Trade News

With the promotion this week of Lisa Materazzo to group vice president for marketing at Toyota Motor North America, 2015 Automotive News Rising Star Vinay Shahani has taken over Materazzo's previous position as head of marketing for Lexus.

Shahani, 46, who previously was vice president of integrated marketing operations at the company, joined Toyota in 2017 from Volkswagen of America, where he was senior vice president and chief marketing officer. He also previously worked for Nissan North America.

In the Lexus role, Shahani leads marketing for the luxury brand, including strategy, communications and media, product marketing, incentives and motorsports.

Shahani was named a Rising Star while with Volkswagen.

In December, Materazzo was named group vice president for marketing at Toyota Motor North America, effective Jan. 4, succeeding longtime executive Ed Laukes, who retired.

DETROIT — Jeep's Grand Cherokee will offer a third-row option by midyear, broadening the SUV's reach into a competitive segment.

The three-row model, scheduled to be revealed Thursday, will be known as the Grand Cherokee L. Jeep said production will start this quarter and that the vehicles will begin reaching dealerships in the second quarter.

By adding optional third-row seating to its top seller, Jeep is expected to shake up the large crossover market now dominated by the Ford Explorer, Toyota Highlander, Chevrolet Traverse and Volkswagen Atlas, and newer entries such as the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Telluride. The large utility segment shrank 0.6 percent last year but still generated U.S. sales of just over 1 million.

A redesigned two-row Grand Cherokee and "4xe" electrified version are scheduled to be launched later this year, Jeep said. The automaker has said previously the smaller version would arrive in the third quarter.

The Grand Cherokee…

Industry executives and groups representing the nation's manufacturers and union workers spoke out against the violent actions of a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol Building on Wednesday, temporarily halting the certification of president-elect Joe Biden's victory.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly told his supporters that the election was "rigged," despite the U.S. Justice Department stating that no evidence of widespread voter fraud has been found that would alter the outcome.

UAW President Rory Gamble referred to the incident as a "very sad day for our nation and our democracy" and condemned the violence at the Capitol that left at least one civilian dead.

"We cannot take our system of government for granted, and we must be vigilant to ensure that our democracy maintains its historical position as the gold standard for freedom and liberty," Gamble said in a statement. "Today's actions must not be allowed to alter that."

General Motors CEO …

LONDON -- Honda will restart output at its British factory Thursday after it was halted for two days due to global supply delays, a spokesman said.

Major automakers operate just-in-time manufacturing, meaning some parts arrive moments before they are fitted to vehicles.

Honda built just under 110,000 Civic cars in Swindon in 2019. Honda is closing the plant permanently in July as part of a global restructuring.

Honda also suspended production at the plant for a few days in December as some major container ports, such as Felixstowe, struggled to cope with disruption caused by COVID-19, pre-Brexit stockpiling and Christmas.

Honda's European sales fell 35 percent to 72,421 in the first 11 months of 2020, according to JATO Dynamics market researchers.

Much like the phrase "horseless carriage" fell from favor in describing motorized vehicles, might "self-driving" someday be replaced with a better way to delineate cars controlled by computers?

Waymo would like to leave "self-driving" for the history books. Starting Wednesday, the Google subsidiary said it will leave the term in its rearview mirror. Instead, Waymo says it will refer to its technology as "fully autonomous driving technology."

"This is more than just a branding or linguistic exercise," the company said in a written statement. "Unfortunately, we see that some automakers use the term 'self-driving' in an inaccurate way, giving consumers and the general public a false impression of the capabilities of driver-assist (not fully autonomous) technology."

Clearly, Waymo is seeking to emphasize differences between itself and Tesla, which has muddied the language around autonomy by using "feature complete," "full self-driving" a…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. light-vehicle sales fell 10 percent in the fourth quarter, even as the automaker began deliveries of new nameplates it hopes will buoy sales in 2021. For the full year, the company's sales fell 15 percent to 2.03million.

In addition to the continuing effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Ford navigated a number of launches in the year's final months, including the Bronco Sport crossover in November, followed by the Mustang Mach-E and a redesigned F-150 pickup in December. To date, Ford has sold 5,120 Bronco Sports and three Mach-Es.

Those early deliveries helped overall SUV sales, which rose 4.7 percent in the quarter. Truck sales fell 13 percent while car sales plummeted 42 percent.

Because of the pandemic's effect on vehicle production, Ford never built up an adequate supply of 2020 F-150s heading into the changeover to the redesigned model, which hurt pickup sales, according to Erich Merkle, head of U.S. s…

Ralph Paglia, a dealership software advocate known affectionately to industry insiders as the "godfather of automotive digital marketing," died Dec. 21 of complications caused by COVID-19, his daughter confirmed to Automotive News. He was 63.

Paglia was director of digital marketing for ADP Dealer Services, departing before it became CDK Global Inc. in 2014. He worked at two dealerships in his career and briefly at Reynolds and Reynolds. He had been working as an automotive digital marketing consultant since 2013.

Paglia's belief that the Internet would become a dominant force in retail was prophetic, Dale Pollak, former auto dealer and founder of inventory management software vAuto, said in a blog post.

"Ralph instantly understood how retail market-based pricing would benefit the dealership's desire to connect customers with used cars online," Pollak said. "He wasn't just one of the good guys, he was a great guy. His loss is our …

Chevrolet's freshenings of the Equinox and Traverse crossovers will launch this year after pandemic-related delays in 2020.

"Both of those were delayed a bit due to resource reallocation, but they're going to be a big part of our plans for '21," Steve Majoros, vice president of Chevrolet marketing, told reporters Wednesday.

The 2022 Equinox, which is slated to launch this summer, will get an RS trim option. That trim has been popular on the Trailblazer and Blazer. In the third quarter of 2020, Trailblazer RS orders more than doubled Chevy's forecast, and Blazer RS orders nearly doubled the forecast, a Chevy spokeswoman said at the time.

The compact crossover will also have redesigned front and rear fascias, new LED headlamps and a more aggressive grille, Chevy says.

Sales of the Equinox, Chevy's second-highest seller behind the Silverado pickup, fell 22 percent in 2020 to 270,994.

The 2022 Traverse, due in t…

DETROIT — Jeep on Thursday plans to unveil the three-row version of the redesigned 2021 Grand Cherokee, a first for the model.

Production will begin in the first quarter at a new assembly plant created from a former engine factory in Detroit.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles CEO Mike Manley said last year that the new three-row SUV would enter a "white space that offers the potential for a very strong margin." At the time the company hadn't revealed whether it would be part of the Grand Cherokee lineup or a separate nameplate.

Jeep confirmed the reveal date and the use of the Grand Cherokee name in an email to customers this week, saying, "The most awarded SUV ever is adding something new to the adventure — a third row."

The roomier Grand Cherokee is part of a larger product offensive that will help diversify the Jeep brand's portfolio in 2021 as FCA moves ahead with its merger with France's PSA Group to form a larger automaker called Stellantis. The W…

New-vehicle sales in Canada fell 20 percent during pandemic-ridden 2020, just “as expected.”

After slowly reporting sales figures over two days, the tally stands at 1.55 million sold, down precisely 20 percent, according to the Automotive News Data Center in Detroit and just as forecasters had predicted.

From the outset of the pandemic, which began to take hold in March 2020, both DesRosiers Automotive Consultants and Rebekah Young of ScotiaBank Economics forecast a decline of 20 percent by the year’s end.

Using its own figures, DesRosiers said Wednesday that the 19.7 percent drop in sales was the second-biggest percentage decline on record, falling in between the 23 percent decline of 1982 and the 17 percent drop of 1954.

Canadians bought the fewest number of new vehicles since 2009, “wiping away [at least temporarily] a decade of growth,” the firm said in a statement.

“It may be difficult to take a market decline of 19.7 percent in a…

TOKYO – Kia has unveiled a new, more modern, script-like brand logo to replace its aged oval mark and help jumpstart the South Korean carmaker’s planned brand relaunch.

As part of the makeover, Kia Motors Corp. has also adopted a new slogan: Movement that Inspires. The new emblem and catchphrase were both unveiled Wednesday during a pyrotechnical display in the skies above Incheon, South Korea, that used 303 drones launching fireworks.

“The introduction of the new logo represents Kia’s ambitions to establish a leadership position in the future mobility industry by revamping nearly all facets of its business,” Kia said in a release.

The reworked logo and fresh tagline will herald an updated business strategy that Kia CEO Ho Sung Song plans to unveil on Jan. 15. In an interview with Automotive News late last year, Song said Kia would dump its long-in-the-tooth oval and embark on a brand “relaunch” this month.

The Jan. 15 event, dubbed a digital “New…

Hyundai and Kia posted single-digit gains in December on record U.S. demand for their growing stable of crossovers such as the Hyundai Palisade and Kia Seltos, while Genesis came to life with the launch of its first SUV after struggling with a three-sedan lineup and inventory problems for most of the year.

Hyundai posted an overall sales increase of 2.4 percent in December compared with the year earlier, but retail sales rose 12 percent. Fleet shipments, which remain weak but have improved as rental companies return to the market, fell 34 percent last month, the company said.

Kia, which shares parent company Hyundai Motor Group with Hyundai and Genesis, reported a 4.9 percent gain in volume last month. It also reported a yearly retail sales gain of 3.1 percent for its highest annual retail tally ever in the U.S., the company said.

Sales at upstart luxury brand Genesis rose 40 percent on the launch of the GV80 midsize crossover in lat…