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Laura Major, chief technology officer of the Hyundai-Aptiv joint venture, talks about the company’s recent driverless permit approval in Nevada, its newly released voluntary safety self-assessment and its plans to deploy a robotaxi with Lyft in 2023.

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TOKYO — Carlos Ghosn was afraid of being fired as CEO of Renault if the world knew how much salary he was really making, according to testimony in the Japanese trial against one of his former deputies, American human resources executive Greg Kelly.

A key witness this month turned up the heat on Kelly, who stands accused of attempting to conceal Ghosn's compensation package from financial documents.

A small army of top executives were preoccupied with finding ways to pay Ghosn more money in secret, according to Hari Nada, a current Nissan legal executive who agreed to testify in the case in exchange for immunity from being prosecuted.

According to Nada, some executives referred to the problem of Ghosn's deferred, unreported income as his "haircut."

Prosecutors allege that Ghosn and Kelly conspired to hide more than $80 million in deferred payment — money that would somehow need to be paid to Ghosn after his retirement. <…

The Biden administration is revisiting regulations on vehicle fuel economy and greenhouse gas emissions after the Trump administration last year loosened standards put in place under predecessor Barack Obama.

President Joe Biden's executive order, issued last week, directs the Department of Transportation and the EPA to reconsider the Trump administration's 2019 decision to revoke California's authority to restrict tailpipe emissions by April and review fuel-efficiency standards for light vehicles by July.

Biden is likely to drop the previous administration's effort to block California from setting its own emissions standards, and establish tougher fuel-efficiency rules that promote zero-emission vehicles — two actions that could aid his $2 trillion "Build Back Better" agenda, which includes the installation of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations nationwide.

The president is expected to lay out his economic recovery plan bef…

Executives from PSA Group make up a slight majority of the Stellantis leadership team announced last week, though Fiat Chrysler Automobiles executives are in charge of the company’s finances, marketing and North American business.

Mark Stewart remains North American COO under Mike Manley, the former FCA CEO who is now head of the Americas. There are two design chiefs: FCA’s Ralph Gilles and PSA’s Jean-Pierre Ploue, with their duties divided by brand.

See the entire roster of top 43 executives, with photos, titles and their roots to either PSA or FCS by clicking here.

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's government said Friday it has approved a request by 12 automotive companies for additional time to meet new regional content requirements under the North American trade agreement that came into force in July.

The economy ministry said in a statement that under the United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement, companies could request a so-called alternative transition regime to comply with the higher content requirements under the trade deal.

The request was granted for Tesla Inc., Volkswagen de Mexico, Volvo Car USA, FCA Mexico, Hyundai Motor America, Mazda Motor de Mexico, Toyota Motor de Mexico, Kia Motors Mexico, Kia Motors Manufacturing Georgia, Nissan Mexicana, Ford Motor Co. and Cooperation Manufacturing Plant Aguascalientes, it said.

For tariff-free trade in light vehicles, the agreement requires 75 percent North American content compared with a 62.5 percent threshold under its predecessor, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

For four years the relationship between General Motors and the Canadian union Unifor was in tatters — marked by a strike, blockades, an international media campaign and the end of vehicle production at Oshawa Assembly.

Things have changed.

Since November, across back-to-back rounds of bargaining, GM and Unifor have agreed to new contracts that include up to CA$2.3 billion ($1.8 billion) in new investments in the automaker's Canadian assembly plants. By this time next year, Oshawa is expected to be building trucks again, and GM's CAMI Assembly plant in Ingersoll, Ontario, will build electric cargo vans for the company's new BrightDrop fleet business, unveiled this month during CES.

"We're at a point in our collective history where there are opportunities, and I'm not going to allow the past to get in the way of them," Unifor President Jerry Dias said.

GM and the union quietly began negotiating a new contract for CAMI early this month , long befor…

TOKYO — Toyota is putting a small electric vehicle on the roads of Japan with an innovative design for handling the country's narrow, winding streets and urban commuting needs.

The C+Pod, launched Dec. 25, measures just 8 feet, 2 inches long and 4 feet, 3 inches wide, delivering an ultratight turning radius of 12 feet, 10 inches.

The diminutive dimensions enable ideal navigation of the sharp corners and narrow streets that vein the home country's road network. The C+Pod is even narrower and shorter than the popular super-compact minicars that make up 37 percent of the local market.

The C+Pod — pronounced C Pod, without the plus — also represents a comeback for Toyota. It is the automaker's first electric car for Japan since it discontinued the short-lived eQ, a battery-driven version of the Scion iQ three-seat minicar.

The new entry is part of Toyota's gambit to get back into the EV game with a lineup of 10 EVs worldwide in the early 2020s. Today…

Firefighters thought they had extinguished the post-crash blaze. Then they heard popping sounds.

On the scene of a fatal crash involving a Tesla Model X in Mountain View, Calif., in March 2018, the fire department contemplated the energy hazards that lay in the wrecked electric vehicle before them. When further complications and potential dangers surfaced, the fire department called for help from the vehicle manufacturer.

In this case, it was fortuitous that Tesla's headquarters was just across San Francisco Bay. In a matter of hours, two Tesla engineers had arrived at the crash site. But not every electric vehicle crash occurs in close proximity to industry-leading engineers.

As EVs proliferate, safety advocates and crash investigators are increasingly concerned about the risks lithium ion batteries pose to emergency responders.

In a report issued this month, the National Transportation Safety Board found vehicle manufacturers have given firefi…

DETROIT — Ally Financial Inc. reported Friday an 82 percent jump in fourth-quarter net income driven by fewer reserves for credit losses and $1 billion growth in auto originations.

Ally, one of the largest U.S. auto lenders, reported net income of $687 million. Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $1.60 were the highest in company history, and revenue rose 21 percent year over year to $1.98 billion.

Ally's earnings before taxes were impacted by a $34 million cost relating to establishing its charitable foundation and a $78 million cost it set aside for a pending legal settlement. The case, Ally Financial v. Alberta Haskins, et al., began as a dispute over a vehicle repossession and is pending in a Missouri court.

Ally's fourth-quarter results displayed strong resilience to the economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed over 400,000 Americans and skyrocketed unemployment.

This past year presented one of the most complex le…

Hank Aaron, the famed home run king who later became a major Georgia auto dealer, died Friday at age 86.

Aaron's baseball career spanned 23 seasons, capped by "the most famous home run in baseball history," according to MLB.com.

That 715th home run, in 1974, put the longtime Atlanta Braves outfielder in front of Babe Ruth on the all-time home run list.

"What a marvelous moment for baseball, what a marvelous moment for Atlanta and the state of Georgia, what a marvelous moment for the country and the world," announcers said at the time.

Breaking the record came along with hate and scrutiny, but Aaron held onto it, with 755 home runs, for 33 years.

David Ortiz, the longtime Boston Red Sox slugger, described Aaron in a tweet: "A legend on and off the ball field."

Off the field, Aaron took on the role of entrepreneur when he opened 17 fast-food franchises and started Hank Aaron Automotive Group.

The Atlanta-based auto group consi…

DETROIT — Production at Ford Motor Co.'s Louisville Assembly Plant will be stopped for the second time this month, beginning next week, as a microchip shortage continues to upend the auto industry.

The Kentucky plant, which employs roughly 3,900 workers building the Ford Escape and Lincoln Corsair crossovers, will be down the next two weeks, according to Ford spokeswoman Kelli Felker. Louisville Assembly was previously down the week of Jan. 11 for the same reason.

Hourly workers will receive 75 percent of their gross pay during the downtime. The latest production suspension was first reported by the (Louisville) Courier Journal.

The issue has also shuttered Ford's plant in Saarlouis, Germany, and is affecting a number of automakers around the globe. IHS Markit forecasts that chip-related supply wrinkles will linger into the second quarter and possibly even the second half of this year.

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

A number of automotive CEOs have committed to move the needle on diversity, equity and inclusion. Lisa Lunsford, CEO of GS3 Global, and Glenn Stevens, executive director of MICHauto, discuss the launch of the CEO Coalition for Change and explain how the initiative is aiming to create more opportunities for women and minorities in the auto industry.

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