Trade News

Ferrari Chairman and Agnelli family scion John Elkann may reveal the type of person he thinks should lead the supercar maker on Tuesday.

Elkann -- who as interim CEO will unveil Ferrari's full-year results -- is likely to provide details on the ideal profile for the permanent CEO and discuss timing of when the job will be filled, people familiar with the matter said.

Headhunters have started to assemble a preliminary list of luxury industry heavyweights including Gucci CEO Marco Bizzarri, although no one is excluding auto-industry entries, said the people, who asked not to be named since the process is not public. The company has not started interviewing candidates yet, the people said.

Ferrari was thrown into its second leadership crisis in just a few years after Louis Camilleri abruptly resigned in December. The maker of cars including the Monza, with a price tag starting at 1.5 million euros ($1.82 million), is going through a complicated process of …

TOKYO -- Lexus will unveil an overhauled "brand vision" this spring, underpinning a new model that arrives later in the year and kicks off the premium brand's "next generation" of product.

Lexus offered a peek at the new look with a teaser photo of a concept vehicle that will also debut this spring. The vehicle, obscured in shadow, is shot from either the front or rear, with the brand name printed in all caps across the width of the car, replacing the oval L-badge.

The windshield seems to be semi-divided with a scoop going down the middle between the passenger and driver's seats. The vehicle has a wide, low stance, hinting at something sporty.

Toyota's premium brand offered scant details about the upcoming makeover.

"This spring, we will unveil our new brand vision, along with a new concept, which illustrates our intentions for the future and marking the beginning of the next generation of Lexus," Lexus said in a statement on Monday. "Furthermore,…

Organizers of Germany's top auto show, the IAA, plan to stage digital and real-world activities as the event continues to struggle to attract foreign automakers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

German automakers Volkswagen Group, BMW and Daimler will take part in the show, which takes place in Munich from Sept. 7 to Sept. 12.

Frankfurt was the IAA's host city for almost 70 years but the VDA has picked Munich for this year's event.

So far only a handful of non-German automakers, including Ford, Hyundai and Chinese brands, have said they will be present. Other major car companies including Toyota, Renault and Stellantis, which includes PSA Group and its Germany-based Opel brand as well as Fiat Chrysler, have not committed to being present.

This means that time is running out to make the show a truly international event with global appeal.

Organizers will place more emphasis on digital activities in case travel is still disrupted in September by me…

After significant product launches and redesigns in 2020, Buick-GMC dealers are eager for this year's wave of big-ticket vehicles: GMC's electric Hummer pickup and Buick's redesigned Envision compact crossover.

When GMC unveiled the Hummer supertruck, "people were blown away," said Todd Ingersoll, chairman of the Buick-GMC National Dealer Council and CEO of Ingersoll Automotive.

Reservations for the pickup filled up within minutes, GMC has said. The pickup is slated to go on sale late this year.

"It's great to be at the forefront of the first supertruck ever to come to market," Ingersoll said.

The Envision compact crossover, imported from China, has started to arrive at dealerships. The Envision, which is available in the Avenir trim for the first time, is larger than the previous generation and offers more safety features and infotainment options.

Last year, dealers were excited about the redesigned GMC Yukon SUV and the new Buick Encore …

In the early days of the pandemic, the technicians at John Hiester's four North Carolina dealerships had only enough work to last till about lunch.

As business slowed the techs became increasingly worried about layoffs or furloughs. Hiester called a meeting to soothe concerns but admits he might have just added to the discomfort.

"I told them we're gonna do everything we can to get as much work in here as possible and we'll just have to play it by ear," recalled Hiester, who owns two Chevrolet dealerships and two Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores scattered south of the Research Triangle. "I knew that was a bad answer. I went home and thought about it.

"I said, 'We gotta come up with something.' "

His first thought was of a past love — tinkering on classic cars. He wondered if his techs, when things got slow in the afternoon, would want to pass the time turning wrenches on old cars. He bounced the idea off his managers, who loved it. Soon, it snowbal…

Anhalt, who took the helm of Elektrobit as CEO in January, talks about the company’s approach to software-defined vehicles, its strategy for this year, and her career experience going from software development to automotive.

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.

TOKYO — A top Nissan executive indicated he copped a plea deal to testify against ousted Chairman Carlos Ghosn because he was worried about possibly getting snared in the legal swoop.

Hari Nada, a star government witness and the executive running Nissan's legal office at the time of Ghosn's arrest, said internal investigations into Ghosn's alleged misconduct began as early as January 2018, at least 10 months before Tokyo authorities arrested Ghosn on Nov. 19 of that year.

Nada, testifying last week before the Tokyo District Court in the case against former Nissan director Greg Kelly, offered his first public explanation for what made him turn on Nissan's longtime boss.

The initial probe into Ghosn, he said, was launched by Nissan's statutory auditor, Hidetoshi Imazu, to look into questions about Ghosn's billing of personal air travel to the company. That investigation expanded to look into suspicions about some $80 million in de…

With gold chandeliers, stained-glass windows and a marble fireplace, Brown Bros. Cadillac looks nothing like a typical dealership.

Gary and Bruce Brown's mother designed the extravagant, 15,000-square-foot showroom in Louisville, Ky., that surrounds cars with 19th-century oil landscapes by Harvey Joiner and Carl Brenner on walls of floral paper and rustic brick.

"I've been told by a number of people that it looks like the lobby of a fine Southern hotel," said Gary Brown, who now owns the dealership with his brother. "I think her aim was to make it a very comfortable, stylish place to buy a Cadillac. At that time, Cadillac was still the dominant luxury car in America."

But Cadillac's dominance ended two decades ago, and in two weeks, downtown Louisville will be without a Cadillac dealership for the first time in more than a century. The Browns are among the more than 175 Cadillac dealers who have decided to take a buyout instead of going along for the r…

The semiconductor shortage roiling global auto production has hit Nissan Motor Co.'s Canton, Miss., assembly plant, where the company builds pickups, sedans and commercial vans.

Frontier and Titan pickup output was idled for two days in late January, according to a factory memo obtained by Automotive News. The pickup line is also scheduled to be down on Feb. 8, the memo indicates.

Nissan builds about 410 mid- and full-size pickups at the factory each day, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

The midsize Frontier will undergo a major redesign in late summer, its first since 2004.

Altima assembly at Canton has also been affected. Overtime and Saturday production of the midsize sedan was cut for a part of January, the memo notes.

Output at Nissan's larger Smyrna, Tenn., factory so far has not been affected by the chip shortage. Nissan builds mostly crossovers at Smyrna, including the brand's best-selling Rogue compact crossover.

"Nissan…