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<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Lessons learned, forgotten from '3-11'

The date is seared in the minds of the Japanese, much like Nov. 22 and Sept. 11 are for Americans. March 11, this Thursday, marks the 10-year anniversary of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of Japan.

And, in a bizarre coincidence, that same date in 2020 was for Americans an unforgettable marker in the life of the coronavirus pandemic.

That evening alone, President Donald Trump banned travel from Europe, the NBA canceled its season and actor Tom Hanks revealed he had COVID-19.

The day was "the pivot point on which weeks of winter unease about the looming novel coronavirus turned in a matter of hours into a sudden, wrenching, nation-altering halt to daily life and routine," Wired magazine wrote.

Both events, nine years apart, had dramatic impacts on the auto industry.

And we explore them in Monday's issue. Namely:

■ The lessons that the Japanese …

Here are edited highlights from the latest episodes of "Daily Drive," Automotive News' weekday podcast, hosted by Jason Stein and Steve Schmith.

"When I was growing up my dad was a very dominant kind of employer. He was involved in everything. He was fair, but tough. When I got out of college, about a year later, he realized that maybe I had some special skills. He reversed his role from being the dominant player, the CEO-COO, into an adviser role and gave me space, allowed me to make mistakes." -- Dealer Mike Maroone, CEO of Maroone USA, reflecting on his father, Al, who died in February at age 98

"We are a digital-forward brand. The customer can come on to polestar.com and actually learn about the product, configure the product, carry out the transaction online with a retail partner in the back end, assess their trade-in and all the way down to actually have the car delivered to their front door. So everything is from a digital-forward proces…

Stewart Stropp, senior director of automotive retail, talks about the results of J.D. Power’s inaugural U.S. Electric Vehicle Consideration study. For some consumers, a Tesla isn’t always tried and true. For others, one factor that makes them hesitant about a EV is a lack of information.

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The world's newest automotive group, Stellantis, will start life with a war chest of $21.2 billion in cash, but without a published strategic plan as to how it will manage 14 brands across three continents and 400,000 employees – and find about $6 billion a year in annual synergies.

CEO Carlos Tavares told analysts this week that they would have to wait until the end of this year or the beginning of 2022 for a capital markets day. That plan, when it comes, will extend out to 2030, far longer than most strategic plans and much longer than the two four-year plans that he put in place at PSA Group.

Stellantis is in no rush, Tavares said at a presentation of results from PSA and new partner Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, evoking an earlier merger that ended in a bitter separation. "We do not forget what happened in the past with DaimlerChrysler," he said. 

"Stellantis is not born from a crisis," Tavares said, but "from the understanding that the two former…

DETROIT — For 76 straight years it was the largest one in the world, but General Motors would rather not be described as simply an automaker anymore. As GM expands into various technologies and transportation services, its executives say an electric delivery van, an insurance quote or even a robotaxi might also come to define the company over the next decade.

CEO Mary Barra believes GM can come to be viewed as a technology company, a distinction many legacy automakers have long clamored for so Wall Street would consider them on a par with challengers such as Tesla Inc.

GM's reach into adjacent businesses is part of a broader strategy to stretch what's typically a one-time transaction into a wider profit net over the lifetime of the vehicle as the automaker aims for a zero-emission portfolio of light-duty vehicles by 2035, analysts say. Some predict GM and other traditional automakers could boost their revenue as much as 30 to 40 percent with service businesses…

The Jeep Grand Cherokee L will be a newcomer to the three-row utility segment when it arrives at dealerships in the second quarter, but it won't need much of an introduction. Jeep will just have to let consumers know that the Grand Cherokee can haul a few more people now.

The nameplate is one of the most established in the industry, giving it immediate familiarity with consumers. The three-row version will bring that longstanding cachet as it faces off with fresh offerings such as the Hyundai Palisade and the fast-turning Kia Telluride. Higher trim levels could end up contending with the likes of Land Rover.

The Grand Cherokee's first three-row offering is stepping into the fray in Jeep's typical role as a premium option. The base rear-wheel-drive model starts at $38,690, while the lowest 4x4 price point is $40,690. The top trim surpasses $66,000. All prices include shipping.

For comparison, the Hyundai Palisade starts at $33,7…

Although U.S. sales declined for most automakers because of weather and parts disruptions, a growing number of electric vehicles reaching dealerships has begun helping the auto industry recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

EV sales rose 34 percent last month, according to Morgan Stanley, while overall sales for the seven automakers that reported February results declined 9.3 percent, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center. The investment firm noted that battery- electrics accounted for 2.6 percent of the market last month compared with 1.8 percent a year earlier.

The growth is driven by automakers not named Tesla. Morgan Stanley said the Elon Musk-led company's share of the U.S. electric vehicle market fell 12 percentage points year over year to 69 percent in February, virtually all a result of the ramp-up of Ford Motor Co.'s new electric crossover, the Mustang Mach-E.

Ford said it sold 3,739 of the Mach-E …

Aston Martin is undergoing a transformation under former Mercedes-AMG head Tobias Moers, who joined as CEO in August last year after the struggling UK automaker was bailed out by Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll. Aston's closer technology links with Daimler, a new focus on efficiency, along with promoting the company through Formula One, can bring about sustainable profitability that has previously been difficult for the company to reach, Moers told Automotive News Europe Correspondent Nick Gibbs.

Your predecessor Andy Palmer said that Aston Martin's historical problem was that it never generated enough money to invest in the next generation of cars. What is your solution?

What is different are the building blocks. One is efficiency -- how we run our factories and logistics. It will be a different company. We will make 30 percent efficiency gains over the course of the next six months. The ultimate goal is to make Aston Martin the most efficient and most a…

More restrictive regulations and enhanced enforcement are likely on the horizon for the auto industry under President Joe Biden, which could have a significant impact on the nation's dealers. But maintaining proper procedures and managing compliance programs in the finance and insurance office should ease anxiety provoked by any uptick in federal scrutiny.

Experts from the National Automobile Dealers Association as well as several industry advisers spoke last month on a stack of concerns awaiting the vehicle finance sector and what can be done to prepare as the new administration and Congress settle in and consider changes in their regulatory and enforcement priorities.

"You've got the perfect storm of lack of enforcement shifting now with a new administration," said Clayton Friedman, a partner at Crowell & Moring law firm in Irvine, Calif.

Friedman said the administration's primary tool is going to be enforcement, with finan…

Americans are afraid to ride in autonomous vehicles, but they're far more enthusiastic about driving with the help of building-block technologies.

That's the mixed-message takeaway from a AAA survey of consumers on their attitudes toward the influx of technology proliferating in today's vehicles and future ones.

Only 14 percent of respondents told researchers from AAA, the nation's largest motoring organization, they would trust a vehicle to safely drive itself. Most — 54 percent — are unsure about their feelings, while 32 percent say they'd be afraid.

Despite COVID-19-related disruptions to transportation, those results are similar to the organization's poll last year, in which 12 percent said they'd trust a vehicle to drive. More than 4 in 10 respondents in this year's survey said the pandemic made no difference in their interest in using self-driving vehicles as a replacement for public transportation or ride-hailing services.

The results arriv…

Editor’s note: This story is part of a package in the March 8 issue looking back at the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Nearly 10 years ago, Tom Doll and two Subaru of America executives boarded a plane in Newark, N.J., and flew to Tokyo for Fuji Heavy Industries' annual board of directors meeting.

It would have been a routine business trip if not for the date: Sunday, March 13, 2011.

Two days prior, Japan had been rocked by a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and a tsunami. Despite the obvious destruction that the natural disaster caused, it still wasn't entirely clear what the full extent of the impact would be.

Yoshio Hasunuma, then CEO of Subaru of America, and Sam Komine, then an executive liaison between Subaru of America and Fuji, were already in Tokyo for the meeting.

"I get a call first thing Saturday morning from Sam Komine, and he says that by the time you guys get here on Monday everything should be back to normal," Doll, wh…

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc., the used-car and vehicle subscription company that has aspirations to roll up dozens of dealerships, has closed on its first five franchised stores — two Kia stores in Florida and three dealerships in West Virginia.

The Fort Lauderdale, Fla., company, which went public in December 2019, said late Friday that it bought Kia stores in Port Charlotte and Cape Coral from Fuccillo Automotive Group. The two stores sit on a combined nearly 58 acres and provide room for reconditioning and vehicle storage.

It also completed purchases of West Virginia stores Beckley Buick-GMC Automall in Beckley, King Coal Chevrolet in Oak Hill and Hometown Kia in Mount Hope, plus three used-vehicle dealerships. LMP bought an 85 percent stake in the West Virginia stores. Ernie Davis and Lori Davis were the owners of the two General Motors stores.

The closings, part of the company's first stage of acquisitions, comes after two other planned acquisition…