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The National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers is looking for a new leader.

Hugene Fields, who was introduced as president during NAMAD's October convention in Miami, left the organization March 31 after only five months.

Damon Lester, NAMAD's vice chairman, has returned to his previous role as president on an interim basis until a permanent replacement is found.

NAMAD's board of directors announced Fields' departure in an April 13 letter, without giving a reason, and said it expected to announce a new leader "in the upcoming weeks."

Lester declined to comment on why Fields left. He said the organization is revisiting its list of finalists who were in the running for the position before Fields was hired.

Fields came to NAMAD as an outsider to automotive retailing but with 15 years of experience in nonprofit organizations. During eight years as an auditor, he traveled to 35 countries to perform vari…

Mercedes-Benz's workhorse E-Class sedan, redesigned for 2024, teases the German luxury automaker's bespoke and in-house-developed operating system.

The midsize sedan arrives in the U.S. in late 2023 with new styling and the latest version of the MBUX infotainment system. Pricing was not disclosed.

Mercedes will ditch the coupe and convertible body styles with the new generation. AMG variants could arrive in the future.

The E-Class is a pivotal piece of Mercedes' global business. With more than 16 million delivered since 1946, it is the brand's bestselling model series, according to Mercedes.

Despite being in the final year of its product life cycle, the E-Class, along with the CLS, was Mercedes' second-bestselling sedan in the U.S. last year. Mercedes combines the two vehicles in its sales reports. The nameplates accounted for 18,818 sales.

The new-gen E-Class is in production in Sindelfingen, Germany. Output should peak at more than 140,0…

Toyota North America is moving forward with repurposing technology from its Mirai fuel cell passenger sedan to create a hydrogen power kit for heavy-duty trucks.

The automaker said Monday the California Air Resources Board granted a Zero Emission Powertrain Executive Order for the heavy-duty truck fuel cell electric powertrain. The order certifies a powertrain complies with emissions standards required for sale in California.

Toyota started experimenting with building a hydrogen fuel cell Class 8 truck in 2017. It used two fuel cell stacks from a Mirai sedan and a cab and chassis built by Kenworth to create a prototype truck.

Kenworth and Toyota jointly pushed the technology forward, building 10 trucks to run drayage routes from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to inland Southern California destinations. The tests served as a proof of concept, and Toyota now plans to begin assembling new, more efficient fuel cell modules for hydrogen-powered, hea…

TOKYO — Mitsubishi Motors Corp. will take a one-time hit of 10.5 billion yen ($78.31 million) related to slowing sales at its China unit, it said on Tuesday, as mounting competition in the world's largest auto market hits foreign automakers.

Mitsubishi made no changes to its full-year results forecast as the impact from the extraordinary loss had already been incorporated into a previously announced outlook "to a certain extent".

Competition in China has increased and the warning by Mitsubishi, a minor player in the country, is the latest sign of how overseas automakers selling combustion-engine cars are facing a wake-up as China's electric vehicle drive leaves them behind.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra on Tuesday said the company plannd "aggressive measure" to cut costs throughout its China oprations, where first-quarter sales slumped 23 percent and profits slid.

GM and other western automakers face strong competition and pricing pressures…

Lithia is the new leader on Automotive News' list of top used car dealership groups. Tesla comes out victorious in a bellwether lawsuit over an Autopilot crash. Transport tech startup funding plunges. Plus, ev.energy North America chief Joseph Vellone talks about how smart charging can help reduce strain on the electrical grid.

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Bring your questions to a LinkedIn Live talk at noon Eastern on April 26 on the new EV tax credits and eligible vehicles.

Executive Editor Jamie Butters will be joined by Automotive News Washington, D.C., reporter Audrey LaForest, Anne Blair, director of EV policy at the Electrification Coalition, and Robert Simmons, general manager at LaFontaine Automotive Group.

They'll talk about which vehicles are eligible and what this means for dealers. They'll also take your questions.

Join the conversation.

Southern used-car dealership chain U.S. Auto Sales will keep its retail and supply chain locations closed "for the foreseeable future" and furlough those and other employees without pay, according to a company memo reported by an Atlanta, Ga., TV station.

"Although we have been diligently working for some time, including over this weekend, with our private equity owner and lenders, we were unable to reach an agreement that will allow our retail and supply chain locations to remain open," the Sunday message from U.S. Auto Sales CEO Bob Anderson stated, according to the NBC affiliate WXIA. The memo said business development center staff and the underwriting and marketing teams also would be furloughed.

Automotive News was unable to obtain a copy of the memo. However, U.S. Auto Sales employee profiles on LinkedIn featured posts Monday reporting furloughs and launching job hunts.

"As a result of our entire sales organization being furloughed last night, I a…

Elon Musk is years behind on his ambition to render Tesla Inc.’s cars fully autonomous. He’s now saying in no uncertain terms that he’s willing to bet the company’s profit margins on making it happen.

Musk said on a conference call last week that Tesla has the wherewithal to sell cars at “zero profit” and then earn immense sums later off driverless software.

The trouble with that for investors? His predictions since at least 2019 that autonomous Teslas are just around the corner haven’t panned out.

“We’re the only ones making cars that technically we could sell for zero profit for now, and then yield actually tremendous economics in the future through autonomy,” Musk said April 19. “I’m not sure how many of you will appreciate the profundity of what I’ve just said, but it is extremely significant.”

The challenge Musk has had turning driverless visions into reality isn’t stopping him from going forward with markdowns that threaten to set off a pri…

WASHINGTON — U.S. traffic deaths declined slightly in 2022, reversing a two-year trend of increases during the COVID-19 pandemic but continuing to remain a crisis, NHTSA said last week.

The agency estimated 42,795 people died in vehicle crashes on U.S. roads last year, down about 0.3 percent from the 42,939 fatalities reported for 2021.

NHTSA also projected that traffic deaths declined in the fourth quarter of 2022, marking the third straight quarterly decline in fatalities after seven consecutive quarters of increases that started in the third quarter of 2020.

The agency estimated 27 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico were projected to have decreases in fatalities in 2022 compared with 2021, while 23 states were projected to have increases.

For 2022, the estimated fatality rate fell slightly to 1.35 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled compared with 1.37 in 2021.

The small decline comes as Americans are driving more …

SHANGHAI - Tesla has begun producing in Shanghai a version of the Model Y to be sold in Canada this year, the first time it will ship cars to North America from China, according to a person with direct knowledge of the plan and a production memo seen by Reuters.

The move would connect Tesla's biggest and most cost-efficient factory in the world to North America, its largest market. The Model Y is the EV maker's best-selling model globally.

Over the weekend, Tesla posted on its website that it would offer a new, cheaper version of its Model Y in Canada, a rear-wheel drive variant of the crossover priced C$10,000 ($7,377.90) lower than the long-range version of the vehicle available in that market.Tesla's website showed that customers in Canada could take delivery of the new version of the Model Y between May and July.

The Canadian government's website was updated on Friday to show that the new version of the Model Y and the more expensive long-range vari…

TOKYO — Not long after Shoichiro Toyoda assumed the helm of his family's namesake company, he took two Toyota Crown sedans to the U.S. to see how they would perform in the market.

It was 1957, and the underpowered Crown was a big flop in the land of Corvettes and superhighways. Not only did the car need a down ramp just to acquire enough speed to merge, people thought the frumpy import was downright dangerous in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

"It was major regret," Toyoda later recounted of the Crown's premature debut in America.

But out of that setback was born a mindset that would power Toyota's triumphant return to America and its climb to become the world's biggest automaker.

"I want to tell people not to fear failure," Toyoda later said. "That kind of courage is essential."

This remembrance was one of many tales recounted on Monday, April 24, at an all-day memorial service for the late Toyota president and chairman, who died Feb. 14.

Erikka Tiffani Wells, general sales manager at Walser Polar Chevrolet in White Bear Lake, Minnesota discusses ways to ensure dealers are building and fostering a work environment that is inclusive for both staff and shoppers.

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Emma Hancock: Hi everyone. Welcome back to the All Ears podcast. I'm Emma Hancock, host, and strategist at Automotive News. This podcast is sponsored by Ally Financial and produced by the Automotive News Content Studio. In each episode, we explore topics that are important to leaders in automotive retailing. Our guests include experts in their field from Ally, plus dealers from around the country, and we cover tips and explore insights that can help dealerships succe…