Trade News

Nissan is shifting strategy on commercial vehicle sales now that it is pulling the plug on work vans.

The automaker confirmed Friday that it will end production of full-size NV cargo and passenger vans in Canton, Miss., and the compact NV200 van in Cuernavaca, Mexico, next summer. Automotive News reported those plans in June.

With the end of van sales in the U.S. and Canada, Nissan says it will continue pursuing commercial vehicle deliveries by pitching sedans and crossovers to fleet buyers and small businesses.

Jennifer Moser, Nissan North America's director of fleet sales, said the small-business market is an opportunity to drive additional sales and bring new customers to the Nissan brand.

"We want to attract small businesses to our dealer showrooms so they consider Nissan as part of their vehicle acquisitions," Moser said.

On Oct. 16, Nissan will launch a Business Advantage Program, marketing the brand…

McLaren Automotive's upcoming plug-in hybrid supercar, the pivotal vehicle in the brand's transition to a 100 percent electrified portfolio, will feature the British exotic's first V-6 engine.

McLaren revealed in August that the unnamed model, code-named P16, will be built on a new architecture specifically developed to accommodate hybrid powertrains. The automaker has since named it the McLaren Carbon Lightweight Architecture.

While the new model is not the automaker's first hybrid — the P16 will follow the P1 and Speedtail hybrid hypercars— it will be the first McLaren with a V-6 engine. McLaren has relied solely on V-8 engines, with the exception of the iconic F1 from the 1990s, which featured a BMW-sourced V-12.

McLaren has yet to release details such as power output or an official range for the car, but CEO Mike Flewitt told Automotive News in August that the vehicle will have an electric range of roughly 19 miles, with a charge time of three to fo…

Half of U.S. fire departments have no protocols in place to fight fires that break out in the growing number of battery-powered vehicles on the road, according to accident investigators.

Only a quarter of fire departments have dedicated training for fighting blazes involving the EVs, according to the survey released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The survey conducted by the International Association of Fire Chiefs and the National Volunteer Fire Council was one of 17 reports, documents and other evidence released by the NTSB as it prepares to issue broad findings on growing risks of battery fires.

The NTSB began its investigation after a series of crashes in which batteries on EVs, including several cases involving Tesla Inc. vehicles, burst into flames after crashes.

After a March 23, 2018, accident on a California freeway, a Tesla Model X caught fire twice within 24 hours and again six days later.

The NTSB has al…

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.

Longtime Detroit-area retailer Bob Shuman discusses the "stresses" of being an FCA dealer, children with different career paths and the survival of single stores as he exits the auto industry.

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American Honda is leaving the “Wonder Years” for the wrestling ring. WWE star and actor John Cena is replacing Fred Savage as the new voice of the brand in a major marketing pivot aimed at giving its ads a more rugged tone.

The switch -- which begins Friday with a new ad from longtime Honda agency RPA -- comes as the automaker tries to boost its crossover and pickup truck sales. Trucks, vans and SUVs will account for 76 percent of U.S. auto sales this year, according to consultancy AlixPartners. But Honda’s sales are still about 50 percent cars and 50 percent trucks and SUVs/crossovers, according to Ed Beadle, Honda’s assistant vice president for integrated marketing.

“We would like to keep those sedan buyers but grow that proportion of SUVs,” he says.

Click here for Honda's Future Product pipeline from Automotive News.

Savage, forever linked to the TV show “Wonder Years” that ended its run in 1993, had been voicing Honda’s ads since 2014. He was…

Tesla Inc.’s new factory in Austin, Texas, won’t build only the Cybertruck: State filings suggest the company also plans to make batteries on site as part of an ambitious strategy to further integrate its supply chain.

“The facility is proposing to operate a cell-manufacturing unit to produce the battery packs that are installed in the vehicle,” says an 188-page air-quality permit application filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The documents Bloomberg reviewed were filed between July and September.

CEO Elon Musk announced during the electric-car manufacturer’s quarterly earnings call in July that Tesla had chosen Austin as the site of its next plant. In addition to building the Cybertruck, Semi and Roadster, all of which are still in development, the company’s second U.S. assembly factory -- after its flagship plant in Fremont, Calif. -- also will make the Model Y crossover for East Coast customers.

The environmental permit applica…

A draft budget law weaving its way through France’s parliament may force car shoppers to reconsider purchases of Porsche, Ferrari or Lamborghini models with low gas mileage.

The government in Europe’s second-largest auto market after Germany is planning to more than double the “malus” -- or penalty -- consumers must pay based on cars’ carbon-dioxide emissions to as much as 50,000 euros ($59,000) in 2022.

The proposal would increase what already are the continent’s costliest taxes on polluting passenger vehicles.

“This would be relatively bad news for supercars, luxury and exclusive vehicles, and a show stopper for foreign imported cars,” said Felipe Munoz, an analyst at auto-market researcher JATO Dynamics.

Governments around the globe are taking a range of approaches to hastening the demise of the internal-combustion engine. California announced plans recently to ban sales of new ICE vehicles by 2035. China’s government has poured upwards of $30…

Interior supplier Yanfeng has revealed its next step in its effort to attack germs including COVID-19 inside cars.

The China-based company's Experience in Motion 2021 Shared (XiM21S) concept, which is due early next year, will include two ways to battle bugs, Yanfeng Technology Chief Technology Officer Han Hendriks told Automotive News Europe.

The first solution is applying anti-bacterial coatings to kill germs on high-touch areas such as handles.

The second employs an ultraviolet light feature first shown in the XiM20 concept and reported on by ANE last autumn.

"We have launched a technology that uses UVC (ultraviolet-C) light, which has the spectrum that can actually kill 99.9 percent of all bacteria and viruses, including the COVID-19 virus, within a matter of minutes," Hendriks said.

"This is not a light technology that we have invented," the CTO said. "It's being used to clean hospital operating rooms. But we have developed a solution whe…

Dealers face a number of service department challenges beyond the pandemic, including declining rates of customer retention and satisfaction. But there are solutions out there.

Speakers:

Eliza Johnson, Director, Carlisle & CompanyScott Doering, Vice President of Customer Service, Volvo Car USANick Latino, COO, Performance Auto GroupDawn Matthews, Service and Parts Director, David Auto GroupScott Thompson, Senior Vice President, Business Leader, CRM and Layered Applications, CDK GlobalDave Versical, Chief of Editorial Operations, Automotive News

This conversation was originally broadcast on October 8, 2020, as the first of five conversations in the Fixed Ops Journal Forum series.

Amazon and Rivian revealed a custom electric delivery van onThursday that is set to hit the road next year.

The new EV is in line with Amazon's commitment to be net zero carbon by 2040 through the Climate Pledge.

The vehicles will begin delivering packages in 2021, and 10,000 electric delivery vans will be manufactured by 2022, Amazon said in a blog post. By 2030, 100,000 electric delivery vans will be in commission. The vehicles will be manufactured at Rivian's plant in Normal, Ill., according to an Amazon spokeswoman.

"When we set out to create our first customized electric delivery vehicle with Rivian, we knew that it needed to far surpass any other delivery vehicle," Ross Rachey, director of global fleet and products for Amazon, said in a statement.

"We wanted drivers to love using it and customers to feel excited when they saw it driving through their neighborhood and pulling up to their home. We combined Rivian's technology with our de…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. informed U.S. salaried employees Thursday that most of them will continue working remotely through June amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The move comes roughly a month after General Motors announced a similar decision.

"The health and safety of our workforce continues to be our top priority," the automaker said in a statement. "With careful consideration of the current environment including local and state requirements, as well as ongoing planning for our work spaces, we have extended the current work arrangement for our North America team working remotely to continue through June."

Most Ford salaried employees have been working from home since mid-March. Ford in recent months has called them in to gather office belongings so it can begin to reconfigure workspaces.

Ford had previously said its work-from-home plans would extend through the end of the year, but executives hinted they would be expanded.

Human Horizons, the electric vehicle startup created by two former executives at General Motors’ joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp., used the Beijing auto show to formally introduce its first model. 

The HiPhil X is being positioned as a sporty electric SUV under the premium brand for connected EVs. 

The EV offers two variants – a four-seat version priced at 800,000 yuan ($117,820) and a six-seater that retails for 680,000 yuan -- according to Human Horizons. 

It is 5,200 mm long, 2,062 mm wide and 1,618 mm tall, with a wheelbase of 3,150 mm. 

Powered by 220-kilowatt front and rear dual electric motors and a 97-kilowatt-hour battery pack, the HiPhil X has a range of 630 kilometers on one charge under NEDC standards. 

The vehicle also features Level 4 autonomous valet parking, a 5G-V2X communication network, artificial intelligence-enabled voice control functions and facial-recognition entry.

Human Horizons …