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Ford Motor Co.'s warning last week that its third-quarter earnings will be marred by higher-than-expected supplier costs and a lack of parts is the latest sign of the lingering supply chain woes plaguing the industry.

The automaker said that inflation-related supplier costs during the third quarter will run about $1 billion higher than it had expected. Separately, it expected to finish the period with 40,000 to 45,000 unfinished vehicles waiting on parts, most of which will be high-margin pickups and utility vehicles.

As a result, Ford cautioned that adjusted earnings before interest and taxes will be about half of the $3 billion that analysts had estimated. Ford's stock suffered its largest one-day decline in more than a decade on the news.

"Ultimately, this news is somewhat surprising as broader macro news suggest supply chains have gotten incrementally better over the last few months," John Murphy, research analyst at Bank of …

Lamborghini plans to continue to hybridize its lineup, but it won't have a full battery-electric vehicle until the second half of the decade, even as it continues to produce limited runs and special editions of current and previous models.

After a bad bit of luck with the sinking of the Felicity Ace cargo ship in March, Lamborghini had to extend its Aventador run to replace vehicles that were purchased and on their way to be delivered.

It's unclear how that will impact the exotic brand's product plan, but the executive team felt it was a move it had to make to keep customers happy.

The last combustion-only Lamborghini will be the Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae, then the brand's entire range will be electrified in 2024, CEO Stephan Winkelmann has said.

2+2 GT: Lamborghini continues to work on an electric vehicle in the form of a 2+2 GT, in cooperation with Porsche and Audi. The vehicle will likely take advantage of Volkswagen Group's new SSP architec…

Maserati is going fully electric by 2030. All of its vehicles will offer a battery-electric version by 2025.

Next year, the GranTurismo coupe and its convertible counterpart will be Maserati's first vehicles to get battery-electric powertrains. The line of electric vehicles will bear the Folgore name.

Levante: The crossover's top Trofeo trim gets 580 hp. The Levante may move to the STLA Large platform that will underpin a range of Stellantis electrified vehicles around 2026.

Grecale: The new Grecale midsize crossover, which has conventional and mild-hybrid powertrains, will go on sale in November. It will get an electric variant in 2023.

Quattroporte: A redesign could arrive in 2025.

GranTurismo: The coupe and its convertible counterpart get all-electric variants next year. The electric option will top 1,200 hp.

Ghibli: Production of the sedan is expected to continue through 2024.

MC20: The sports car's gasoline-powered vers…

Rivian Automotive, which has only been making vehicles since last year, already has three models on the road — the electric R1T pickup that beat bigger automakers to the new segment, the electric R1S SUV launched in the summer after delays and the Electric Delivery Van, or EDV, being built for Amazon in three sizes.

The electric vehicle startup has plans for several more on an upcoming R2 platform for smaller and more inexpensive vehicles that will likely include a pickup, possibly named the R2T, along with SUVs. Rivian says it's on track to launch its R2 vehicles out of a future Georgia factory by 2025.

Rivian, which hasn't detailed plans for its future models, has undergone significant growing pains this year — falling behind on production targets, cutting staff and reorienting its business to focus limited resources on increasing output and moving quickly on the second plant.

Analysts say this will keep the company occupied for a while, but there ar…

McLaren is positioning its supercar portfolio for the future as it shifts — gradually — from fossil fuel to electron power.

The British sports car marque seeks to transition to a 100 percent electrified portfolio by 2026, with the first full-electric model expected by decade's end.

In the near term, McLaren is sticking with plug-in hybrid technology to help trim fleet emissions without compromising vehicle weight and driving performance.

McLaren will begin U.S. delivery of its plug-in hybrid Artura in late September.

A second PHEV — a successor to the P1 — follows around mid-decade.

McLaren is also ditching thirsty V-8s in future cars. Every new McLaren model will have a V-6 and hybrid system, according to TopGear.

And McLaren could be thinking beyond swoopy cars. It is reportedly considering an SUV model in the decade's second half.

The McLaren SUV portfolio will start with one model that is "relatively low, compact" and wi…

Lithia Motors Inc., which continues to gobble up dealerships, including acquiring five in Wisconsin in September, also sold one dealership in Northern California and another in Southern California this month, as it sheds some stores in a "network optimization" plan.

The Medford, Ore., auto retailer sold Lithia Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat of Eureka on Sept. 14 to Harper Motors, a Lithia representative confirmed.

The store was renamed Eureka Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram-Fiat. Eureka is located about 100 miles south of the Oregon border.

Harper Motors also owns a Ford-Kia dealership and Honda and Toyota stores in Eureka, said Joe Ozog, president of Ozog Consulting Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. Ozog Consulting Group represented Lithia in the Stellantis dealership sale.

A day after that sale, on Sept. 15, Lithia sold DCH Gardena Honda to David Wilson Automotive Group. The dealership was renamed Gardena Honda. Gardena is south of Los Angeles.

Jay Fran…

Growing Lithia Motors Inc., which has indicated it is targeting further Midwest expansion, did just that with its recent acquisition of five dealerships from Wilde Automotive Group in Wisconsin.

Lithia on Sept. 12 acquired Wilde East Towne Honda in Madison, Wilde Toyota in West Allis and Wilde Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, Wilde Subaru and Wilde Honda, all in Waukesha. Lithia said last week that the acquisition is expected to add $625 million in annual revenue.

Lithia has had a presence in Iowa since 2006, the auto retailer confirmed, with nine stores. In 2021, Lithia barreled into Michigan when it acquired the Suburban Collection and 34 dealerships, mostly in the Detroit area.

Most of the Midwest is part of Lithia's North Central Region 3, which includes North Dakota, where Lithia has two dealerships.

"Even though we're in Detroit, we're really not into the other major population areas like St. Louis and Minneapolis," Li…

LEBANON, Tenn. — Tritium, an Australian producer of electric vehicle chargers, is arriving in the U.S. market with a new assembly plant here at a less-than-auspicious moment for the EV charging segment.

Two recent industry surveys have thumped charging networks for doing a poor job at pleasing the growing numbers of American EV buyers.

One of them, a J.D. Power report in August — just as Tritium was opening its plant — said EV charging satisfaction is declining and dampening EV buyer enthusiasm.

"Public charging continues to provide challenges to overall EV adoption and current EV owners alike," Brent Gruber, J.D. Power executive director of global automotive, said when the report was released last month. "Not only is the availability of public charging still an obstacle, but EV owners continue to be faced with charging station equipment that is inoperable."

But Tritium CEO Jane Hunter knows all that.

In fac…

In summer 2021, Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley told analysts on a quarterly earnings call the automaker planned to shift all of its models to an order-bank system to reduce complexity and incentive costs that come with building too many vehicles.

Ford already had tested such a system with the launch of some new vehicles, including the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover, by asking customers to reserve one before production began.

Gaudin Ford in Las Vegas jumped into action, setting up its own retail ordering strategy, installing new technology and revamping pay plans to compensate employees for ordering vehicles that potentially would not be delivered for months, said Bryant Gilligan, the dealership's general sales manager. The store's website was updated to feature an orders page for vehicles.

Since July 2020 when Ford unveiled the new Bronco, Gaudin Ford has taken 1,507 retail orders. As of last week, nearly half those orders, 679, had been delivered to …

WASHINGTON — U.S. traffic deaths declined for the first time since 2020 but remain at levels that call for "urgent and sustained action," Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said last week.

From April to June, 10,590 people died in vehicle crashes on U.S. roads, down 4.9 percent from the same period in 2021, according to NHTSA estimates. The agency said it's the first decline in fatalities after seven consecutive quarters of year-to-year increases since the third quarter of 2020.

Still, early projections show roadway deaths increased in the first six months of 2022. Through June, an estimated 20,175 people died in crashes, up 0.5 percent from the first half of 2021.

"Although it is heartening to see a projected decline in roadway deaths in recent months, the number of people dying on roads in this country remains a crisis," said Ann Carlson, NHTSA's acting administrator.

Carlson assumed the role after Steven Cliff's d…

Hyundai's plans to field a supercar to help launch its N performance brand — rivaling the Acura NSX, Audi R8 and Porsche 911 Turbo — have been officially scrapped.

Albert Biermann, who steered Hyundai's N division until he retired in 2021, told Top Gear last week that the project — nicknamed the Chairman's Car — would have cost over $150,000.

"At that time it was thought a Hyundai could not have this price," Biermann said.

The N supercar featured a carbon-fiber tub chassis and midengine layout.

"We had plans for a petrol [engine] with or without hybrid, or [the car could have accepted] a hydrogen fuel cell," he said.

The supercar project's demise hasn't stopped Hyundai from dreaming, though, most recently with the N Vision 74 concept. The high-performance hydrogen fuel cell hybrid introduced in July was inspired by Hyundai's heritage, namely the 1974 Hyundai Pony Coupe concept created by Giorgetto Giugiaro.