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LAS VEGAS — Ram gave the industry a glimpse of what to expect in 2024 with the unveiling of the 1500 Revolution BEV Concept on Thursday during CES.

Ram is looking to raise the bar in the electric pickup market with features such as an automated charger and the ability to follow a walking driver like a loyal dog.

The truck brand is joining the EV pickup fray later than rivals when the electric 1500 arrives next year, but Stellantis says it has been using the time to gauge the competition and is working to surpass them in metrics such as range, towing, payload and charge time.

Ram CEO Mike Koval said designers were told to dream big and push boundaries. Koval wanted the team to "think of everything, so we can deliver a truck unlike anything."

Koval said the influence of the Revolution will be evident in the production model of the electric 1500 that will be shown "in the next couple of months."

"It's a visionary road map of where we're taki…

St. Louis dealer Frank Bommarito died Monday at 88.

Bommarito, who founded Bommarito Automotive Group more than 50 years ago and expanded it across the St. Louis region, died peacefully in his home in Naples, Fla., surrounded by his family, KMOV4 reported. A post on the dealership group's website confirmed his death.

Bommarito got his start in automotive retailing in 1952 when he went to work at a local Pontiac dealership as a porter, according to a company history on the group's website and an obituary posted online. After returning from two years of active duty in the Navy during the Korean War, Bommarito worked in car sales, eventually becoming a sales manager at another Pontiac dealership.

The company credits Bommarito's success in motivating and managing personnel as the reason General Motors in 1971 awarded him an Oldsmobile franchise in Ellisville, Mo. That Oldsmobile store marked the beginning of what would become a large dealership group.

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TOKYO -- Toyota President Akio Toyoda has tested positive for COVID-19 and will be absent from a series of New Year events to be held by Japanese business lobbies on Thursday, a company spokesperson said.

Toyoda had been due at events in Tokyo hosted by Japan's top trade organizations where business and political leaders including Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will be in attendance.

The spokesperson said Toyoda gets tested regularly for COVID and declined to comment on his symptoms.

LAS VEGAS — BMW's new vision of a digital world on wheels, the BMW i Vision Dee midsize sedan concept presented at CES 2023, reveals a smörgåsbord of technologies the German automaker is cooking up to blend virtual and physical experiences.

"With the BMW i Vision Dee, we are showcasing what is possible when hardware and software merge," BMW Group CEO Oliver Zipse said at a keynote Wednesday. "We are able to exploit the full potential of digitalization to transform the car into an intelligent companion."

BMW brand design boss Domagoj Dukec said the Dee offers a peek at the digitalization technologies that can make driving safer and more entertaining.

The concept hints at design elements that "show where we want to transform BMW," Dukec said at a media briefing in Munich last month.

The marque technology in Dee (Digital Emotional Experience) is a head-up display that projects information across the vehicle's windshield.

Current head-up disp…

LAS VEGAS — A joint venture between Honda Motor Co. and Japanese electronics giant Sony Corp. unveiled a prototype of its planned electric vehicle at the CES technology show on Wednesday.

Sony Honda Mobility said the concept is a brand it's calling Afeela. Yasuhide Mizuno, CEO of Sony Honda Mobility, said the vehicle will move toward mass production, with the opening of preorders anticipated in the first half of 2025 and sales beginning that same year.

The first deliveries to North American customers will begin in the spring of 2026, Mizuno said.

"Afeela represents our concept of an interactive relationship, where people feel the sensation of intelligent mobility and where mobility can detect and understand the people and society by utilizing sensing and AI technologies," he said.

The vehicle's exterior includes what the venture is calling a "Media Bar," which will be designed to use light to communicate with people around it. Sony Honda Mobilit…

LAS VEGAS — Fiat has taken the car shopping journey to the metaverse.

The brand in December debuted its Fiat Metaverse Store in Italy that offers consumers the chance to configure vehicles in the virtual showroom and purchase them on the spot. The process will be shepherded by real product experts, not artificial intelligence, so this experience has a "human connection," said brand CEO Olivier Francois.

Fiat is looking to roll out the metaverse showroom in France, Germany and the United Kingdom in early 2023. Francois hopes to launch the showroom in the U.S. in early 2024 to line up with the return of the electric 500e.

Francois said the expert manning the store, known as a Fiat Product Genius, was inspired by Apple. The tech company uses the genius moniker for its store workers, who provide technical support and advice to customers.

The Fiat Product Genius is available to answer questions about issues such as vehicle charging. Fiat sought younger…

Industry executive Shauna McIntyre discusses what economic headwinds might mean for tech startups and traditional auto companies alike. Plus, Forvia CEO Patrick Koller talks about the supplier's innovations, including technologies to help cut carbon as well as a front shield that the company describes as “self-healing.”

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General Motors' U.S. light-vehicle sales rose 41 percent in the fourth quarter to finish 2022 slightly higher than 2021. This marks the second straight year GM is the top-selling automaker in the U.S. after falling behind Toyota Motor North America in 2020.

GM's fourth-quarter gains followed a 43 percent drop for the same period a year earlier related to the ongoing semiconductor shortage that has curtailed vehicle production. GM delivered 623,261 vehicles from October through December, up from 440,745 vehicles in the fourth quarter of 2021.

GM said customer demand and supply improvements contributed to the gains in the fourth quarter.

For the full year, GM sold 2.27 million vehicles in the U.S., up 2.5 percent from 2021.

All GM brands except Buick posted increases for the fourth quarter, led by Cadillac. The Encore was Buick's only model to post a sales gain. Among other GM brands, only the Chevrolet Blazer, Camaro and Colorado and the GMC Yukon …

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ 2023 will bring advancements in EV infrastructure, battery tech, autonomous freight and cars as marketplaces

Despite recession fears and the tightening of capital markets in 2023, the world's automotive and mobility sectors will expand their rapidly evolving digital transformation, Consumer Technology Association chief economist Steve Koenig said at CES.

The transformation will be spearheaded by the development of an electrification ecosystem. Advancements in self-driving vehicles and the continued emergence of a subscription-based service business model for electric vehicle features are the other top developments that will shape the automotive and mobility sectors over the next decade, Koenig said.

The expected increase in EV use by consumers and businesses over the next 10 years will create a need for a far greater and more complex infrastructure to ensure that the electric transport sector is viable, he said.

"What I'…

Subaru sales jumped 11 percent in December to 56,760 with gains on all models except the Impreza and BRZ. For the year, the Japanese brand's U.S. sales fell 4.7 percent to 556,581, primarily on production and inventory struggles.

Brands: (Dec) Subaru, up 11%; (2022) down 4.7%.

Notable nameplates (Dec): Forester, down 2.9%; Outback, up 17%; Crosstrek, up 42%.

Incentives: $586 per vehicle, down 59% from a year earlier, TrueCar says.

Average transaction price: $35,408, up 16% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar.

Quote: "Thanks to our stellar retailers, we had a strong finish to 2022," Jeff Walters, senior vice president of sales, said in a written statement. "In 2023, our customers can look forward to an exciting lineup of Subaru vehicles, including the all-new Impreza arriving later this year."

Did you know? Subaru ended the year reporting 919 Solterra sales, including 825 in December, after sales of its first BEV were halted by …

Stellantis is expanding its partnership with Archer Aviation to build the Midnight, an electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL, aircraft.

The aircraft is optimized for trips of about 20 miles and has a range of up to 100 miles. The charging time between trips is about 10 minutes.

Stellantis is providing up to $150 million in equity capital for Archer to draw down this year and next. But Archer will need to achieve certain business milestones to tap the funds, which Stellantis declined to reveal. Stellantis will support Archer's recently announced manufacturing facility in Covington, Ga., that will begin building Midnight in 2024.

Stellantis brings advanced manufacturing technology and expertise, experienced personnel and capital to the partnership.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says the automaker is all about the "freedom of mobility," so the Archer relationship aligns with this thinking. Tavares sees a need for air transport in urban sett…

Finance and insurance provider and administrator APCO Holdings on Jan. 3 bought competitor National Auto Care, creating one of the industry's largest providers.

Tony Wanderon, 60, who led National Auto Care as CEO, replaced Scot Eisenfelder as CEO of APCO Holdings. Eisenfelder left APCO, the company said.

Leadership from both companies would not disclose the purchase price, but Wanderon told Automotive News combined revenue for the companies is close to $300 million.

Wanderon said he and APCO President John Lee had been discussing ways to merge their companies, "and finally, we had the opportunity this past year to be able to put that in play and close today."

"We're going to be one of the top two or three providers in the country at the size and scale that we are today," Wanderon added. "Our focus is really going to be driven around adding dealer profitability and adding value to our relationships in the marketplace and investing heavily as we ne…