News

LONDON -- Jaguar Land Rover said on Tuesday it is opening three new engineering hubs in Europe to develop autonomous vehicle technologies as part of its partnership with Silicon Valley artificial intelligence company Nvidia.

The hubs in Munich, Bologna and Madrid will develop self-driving systems for JLR's next generation of luxury vehicles. JLR already has six global tech hubs in the U.S., China and Europe.

JLR, a unit of India's Tata Motors, said the locations were chosen because of the local availability of digital engineering specialists and will create almost 100 engineering jobs focused "on developing driver assistance systems and artificial intelligence for self-driving cars of the future."

JLR and Nvidia announced a multiyear agreement last year under which they will jointly develop the computer brains and AI systems for Jaguars and Land Rovers launching in 2025 and beyond.

The partnership with Nvidia gives JLR a well-funded ally as it tri…

DETROIT — Cadillac is freshening its XT4 compact crossover with an updated look and touch screen display and a longer list of standard safety features.

The brand's smallest crossover will continue to be built at General Motors' Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas and go on sale as a 2024 model this summer, Cadillac said Monday. Pricing was not disclosed. The 2023 XT4 starts at $37,490, including shipping.

"The XT4 continues to be a top-selling vehicle in its class, year over year," Rory Harvey, vice president of global Cadillac, said in a statement. "Its balance of dynamic style, drivability and luxury has made it a favorite for many new Cadillac customers."

The XT4 — which was introduced in 2018 as a 2019 model — will be offered in Luxury, Premium Luxury and Sport trims and feature updated grilles, refined vertical LED headlights and three new exterior color options. The Premium Luxury and Sport trims each have unique wheels, fascia and other design elem…

Three milestones say loads about the auto business

We bring three very noteworthy milestones to your attention in this week's issue.

First is the milestone that Lithia Motors just skipped past AutoNation to become the biggest auto retailer in America.

That's a landmark moment.

AutoNation pioneered the notion of a publicly held auto dealer group, and it proved to the business world that car dealers were not merely lucky and crafty. AutoNation made it clear that success in auto selling comes from a systematic and repeatable equation of strategic planning and business fundamentals. And that approach paid off by making AutoNation king of the industry year after year until — well, until now.

Second, please note that the official count is in on U.S. new-vehicle registrations for the full 2022 year, and it reveals that Tesla — the opaque, unpredictable and often second-guessed automaker — is officially a force majeure in the market. Tesla regist…

The CEO and founder of the financing and loan startup discusses the attributes of EVs not often considered by traditional lenders and how recent Tesla and Ford price cuts alter the cost competitiveness of electric vehicles.

How do I subscribe?

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At a time when automakers are expressing confidence about nearing the end of the global microchip shortage, factories worldwide just cut another 35,000 vehicles from their production schedules this week for lack of chips.

Nearly 13,000 are being dropped from North American factory plans, according to the latest update from AutoForecast Solutions. Another 4,400 cuts are coming out of European plants. Factories in China have been modestly impaired by chip shortages this year, but the new forecast says 8,853 vehicles will be eliminated this week.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com

I have little doubt that Koji Sato, the next CEO of Toyota Motor Corp., will move the automaker in a different direction — or at the very least, at a slightly different pace — than his predecessor, Akio Toyoda, when it comes to battery electric vehicles.

The question is: Should he? The investor community and EV promoters (whom some call EVangelists, which is a fabulously rich descriptor) certainly believe so. I'm not so sure, however — let me tell you why.

During a conversation onstage at the J.D. Power Auto Summit at the NADA Show in Dallas last month, Toyota sales head Jack Hollis leaned forward, cupped his outstretched hands together as though he were capturing rainwater and explained his company's somewhat controversial EV strategy in a different way.

"Imagine," the former professional baseball player said softly, that his hands contained enough lithium to build one battery for one BEV. With this amount of the mineral, "I can build one $68,000 EV. …

DETROIT — Jim Farley has grand ambitions to transform Ford Motor Co., but the third-year CEO finds himself hampered by a problem that has vexed Ford leaders for decades: managing a massive company with a notoriously siloed — and sometimes dysfunctional — culture.

Next week marks one year since Farley split the automaker into separate divisions to accelerate what he calls a “dual transformation” of its traditional internal combustion business and its development of connected electric vehicles. 

A year in, some parts of his plan are progressing faster than others. 

“These huge transformations are not linear, perfectly predictable things,” Farley said last week.

He said he’s pleased by the reception to Ford’s first wave of EVs and connected-vehicle software but frustrated by long-standing cost and quality issues weighing down its business. He recently blamed dismal earnings in 2022 on poor operational execution. 

Executive Chai…

Not even a 27-foot-long hot dog is safe from the spate of catalytic converter thefts plaguing many dealerships and city streets across the country.

The Oscar Mayer Weinermobile was victimized by thieves in Las Vegas this month. The giant frankfurter was parked outside a hotel just off the Strip when someone cut the catalytic converter out from under its bun, TV station KLAS reported.

After driver "Corn Dog Clara" and copilot "Chad'der Cheese" couldn't get the vehicle to start the next morning, they had it towed to a Penske Truck Rental. Mechanics found a replacement part that fit well enough to be used temporarily and got the wheeled weenie on its way.

"A hot dog truck, no way," said Joseph Rodriguez, parts administrator for the Penske shop. "Imagine like a huge hot dog in the middle of your bay. There's all these other trucks and you got to work on this."

Catalytic converters, which filter pollutants from a vehicle's emissions, are sought by thie…