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TOKYO – The man replacing Akio Toyoda as the new CEO of Toyota Motor Corp. is a cosmopolitan car-guy engineer with an eye for luxury and a thirst for speed.

In fact, in many ways Koji Sato is a mini-me version of his long-time mentor.

As the head of the Lexus premium brand and Gazoo Racing motorsports division, Sato's mission was to break the boring-old Toyota mold by developing fun-to-drive cars that are stylish and cool. He succeeded by channeling Akio's encouragement to take risks and stir things up.

"President Toyoda always told us it's OK to fail," Sato said after being tapped as the next CEO from April 1. "If you never test your limits, then new creations are never born."

Sato's new challenge will be applying that mindset to the whole company.

He must not only navigate a largely hidebound legacy metal-bender through an industry under siege by electrification, autonomous driving and connectivity. As the new boss, Sato must transform t…

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are expected to report strong profits for 2022 next week, powered by premium-priced pickup trucks and crossovers.

Now, the Detroit rivals must convince investors that last year's profit formula can keep working when costs for EV batteries are rising, high interest rates are cutting consumer purchasing power, and Tesla Inc. is slashing prices.

Already there are signs the Detroit automakers are scaling back spending to offset competitive and economic pressure. GM and LG Energy Solution have shelved for now plans to build a fourth EV battery plant in North America.

Ford is in talks with German unions to cut thousands of jobs in its European operations and possibly sell a German vehicle assembly plant. In October, it stopped funding autonomous vehicle affiliate Argo AI.

GM and Ford both rely on sales of pickup trucks and crossovers in the United States for the bulk of their global profits. This year, both automake…

Tesla Inc.'s electric vehicles are expensive to repair - so much so that the automaker and insurers are addressing the issue in sharply different ways.

Chief Executive Elon Musk says Tesla is making design and software changes to its vehicles to lower repair costs and insurance premiums.

Insurance carriers, meanwhile, are writing off low-mileage Tesla Model Ys that have been in crashes, and sending them to salvage auctions after deeming many too expensive to repair.

During Tesla's fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Musk said premiums from third-party insurance companies "in some cases were unreasonably high" and that the EV maker's insurance arm was putting pressure on those carriers by offering lower rates to Tesla owners.

Musk also said "we want to minimize the cost of repairing a Tesla if it's in a collision," citing changes to vehicle design and software.

"It's remarkable how small changes in the design of the bumper (and) provi…

Ford is working with its dealer council on changes to its electric vehicle certification program in response to arguments from state associations that it's unfair and breaks franchise laws, according to the brand's council chairman.

The changes would include narrowing the differences between the program's two tiers, one of which limits EV sales in exchange for a reduced investment in charging equipment.

Tim Hovik, who leads the Ford National Dealer Council, said in an interview this month that the two sides are entering the NADA Show on the cusp of altering three major aspects of the program, which has drawn rebukes from dozens of U.S. state dealer associations and prompted legal action even as two-thirds of Ford's retail network agreed to adhere to the standards.

The ongoing dialogue — and potential changes — highlight the strategic differences between Ford and some of its rivals in terms of preparing retailers for the future. Ford dealers have option…

TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. chief Akio Toyoda is set to remain a dominant force inside the world's largest automaker for years to come and will continue to influence the agenda after stepping down in April, experts and people familiar with the automaker said.

The 66-year-old Toyoda on Thursday announced he would step aside as leader of the company his grandfather founded from April 1 to take the role of chairman. He will hand over to Koji Sato, the 53-year-old head of Toyota's luxury Lexus brand.

In recent years Toyota has become a target of activists and green investors who had once heralded its hybrid technology, but who now criticize its belated embrace of electric vehicles.

As EV maker Tesla gets attention for its innovation, Toyota, and Toyoda himself, often looked out of touch with the mood as they pressed the case for hybrids and eventually, hydrogen-fueled cars.

Market reaction to Toyoda's announcement was muted -- the automaker's stock p…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Nikola's new brand HYLA will supply and distribute hydrogen

Nikola Corp. unveiled HYLA, its new global hydrogen energy brand that will be an umbrella for the zero-emission truck company's production and distribution of hydrogen.

Speaking at a company event Wednesday, CEO Michael Lohscheller also presented the final production version of the Nikola Tre fuel-cell electric vehicle, which will hit the market this year. The truck has an expected range of 500 miles with an estimated fueling time of less than 20 minutes, Lohscheller said.

In order to fuel Nikola's hydrogen fuel-cell electric trucks, the company and partners needed to find a way to develop hydrogen supplies and infrastructure to support the demand, President Carey Mendes said, which is where HYLA comes in.

"We set out to build the world's first Class 8 hydrogen truck; we recognize that that wasn't good enough," Mendes said. "In order for that truck to be success…

What's foremost on the minds of dealers at the NADA Show? The same thing that's been there for at least the past 18 months — inventory.

As days' supply starts to creep up from historically low levels, most of the 26 dealer council leaders Automotive News interviewed for a series of Q&As mentioned some of the consequences of the inventory situation.

Steve Gates, whose Gates Auto Family has three Toyota stores, said in his three decades as an auto dealer, he never thought he could run on inventory as lean as it was last year. "I was absolutely certain," he said, "when this all started, I thought I needed to jump off a bridge because I didn't think that there was any way we could survive with virtually no inventory." Tyler Slade, operating partner at Tim Dahle Nissan Southtowne in suburban Salt Lake City, said valuable lessons have been learned. To overcome tight inventories, he said, "stores advertise inventory and post the Monroney with delivery ETAs on showroo…

American Honda Motor expects to increase its sales volume 25 percent this year over its disappointing 2022 performance, which resulted in under 1 million vehicle sales in the U.S. market and a last place finish among the top U.S. manufacturers.

Honda brand projects it will close 2023 around 1.2 million sales, and Acura is targeting 160,000 units, said Mamadou Diallo, vice president of auto sales for American Honda, during a media briefing earlier this week.

Diallo, who will step into the expanded role of American Honda senior vice president of auto sales when Executive Vice President of national operations Dave Gardner retires at the end of March, called the year just ended “frustrating” and said consecutive challenges prevented production of consistent supply.

The automaker struggled with parts supply issues, Diallo said, which hit both brands’ highest volume cars and trucks. 

Those challenges foiled both Honda and Acura’s opportunity to ca…

The past several years have brought about a period of deep and rapid change within the automotive industry. Once focused on delivering a singular product via one-time purchase, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are now at the center of a complex, connected and constantly evolving ecosystem.

In this new network, OEMs serve as the orchestrators, carefully coordinating all members of the value chain and ensuring each party has the data and insights needed to enable efficient operations and create effective and engaging experiences.

Renault and Nissan Motor Co. plan to rejuvenate their two-decades-old cooperation with a range of industrial projects alongside an impending agreement to rebalance capital ties to improve a partnership that has become tense.

The partners are set to work on five projects initially, people familiar with the situation said. One of them involves India, where the companies operate a plant in Chennai making small cars, engines and gearboxes, and another joint work on commercial vehicles, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are not yet public.

The desire to agree on fresh common projects as part of the three-way pact, also including junior partner Mitsubishi Motors, signals the companies see a joint future for the alliance that had to be pieced together again after 2018’s arrest of former leader Carlos Ghosn.

While there is little indication about the potential significance of the planned projects, Renault-Nissan can ill-afford to …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. is giving dealers more money and support to expand remote service offerings such as mobile vans, pickup and delivery, the automaker said Thursday.

Rising customer demand for such services, driven largely by the coronavirus pandemic, prompted Ford to enhance its capabilities, according to Todd Rabourn, North America regional customer experience director. He said Ford will offset costs for up to six repair orders per mobile service unit each day and all pickups and deliveries a dealership makes. The payments will be based on a store's warranty labor rates, which vary by market.

Rabourn declined to provide a range of the support dealers will get, citing the different rates. He also said the company would provide training for technicians on how to operate the vans and integrate the services.

"We see this being the growing preference of consumers going forward," Rabourn told Automotive News. "We know customers want convenience, and we…

Hyundai Motor Co. said it will invest 10.5 trillion won ($8.5 billion) in 2023 as it moves to electrify more of its fleet to meet rising consumer demand for cleaner cars.

The money will be spent primarily on research and development and on building a new plant n the U.S., the automaker said.

The 2023 investment compares with a spend of around 8.5 trillion won in 2022.

The company on Thursday increased dividends in an unusual move for the automaker, after operating profit more than doubled in the October-December quarter.

“Favorable foreign-exchange rates and higher sales of value-added cars led the growth for 2022,” Hyundai Executive Vice President Seo Gang-Hyun said on an earnings call.

He added the global chip shortage that has hampered automakers since late 2020 should ease in 2023. The company’s marketing costs may rise as competition intensifies, he said.

Hyundai earlier this month said it aims to sell 4.3 million cars globally…