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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…

Volkswagen sales in the U.S. rose 11 percent in the fourth quarter to 94,330 thanks to the addition of the Atlas Cross Sport crossover and a five-fold surge in sales of the aging Passat sedan.

For the year, the German mass-market brand's deliveries fell 10 percent to 325,784, despite three nameplates — Golf, Arteon and Passat — that actually gained volume year over year, despite the pandemic. The addition of the derivative two-row Atlas Cross Sport earlier this year meant that total Atlas sales for both models rose 7.2 percent in 2020. Sales of the three-row Atlas finished down 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter and 28 percent for the year.

Meanwhile, Audi sales fell 4.8 percent in the fourth quarter to 62,517, despite solid double-digit gains from three of its four crossovers. For the year, Audi's U.S. deliveries fell 17 percent to 186,620.

The Q3, Q5 and Q8 crossovers all gained between 11 and 15 percent in the quarter, while sales…

American Honda capped a roller-coaster sales year with a strong showing in December as light trucks helped fuel just a 0.1 percent drop in overall deliveries from a year earlier. That was a big rebound from November when sales fell 23 percent because of fewer selling days and fierce market competition.

For the year, combined U.S. sales at the Honda and Acura brands fell by 16 percent as Honda passenger car sales tanked while crossovers at both brands did relatively well considering the myriad of disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

Volume fell 13 percent at Acura and 17 percent at the Honda brand last year.

Total car sales at American Honda in 2020 dropped 22 percent while light-truck deliveries fell 12 percent. That reflected an accelerated market shift toward pickups, crossovers and SUVs, driven by low-rate financing deals that made it easier for consumers to move up to bigger, more expensive vehicles.

Honda…

Subaru of America ended 2020 with slight volume increases in December and the fourth quarter, but the automaker also saw two remarkable U.S. sales streaks snapped as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact earlier in the year.

Subaru sold 63,558 vehicles in December, an increase of 1.9 percent. It was the highest monthly sales total in 2020, beating out October's 61,411 tally, and the highest since December 2019 notched 62,364 deliveries.

In the fourth quarter, Subaru's sales rose, albeit slightly, 0.3 percent to 175,382, according to the Automotive News Data Center.

For 2020, Subaru sold 611,942 vehicles, a drop of 13 percent from 2019's record of 700,117 vehicles.

The final 2020 sales figures came in higher than the 605,000 deliveries that Subaru Corp. CEO Tomomi Nakamura forecast during an Automotive News interview in December.

Prior to 2020, Subaru had been riding two streaks: 11 years of U.S. sales rec…

For financially hamstrung Nissan Group, 2020 was a year of rebuilding amid a pandemic that sucked the air out of market demand and forced dealerships to shutter for weeks.

The impact on sales was evident: Combined U.S. deliveries of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles plummeted 33 percent last year. It was Nissan's largest annual percentage decline.

In the fourth quarter, Nissan Group sales fell 19 percent to 243,133 vehicles — the automaker's 12th consecutive quarterly decline.

The Nissan division sold 819,715 vehicles in 2020, down 33 percent from the year earlier. Infiniti sales, meanwhile, tumbled 32 percent to 79,502 vehicles last year.

Nissan started 2020 strong with fresh product and a new dealer incentive program.

Then the world changed. Nissan Group's U.S. sales dived 30 percent in the first quarter as consumer demand for vehicles and much else fell in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Nissan responded with a relief package that…

The Ram and Jeep brands carried Fiat Chrysler Automobiles through a turbulent 2020 as the automaker prepares to merge with France's PSA Group next week.

Despite the circumstances, FCA's U.S. sales in the fourth quarter weren't far off from the year-earlier period, with sales down 8 percent after Ram had its best monthly retail performance ever in December. The Jeep Gladiator saw a 23 percent increase in the fourth quarter to 20,552 vehicles sold, closing out its first full year on the market.

For the year, FCA sales were down 17 percent from 2019 to 1.82 million vehicles.

Moving forward, FCA will confront the challenges of the pandemic with a partner. Its tie-up with PSA, which will be called Stellantis, is expected to become official on Jan. 16.

Brands: Fourth quarter: Jeep, down 4%; Ram, down 5%; Chrysler, up 5%; Dodge, down 31%; Fiat, down 58%; Alfa Romeo, up 23%

For 2020: Jeep, down 14%; Ram, down 11%; C…

Shirley Young, an executive who played an instrumental role in General Motors' expansion in China during the 1990s, died Dec. 26. She was 85.

Young helped steer GM's billion-dollar investment in China through a joint venture with Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp.

She died of complications from breast cancer, David Hsieh, one of her sons, told The New York Times.

While rising to become a top executive at Grey Advertising, Young, who had a degree in economics from Wellesley, challenged convention that successful marketing was driven only by gut instincts. She pushed the major agency to invest in quantitative market research, a standard operating practice today but one that emerged and gained prominence starting in the 1960s.

GM recruited Young in June 1988 from Grey Strategic Marketing, where she was president, according to media reports. At Grey Strategic Marketing, she consulted GM across its operating divisions and sta…

Rivian Automotive Inc., the electric-truck startup backed by Amazon.com Inc. and Ford Motor Co., is close to raising a new round of funding valuing it at about $25 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Several existing Rivian investors are participating in the round, which will raise several billion dollars, the people added, asking not to be identified because the matter is private.

Existing investors in the company include Amazon, T. Rowe Price Group Inc., BlackRock Inc., Soros Fund Management, Coatue, Fidelity Investments and Baron Capital Group.

The funding isn't finalized and details could still change.

Rivian is developing two battery-electric consumer cars designed to be capable in off-road terrain. The R1T is an electric pickup capable of driving more than 300 miles on a single charge and towing up to 11,000 pounds. The R1S is a bulky SUV also capable of 300 miles on a single charge. Rivian is also developing 100,000 deliv…

A federal judge in California has agreed to allow former Reynolds and Reynolds Co. CEO Bob Brockman to face charges of tax evasion and wire fraud closer to his home in Houston.

In an order issued Monday, U.S. District Judge William Alsup granted a motion Brockman's attorneys filed in November to transfer the government's case against him to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. Alsup said several factors, including Brockman's residence and medical conditions, favored moving the case out of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, where Brockman was indicted in October.

It was not immediately clear Monday what the judge's order means for a hearing on a motion from Brockman's lawyers seeking a competency hearing, scheduled for Jan. 12 before Alsup. A government spokesman and Brockman's attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.

Alsup wrote that transferring the case is warranted base…

DETROIT -- General Motors plans to transition more than 650 temporary hourly employees into full-time jobs this month, the automaker said Monday.

The move delivers on GM's promise in its 2019 UAW labor agreement to promote temporary employees with at least three years of continuous service to permanent positions.

The employees who will transition to full-time roles work at nine GM plants in Michigan, Indiana, Texas and Missouri, GM said in a statement.

"Our people are the heart and soul of everything we do and through their hard work and dedication to building quality products, they are taking the next step in their journey with GM," Phil Kienle, GM vice president of North America manufacturing and labor relations, said in the statement.

Temps who transition to full-time posts will get medical plan cost-share improvements, dental and vision coverage, company contributions to their 401(k) plans, profit-sharing and life insurance coverage.

The Bentley Bentayga Hybrid, the British ultraluxury brand's first and only electrified vehicle, has been freshened for 2021, following updates of the standard Bentayga and Bentayga Speed.

Bentley said the freshened Bentayga Hybrid is one of two plug-in hybrid models it will launch in 2021 as it prepares for an electrified future.

In November, Bentley said it would be dropping internal combustion engines from its lineup by 2030 and switch the entire lineup to full-electric vehicles.

Its first full-electric vehicle is set for a 2025 launch. By 2026, Bentley will offer only plug-in hybrids or EVs.

The latest Bentayga Hybrid is powered by a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-6 engine paired with an electric motor for a total of 443 hp and 516 pound-feet of torque. The hybrid system utilizes a 17.3-kilowatt-hour lithium battery.

The Bentayga Hybrid has an electric-only range of 31 miles on the NEDC test cycle.

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DETROIT — U.S. District Judge Paul Borman on Monday slashed by 18 months the prison sentence of former Fiat Chrysler labor chief Alphons Iacobelli, who had been serving a 5½-year term in federal prison for his role in the UAW corruption scandal.

The reduction to a four-year sentence, Borman said, was due to Iacobelli's "significant post-sentence cooperation" in the ongoing probe as well as his good conduct in prison and the "significant negative impact" of the coronavirus pandemic in prisons.

He had been scheduled for release Sept. 8, 2023. He will now likely get released in May 2022. 

Iacobelli, 61, had said the pandemic has curtailed family visits and has greatly reduced his "yard time" in prison in Morgantown, W. Va.

The government had requested his sentence be reduced to 52 months, while Iacobelli asked for a reduction to "not more than 36 months."

Borman also recommended Iacobelli be considered for home confinement instead of hal…