Trade News

TOKYO — Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda will create a trio of companies tasked with developing software for the next generation of smart cars. In detailing the plans, Toyoda said old business strategies no longer guarantee success in an industry being rocked by technological upheaval. Toyoda spoke here last week. These are edited excerpts.

Q: Why do automakers need to shift to making software?

A: In the old world, we are the hardware manufacturer, and all we need to do is buy software from someone else. But we must make continuous improvement and upgrading. But once you leave that to somebody else, you are allowing other people to achieve that upgrading. If we decide to develop and produce our own engines and our own software, we can use that for product improvement and create value. For that purpose, we need to pursue software first.

Why did you invest your own money to create Woven Planet?

Whenever new businesses or industries were born…

Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Automotive News “Future Product Pipeline” series.

Acura's return to its performance roots accelerated this year with the debut of a redesigned TLX midsize sports sedan on a new platform with an optional turbocharged six-cylinder engine.

But there is much more to come, and it will happen fast.

The brand's MDX three-row crossover is up next for a full redesign, although the planned reveal this summer has been pushed back to the fall most likely. And next year, Acura will show a new compact sedan that's likely to drop the ILX name.

The quick succession of completely redesigned vehicles, starting with the revival of the NSX supercar in 2015 and the reengineered RDX crossover in 2018, will greatly help Acura further separate its identity from its mass-market sibling brand Honda.

The NSX, which starts at just over $160,000, has already been freshened and is on a longer lifecycle than the mainstream…

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company conducted "zero" consumer research when designing its upcoming Cybertruck.

He says he doesn't pay attention to competitors or know anything about other electric vehicles on the market.

And criticism that the Autopilot name is misleading for Tesla's driver-assist system, which has been linked to a number of accidents? "Idiotic."

In a wide-ranging interview with Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein last week, the 49-year-old Musk appeared unbothered by the product-related headaches that often vex his competitors or the billions of dollars that can hinge on his declarations. At one point he made a "stream-of-consciousness guess" that Tesla will start construction on a third U.S. assembly plant in four or five years, and later he suggested the company might build a minivan before largely dismissing the idea in the next sentence.

To Musk's credit, Tesla continues to pace the industry in EV sales; it pioneered a di…

It's no secret that lenders are facing enormous losses thanks to the pandemic stopping the economy dead in its tracks. What's interesting is the lengths they'll go to make the dire problem seemingly disappear.

Exhibit A: Credit Acceptance Corp., which makes car loans to borrowers with poor credit histories. Because a lot of customers can no longer afford to repay their loan, the suburban Detroit company has come up with a creative way to avoid a profit-crash: Keep one set of books that follows accounting rules and another that doesn't.

The year is not nearly over, but we might already have a winner for 2020's Magical Accounting Thinking award.

On Thursday, Credit Acceptance reported that earnings sank in the first half of the year by 96 percent to $12 million under generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP. But after waving its magical-accounting wand, Credit Acceptance showed that "adjusted" earnings actually grew to $330 million.

That ad…

Editor’s note: This story is part of the annual Automotive News “Future Product Pipeline” series.

Nissan is in the midst of a product overhaul as the brand attempts a larger business reboot in the U.S., its second-largest market.

The product offensive, which will reduce the average age of Nissan vehicles from more than 5 years currently to nearly 3, will result in updates to about 70 percent of the portfolio by mid-2021.

"We are in the process of massive renewal of our U.S. product lineup," Nissan Motor Co. COO Ashwani Gupta told Automotive News this year.

Nissan has already redesigned or updated most of its sedans. The brand will now retool the critical crossover lineup, starting with its top seller — the Rogue.

Next year also will mark Nissan's entrance into the emerging electric crossover market, as the automaker will introduce the 300-mile battery-powered Ariya.

But Nissan's product renaissance, planned years ago, was thrown a …

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk last spoke to Automotive News in January 2015, when he joined Publisher Jason Stein on the World Congress stage. Since then, Musk has slogged through "production hell," run afoul of stock regulators by tweeting he had secured funding to take Tesla private and seen the value of his electric car maker take off like a SpaceX rocket.

It's safe to say there was plenty to talk about when he reconnected with Stein last week for an hourlong interview. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: The last two years, you said you were mired in "production hell." And now you're saying, just even this past week, that you think that the long-term sustainable advantage of Tesla is going to be manufacturing. So what changed?

A: The reason I say the long-term sustainable advantage at Tesla will be manufacturing is that I think it's actually the hardest thing to do — manufacturing at scale effectively.

It really depends on what time frame. If you go 10 …

Viral videos and reports of customer outbursts over mask requirements in retail stores have become another part of the new normal as the coronavirus continues to spread in the U.S.

With upset consumers on either side of the debate, dealers are grappling with whether to put their own mandates in place and how to handle any resulting customer protest. Many auto retailers have required employees to wear masks since spring. More of them are now telling customers they must wear them, too, as public health recommendations grow stronger and local and state governments increasingly require masks in retail outlets.

But there is fallout — both from people upset when others don't wear masks and customers who resent being asked to.

Diehl Automotive Group President Corina Diehl told Automotive News she has fielded at least one complaint on social media from a customer upset that others weren't wearing masks when the person visited one of her dealerships in suburban…

General Motors is unhappy with Facebook Inc.’s efforts to keep hateful and disparaging content away from the automaker’s brands and has joined peer Ford Motor Co. and other companies that have stopped advertising with the social-media company.

GM said Friday it has paused placing ads on Facebook in recent weeks and is in talks with the company about improving efforts to eliminate harmful content on its popular platform.

GM’s move is a sign that the pressure on Facebook will continue in August and potentially longer. Ford and Honda Motor Co.’s U.S. subsidiary also said Friday they have no plans to resume spending on Facebook. On Thursday, Unilever NV-owned ice-cream brand Ben & Jerry’s extended through the end of the year its halt of paid social-media advertising.

“We are not satisfied with the progress Facebook has taken to date and therefore have paused our media investment with the platform,” GM said in a statement. “We are encouraging them to move…

SHANGHAI -- Xpeng Motors has raised an additional $300 million from investors including Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, people familiar with the matter said.

As enthusiasm builds for EVs, shares of their makers such as Tesla Inc. and Nio Inc. have surged in recent months and automakers are looking to capital markets for funds.

Six-year-old Xpeng, which is backed by Alibaba Group Holding , said earlier in July it had raised around $500 million from investors including Aspex, Coatue, Hillhouse and Sequoia Capital China.

It has now raised an additional $300 million from new investors including the Qatar Investment Authority, the sources said, adding the company might further expand the fundraising.

Funds will go toward research in areas such as intelligent vehicle technologies, the sources said, without giving any further details.

The latest fundraising takes the total amount raised so far in the company's so-called C+ round to more than $800 m…

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican conglomerate Alfa said on Friday it plans to spin off the entirety of its remaining 75 percent stake in auto supplier Nemak.

If shareholders approve the proposal at an Aug. 17 meeting, they would receive one share of Controladora Nemak for each of their Alfa shares. They would also retain share ownership in Alfa's equity.

"We plan a gradual and orderly transition process to make Nemak an independent business," Alfa President Alvaro Fernandez Garza said in a statement.

Controladora Nemak would be listed on the Mexican stock exchange following the spinoff, Alfa said. Nemak, which began to trade publicly in 2015, would continue to be listed as a separate entity. Nemak shareholders in the future would be able to decide whether to merge with Controladora Nemak, Alfa said.

Nemak, which makes aluminum components for automakers including Ford, General Motors, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Toyota, saw second-quarter results severely …

Shares of the so-called blank-check company merging with electric carmaker Fisker fell 20 percent on Friday after it disclosed it would not close a deal by the end of July to use Volkswagen Group's EV platform for its vehicles.

Spartan Energy Acquisition Corp., backed by alternative investment manager Apollo Global Management Inc., announced a deal earlier in July to take Fisker public through a merger that valued the EV startup at $2.9 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter.

A blank-check company, or SPAC, is a shell company that raises money through an initial public offering to buy an operating company, typically within two years.

Shares of Spartan fell 10 percent on Friday to close at $12.32, well below the highs of $23.86 when the deal was announced earlier this month. The stock is still above Spartan's IPO price of $10.

Fisker said at the time of the deal it was in talks with VW to use the German automaker's MEB EV plat…

DETROIT — It appears 2021 will be the year of the electric pickup, with an assorted mix of entries from both industry vets and startups.

But one of the biggest pickup players, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, has been mum on its plans for a battery-powered hauler.

CEO Mike Manley on Friday shed some light on his thinking about this new market and made clear that FCA hasn't revealed its full hand when it comes to electrification, for which the automaker has traditionally taken a steady approach.

"The reason we haven't spoken too much about electric pickup trucks is not that we view that market as nonexistent," Manley said during an earnings call with investors. "We've always had a slightly different view in terms of timing and adoption rates, particularly in North America in terms of full electrification."

He added: "We are committed to an electrification strategy, most of which we have revealed — we haven't revealed everythi…