Trade News

Most of the money spent on hydrogen fuel cells has been aimed at reducing the precious metal content, such as platinum, to lower the cost of the electricity-producing device. Automakers have made massive progress in that regard, as well as in reducing the size of the fuel cell stack.

But there is one part of the fuel cell that no automaker company ever talks about: high-volume production. That's because most of the fuel cells built for automobiles today are hand-made by technicians.

As of 2018, Toyota was building about seven Mirai fuel cell vehicles per day, all by hand.

The news Tuesday of General Motors' deal with startup truckmaker Nikola provided no details about the technology GM plans to embrace to crank out fuel cell stacks quickly and with zero defects. The stack, you will recall, contains membranes and thin metal plates, and much like the cells in a battery pack, the more the cells are stacked in a fuel cell, the more elect…

Tesla Inc. shares slid on Tuesday after the EV maker missed out on being included in the S&P 500 Index, taking investors who had bet on its entry to the benchmark by surprise.

Tesla shares closed Tuesday's trading down 21 percent to $330.21, the biggest one-day loss since early February. Declines started premarket and worsened as General Motors said it would take a $2 billion equity stake in Nikola Corp. and partner with the fledgling truck maker to engineer and manufacture its Badger pickup.

Broader markets also fell across the board.

Ahead of the S&P’s Friday announcement, Tesla’s price had largely reflected the assumed inclusion, said Baird analyst Ben Kallo, who called the decision “a relatively surprising development.” Instead of Elon Musk’s Tesla, S&P Dow Jones Indices added online retailer Etsy Inc., chip gear maker Teradyne Inc. and medical technology firm Catalent Inc.

“We think shares were reflecting expectations for substant…

Jeep, with an eye on profits and prestige, is resurrecting the Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer. The big luxury SUVs, among Jeep's most storied nameplates, have remained in the hearts of collectors and enthusiasts since they were dropped several decades ago. Jeep is previewing its plans with the Grand Wagoneer concept, ahead of a new production model coming in 2021. The Grand Wagoneer flagship is widely expected to exceed $100,000 in top trims. We've rounded up some early reviews of the concept from automotive journalists.

"The return of the Wagoneer will give the brand a model to position above the Grand Cherokee and to compete with the full-sized models from Ford and General Motors. It will be based on the Ram pickup truck, but it will have an independent rear suspension like its domestic competitors. The new design nods at the original, with rather flat sides, simple window designs, and a front fascia that slants forward. The wheel arches and grille borrow fr…

Joining the cadre of ultraluxury and exotic SUVs this year is the Aston Martin DBX. Aston's first SUV is powered by a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 engine making 542 hp and 516 pound-feet of torque and has all-wheel drive. The first DBX rolled off the automaker's production line in Wales in July. Here's a batch of initial DBX reviews from the automotive media.

"While drifting and off-roading the DBX is good fun, the real test begins when we take it on a 300-mile tour of some of England's best roads. The drive, you will not be surprised to hear, is conducted in traditional British rain. The V-8 actually impresses more when asked to do less, its effortless muscularity and keen low-rev response is well-suited for relaxed cruising. Refinement is good, markedly better than in Aston's traditional sports cars, and although the DBX's cabin lacks the sepulchral hush of something like a Rolls-Royce Cullinan or Mercedes GLS in the softest GT setting, the air springs allow for…

Volkswagen is teasing the first images of its new subcompact crossover, set to debut next month, that is based on a South American vehicle. It will be assembled in Mexico and slot both in price and size below the popular Tiguan.

The name of the vehicle has not yet been officially revealed, though it is expected to start with a T and be more familiar to American ears than the names of some of VW's previous crossovers.

It is based on the Volkswagen Tarok, a subcompact crossover designed for South American markets, VW executives have said. The development lineage, along with planned production in Mexico, will allow the brand to keep costs down, VW executives say.

"We're excited to share the first glimpse of the newest member of the Volkswagen family," Scott Keogh, CEO of Volkswagen of America, said in a statement. "Great things come in small packages, as Volkswagen has proven throughout the years with its iconic Beetle, Golf and Jetta.…

I wanted to share a couple of notes during this short holiday week:

First, nearly two-thirds of vehicle transactions in June were at least partially digital, according to franchised dealers surveyed for Cox Automotive's third-quarter Dealer Sentiment Index, released this week.

In the bulk of those June transactions, 51 percent, the customer handled at least some portion of the purchase online, according to data from Jonathan Smoke, Cox's chief economist. Eleven percent were completely digital. Smoke said the survey didn't specify what constituted a completely digital transaction — states generally still require wet signatures to complete a purchase, for example — but added that dealers likely interpreted a completely digital transaction as one in which most of the process is handled online.

The survey's findings come in the wake of franchised dealers this spring accelerating their shift toward digital retailing, particularly in states that prohibited sho…

TOKYO – Nissan COO Ashwani Gupta, the executive leading Nissan's global revival plan, will personally oversee North America as chairman of a new five-member regional board created to ensure the U.S. market regains its central role as a pillar of profitability for the carmaker.

The new North America board of directors will have its first meeting in the third week of September, after a regional gathering of U.S. dealers, Gupta said in a Monday interview.

It was not immediately clear when the appointments are effective.

Other board members will be Jeremie Papin, who was appointed North America's vice chairman in May, and Christian Vandenhende, the parent company's chief quality officer and vice chief performance officer. Another director will be a Chris Reed, senior vice president for R&D at the Nissan Technical Center. The fifth member will be an outside director.

"I will make sure NNA is getting all the resources and the support it needs to exe…

YOKOHAMA, Japan — Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida urges patience with his plan to elevate brand value but promises that the repositioning will bridge Nissan to an era of revived growth.

The change won’t come overnight, he conceded. But by controlling costs now and continuing to invest in new products, he said, Nissan will be poised to take off and “restore” its rightful status.

In the interim, close communication with dealers will be more important than ever, given the wildly fluctuating market realities experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We need to restore ourselves. I’m always saying that Nissan is not at its level, that we have a lot more potential,” Uchida said in an interview at Nissan Motor Co.’s global headquarters here.  

“We should be able to restore ourselves in the next two years.” 

Nissan is bracing for its biggest operating loss ever this fiscal year. Under an updated business plan called Nissan Next, Uchida wants to…

DETROIT — A decade ago, toward the beginning of Subaru of America's remarkable streak of sales records, the automaker identified one region that would be critical to the brand's success.

The Sunbelt.

Unlike the Northeast and Northwest's sometimes harsh climates and challenging terrains, which were natural selling points for Subaru's all-wheel-drive models, the Sunbelt was not an area where large numbers of consumers were drawn to the brand.

Subaru set out to change its Sunbelt fortunes by playing the long game. Today, it's bigger and stronger with a broader product range and targeted marketing, and it is winning a big chunk of business in the region.

The Sunbelt, defined by the automaker as 13 states as well as Southern California, accounted for just roughly 15.4 percent of the brand's retail sales in 2010, according to Subaru.

Despite the Sunbelt including two of the country's most populous states, Texas and Florida, as well as the most …