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A mass recall is just the sort of speed bump that Rivian Automotive Inc. didn’t need.

Whether the fledgling EV maker runs into a bigger barrier will depend on how quickly management fixes the problem and whether it’s followed by other glitches.

Rivian said Friday that it’s recalling roughly 13,000 of the 14,000 electric trucks and SUVs made at its assembly plant in Normal, Ill., because of concerns that a bolt in steering assemblies wasn’t sufficiently tightened. 

No accidents were reported, and the fix appears to be simple and straightforward. However, the recall comes just as the company was starting to rev up assembly after falling short of early production targets. 

“This is a black eye for Rivian as the company is just now starting hit its stride,” Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note to investors today. “The last thing any Rivian investor wants to see in a shaky market is a broad recall that hurts the brand …

Nissan Motor Acceptance Co. launched a lease program today called SignatureFLEX that has customers start with 5,000 miles per year and add more as needed throughout the life of their contract.

The flexible lease is available on the Rogue and Rogue Sport crossovers and the Pathfinder SUV. Nissan Motor Acceptance expects to offer SignatureFLEX on additional models early next year.

The work-from-home trend, combined with rising gas prices, puts an extra strain on consumers having to guess their driving needs for the next three years at the start of a lease.

Jim DeTrude, vice president of NMAC sales and marketing, said customer data show a desire for lower-mileage leases. In response, Nissan last year introduced a 10,000-mile-per-year lease that became the most popular option for its new-car contracts. That was a change from 2020 when 67 percent of new-car leases were 12,000 miles per year.

NMAC created SignatureFLEX in part because of "the trends we …

Mills Automotive Group, which made a three-store acquisition last year, has remained in expansion mode in 2022, buying another three dealerships since March, including a rare Bentley store.

Mills Automotive is led by CEO Damian Mills, now chairman of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.

Mills Automotive, of Charlotte, N.C., bought Jaguar-Land Rover Columbia in South Carolina from auto retail giant AutoNation Inc. on July 18, a JLR spokesman confirmed. The dealership's name remains. Columbia is South Carolina's capital.

AutoNation acquired the dealership in September 2021 as part of its 11-store purchase from Peacock Automotive Group. AutoNation of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., ranks No. 1 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S., retailing 262,403 new vehicles last year.

The acquisition expands Mills' presence in South Carolina. It also has Stellantis, Alfa Romeo-Maserati and Ford-Lincoln stores in…

The Nasdaq stock exchange told online used-vehicle retailer Shift Technologies Inc. it could be removed from the exchange if the company's stock price continues to remain below $1 per share.

Shift received the delisting warning from the Nasdaq's listing qualifications department on Oct. 4. The department informed Shift its stock price had stayed below $1 for 30 consecutive days, a violation of the exchange's listing rules, according to a document Shift filed last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Shift has 180 days from the date of the Oct. 4 notice — or until April 3, 2023 — to raise its share price. It could face the delisting process if it doesn't, according to the filing.

Shift declined to comment beyond its regulatory filing.

Shift shares fell 5.3 percent to close Mondayt at 60 cents. That is down more than 95 percent from its all-time high closing price of $13.98 on Sept. 1, 2020.

The San Francisco-based company r…

Nissan Motor Co. is ready to invest $500 million to $750 million in Renault's electric vehicle business, viewing the French automaker's reorganization as a chance to reshape their decades-old alliance, a person familiar with the matter said.

In exchange for backing the entity being set up by Renault CEO Luca de Meo, Renault is willing to sign onto a plan to reduce its ownership of Nissan to 15 percent, from the current 43 percent, over time, said the person, who asked not to be identified because negotiations are ongoing.

The moves would alleviate an imbalance that has been a source of friction for years. Renault rescued Nissan in 1999 and sent in Carlos Ghosn, who eventually became CEO of both carmakers and the chairman of their alliance. He later added Mitsubishi Motors to the partnership, but was arrested in 2018 on charges of under-reporting his compensation. He escaped Japan in December 2019 and is currently in Lebanon.

Nissan, which owns 15 percen…

There's certainly never a good time for a massive ship carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of vehicles to catch fire and sink.

But for bespoke luxury brand Bentley, what tragically happened to the Felicity Ace in February in the frigid waters of the North Atlantic weirdly may have been a case of the wrong ship ... at the right time.

Why? Because unlike other massive car carriers that regularly ferry Volkswagen Group vehicles from Europe to customers and dealerships in North America, the Felicity Ace didn't have 40 to 70 Bentleys aboard, as is typical, among the roughly 4,000 vehicles on that particular sailing.

It had a whole lot more than that: 189, each carrying an average price tag of about $300,000, according to a Bentley spokeswoman.

Yet, with quick action and thanks to a bizarre set of global circumstances, Bentley — which manufactures each of its vehicles by hand in its single factory in Crewe, Engla…

NADA guidelines provide clarity in changing times

The auto industry is going through an array of profound changes, many of which could be detrimental for America's franchised auto dealers: digital retail, the shift to electric vehicles, over-the-air updates. The emergence of new entrants — including Tesla, the dominant seller of luxury vehicles — that sell directly to consumers presents another significant competitive challenge.

As automakers have attempted to adapt to the new retail reality, dealers could be forgiven for assuming a defensive crouch — wary that each change could cut them out of future revenue or add unreimbursed costs. Where the next initiative would come from was as unpredictable as when it would stop.

The National Automobile Dealers Association was making the case that dealers are essential to bringing all of these technological advances to the American public and a competitive advantage for manufacturers. But both sides remained une…

Renault is open to reducing its stake in Nissan as the partners bargain over the French carmaker's plan to split its electric-car and combustion-engine assets, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Executives have discussed Renault's carve-out plan and reshaping the pair's two decade-old alliance since February during meetings in France and Japan.

Negotiations are intensifying as the French company plans to announce details in early November.

Renault CEO Luca de Meo was due to attend the Formula 1 race in Suzuka, Japan, on Sunday, giving him an opportunity to speak with Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida.

The parties' lopsided capital ties have long been a contentious issue for Nissan. The Japanese company is pressing Renault to reduce its stake to 15 percent from 43 percent to draw level with Nissan's share in Renault, the people said, declining to be named as details are private.

While this weekend's talks are unlikely to yield concre…

New estimates show that 94,000 more vehicles were removed from automakers’ production schedules at assembly plants worldwide because of the microchip shortage, according to AutoForecast Solutions.

The majority of those cuts were at North American factories, where more than 61,000 vehicles were axed. The remainder were trimmed from plants in South America and in Asia outside of China.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said last week he expects the shortage to ease near the end of 2023, while Honda said it will have to cut output at two of its plants in Japan this month.

Still, production is “clawing its way back, and more manufacturers are reporting that their supplies of chips are becoming more stable,” said Sam Fiorani, AFS vice president of global vehicle forecasting, in an email. But automakers continue to steer chips into higher-profit models at the cost of lower-priced vehicle production, he added, leading to higher transaction prices.

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