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The Honda brand is in the midst of a swift recovery from a pandemic and chip shortage-related sales slump and is on track to close 2023 with sales of 1.2 million vehicles now projected.

"We expected at this point to be up around 25 percent, so we are growing past that," Lance Woelfer, Honda brand's sales chief, told Automotive News.

Last year, with microchip shortages still causing widespread production interruptions, Honda sold 881,201 vehicles. In 2019, the last full pre-pandemic year, the brand sold 1.5 million.

But through the first eight months of this year, Honda volume is up 30 percent with sales of 757,375 vehicles, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. And it closed August up 56 percent compared with August a year ago, well ahead of the industry's estimated growth of 17 percent.

It is enjoying a tailwind of having redesigned key models in its portfolio for 2023, including the Accord sed…

The Tesla Model 3 is the first electric vehicle to break into the top 10 leased models in the U.S., following a period of strong growth, according to a report from Experian.

The Model 3 ranked seventh on the list, representing 1.79 percent of leased new vehicles in the second quarter. One in 4 of the roughly 42,000 new retail Model 3s to hit the road last quarter, according to Experian, was leased — up about 14 points from the same time a year earlier, Melinda Zabritski, Experian's senior director of automotive financial solutions, told Automotive News.

Typically, the top leased vehicles list is made up of high-volume cars and trucks, Zabritski said. The Ford F-150, Honda CR-V and Nissan Rogue were the top three leased vehicles of the quarter, representing 2.52 percent (F-150), 2.48 percent (CR-V) and 2.26 percent (Rogue) of leased new vehicles. The quarterly combined retail sales and lease volumes of Model 3s rose dramatically from the 28,000…

Tesla Inc. could benefit from an extended UAW strike against the Detroit automakers since the Texas-based EV brand has ample production capacity to further bolster its dominant market share in the event of vehicle shortages from General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis, analysts said Friday.

"We speculate that a prolonged strike would benefit Tesla most due to its production capabilities and opportunity to build on its leading market share position," said Baird Equity Research.

Tesla has about 60 percent of the EV market, according to analysts, and is drawing the lion's share of consumers switching from gasoline vehicles. In the U.S., Tesla operates assembly plants in California and Texas.

Nearly 13,000 hourly workers at three large assembly plants went on strike early Friday against Ford, GM and Chrysler parent Stellantis. The targeted walkout affects gasoline vehicles including one plug-in hybrid, the Jeep Wrangler 4xe.

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From supply chain challenges to historically high auto prices, the pandemic had a significant impact on the auto market — which continues to rapidly evolve. With vehicle values now expected to come down, lenders should be prepared to monitor the market as it contends with high originating loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and consumers facing affordability challenges.

A newly released TransUnion study explores this anticipated change based on the impact equity positions and depreciation have had on loan performance in recent years. Read our market brief to learn: 

The correlation between vehicle depreciation and delinquencies Which borrowers are most affected by rising LTVs How vehicle values are likely to look moving forward What you can do to successfully optimize each phase of the vehicle financing lifecycle

Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday said it has hired a new chief marketing officer and moved two members of the Ford family into new roles.

The automaker said Lisa Materazzo, who was the top marketing executive at Toyota Motor North America, has been named CMO, effective immediately. She will report to CEO Jim Farley and lead advanced product planning and all marketing activities across the Ford Blue, Model e and Ford Pro business units.

Materazzo, who had been with Toyota for 20 years, also will oversee Ford Performance and Lincoln.

"I grew up in a family of auto enthusiasts and have dedicated my career to automotive. I'm a huge motorsports enthusiast. My idea of a vacation is going to F1 races around the world," Materazzo said in a statement.

"I feel incredibly blessed to be joining this iconic company at a time when it's making bold bets on the future — from the three new divisions of the company to the audacious performance and motorsports plan. I am…

China’s demand for electric vehicles has delivered the nation’s homegrown carmakers a seemingly unassailable and irreversible lead over foreign rivals in the world’s biggest auto market.

Led by the likes of BYD Co. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., Chinese firms grabbed more than 50 percent of total auto sales for the first time in July, according to China Automotive Technology and Research Center data.

That growth is coming at the expense of legacy German, U.S. and Japanese automakers including Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota. UBS AG analysts earlier this month warned western carmakers are set to lose a fifth of their global market share because of the rise of more affordable Chinese EVs.

As Chinese buyers increasingly favor domestic brands, foreign manufacturers are in retreat. Hyundai is selling production facilities, Ford has cut jobs and Stellantis last year shuttered its only Jeep factory in China. Mazda Chief Executive Officer Masahiro Moro openly …

U.S. market share for electric vehicles rose to 7.2 percent in the January to July period, according to new-vehicle registration data from Experian, with Tesla spurring demand with escalating price cuts throughout the year.

New U.S. EV registrations rose to 655,986 in the seven-month period for a 67 percent rise over the year-earlier period when EV share was 4.9 percent. Total new light-vehicle registrations for the seven months were about 9.1 million, the data showed.

Tesla had 390,377 registrations from January to July — a 50 percent increase compared with the year-earlier period for a 59.5 percent share of the EV market, the data showed.

In July alone, Tesla had 60,769 new registrations compared with all other EV makers combined with 48,566, Experian said.

Still, Tesla's EV rivals such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Rivian made significant share gains from last year, the data showed. Ford, Hyundai and Kia saw new registrations rise, but their marke…

The growth of software-defined vehicles is set to upend the traditional relationship between automakers and suppliers, according to a report released Tuesday by Deloitte.

Software-defined vehicles are expected to account for at least 90 percent of the new-vehicle market by 2029, up from only 2.4 percent in 2021, Deloitte said in the new study. Likewise, global revenue from over-the-air updates is expected to surge to about $14 billion by the end of the decade, compared with $3.3 billion in 2022.

Software-defined vehicles, those with software capabilities that continually improve over the vehicle's life cycle, present both a major opportunity and a pressing challenge for traditional automakers, said Chris Ahn, connected services and electrification leader at Deloitte Consulting LLP.

"It's a pretty significant paradigm shift for a lot of these automakers," Ahn told Automotive News. "Once these traditional automakers figure out how to navigate that paradig…

MUNICH — When it comes to in-car digital displays, BMW thinks more isn't necessarily better.

While automakers carpet vehicle dashboards with jumbo displays, the German luxury automaker is steering toward a less-distracting digital experience in its future electric vehicles.

"Your car is your last private space," said Stephan Durach, BMW Group senior vice president for connected company development. "Sitting in front of a wall of screens is not a nice [customer experience]."

So BMW is ditching its dashboard-riding slabs of curved glass for a less-intrusive driver experience in its Neue Klasse platform EVs that arrive mid-decade.

"We looked at the [Mercedes] Hyperscreen, we looked at our own solutions," BMW Group Chief Technology Officer Frank Weber told Automotive News ahead of this month's Munich auto show. "We saw the limitation of bigger and bigger displays."

Weber said the new concept merges physical and digital experiences.

Whi…

J.D. Power said Tuesday it agreed to acquire Autovista Group, a provider of European and Australian automotive data, analytics and industry insights.

Autovista Group's senior leadership and 700 employees will stay with the company as it becomes J.D Power's auto market intelligence platform for Europe and Australia, according to a news release. Autovista Group CEO Lindsey Roberts will work as president of J.D. Power Europe and report to J.D. Power CEO Dave Habiger.

Autovista Group, of London, includes five brands — Autovista, Eurotax, Glass's, Schwacke and Rodboka — through which it analyzes technical attributes for vehicles produced in the European and Australian markets.

"By pairing our leading pan-Europe- and Australia-focused datasets with J.D. Power's robust North American and Asian market data, analytics and insights, we are creating the truly global solution the industry needs to manage through this period of radical change,"…

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk ignored warnings from confidantes including Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and his own brother that he was driving advertisers away with his erratic behavior, according to an upcoming biography.

The billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has a long list of wealthy, powerful advisors he habitually ignores, according to Walter Isaacson’s new biography.

In the months surrounding Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter — when he was sending out provocative tweets — Zaslav cautioned about ‘self-destructive’ behaviors that were spooking advertisers.

Musk should instead focus on improving video and making better ads, the executive counseled, according to the book, which is coming out this week.

The board of Tesla, Chairman Robyn Denholm and his brother Kimbal Musk also warned Musk that controversies at X were hurting the car company’s brand.

But the billionaire did not seem to think his behavior was a probl…

Join us at noon EDT Wednesday for a LinkedIn Live talk with Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, on the buzz from the North American International Detroit Auto Show.

Joining Caldwell will be Automotive News Executive Editor Jamie Butters and Staff Reporter Lindsay VanHulle, who covers General Motors.

They will share insights and take your questions. We encourage you to ask questions in advance in the comment section here.