Trade News

The new year won't magically wipe away the coronavirus or erase the political strife of 2020. But the mere changing of a numeral on the calendar at least brings hope that the next 12 months will be different, and Kia Motors America is seizing on the rare moment of optimism in otherwise dark times.

Kia is unleashing its first-ever large-scale New Year's marketing campaign.

The effort includes using a redesigned 2021 Sorento to haul the "2021" New Year's Eve numerals from the brand's U.S. headquarters in Irvine, Calif., to New York City, where they will be installed at the top of One Times Square.

The Sorento will make stops at dealerships along the way, with the goal of luring some local media coverage. And the brand will try to make a national splash with TV ads running during ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2021." The deal with ABC includes an in-show integration that will spotlight the Sorento road trip using footage of n…

Just over six months into the union of German parts giant ZF Friedrichshafen and U.S.-based Wabco Holdings Inc., the companies are making progress in combining their talents to develop technologies for commercial vehicles.

And that's despite the challenge of a virtual integration by the two companies without all the usual handshakes, face-to-face meetings and receptions to get to know each other.

ZF, a supplier of transmission, chassis components and systems, and steering, braking and active and passive safety systems, closed its $7 billion acquisition of the Auburn Hills, Mich., trucking parts supplier in May, just as the industry was starting to ramp up after the pandemic-forced shutdown.

Integrating the two large industrial companies has been unique under work-from-home stipulations around the world. But ZF and the former Wabco have synergies in advanced driver-assist systems and autonomous features that have already proved ben…

Automakers that switched to reporting U.S. sales quarterly instead of monthly argued that the wider span gave a truer measure of their performance. There is some truth to that, as much as I have pushed for preserving the monthly standard.

But as most of the industry is taking the longer view, let's go real long. As in 10 years.

We're winding down a year ending in zero, so it's as good a time as any to dive into the numbers.

Here are some trends I gleaned from a comparison of this year's figures, most of them through September (sorry, that's the latest we have for the entire industry), to those for 2010, courtesy of the Automotive News Data Center.

It's been a fact of life through most of our lives that General Motors' U.S. market share would plunge from decade to decade. It went from 50-something in the 1960s to 20-something before the Great Recession and bankruptcy.

The bleeding has largely stopped. In…

Hyundai Motor Group intends to carve out a share of the electric vehicle market starting next year with the first two battery-powered crossovers from its new e-GMP platform.

The flexible platform is key to the South Korean automaker's target of selling 1 million EVs globally by 2025.

Last week in Seoul, the company unveiled the e-GMP architecture, short for electric global modular platform, with executives promising sporty performance.

The base layout will be rear-wheel drive, with a low center of gravity, long wheelbase and short overhangs. The setup is geared toward larger vehicles from the C-segment and above, all the way to a seven-seat crossover in the realm of the Hyundai Palisade, the automaker said. And it can accommodate a wide range of vehicle body types, from sedans and crossovers to performance cars.

All three of the auto group's brands — Hyundai, Kia and Genesis — will use e-GMP, and the marques will diff…

TOKYO — CEO Tomomi Nakamura saw the COVID-19 crisis blow Subaru Corp. off course from achieving an astounding 12th year in a row of record U.S. sales in 2020.

But churning out record volume isn't the top priority for Nakamura, who chaired the Japanese carmaker's U.S. operations before taking the helm at world headquarters in 2018.

Nakamura, 61, is instead focused on overcoming the company's quality woes and steadily building market share. Despite the pandemic, Subaru has made progress on both goals over the past year, with U.S. market share now eclipsing 4 percent. Nakamura's next milestone: 5 percent.

Speaking through an interpreter, Nakamura met with Asia Editor Hans Greimel at the company's head office in Tokyo to discuss Subaru's sales goals, its partnership with Toyota and the company's outlook for electrified vehicles. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: How has the Subaru work force weathered the COVID-19 pandemic so far?

A: We've had abou…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co.'s new Bronco Sport crossover didn't initially resemble the boxy, rugged vehicle that's now reaching dealerships.

In 2017, the program was still lacking direction, with senior management unimpressed by early sketches showing a sleeker, more athletic-looking utility.

That's when Jim Farley stepped in.

The future CEO encouraged designers to take a step back and distill their vision into two words. After the team chose "honest" and "robust," they started what's known as a sketch blitz, opening up the process to employees working on other programs in an effort to spark creativity and strike design gold.

Brian Paik, a designer for the larger Bronco SUV, joined the blitz and ultimately penned the winning drawing.

"There was a push to inject more Bronco DNA," said Paik, who later became the Bronco Sport's head exterior designer. "We really wanted to redact any kind of stylized, unnecessary features and really give it a pu…

WASHINGTON -- Kia Motors Corp. said on Saturday it is recalling 295,000 U.S. vehicles for engine fire risks.

The automaker said the recall covers some 2012-2013 model year Sorento, 2012-2015 Forte and Forte Koup, 2011-2013 Optima Hybrid, 2014-2015 Soul, and 2012 Sportage vehicles because an engine compartment fire can occur while driving.

Dealers will inspect the engine compartment for fuel or oil leaks, perform an engine test and make any repairs including engine replacement, as necessary. Kia said it is currently developing a Knock Sensor Detection System software update.

Last week, Kia and affiliate Hyundai Motor Co. agreed to a record $210 million civil penalty after U.S. auto safety regulators said they failed to recall 1.6 million vehicles for engine issues in a timely fashion.

The Korean automakers agreed to consent orders after the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said the companies inaccurately reported some information…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla Inc. said minorities and others from underrepresented communities make up more than half of its employees in the U.S. and a third of its directors and vice presidents, according to its first-ever report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

Black, African-American, Hispanic, Latinx, Asian, Pacific Islander, Native American, Native Hawaiian and Alaska Native communities collectively represent 60 percent of the company’s U.S. workforce and 33 percent of its senior managers, the company said via a blog post late Friday night. In the U.S., Tesla operates an auto plant in Fremont, Calif., a battery plant near Reno, Nev., and a solar facility in Buffalo, N.Y.

“We are proud to be a majority-minority company, and we are proud to report that our business reflects the underrepresented communities that have struggled to break through the roadblocks to equal opportunity,” according to the report.

Black and African-American em…

When John Krafcik visits his mother in Southern California, he faces the same dilemma as many with elderly parents.

"I often spend the whole trip driving her around to run simple errands and visiting friends she can't easily see on her own," he wrote in a blog post.

Self-driving vehicles could someday provide transportation that unlocks mobility options for older adults who no longer drive or preserves independence for those who still do.

Krafcik knows that better than most. As Waymo CEO, he understands the potential of autonomous-driving technology. He's already given his mom, who turned 101 in September, a sneak peek.

Millions more await such a look. After handing over their keys, the average American still has seven to 10 years where transportation alternatives are essential, according to statistics kept by AARP. More than 3.5 million U.S. residents 85 or older still have a driver's license.

"That's …