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IHS Markit’s Todd Campau says while the average age of light vehicles on U.S. roads hit a milestone of 12.1 years in 2020, the rate of growth could slow in 2021.

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The history of the automotive industry is chock full of innovative thinkers from its very first days, yet – for most of that history – innovation of anything beyond the conceptual drawing board remained generally only within the reach of the titans of industry, and their large-scale design and industrial manufacturing capabilities. 

While this economy-of-scale-based paradigm has nearly always been true – innovation has flourished in spite of it, mainly within the aftermarket sector, that has created myriad opportunities for modifiers, hot-rodders, tuners, accessorizers, and physical "hackers" of every kind – which, in turn, indirectly increased the values of the vehicles themselves. Just look at the annual SEMA show to see how much real-world innovation is done outside the walls of the OEMs, and how much desire there is to contribute to overall industry innovation and improve the enjoyment of the consumer experience. The best “platforms” are actually more valuab…

Jeremie Papin has spent the past year attempting to stabilize a listing ship.

Last June, he was elevated to vice chairman of North America to lead Nissan Motor Co.'s critical U.S. market — a business buffeted by sinking sales and dissatisfied dealers.

Since then, Papin has steered Nissan through a product overhaul and has led a strategic pivot away from the aggressive pursuit of market share championed by former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn. While a formidable task in the best of market conditions, these initiatives have been orchestrated by Papin during the dual crises of a pandemic and a global microprocessor shortage, both playing havoc with vehicle production plans.

The past year has been "about changing the way we did business, further exacerbated by the pandemic and all the disruption it brought," the French native said. "It's a real opportunity to reset a lot of the ways we were doing business, including how we int…

Tired of your Bentley clashing with your yacht?

Bentley helped one customer solve that decidedly first-world problem by creating a bespoke yacht cabin to match the interior of a Continental GT V8 coupe.

The automaker worked with Contest Yachts to replicate the Continental's Hotspur red leather and Linen beige hide on an 18-meter yacht. Bentley used a specially commissioned machine to give the yacht's paneling its signature diamond-in-diamond stitching, with each diamond made of exactly 712 stitches.

It also complemented the Continental's Light Sapphire exterior with a deep blue hull on the yacht.

"This project was an opportunity for Bentley Design Services to showcase some of their many skills in a truly unique collaboration," Brett Boydell, Bentley's head of design collaborations, said in a statement. "Bentley cars embrace qualities of craftsmanship and styling that are only achieved at the highest level of nautical d…

Just as golfers might customize their clubs to correct a slice, Toyota is toying with a new way to personalize vehicle software updates to improve the way people drive.

The idea is being considered as part of a new service being offered through Kinto, Toyota Motor Corp.'s vehicle subscription program in Japan. The concept was born from motorsports, where racing teams make countless on-the-fly tweaks to a car's steering, braking and acceleration, said Operating Officer Koji Sato, who also is president of Toyota's Gazoo Racing motorsports arm.

The service foreshadows the software-first approach the world's largest automaker is pursuing on next-generation vehicles. The idea is to develop an automotive operating system and build the car around it, thereby allowing cars to be continually updated with the latest advances. Toyota bills it as delivering "cars that evolve in tune with people."

By analyzing data collected from drivers, Toyota…

By mid-2019, in the months following the arrest of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn, relations between Nissan and French partner Renault plumbed new lows. Ham-fisted attempts by Renault's new chairman, Jean-Dominique Senard, to broker a surprise merger between Renault and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, behind Nissan's back, only further strained the Franco-Japanese alliance. Sales, profits and share prices plunged — not only at Nissan and Renault, but at Mitsubishi, the auto group's third leg.

This is the second excerpt from Collision Course: Carlos Ghosn and the Culture Wars That Upended an Auto Empire. It is drawn from Chapter 13, "Alliance Upheaval." The passage describes how the alliance teetered without its longtime leader and includes Ghosn's take on why the companies faltered in his absence. The book was written by Automotive News Asia Editor Hans Greimel and William Sposato.

Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard's failed backroom dealing with FCA drew…

Used vehicles are expected to continue to command higher prices for the foreseeable future, but the reason may not be as simple as lower availability amid higher demand.

Based on data from IHS Markit, one might conclude that vehicles in operation in the U.S. are set to shrink, given what happened in 2020. But so far in 2021, the trend is reversing.

Scrappage rates hit their second-highest point in two decades last year and outpaced the rate of new vehicles being added to U.S. roads. That probably won't be the case this year.

About 15 million vehicles were scrapped last year, a rate of 5.6 percent of vehicles in operation, according to IHS Markit. At the same time, new-vehicle registrations increased the number of vehicles in operation in the country by 5.1 percent.

IHS Markit tracks scrappage, or the number of cars and trucks no longer on U.S. roads, by getting data on:

Exports Branded vehicles — those labeled a total loss by an insurance co…

LOS ANGELES — Last year was rough on automakers as they struggled to maintain production and keep up with surprisingly strong demand. It was particularly rough on luxury upstart Genesis, whose U.S. sales plunged 23 percent to just more than 16,000.

The Hyundai Motor Group brand began 2020 with a splashy Miami debut of its GV80 midsize crossover, but then grappled with regulatory challenges to get the GV80 and the redesigned G80 sedan into dealerships. Delays in its planned summer launches for those two dragged into December.

But suddenly, things look different. Just as the U.S. market is emerging from the pandemic with renewed vigor, Genesis is finally spreading its wings. As the industry grapples with semiconductor shortages, Genesis is launching new models and emerging as a growing force in the luxury market.

Sales are up 149 percent this year to just more than 15,000 through May. And June marks a major milestone in the brand's six-year journey: the …

PLANO, Texas — For years, Lexus dealers and brand leaders have admitted that the weakest link across the Japanese luxury brand's lineup has been right there at their fingertips.

Whether it was a joystick or unwieldy touchpad, the center console-mounted controls for the brand's lackluster infotainment system have hurt its vehicles with reviewers and customers, which has cost it sales.

After three years of in-house effort, Lexus will debut a next-generation intuitive infotainment system, dubbed Lexus Interface, on the redesigned NX compact crossover and quickly spread it across the rest of the lineup.

"Honestly, it's been the Achilles' heel of our brand," said Cooper Ericksen, group vice president for product planning and strategy for Toyota Motor North America.

"With all the pain that we have endured with remote touch interface and joysticks? Believe me, we want to go as fast as humanly possible" to get the new system installed in the rest of Lex…