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Before Jeep fans buy a Wrangler 4xe to take off road, they can see how it fits in their garage next to their kayaks and camping gear while doing research.

The only thing they need is a smartphone.

Jeep is one of several automakers experimenting with a budding augmented reality tool for mobile Google searches that allows users to conduct virtual walkarounds of new models, check out color options, view the interiors in some cases and place the vehicles in a consumer's everyday environment. This augmented experience is available to Android and iOS users.

The highly searched Wrangler's popularity made it a good fit for this experience, said Tom Laymac, director of global digital marketing for Jeep parent Stellantis.

Laymac said Google approached the automaker about trying the technology. A cloud-based augmented-reality experience for the Wrangler plug-in hybrid initially was tested during the virtual CES in January.

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Nearly 8 out of 10 electric vehicles registered in the U.S. last year were from one particular California automaker.

You guessed it: According to new data from Experian, Tesla accounted for 79 percent of U.S. EV registrations in 2020, with 200,561 of its battery-electric vehicles registered, a 16 percent jump from 2019, when owners registered 172,438 Teslas.

All four Tesla models ranked among the top five EVs last year. The Chevrolet Bolt small hatchback had the third most U.S. registrations among electric vehicles in 2020, at 19,664. That was up 20 percent from the year before.

But the Bolt still lagged far behind the first-place Tesla Model 3 sedan, which, despite a 32 percent drop in registrations, still topped 95,000, and the second-place Tesla Model Y crossover, which logged more than 71,000 registrations in less than a full year on the market. Tesla's Model X and Model S rounded out the top five.

Notably, Tesla and General Motors registrat…

TOKYO — Outside Nissan Motor Co., Hari Nada was a little-known executive with a big role prior to the arrest of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn. He was a head-office heavyweight in the automaker's legal department and ran the CEO and chairman's office. Yet Nada's name rarely appears in company announcements, and photos of him are few and far between.

In recent weeks, however, the Malaysian-born, British-trained barrister has been center stage in the Tokyo trial of his other former boss, ex-Nissan director Greg Kelly, the American human resources executive whom prosecutors accuse of conspiring to hide Ghosn's big compensation packages from public view in violation of Japanese law.

On the witness stand, Nada has been a portrait of conflict. On one hand, he delivered details of how Ghosn, Kelly and other executives allegedly skirted disclosure rules. On the other, Nada acknowledged under government immunity that he helped support the scheming.

On the surface…

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday cleared the way for the extradition to Japan of an American father and son accused of helping former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn flee that country while awaiting trial on financial misconduct charges.

In a brief order, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer denied an emergency request by lawyers for U.S. Army Special Forces veteran Michael Taylor and his son, Peter Taylor, to put on hold a lower court order that cleared the way for them to be extradited.

The Taylors' lawyers in a late Thursday filing reiterated arguments that their clients could not be prosecuted in Japan for helping someone "bail jump" and that, if extradited, they faced the prospect of relentless interrogations and torture.

Lawyers for the Taylors and the Justice Department did not immediately comment on Saturday. The Japanese Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A federal appeals co…

Mercedes-Benz USA has recalled more than 1 million vehicles for a failure in the eCall system, which has resulted in emergency responders being dispatched to wrong locations, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The software design of the communication module may result in a failure to send the correct vehicle location for the emergency call system in the event of a crash and increase the risk of injury following a crash, the NHTSA said.

Mercedes-Benz USA is recalling certain 2016-2021 CLA-Class, GLA-Class, GLE-Class, GLS-Class, SLC-Class, A-Class, GT-Class, C-Class, E-Class, S-Class, CLS-Class, SL-Class, B-Class, GLB-Class, GLC-Class, and G-Class vehicles.

The automaker plans to issue a software update that will be installed by dealers or through an over-the-air update.

Mercedes-Benz in Europe in October 2019 launched an investigation based on a report from the Mercedes-Benz eCall center of a single instance …

Ford Motor Co. is suspending production of the F-150 pickup and Transit van at its Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri for one week starting Saturday to help conserve natural gas amid a cold spell in the Midwest.

Ford confirmed the news late Friday after UAW Local 249, which represents workers at the plant, informed employees earlier Friday.

"Due to unseasonably cold temperatures in the midsection of the United States, Ford was warned that the availability of natural gas could be restricted in the Kansas City area in the coming days," spokeswoman Kelli Felker said in a statement. "To ensure we minimize our use of natural gas that is critical to heat people's homes, we have decided to cancel operations for the next week. We expect to return to normal operations on Monday, Feb. 22."

The shutdown comes at an inopportune time as Ford launches a redesigned F-150, the nation's top-selling vehicle, and continues to feel the negative effects of a global semic…

Once a gas station, the Chevrolet dealership in upstate New York was in terrible shape. Grass stuck out from the gravel parking lot, and body shop employees worked in an aluminum Quonset hut with dirt floors.

Jane Fox, who at 29 had just become one of the youngest female General Motors dealer principals in the Northeast, surveyed the scene with excitement. "It wasn't pretty," she recalled.

In 1976, when Fox purchased it for a pittance, the store sold just 100 Chevys a year. By 1981, when she and brother Bill Fox moved the dealership to Auburn, it was selling 2,000 new and used vehicles a year.

That Chevy store was the first of 13 dealerships owned by Jane and Bill, her longtime business partner who was chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association in 2015. On Feb. 1, the siblings' 45-year business partnership drew closer to an end when they sold three of their four remaining dealerships to dealer and investor Jonathan Sobel.

They plan …

Subaru of America is readying an off-road subbrand to expand the reach of its two most successful nameplates.

The Wilderness subbrand will launch with the 2022 Outback and Forester, dealers were told last week during the Subaru make meeting at the National Automobile Dealers Association's virtual show. The two crossovers accounted for 54 percent of the brand's 2020 U.S. sales.

Patrick Wergin, chairman of the Subaru National Retailer Advisory Board, told Automotive News the Wilderness models will feature a rugged appearance package and better tires for off-road pursuits.

Spy photographers have spotted a similarly equipped Forester and Outback, which also appeared to have increased ground clearance, undergoing road tests in Michigan. Subaru declined to comment.

While the midsize Outback and compact Forester are no off-road slouches already — both vehicles have 8.7 inches of ground clearance, all-wheel drive and available o…

SHANGHAI — At November's Guangzhou auto show, one of the most important shows in China, Ford Motor Co. put its freshened Focus sedan and hatchback at the center of its stage.

Chen Xiaobo, executive vice president of Ford China's National Sales and Service Division, told the media at the show that, with its newly restyled interior and the addition of a wagon version, the Focus would "greatly satisfy" the needs of young Chinese consumers.

But China's dealers and analysts aren't so sure about that.

"Time has changed," said an executive at a Shanghai-based dealer group who asked not to be identified because of his group's close ties with Ford's China unit. "For all these efforts, it would be hard for Ford to restore the past glory for the Focus."

In reality, the Ford Focus has been encountering the same consumer headwinds in China that it did in the U.S. market. In the U.S., Ford has largely abandoned sedans for it produ…

WASHINGTON -- General Motors agreed to a $5.75 million settlement to resolve allegations it made false statements to California's largest pension system and other investors over its deadly ignition switch scandal.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the largest U.S. automaker concealed problems from investors related to faulty ignition switches linked to 124 deaths and 275 injuries.

GM previously paid $900 million to settle a U.S. Justice Department criminal investigation and $1 million to resolve a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accounting case tied to the ignition switch issue.

GM said it was "pleased to have cooperated with the state of California to resolve this matter."

A federal judge in New York late Thursday ordered the appointment of an independent U.S. monitor to oversee GPB Capital Holdings, an alternative-asset management firm, and related businesses including Prime Automotive Group — one of the largest private dealership groups in the country.

The move came after GPB reached an agreement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which filed a motion Monday asking for emergency appointment of a monitor. A hearing on the motion had been scheduled for Friday.

The commission on Feb. 4 filed a complaint against GPB, two related companies, GPB CEO David Gentile and two associates on allegations of securities fraud. Just days later, the commission sought the monitor to help protect the assets of GPB's 17,000 investors nationwide who the SEC and federal prosecutors claim were misled in funding $1.8 billion in a "Ponzi-like scheme."

Gentile resigned as CEO a day after the SEC issued its complaint and Gentile and …