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2 Cs or not 2 Cs? That's the USB question for automakers

It wasn't all that long ago that big-box retailers had to devote dozens of feet of shelf space to stock the proprietary power cords that every electronics maker required to recharge their individual devices. It was an inefficient mess of a system in what was then a wild, fledgling industry. But on the other end of most of that myriad of early cords was the same small, innocuous rectangle: The Universal Serial Bus A, or USB-A.

First developed in 1995, the USB-A helped impose some small bit of order on that chord chaos, and over the next 15 years, its functionality and capacities expanded to deliver at least five — and up to ten — times its original 1.5 watts of power and exponentially more data, up to 15 gigabites per second.

But now 25 years on, the USB-A's original flaws — its tricky, one-way-or-nothing connection; its data and power limitations; its oversized form in a world of downsized electr…

DETROIT — Hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles may not be dying as fast as some predicted in the auto sector’s rush to develop all-electric models.

Ford Motor Co. is the latest of several top automakers, including Toyota Motor Corp. and Chrysler parent Stellantis, planning to build and sell hundreds of thousands of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. over the next five years, industry forecasters told Reuters.

The companies are pitching hybrids as an alternative for retail and commercial customers who are seeking more sustainable transportation, but may not be ready to make the leap to a full electric vehicle.

"Hybrids really serve a lot of America," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at New York-based investment manager Ingalls & Snyder. "Hybrid is a great alternative to a pure electric vehicle (and) it's an easier sell to a lot of customers."

Interest in hybrids is rebounding as consumer demand for pure electrics has not accelerated …

Thilo Koslowski, board member for Arbe and a longtime industry advisor, says traditional automakers must change their cultures and attitudes now to keep their status in the future. He predicts that 10 percent of legacy automakers will be redefined or defunct because they failed to embrace the digital transformation.

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Jay Leno didn't visit suburban Detroit's Woodward Dream Cruise just to crack jokes.

He also had a car to pick up.

The comedian helped kick off the annual Motor City celebration of car culture by appearing with Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis to announce a new line of co-branded car care products. Then he became the first customer to take delivery of a 2023 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 "Last Call" edition.

Leno said he ordered the 1,025-hp Demon, which costs $103,361 after shipping and gas guzzler charge, in March when he helped unveil it in Las Vegas. The special edition, which marks the Challenger's final year of production as an internal combustion vehicle, is his fourth car with four-digit horsepower, he told The Detroit News. "I'm a huge fan of Dodge," he said. "To me, it's a great American road car."

Leno said he preferred to be at the Dream Cruise this month instead of hobnobbing at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in …

Lincoln appears to be in limbo. U.S. sales by the luxury brand are on pace to fall for the fourth straight year, and new President Dianne Craig has backed away from electrification commitments made by past leadership.

Craig said Lincoln has too many dealers and plans to whittle down the network from the roughly 600 it had at the start of 2023. It also plans to shrink the lineup those dealers can sell.

Lincoln is expected to discontinue gasoline versions of two nameplates, the Corsair and Aviator, while its first EV, a three-row crossover, is expected to debut in late 2025.

Aviator-size EV: Lincoln's long- awaited three-row electric crossover, roughly the size of today's Aviator, is planned for the Oakville Assembly Plant in Canada. Production is expected to begin in late 2025, after that of a Ford-badged version. It's possible the vehicle could include some interior and exterior design elements of the Star concept unveiled in 2022. It's unclear whether…

Police in the Detroit area arrested seven people this month they say were involved in stealing 16 new Bronco Raptors from Ford Motor Co. factory lots.

The suspects are all ages 19 to 21, according to CBS Detroit. Police recovered 10 of the stolen Raptors; they were located as far away as Alaska, Arizona and Texas.

The SUVs were valued at $1.8 million. Thieves have made off with $6 million worth of new vehicles — mostly F-150s and high-performance Raptor trucks — from plants and holding lots in southeastern Michigan this year, the Detroit Free Press reported.

At least 37 vehicles have gone missing since the beginning of July alone. Ten of those were taken on a single night.

In some cases, trucks were apparently left unlocked with the keys inside, and the thieves were able to resell them to dealerships by using stolen government forms to get clean titles.

Ford isn't the only automaker to have factories targeted…

The Ford brand has taken a two-pronged approach to its product lineup, offering high- margin gasoline models in select segments while slowly ramping up electric vehicle production.

Although the company is finding the electric transition to be harder than previously expected — it delayed some production goals this year — executives are speeding ahead with development of a second-generation platform to underpin EVs assembled at the new Blue Oval City plant in Tennessee and a retooled plant in Oakville, Ontario.

CEO Jim Farley recently said the company plans to quadruple hybrid sales in the next five years, following success with hybrid Maverick and F-150 pickups.

Meanwhile, three longtime products — the Escape, Edge and Transit Connect — are slated for the scrap heap.

E-Transit: Ford Pro, the company's commercial business unit, boosted the range of the E-Transit this year by 48 percent with a model that can travel up to 186 miles on a charge. The …

Wasn't it just the other day that there was a long waiting list for Mustang Mach-Es?

Now my colleagues report seeing them stocked — even overstocked — at their local Ford dealership.

A number of unsettling data points have raised some doubts about the electric vehicle revolution. Market share appears stuck at around 7 percent. Publicly held dealerships say Tesla's price cuts are putting pressure on incumbent brands' EVs. Incentives are double those of gasoline-powered vehicles. At the end of last month, U.S. dealers had a 103 days' supply of electric vehicles, which is a worrisome number — at least in normal times with mature products.

Of course, it's really a different situation for EVs, with a new technology, an incomplete range of vehicles available and volatile production. But the data does reflect some of the challenges of growing from a niche to the mainstream.

Most Americans who have bought an EV in the past de…

Automakers have cut more than 2 million vehicles from their production plans this year because of microchip shortages, even as the industry testifies to the supply crisis slowly subsiding.

According to the newest estimate from AutoForecast Solutions, manufacturers eliminated 56,199 vehicles from their factory schedules this week because of a lack of semiconductors, pushing the year-to-date global production loss estimate to about 2.04 million. 

AutoForecast Solutions expects that figure to climb by 400,000 vehicles by the year’s end. However, even a year-end total of 2.4 million would represent a major improvement over 2022 and 2021. Last year, factories had to cut 4.39 million vehicles from their plans, while 2021 saw 10.56 million vehicles eliminated because of the chip shortage.

Asian assembly plants outside of China suffered a majority of this week’s cuts, with 35,008 vehicles axed there. Automakers in North America trimmed 21,191 vehicles from…

Troy Duhon and his bustling Premier Automotive Group, along with partners, acquired three new dealerships and expanded into a new state in second- and third-quarter transactions, Premier Automotive CMO Gia Katzenmeyer confirmed to Automotive News.

Duhon, with partners Vincent Castro and Jorge Clue, on June 5 purchased the former Hyundai of Moreno Valley, east of Los Angeles.

Castro and Clue each have an undisclosed ownership stake in the renamed Premier Hyundai of Moreno Valley, while Clue is general manager, Katzenmeyer said in an email.

"Castro has been with Premier Automotive since its inception in 1995," Katzenmeyer said. "He's the partner in numerous dealerships under the Premier umbrella."

Texas store

The New Orleans group also bolstered its Texas presence on Aug. 3 when Duhon, with partners Randon Blacklock and Rick Martinez, purchased the former Littlefield Chevrolet-Buick-GMC, northwest of Lubbock.

Blacklock and Martinez h…