News

When electrification was on the horizon, Jeep knew exactly where to go with its message.

The brand known for touting off-road excursions has stuck to an outdoorsy formula for its 4xe line of plug-in hybrids.

The marketing transition could be seen in 2020 when Jeep started touting the quiet ride of the Wrangler 4xe months before it went on sale, saying it accentuated the sounds of nature.

Then, Jeep's ode to Earth's preservation called "Pale Blue Dot," which featured a voice-over from scientist Carl Sagan and the Wrangler plug-in, further set the tone.

Since then, Jeep has coined a mission statement of "Zero Emission Freedom" and is putting its stamp on the electrified segment with branded charging stations at trailheads across the U.S.

"Jeep loves nature, and we want nature to know this," Olivier Francois, chief marketing officer for Jeep parent Stellantis, told Automotive News. "It's all a matter of mutual respect. So it sounds extremely …

An employee of a Toyota dealership in northern Illinois died Thursday evening after being shot in the store's parking lot, local police said.

Police in Loves Park, Ill., said Anderson Toyota employee Daniel R. Johnson, 29, was shot and that "the evidence indicates this was a targeted incident and not a random act of violence."

Paramedics arrived at the dealership and attempted lifesaving measures, but Johnson, a Rockford, Ill., resident, ultimately died, according to the news release.

Roman C. Richmond, 27, was charged in the shooting, police said in the statement.

Police filed five charges against Richmond on Friday: first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a firearm, aggravated discharge of a firearm, possession of a weapon by a felon and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.

Richmond is being held at Winnebago County Jail on no bond. He had several warrants out for his arrest, including theft, criminal trespass, residential burglary a…

CDK Global Inc. plans to join its privately held competitors in the dealership management system market this year, perhaps giving the company more flexibility to pursue longer-term growth strategies than public shareholders want to tolerate.

The decision to take CDK off the Nasdaq exchange by selling to global investment firm Brookfield Business Partners — in a deal valued at $8.3 billion — will accelerate the company's growth strategy around creating a seamless vehicle-purchasing experience for consumers, COO Joe Tautges told Automotive News.

"We've done fine as a public company, and we've done a great job over the last several years really improving the core business," Tautges said Thursday. "We saw a great opportunity to create value for [shareholders] and really align with a buyer here who is a very value-added, reputable private equity owner. And it just levels the playing field, quite frankly."

It's too early to know how the ownership change will …

WASHINGTON — With record-low levels of new-vehicle supply and no near-term fix for replenishment, most dealerships using the "last in, first out" inventory accounting method now face significant tax burdens, and the deadline to pay up is fast approaching.

Businesses on LIFO — a tax deferment strategy used by about half of the nation's new-vehicle dealerships — must maintain a sufficient level of inventory at year end to avoid triggering a potentially large income tax bill.

But production issues related to COVID-19 and the microchip shortage greatly reduced the flow of new vehicles to dealership lots and curtailed inventories starting in 2020 and worsening in 2021. That made the long-deferred income suddenly taxable at federal and state levels.

For some dealers, the LIFO recapture has led to additional tax payments from $100,000 to $2 million or more, and those bills are due in less than two weeks for dealerships structured as pass-through entities or C …

As General Motors pushes prices of its gasoline-powered pickups and SUVs ever higher with offerings such as the new GMC Sierra Denali Ultimate trim topping $80,000, it's working with Honda to make electric vehicles as inexpensive as possible.

GM and Honda said this week they're planning a line of electric crossovers that will cost less than $30,000, well below the price of the industry's average gasoline vehicle today.

The automakers intend to sell millions of co-developed "affordable" EVs starting in 2027. The vehicles, mostly compact crossovers, will be based on a new global electric architecture powered by GM's Ultium battery technology and use jointly created advanced battery technology.

By volume, "this is by far the most significant collaboration by any two large OEMs," said Jesse Toprak, chief analyst for Autonomy, which runs an EV subscription service. "This could be the most significant automotive partnership that really turns on that switch of…

AutoCanada Inc. has hired away two AutoNation Inc. managers, naming one of them as its new president to head Canadian operations, following the departure of Michael Rawluk on March 3.

Jeffrey Thorpe, market president for Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based AutoNation, will take over oversight of publicly-traded AutoCanada’s 60 Canadian dealerships as president of those operations, the Edmonton, Alberta firm said Friday.

AutoCanada Executive Chair Paul Antony said Thorpe has “proven himself” scaling organizations and has both the vision and business acumen to keep the dealership group’s momentum going.

“His significant industry expertise and experience operating a dealership platform at scale using centralized services through [a] head office, which closely mirrors AutoCanada's operating rhythm, will be an excellent addition to our executive team,” Antony said in a release.

Thorpe previously steered AutoNation’s operations across several markets in the Mid…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Disney exec: Automakers need to stir emotions

DETROIT — As vehicles become more automated, how can automakers make sure they're still making something that stirs emotions in their customers?

It's a question some in the industry have been looking to address during a period of unprecedented change. A potential answer to it was given by perhaps an unlikely source at SAE International's World Congress Experience this week.

Jon Snoddy, the head of show, ride and tech engineering at Walt Disney Imagineering, said the answer lies in telling stories, much in the same way that the ride experiences his team works on for Disney's theme parks are built around stories.

As an example, he pointed to the muscle cars he grew up admiring as a kid in South Carolina. Those cars, as different as they appeared, all said the same thing: They're "fast cars for cool people," he said.

"The reason that Detroit was able to build so many amaz…

Thousands of Tesla fans poured into the automaker's new Austin, Texas, plant for its official opening, heralding a $1.1 billion facility that will vastly expand electric vehicle production and serve as a launching pad for future products like the highly anticipated Cybertruck pickup.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who was scheduled to speak late Thursday before 15,000 invitees at the Cyber Rodeo event, is expected to offer details on new versions of the Model Y compact crossover that will be built in Austin using a new battery pack to improve range and bring down costs.

Musk said on Twitter last month that "scaling to extreme size" is part of the company's updated "master plan."

The Tesla CEO inaugurated another new factory in Berlin last month and said there could be future plant announcements by the end of the year.

At the Austin event, prototypes for the Cybertruck and Semi cargo truck were on display, but it was unclear whether Musk would offer an upda…

TOKYO — The engineering guru leading Nissan's quest for solid-state batteries wants to disabuse people of the notion that solid state is inherently safer than today's lithium ion packs.

True, next-generation solid-state batteries don't have a flammable liquid electrolyte. But they do cram in a lot more energy, and that could make for some unpleasant fireworks if something goes haywire.

"Energy density is double, so you have a potential bomb that's more dangerous," said Kazuhiro Doi, corporate vice president in charge of advanced battery research at the Japanese automaker.

"If a big accident occurs, it could become much more catastrophic than with today's batteries."

But Doi insists Nissan Motor Co. can now lick that safety problem and other key issues that make solid-state batteries difficult to deliver. 

His team has been racing to solve conundrums as Nissan tries to deliver on its pledge to bring the lightweight, comp…