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The redesign of Honda's 11th-generation Accord likely started well before COVID-19 became a global business disruptor, but the sedan's launch could not be timelier.

Not only will it help boost Honda brand sales back over 1 million in 2023, company officials say, it will also help Honda hold onto would-be EV buyers while it prepares to transition to a more electric lineup.

Honda brand sales barely topped 880,000 last year, down from 1.3 million a year earlier. The automaker says the Accord will be critical in getting it back on track as it eyes a 25 percent sales lift this year.

"We're on a path to get back towards that larger volume," Lance Woelfer, assistant vice president of Honda national auto sales told Automotive News. "It's part of the 20 to 25 percent growth we've been communicating to the dealers, so we expect significant growth in the Accord."

Woelfer declined to confirm a specific figure for the redesigned nameplate, but a 25 percent in…

Electric vehicle charging company Flo plans to launch Flo Ultra, a fast charger designed for safety and accessibility with two charging ports per unit, next year.

"As new EV drivers hit the road, they will be looking for fast charging that is safe, accessible, convenient, intuitive and reliable," Nathan Yang, FLO chief product officer, said in a statement Tuesday. "This is why we designed FLO Ultra – to provide the ultimate EV charging experience."

Flo Ultra chargers will refuel most electric vehicles to 80 percent in 15 minutes, the company said. If the lineup of chargers is available when one driver pulls up, the charge will be faster than when multiple drivers charge at once.

The Flo Ultra fast chargers will not replace Flo's standard, utilitarian chargers. The company will continue selling both. The Flo Ultra chargers will meet the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program's minimum standards when they launch in 2024.

In a survey of abo…

Electrify America has tapped Robert Barrosa, who leads the charging company's infrastructure development and product planning, as its next president and CEO.

Current president and CEO Giovanni Palazzo will become chairman of Electrify America's board and global senior vice president of charging and energy for parent company Volkswagen Group.

Palazzo, 48, will take his chairman post Feb. 15 and begin his job at Volkswagen July 1. Barrosa, 48, will assume his role as Electrify America president and CEO June 1, the company said in a statement Monday.

Barrosa is the senior director of sales, business development and marketing for Electrify America. He leads business and infrastructure development, product planning, business partnerships, marketing and e-commerce.

Barrosa also manages Electrify America's home, commercial and energy services. He has been with the company since 2018, focusing on technology, energy management, product planning and infrast…

As the North American auto industry scrambles for local sources of battery minerals to meet ravenous electric-vehicle demand, the first in a series of Canadian lithium mines is scheduled to begin ramping up production.

Before the year is out, the North American Lithium mine in Val-d’Or, Que., is expected to be sending shipments of the highly sought battery metal to Tesla.

The milestone, which comes as similar projects in the United States sit in regulatory or legal limbo, illustrates how Canada’s resource-heavy history is giving the country a leg up over its neighbour to the south.

In fact, the Quebec mine’s tie-up with Tesla came at the direct expense of the United States.

Piedmont Lithium Inc., a co-developer of the Quebec project, struck an initial supply deal with Tesla in 2020. It had planned to ship lithium to the EV maker from another of its developments in North Carolina starting in mid-2022. But permitting issues at that project have led …

Jay Maxwell with the Costco Auto Program talks about how tight inventory at dealerships has the unit promoting service work. Renault and Nissan have signed a deal to reshape their alliance. Ford cuts bonuses for top executives after a frustrating year. And Stellantis buys Super Bowl ads for Jeep and Ram.

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TOKYO – The restructuring of the Renault-Nissan alliance brings the French automaking partner to America’s doorstep for the first time in decades with localized production in Mexico and opens the door for junior alliance player Mitsubishi Motors to expand in North America.

Under the new agreement announced Monday in London, the Franco-Japanese partners outlined a raft of new joint-business projects, several of which centered around Latin America.

In Mexico, Nissan will produce a new model for Renault making it the first Renault vehicle produced there in 20 years. Renault Group models were last sold north of the border in the U.S. in the early 1990s, but CEO Luca de Meo said there are no imminent plans to reenter that market.

The repositioning comes despite the French automaker’s recent announcement that it plans to leverage the U.S. market as a key revenue driver for its Alpine sports car brand. The company want to sell two models in the U.S., including…

The restructuring of the Nissan and Renault  alliance is not the legacy Carlos Ghosn had in mind.

The announcement Monday that Renault will gradually reduce its stake in Nissan is a repudiation of the former chairman’s plans to more closely unite an alliance the executive spent almost two decades building.

Instead, the companies are choosing more independent paths to navigate the technological and geographical shifts reshaping the global car industry.

Renault is splitting into two main businesses, one focused on electric vehicles and another on automobiles with legacy combustion engines.

Nissan has long sought greater independence since Renault saved it from financial ruin with a well-timed cash injection in 1999 and sent in Ghosn to turn the business around.

The workaholic Brazilian-Lebanese executive, who spent much of his time jetting between the automakers’ headquarters and factories, was the glue holding together the alliance, w…

Renault CEO Luca de Meo worked for more than eight months to reboot the automaker’s alliance with Nissan Motor Co. to move beyond a "culture of compromise" that had been the status quo in recent years, he said.

In de Meo’s view, a merger was previosly seen as the ultimate goal of the alliance, and as a result many projects between Nissan and Renault were done with that in mind rather than for sound business reasons.

"It forced a culture of compromise, which is not the optimal solution," de Meo told Automotive News Europe in an interview late last year.

The two companies concluded negotiations last month to rebalance their cross-shareholdings, with each holding 15 percent of the other, and with 28 percent of Nissan that Renault holds put into a French trust. The trust can sell down that stake as market conditions warrant. 

In addition, the companies agreed to work on five new joint projects, and Nissan will take a stake of up to 15 percent in…

Renault-Nissan's reshaped alliance will include the following key projects:

Europe

Renault, Nissan to consider sharing 800-volt architecture for electric cars. Renault, Nissan to explore collaboration on the next-generation compact electric cars beyond 2026. Maintaining plans for a new Nissan small electric car (Micra successor) to be based on CMF-BEV platform and built at Renault's ElectriCity facility in France starting in 2026. Renault to launch on the LCV market starting in 2026 the FlexEVan as its first software-defined vehicle and share it with Nissan in Europe. Mitsubishi ASX and Colt will share CMF-B platform with new Renault Captur and Clio. Renault, Nissan considering joint charging infrastructure in Europe at Renault and Nissan dealerships. Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi to increase shared sales outlets in key markets.

Latin America

A new half-ton pickup, developed by Renault and shared with Nissan in Argentina. Continued collaboration on the Nis…

LONDON -- Renault and Nissan unveiled details of how they will reshape their troubled alliance to ease longstanding tensions and allow the partners to move forward as the industry shifts to electric, software-defined vehicles.

Under the agreement, which was announced in London on Monday, Nissan will to buy a stake of up to 15 percent in Renault's electric-vehicle business Ampere. The alliance's junior partner, Mitsubishi Motors, will also consider investing in Ampere.

The companies had already announced last month that Renault will reduce its stake in Nissan to 15 percent from about 43 percent now. Renault will transfer 28.4 percent of Nissan shares into a French trust, making the two more equal partners in the alliance.

The agreement includes new and existing joint ventur…

Demand is out there, but how much?

It used to be that analysts could refer to vehicle sales simply as "demand" — the vehicles were there, how many did people, governments and business choose to buy?

But in the extreme scarcity of this pandemic era, it's been harder to discern the true level of demand.

Now that the pace of production is getting closer to normal, the view should become clearer. In this week's issue of Automotive News, we examine some revealing developments.

The seasonally adjusted pace of light-vehicle sales last month was the fastest since the spring of 2021, before the full impact of the chip shortage became evident. But that's really a function of greater utilization of the industry's factories.

In fact, it appears that sales to individual consumers — those people who drive the economy — actually slowed in January, perhaps because interest rates are still rising and prices for new and used vehicles are at record highs, a…

A personal connection and an interest in cars were catalysts for an NFL team owner to enter automotive retail and quickly expand his dealership holdings via acquisitions.

Ed Glazer, an owner of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, founded US Auto Trust in Los Angeles in 2018 when he bought his first dealership, a rare Aston Martin store in Newport Beach, Calif.

"I've always liked cars," Glazer told Automotive News. "I'm not a classic car collector, but always buy a lot of new cars. I've always owned a bunch of Aston Martins over the years and I got to know some of the people down in Aston Martin. At the time, [former Aston Martin CEO] Andy Palmer was running the place. I was talking to him one day and I said 'You know, if you ever have anything for sale, let me know.' He said, 'Well, we may have something.' "

Pendragon, a large publicly traded auto retailer in the U.K., was in the midst of divesting its U.S. dealership portfolio, including Aston Martin Newpo…