COVID-19-related disruptions to transportation, those results are similar to the organization's poll last year, in which 12 percent said they'd trust a vehicle to drive. More than 4 in 10 respondents in this year's survey said the pandemic made no difference in their interest in using self-driving vehicles as a replacement for public transportation or ride-hailing services.

The results arriv…

Editor’s note: This story is part of a package in the March 8 issue looking back at the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Nearly 10 years ago, Tom Doll and two Subaru of America executives boarded a plane in Newark, N.J., and flew to Tokyo for Fuji Heavy Industries' annual board of directors meeting.

It would have been a routine business trip if not for the date: Sunday, March 13, 2011.

Two days prior, Japan had been rocked by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. Despite the obvious destruction that the natural disaster caused, it still wasn't entirely clear what the full extent of the impact would be.

Yoshio Hasunuma, then CEO of Subaru of America, and Sam Komine, then an executive liaison between Subaru of America and Fuji, were already in Tokyo for the meeting.

"I get a call first thing Saturday morning from Sam Komine, and he says that by the time you guys get here on Monday everything should be back to normal," Doll, wh…

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc., the used-car and vehicle subscription company that has aspirations to roll up dozens of dealerships, has closed on its first five franchised stores — two Kia stores in Florida and three dealerships in West Virginia.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, which went public in December 2019, said late Friday that it bought Kia stores in Port Charlotte and Cape Coral from Fuccillo Automotive Group. The two stores sit on a combined nearly 58 acres and provide room for reconditioning and vehicle storage.

It also completed purchases of West Virginia stores Beckley Buick-GMC Automall in Beckley, King Coal Chevrolet in Oak Hill and Hometown Kia in Mount Hope, plus three used-vehicle dealerships. LMP bought an 85 percent stake in the West Virginia stores. Ernie Davis and Lori Davis were the owners of the two General Motors stores.

The closings, part of the company's first stage of acquisitions, comes after two other planned acquisition…

LOS ANGELES — Mazda is promoting several executives following the retirement of North American operations chief Jim Lievois, effective April 1.

Ryuichi Umeshita has been appointed executive vice president and assistant to the president, overseeing U.S. operations, Mazda told Automotive News in a statement Friday.

Umeshita is currently executive officer of brand enhancement, global marketing, sales and customer service at Mazda Motor Corp. in Japan. He will report to Jeff Guyton, president of Mazda North American Operations, the company said.

Tom Donnelly, senior vice president of retail operations, will have expanded responsibilities that include the oversight of regional operations, aftersales, technical service and vehicle distribution, Mazda said. He will report to Umeshita.

Brian Nash will move from managing director of eastern U.S. to vice president of regional operations, responsible for leading all regional teams, Mazda said.

"We hav…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Friday issued a recall for fewer than 75 Mustang Mach-E crossovers with defective subframe bolts, adding another hiccup for the launch of one of its newest, high-profile vehicles.

The automaker said Friday that it was not aware of any accidents or injuries, but was calling back the electric crossovers because a supplier didn't properly tighten some bolts. Ford said roughly 94 percent of the 1,258 total affected vehicles in the U.S. and all 90 in Canada will be fixed before they reach customers. The automaker declined to give a specific number being recalled.

The news comes days after Ford promised to compensate roughly 4,500 Mach-E owners for delivery delays as some vehicles are held up by additional quality checks.

Ford said it planned to cover the first month's payment up to $1,000 and add 250 kilowatt-hours of free charging for 150 owners who have experienced multiple delivery delays. An additional 4,350 owners would receiv…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. told dealers this week that it would not lower their product allocations in response to a shortage of microchips used in vehicles and that there would be "no negative impact" to their retail business.

Andrew Frick, Ford's vice president of sales in the U.S. and Canada, said in a letter obtained by Automotive News that the automaker has faced a "very challenging" few months because of the chip shortage and recent severe winter weather that has resulted in multiple production disruptions for some of its most profitable vehicles. Frick said Ford expects the shortage to continue until at least midyear.

"The impact has been particularly significant on selected product lines, primarily F-150, Escape, Edge and EcoSport," he wrote. "While these vehicle lines represent most of our chip-related losses, there have been minor disruption on other lines."

Despite the unexpected downtime at plants around the globe, Frick said Ford planned …

General Motors kept its status as the top manufacturer for customer loyalty for the sixth-straight year in IHS Markit's Automotive Loyalty Awards program, while Ford Motor Co. again won major honors for loyalty to a specific make.

The awards are based on 12.4 million new retail vehicle registrations in the U.S. in 2020.

GM's defense of the top spot stemmed from a 69 percent customer retention rate and the popularity of its utility and pickup lineups: Ninety-three percent of returning owners bought another GM utility vehicle or pickup in 2020, IHS Markit said.

Ford won its 11th consecutive award in the Overall Loyalty to Make category. The Ford brand's leadership in pickups helped foster a loyalty rate of 63 percent. IHS Markit noted customers were particularly loyal to the brand's F-Series trucks.

IHS Markit added a category this year that recognizes the ability to retain owners of hybrid or electric vehicles and convince them to purchase alternat…

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Daniel Weisman, chief innovation officer at Motion Auto Insurance, says car-sharing, ride-hailing services and enhanced driver-assist systems are changing the way vehicles are insured.

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Peugeot North America CEO Larry Dominique, who has been leading the French brand's planned return to the U.S. after a 30-year absence, has been named the North America head of Alfa Romeo.

The move, announced Friday, is part of a global reorganization of the Italian brand. Alfa and Peugeot are now part of Stellantis, the company created by the January merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group.

Dominique has been leading Peugeot's planned U.S. return for four years. Part of his charge has been to create a distribution channel that would shun expensive stores and emphasize the use of technology to offload some consumer-facing services such as scheduling vehicle delivery and pickup.

It's unclear what the appointment means for Peugeot's U.S. comeback.

That return was complicated by PSA's December 2019 agreement to merge with FCA. And just before the completion of the merger two months ago, Carlos Tavares -- the former PSA chief who no…