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DETROIT - Ford Motor Chief Executive Jim Farley will go to Las Vegas next week to roll the dice on a strategy to convince dealers to cut as much as $2,000 from the cost of delivering an electric vehicle to a customer.

Ford has told dealers that one key topic for the meetings will be a discussion of new agreements that would govern how dealers sell Ford's expanding lineup of electric vehicles.

Farley told analysts in July that Ford needs to cut $2,000 a vehicle out of selling and distribution costs to be competitive with Tesla and other EV startups that sell directly to consumers without franchised dealers.

About a third of those savings could come from what Farley called a "low inventory model," where customers order a vehicle and Ford ships it to the customer, rather than stocking vehicles on dealer lots for weeks or months.

"We think that's about -- worth maybe $600, $700 in our system," Farley told analysts. Tesla c…

Ringless voicemails, a phone call method that deposits a message directly into a consumer's voicemail box without the typical ring sound, has been a way some dealerships and other companies have skirted restrictions surrounding automated marketing calls.

The technology's legality has been in dispute for over a half decade. While the Federal Communications Commission and even Congress have been petitioned to enshrine the approach as protected under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, such action hasn't happened. Instead, the modern-day legal consensus, based on numerous court decisions, is that the practice is illegal without prior consent.

And that means dealerships should be careful — violations can be costly, as demonstrated by a recent $2.5 million settlement in California.

"If [dealers] think that they can just do business the way they've always done it, and they don't have to worry about this stuff, they're making a mistake," Brian Maas, presid…

TOKYO — Nearly four years after the arrest of Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn at a Tokyo airport, acrimony and legal wrangling continue to fester as the carmakers he once ran fight to recover from the chaos.

In recent moves, Nissan Motor Co. has increased the pressure on Ghosn and Greg Kelly, the American director they accuse of being his accomplice, by dramatically jacking up its damages claims in civil cases against both men.

In March, Kelly was cleared by a Japanese criminal court in seven of the eight years Nissan alleged financial misconduct. But a Nissan motion in late June seeks to triple the amount he could be found liable for to ¥4.4 billion, or roughly $30.5 million. From Ghosn, Nissan now seeks ¥15.5 billion ($108 million). For now, Kelly's lawyers are fighting to dismiss it.

At the same time, Nissan's former general counsel, Ravinder Passi, has settled with his ex-employer, following his claim of wrongful dismissal in the matter. That case had…

TOKYO — Hiroto Saikawa, former CEO of Nissan who presided over the arrest and ouster of his boss and mentor Carlos Ghosn — only to be drummed out of the company himself — is back in the business almost four years after the scandal nearly derailed the Renault-Nissan auto alliance.

After finishing a two-year noncompete agreement, the 68-year-old industry veteran is in talks to consult on autonomous urban mobility and is writing a book about his experience.

The Nissan lifer shocked Japan by accusing Ghosn of rampant financial misconduct at a news conference the night of the chairman's arrest. Now, Saikawa is weighing in on the carmaker's fitful recovery from the ensuing chaos and talking about Ghosn's legacy.

Saikawa insists he would have been perfectly happy to have Ghosn, now 68, continue at the helm of the Renault-Nissan alliance, had it not been for what Saikawa called overwhelming evidence of misconduct.

Ghosn's de…

DETROIT — Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis likens the sound created for the electric Charger Daytona Concept to a church pipe organ.

A key question is whether the artificial noise — generated by an amplifier and tuning chamber at the rear — will help Dodge convert consumers into believers of battery-powered muscle or repel them.

Some analysts say a quiet Dodge electric vehicle will never work and that it has to deliver a roar, even if there's no gasoline-burning engine. On the flip side, they wonder whether some devoted followers of the rumbling V-8 engines the brand built its image around could be put off.

"I think people are going to like it, but I do think it will be polarizing," said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights for Edmunds. "I don't think it is that necessary. It really is a vanity type of thing."

Mike Harrington, general manager at Huntington Beach Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Southern California, wasn't expect…

U.S. vehicle inventory has finally begun to climb out of the narrow band it was mired in since the beginning of the year, ticking up to 1.21 million units last month, the highest level since June 2021, according to data compiled by Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

The figure represents a recovery of nearly 200,000 vehicles over the month prior, just outside the 1 million-to-1.1 million band where it sat the previous seven months.

Cox said the figure represents a 40-day supply, up 43 percent from a year ago, and three days higher than the previous month, based on its practice of using the selling rate from the most recent 30-day period. Days' supply has trended higher over the previous year each month since May but remains well below 2020 and 2019 levels. A depressed selling rate, hampered in part by low inventory along with rising prices and rising interest rates, is contributing to the recovery, Cox said.

Subcompact c…

An aspect of vehicle safety getting increased scrutiny is how crashes affect women differently than men.

In a Feb. 15 letter to U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, 66 members of Congress called for updated federal policy to address disparities in crash outcomes between women and men. Citing 2019 data from NHTSA, the letter said a female driver is 73 percent more likely to be seriously injured than a male driver in a vehicle crash and 17 percent more likely to die.

While dummies modeled on women and children are becoming more commonplace, the industry traditionally has used crash test dummies based on men's bodies — a complaint cited in the congressional letter to Buttigieg.

The letter calls for the U.S. Department of Transportation to require the use of "accurate, up-to-date female crash test dummies in NHTSA's New Car Assessment Program and Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards."

In a January report, "Equity …

In case you missed it, the dog days of summer have been anything but for the auto industry.

Automakers, suppliers and retailers have been slogging to untangle themselves from supply chain crises precipitated by COVID shutdowns in Asia and war in Europe. New-vehicle sales slumped in the first half of the year as automakers struggled to keep assembly lines running and dealer lots supplied.

Rising inflation now threatens future sales and profitability for carmakers and their retailers. And more instability lies ahead as new legislation driving EV adoption in the U.S. upends the EV manufacturing plans of global automakers and supply chain sourcing. Meanwhile, electrification plans rapidly unfold as automakers pivot from combustion engines to batteries.

Here's a quick recap of the big stories from summer 2022.

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in late August, designed to incentivize domestic E…

NEW YORK -- Toyota Motor Corp. reached a settlement potentially worth $150 million to resolve U.S. class-action litigation tied to recalls of about 3.36 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles whose defective fuel pumps could cause engines to stall.

A preliminary settlement was filed on Wednesday night in federal court in Brooklyn. It requires a judge's approval.

The settlement covers owners and lessees of dozens of Toyota and Lexus vehicle models manufactured in the 2013 to 2020 model years and equipped with Denso low-pressure fuel pumps.

Drivers complained that defective pumps caused vehicles to "run rough," lose engine power, and stall, especially at low speeds.

Toyota has said problems were reported more often in the southern U.S., where weather is warmer.

More than 5.8 million vehicles worldwide were recalled in 2020 and 2021 over the defect.

To see all of Automotive News' recall coverage, click here.

Under the settlement, Toyo…

Wholesale used-vehicle prices fell "substantially" in August to cap off a summer that had been marked by more gradual monthly price declines.

Cox Automotive said Thursday that wholesale prices declined 4 percent in August compared with July. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — an indicator of used-vehicle market pricing trends — declined to 210.8, down from 219.6 in July.But wholesale prices remained elevated year over year. They were 8.4 percent higher in August than in the year-earlier period, when the index stood at 194.5. Those numbers are adjusted for mix, mileage and seasonality.

On a nonadjusted basis, the index fell 2.6 percent in August from its July level, with prices up 5.9 percent year over year.

Used-retail sales did see some growth, rising 11 percent in August from July. But sales were down 9 percent compared with the same time last year, when they were more robust, according to Cox Automotive.

Average wholesale prices for 3-year…

A new survey shows retailers are getting more worried about the economy. Japan says new EV tax credits might violate international trade law. Jeep and GM make big EV rollouts. Plus, North American International Detroit Auto Show co-chair Thad Szott previews next week's event.

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