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TOKYO — No more controversial mugs for Lexus—

The premium brand's polarizing spindle grille — derided as the Darth Vader death mask by some critics — is getting a face-lift for a kinder, gentler look thanks to the brand's shift to electrification.

With no engine to cool in Lexus' upcoming line of electric vehicles, there is no need for a gaping front air intake — or the brand's trademark gaping grille to shield it.

Lexus global design chief Koichi Suga told Automotive News that the makeover is already underway, with the new RZ full-electric crossover unveiled in April and the soon- to-arrive redesigned 2023 RX crossover revealed last week in Japan and at a media event at Toyota Motor North America's headquarters in Plano, Texas.

Lexus is sticking with the spindle motif. But going forward, it will be structurally incorporated into the solid body paneling. Say so long to the spindle grille; say hello to the "spindle…

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk's "super bad feeling" about the economy could be the auto industry's "canary in the coal mine" moment, signaling a recession for an industry whose bosses have shown no signs of concern.

Musk said the electric carmaker needed to cut about 10 percent of its workforce in an email to executives seen by Reuters. He later told staff that white-collar ranks were bloated and he would keep hiring workers to make cars and batteries.

Musk's warning is the first loud and public dissent in a united stance by the auto industry that underlying demand for cars and trucks remains strong despite two years of global pandemic. One executive this week called demand "sky high."

"Tesla's not your average canary in the coal mine. It's more like a whale in the lithium mine," Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said in a research note, referring to the metal used in EV batteries.

"If the world's largest EV company warns on jobs and the economy, inve…

Magna International Inc. is homing in its research and development efforts on electric- and hybrid-vehicle projects as it works to balance light but growing volumes of parts for next-generation vehicles with demand for its “traditional” lineup of products.  

About 70 percent of the engineering projects under way at North America's largest supplier are now geared toward EVs or hybrids, and the company’s powertrain division is no exception, the unit’s president Tom Rucker, told Automotive News Canada. It is a considerable mismatch when compared with the 15 percent of Magna’s production currently devoted to electrified-vehicle programs.

But the company’s research pipeline sends a clear message about what will be driving growth at the company through the 2020s. Once slow to materialize, EV demand is picking up at a rapid pace, Rucker said.  

“Many or most of our customers are shifting their focus away from traditional ICE [internal-comb…

Jaguar Land Rover will celebrate Queen Elizabeth's 70 years on the throne with 26 vehicles in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant and the donation of a Defender 130 to the British Red Cross.

The pageant on Sunday is scheduled to feature two of the queen's Land Rover Defenders, three Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles from James Bond films and a collection of Jaguar convertibles, including a bespoke 1965 Series 1 E-type Roadster with metallic blue paintwork inspired by the United Kingdom's Union Jack flag. Also participating in the event will be the first Land Rover unveiled at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show, an F-Pace plug-in hybrid and an electric I-Pace from the E-Trophy racing series.

The procession is to follow a nearly 2-mile route echoing the route of the queen's 1952 coronation.

"It is a true honor for our vehicles to play a part in this momentous occasion to mark Her Majesty's Platinum Jubilee," JLR Chief of Staff Chris Thorp said in a statement. "As the U…

PLANO, Texas — Those watching closely have noticed that the white-hot Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz compact pickups have already racked up nearly 50,000 sales in 2022 through May — an impressive pace in a down U.S. market from what had been an abandoned segment.

But guess who else is eyeballing those results and wondering whether it's time to rekindle its own compact pickup legacy?

The answer is Toyota, but an antithetical bit of emissions regulations might actually make it harder for the Japanese automaker to leap back into the compact pickup segment it once dominated.

"There is space" in the Toyota lineup for a pickup beneath the current midsize Tacoma, said Jack Hollis, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota Motor North America. "The question is, how to fill it?"

Hollis — who himself introduced the Toyota A-BAT concept compact unibody pickup at the 2008 Detroit auto show — told Automotive …

Richard Hershey is one of about 50 technicians certified to work on the Ford GT supercar, and sometimes the automaker will ask him to leave his job as lead tech at Pompano Ford in Pompano Beach, Fla., to visit other dealerships to work on the high-performance sports car.

Hershey and other Ford dealership technicians now have a new tool for their toolbox, one that paid immediate dividends in troubleshooting a recent problem with a GT.

It's called SWIS, for "See What I See," and it is very similar to a wearable small-screen computer complete with voice- activated commands. The headset's eyeglasses allow Ford's Technical Assistance Center to see what the dealership's technician sees and suggest fixes while allowing the technician to be able to work with both hands.

Hershey was sent to investigate why a GT would go into failsafe mode once it hit 160 mph on the racetrack. Without SWIS, a logical repair would have been to replace the t…

FCA US, a subsidiary of Stellantis, pleaded guilty and is paying more than $300 million in criminal penalties to resolve a federal investigation that it conspired to mislead regulators and consumers about the emissions control systems in 101,482 Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 models.

The affected vehicles were equipped with the company's second-generation EcoDiesel engine spanning the 2014 to 2016 model years.

The U.S. Department of Justice, in court documents Friday, said FCA "purposely calibrated the emissions control systems on the subject vehicles to produce less NOx emissions during the federal test procedures, or driving 'cycles,' than when the subject vehicles were being driven by FCA US’s customers under normal driving conditions."

The automaker pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States, commit wire fraud, and violate the Clean Air Act. The plea agreement includes a fine of $96.1 million along with the forfeiture of…

Kellen Walker gives you the top headlines. Stellantis faces federal conspiracy charges. GM Cruise scores its first permit to offer paid driverless car rides in California. Elon Musk wants to cut jobs at Tesla. Plus, Fixed Ops Digital CEO Owen Moon talks about how marketing can help dealership service departments hold onto drivers of older, out-of-warranty vehicles.

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Mercedes-Benz is transforming its product focus — going all-electric and further upmarket. But the luxury brand is also rethinking how it supports its U.S. retail network.

At a national dealer meeting in Dallas on Thursday, Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dimitris Psillakis revealed plans to restructure dealer operations.

Mercedes will split its 383 U.S. dealers into three groups — Air, Land and Sea — based on throughput. Each group will be assigned Mercedes sales, aftermarket and service teams.

The Air group will include large, publicly-traded dealers who account for 25 percent of the brand's sales volume. The Land group has regional multi-point retailers that generate about 40 percent of sales. Smaller, single-point stores fall into the Sea group.

Psillakis said the new arrangement better aligns corporate support around dealer needs versus the current "one-size-fits-all" structure, which spreads field operations across three geographic markets.

Pu…

Atlantic Coast Automotive Group, a large privately owned auto retailer, has acquired six dealerships in upstate New York from Nye Automotive Group.

Atlantic Coast, of Miami Lakes, Fla., bought the dealerships from Nye Automotive owner William Nye on May 24, said Rob Lee, Northeast director of Tim Lamb Group, a Columbus, Ohio, dealership buy-sell firm. Lee represented the seller in the transaction.

Harold Nye, William's father, founded the Nye group in 1968 with a single Ford-Lincoln-Mercury dealership. William Nye has led the group since 1998.

"The sale of my six dealerships was a large and complicated transaction," Nye said in a statement.

The Nye group included Buick-GMC, Chevrolet, Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram, Ford and Toyota dealerships in Oneida and a Volkswagen dealership in Rome. Oneida and Rome are both east of Syracuse.

In June 2021, Atlantic Coast purchased two Kia dealerships in Virginia from Bill Shepherd of Southern Auto Group.

CLEVELAND — Ford Motor Co.'s plan to invest $3.7 billion and create 6,200 union jobs across three Midwest states secures the futures of some of its most at-risk plants well ahead of contract negotiations that typically decide such matters.

The automaker's announcement this week includes promises to build the next-generation gasoline-powered Mustang coupe in Flat Rock, Mich., as well as expand Ohio Assembly Plant in Avon Lake, outside Cleveland, for production of a new commercial electric vehicle.

Such guarantees in the back half of a four-year contract are not always certain. While General Motors in 2015 committed $5.4 billion to its U.S. plants months ahead of negotiations, it left numerous plants in limbo heading into 2019 bargaining, which ultimately resulted in a costly 40-day strike.

Ford says its plan, which also includes investment in Missouri and two other Michigan plants, is a sign of the quickness required to become an EV leader and the need …

Stellantis said its Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario will produce vehicles on the automaker's new STLA Large platform that will support electric vehicles.

Retooling at the plant, which produces the Chrysler Pacifica, Voyager and the Canada-only Grand Caravan, is slated to begin in 2023. The company says the site will have the "flexibility to adjust production volumes as needed to meet changing market demand over the next decade."

Chrysler said the electric Airflow crossover concept it debuted this year will reside on the STLA Large platform. AutoForecast Solutions predicts that the next Dodge Challenger and Charger muscle cars will be housed on the platform.

The automaker has said the STLA Large platform can achieve up to 500 miles of driving range.

Workers at the Windsor plant have had to contend with frequent downtime and layoffs.

"There has been a lot of speculation, and while we're not prepared to discuss any product details today, we'…