Trade News

DETROIT — Finally.

After numerous pitches through the years, Stellantis marketing chief Olivier Francois secured the talents of iconic musician Bruce Springsteen for a Jeep Super Bowl spot.

It's no surprise that they had to go big.

The ambitious Francois' knack for tapping into the pulse of America in Super Bowl spots combined with the socially conscious Springsteen's immense presence demanded nothing less.

The result is a two-minute film, "The Middle," that will focus on uniting the country and air during the fourth quarter of Sunday's NFL championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

One of the shoot locations for the ad was the U.S. Center Chapel in Lebanon, Kan., which stands in the geographical center of the continuous 48 states and carries symbolic meaning in the commercial as middle ground.

In the spot, Springsteen said "the middle" has been a hard place to get to lately, "between red and blue, be…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s failure to close a deal with Google in early 2016 helped bring Mark Fields' tenure as CEO to an end.

Five years later, a different type of tie-up with the tech giant secured by CEO Jim Farley could be just the beginning.

A sweeping six-year partnership announced last week will give Ford access to Google's cloud technologies for use in its factories, dealerships and vehicles as the automaker rolls out data-rich connected services. Ford also will use Google's Android operating system to power the infotainment on millions of vehicles starting in 2023, and it's forming a team to explore future collaborations.

It's an early win under Farley for an automaker often chided by Wall Street for a lack of flashy announcements, hailed by one analyst as a "step in the right direction" that could generate billions in revenue. The Google deal and a subsequent commitment last week that nearly doubles Ford's investment in electrification to $22…

COVID-19 may have played a role in snapping Subaru of America's 12- year streak of sales increases and 11-year streak of record deliveries last year, but a third streak remained intact.

Its U.S. market share grew — the ninth consecutive year of such progress — despite a 13 percent decline in its sales. The Japanese company inched up 0.1 percent in 2020 to a 4.2 percent market share, while the pandemic-stricken nation suffered a 14 percent plunge in volume.

"It wasn't a huge increase, but I think the way we try to do business is just keep it steady and do everything we can to keep our foundation as solid as we can," said Jeff Walters, Subaru of America's senior vice president of sales. "We were happy, given some of the bigger challenges we had when things really started falling off the rails in the spring, that we could still turn out a market share increase."

Subaru's sales plunged 47 percent in both March and April, the biggest monthly declines in thr…

Amazon.com Inc. has ordered hundreds of trucks that run on compressed natural gas as it tests ways to shift its U.S. fleet away from heavier polluting trucks, the company told Reuters on Friday.

The coronavirus pandemic caused delivery activity to surge in 2020, with truck volumes exceeding 2019 levels on average while passenger car traffic fell. But that increase in road activity means more pollution, as heavier-duty trucks emit higher levels of greenhouse gases than passenger vehicles.

Transportation companies are building their stable of EVs to reduce carbon emissions. Much of the nation's freight is delivered via medium- and heavy-duty trucks, which account for more than 20 percent of the industry's greenhouse gas emissions even though they make up less than 5 percent of the road fleet, according to U.S. data.

"Amazon is excited about introducing new sustainable solutions for freight transportation and is working on testing a number of new vehicle ty…

Apple Inc. has held talks with Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Motors Corp. about building an electric vehicle, though the discussions paused recently, according to people familiar with the situation.

Apple has also been discussing similar plans with other auto manufacturers, the people said. They asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

The secret project has ramped up in recent months. It has the potential to upend the automotive industry and its supply chain in a similar way to Apple’s reinvention of the consumer device market, some experts have speculated.

Apple declined to comment. In January, Hyundai, which owns a controlling stake in Kia, backed away from a statement that said it was in talks with Apple.

That announcement, and other reports of talks originating in the Korean media, have upset Apple, which keeps development projects secret for years and controls relationships with suppliers with ruthless efficiency.

It’s uncle…

Toyota dealers this week will get their first concrete details about the brand's plans for its 2022 Tundra full-size pickup — the truck's first redesign in 14 years — which is set to arrive in dealerships by the end of the year.

But beyond a teaser video shown to dealers in November that revealed its LED lighting and what's been gleaned from test mules in various locations, very few details about the Tundra have leaked out. And executives at Toyota Motor North America have been characteristically tight-lipped.

Toyota's make meeting at the first virtual NADA Show this week will also cover the brand's newly improved SmartPath digital retailing tool. But the brand's retailers are particularly piqued by the prospect of having a competitive full-size pickup for the first time in years and the prospect of stealing market share in the segment from the Detroit 3.

"The new Tundra is the most exciting thing we've had in the last five-plus years," said Robby Find…

Regardless of what weather forecasters or groundhogs say, all signs point to a hot spring for the used-vehicle market.

"I have no reason to believe — and I see no data that would support — anything but that," said Jonathan Banks, general manager of vehicle valuations at J.D. Power.

There's typically a pop in used-vehicle demand during tax season, as people put returns toward car or truck purchases. This year, more consumers have extra cash, after months of forgoing leisure spending, and many may have fresh government stimulus checks in their pockets soon. New-vehicle inventory remains constrained, and more Americans are getting vaccinated for COVID-19, sparking hopes for a return to some kind of normalcy in economic life.

It all has experts and observers expecting a strong spring.

"The consensus that we hold, without any exceptions, is that the second half of this first quarter, and at least the second quarter of this year, are g…

The Chrysler brand needs some help.

The merger between Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and France's PSA Group to form Stellantis could be its lifeline, said David Kelleher, chairman of the Stellantis National Dealer Council.

Kelleher believes Stellantis has a chance to fortify Chrysler, which sells the aging 300 sedan along with the Pacifica and Voyager minivans, with product from the PSA side.

Kelleher thinks this product infusion could be done at reasonable expense because the automaker wouldn't have to develop new models from the ground up.

He said he'd feel "violated" if the Chrysler brand was dropped.

"This whole thing started with Chrysler," Kelleher said. "I don't want to get emotional about a brand, that's not the case. But I don't want to see a brand like that left at the sideline and just thrown out to pasture."

While dealers await the next moves of the Stellantis team, Kelleher also is paying close attention to a move by rival …

Here's a look at the four automaker Super Bowl spots and the entry from Vroom, the used-car shopping site that's making its Super Bowl debut.

General Motors is running a corporate electric vehicle spot in addition to a Cadillac ad. Jeep, which is expected to feature singer Bruce Springsteen in its spot, and Toyota are also running ads.

Kantar, a marketing research company, estimates that in-game ad expenditures for Super Bowl LV on Sunday will total $435 million. The company said "this would be the largest amount in history, eclipsing the $390 million spent during the 2017 game."

More ads will be added to this list upon their release.

Look out, Norway.

GM — with a little help from actor Will Ferrell — wants to bring the EV crown to the U.S.

But first, Ferrell wants to give the Nordic country a piece of his mind in GM's Super Bowl spot, which touts the sleek, electric Cadillac Lyriq crossover, th…

WASHINGTON -- Ford Motor Co. said Friday the U.S. Justice Department and California Air Resources Board have closed a lengthy investigation into the No. 2 U.S. automaker's emissions certification process without taking any action.

Ford said in a securities filing that reviews opened by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Environment and Climate Change Canada remain open.

Ford first disclosed the criminal probe in April 2019. It earlier hired outside law firm Sidley Austin and experts to investigate its vehicle fuel economy and testing procedures after employees raised concerns about analytical modeling that is part of its fuel economy and emissions compliance process.

Ford said Friday the investigations' closure was "consistent with the company’s own investigation and conclusion that we appropriately completed our certification processes."

Ford declined to release findings from its own investigation and said it has not changed any fuel ec…