News

Arizona reached a $5 million settlement with Honda Motor Co.'s U.S. units Wednesday in a probe into defective Takata airbag systems, state Attorney General Mark Brnovich said.

The settlement follows an $85 million settlement announced in August with nearly all other U.S. states. Arizona said the Honda settlement covers $1.65 million in restitution for state consumers, a $2.13 million repair incentive program, $750,000 for consumer outreach and a $500,000 payment to Arizona.

Faulty air bag inflators have been tied to at least 15 U.S. deaths in Honda vehicles. Honda said it had not acknowledged any wrongdoing as part of the settlement.

Honda has to date replaced more than 16 million defective Takata air bag inflators in its vehicles and made more than 294 million individual attempts to contact owners and urge them to have their recalled Takata airbag inflators replaced.

The automaker is providing funding for public service announcements in Arizona t…

DETROIT — Hummer is back, and so is its six-digit price tag.

For $112,595, the 2022 GMC Hummer Edition 1 unveiled Tuesday comes with underbody armor and cameras, a removable Infinity Roof and a battery range of more than 350 miles via three electric motors. Production of the Edition 1 is scheduled to begin in late 2021, followed by production of progressively less expensive configurations from fall 2022 through spring 2024.

The off-road pickup, which General Motors will build at the Detroit plant it has renamed Factory Zero, will be the first electric vehicle in GMC's portfolio. The price of the Edition 1, which includes shipping, is about $5,000 more than the highest trim of the Cadillac Escalade ESV.

All Edition 1 models will come fully loaded and look identical, with the same white exterior and a Lunar Horizon interior that includes Edition 1 badging.

Although GM postponed the unveiling of the Hummer by five months because of the coronavirus pa…

The National Automobile Dealers Association elected Michael Alford as its next vice chairman, indicating he is likely to be the group's chairman in 2022.

Alford, 56, president of Marine Chevrolet-Cadillac in Jacksonville, N.C., was elected to the 2021 post during the association's board meeting Tuesday — held virtually this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Alford, a former banker who entered the family automotive business in 1992 and became owner in 1997, represents new-car dealers in North Carolina on the NADA board of directors and is chairman of NADA's regulatory affairs committee.

"I am honored and excited to serve as NADA's vice chair in the coming year," Alford said in a statement. "I look forward to working with Chairman-elect Paul Walser, my fellow directors and the entire NADA team. I am grateful to be entrusted with this role and assure you that I will work tirelessly to advocate on behalf of the entire dealer body."

Also Tuesd…

If Joe Biden wins the presidency, his EPA chief could be a clean air champion from California who has fought President Donald Trump on automobile pollution or an environmental justice activist from Mississippi.

Biden’s campaign has heard recommendations for both California air regulator Mary Nichols and Mississippi’s Heather McTeer Toney to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, among others, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named revealing personnel discussions.

Environmental advocates call the post central to advancing Biden’s aggressive plans for fighting climate change, while simultaneously bolstering scientific integrity at the agency and reversing President Donald Trump’s moves to undercut limits on pollution.

“The next administrator is going to have a very hard job,” said Stan Meiburg, a 40-year EPA veteran who previously served as acting deputy administrator and has advocated an agency-wide “reset.”

It wi…

Volkswagen of America will increase the base price of its freshened Arteon midsize sedan by $1,175 for the 2021 model year after redesigning the sedan's cockpit, upgrading its infotainment system and improving its driver-assistance offerings.

The German brand said the price will jump to $38,190 for the base-level 2021 Arteon SE, including shipping. The price of the mid-level SEL R-Line trim will increase by $25 to $42,790, including shipping, while the price of the top-trim SEL R-Line Premium will decrease by $525 to $48,190, including shipping.As part of the refresh, the brand eliminated the SEL trim that existed in previous model years.

The freshened 2021 Arteon features an 8-inch touch screen that will come standard on all models with integrated navigation and wireless App-Connect.

VW also is offering its most advanced driver-assistance package in Travel Assist. It uses adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, forward collision monitoring, pedestrian mo…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Tuesday for the first time acknowledged what type of vehicle it will use to launch its self-driving commercial services in 2022: an Escape hybrid.

The automaker in a blog post said it will start rolling out Escape hybrids as its fourth-generation autonomous test vehicle in the coming months. The previous three generations of test vehicles utilized the Fusion sedan, which has been discontinued.

The Gen 4 test vehicles include new near-field cameras that face the front and side, both long- and short-range lidar sensors and new features to keep the sensors clean.

"The systems we're incorporating into our newest test vehicles are 'launch-intent' in terms of the components we believe will be needed to support commercialization," John Davis, chief engineer of Ford AV, said in a statement. "What this means is that with a well-defined architecture and platform in the Escape hybrid, our team can continuously test and refine performance…

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misstated the head of the search committee. It was steered by NADA Vice Chairman Paul Walser.

The National Automobile Dealers Association has named COO Mike Stanton as its next chief executive.

Stanton, 52, will start his new duties Jan. 1, the group said Tuesday.

The announcement follows a roughly five-month search for a successor to NADA CEO Peter Welch, who is retiring at the end of the year. The search committee was steered by NADA Vice Chairman Paul Walser. The association received at least 100 applicants, a person familiar with the matter told Automotive News.

Stanton, who became COO in 2018, started at NADA in May 2000 as national sales manager for the NADA Used Car Guide. In 2002, he became executive director of industry affairs, working in that role until 2006. He later was the guide's COO until joining J.D. Power's Vehicle Valuation Practice as general manager, following Power's acquisition…

Toyota AI Ventures, the Japanese automaker’s early-stage venture capital fund, has invested in YPC Technologies, a robotic kitchen startup based in Montreal.

The total amount of the investment wasn’t disclosed by either company but it’s part of a $1.8-million (all figures in USD) seed round that YPC announced Tuesday.

The venture capital firm said at CES in January that it would award funding ranging from $500,000 to $2 million to early-stage startups in what it's calling a worldwide "call for innovation” focused on smart, connected cities.

The global call for innovation focused on attracting and investing in early-stage startups that are building solutions for smart and connected cities in the areas of artificial intelligence, robotics, autonomy, mobility, cloud or data. 

YPC Technologies said it is developing “a new era of kitchen automation” by building a robot that can prepare thousands of recipes, using fresh ingredie…

Volkswagen Group's proposed $3.7 billion bid to acquire the assets of Navistar International could eventually have interesting implications for SUV and pickup fans — as well as dealers.

The International brand didn't always just make semitrucks, school buses other large industrial work vehicles. It was an SUV pioneer that had the misfortune of exiting the consumer market just before utility vehicle sales exploded in the early 1980s.

The International Harvester Scout, manufactured from 1961 to 1980, was a two-door, soft-top SUV that rivaled the Jeep Wrangler and its spiritual ancestors, the Land Rover Series I and Series II, (precursor to the Defender) and the original soft-top, two-door 1966-75 Ford Bronco. The International Harvester Travelall, built from 1953 to 1975, was a big, beefy, high-riding, four-door, V-8, four-wheel-drive SUV designed for off-road family excursions long before that was a cool pursuit.

And International Harvester brand pickups…

DETROIT — General Motors on Tuesday said it will spend $2 billion to renovate its assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., for electric vehicle production, starting with the Cadillac Lyriq in 2022.

GM also announced more than $150 million in investments in five Michigan plants related to production of the GMC Acadia, heavy-duty pickups, 10-speed transmissions and autonomous test vehicles.

Shares in GM closed Tuesday's trading up 6.8 percent to $35.60.

Spring Hill will become GM's third EV plant. It will continue building the gasoline-powered Cadillac XT5 and XT6, but production of the Acadia will move to Lansing, Mich.

The $2 billion investment will expand the Tennessee plant's paint and body shops and comprehensive upgrades for general assembly, such as new machines, conveyors, controls and tooling. The renovation will begin immediately, GM said. Spring Hill is GM's largest plant in North America.

GM's Lansing Delta Township plant will get $1…

TOKYO – Genesis unveiled a midcycle update of the G70 compact sedan that adds powertrain tweaks, such as a new built-in drift mode, on top of fresh styling in the front and rear.

The face-lifted G70 carries over the three engines it offers worldwide, a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-banger, a twin-turbo 3.3-liter V-6 and a 2.2-liter turbo diesel.

But all models get a new Sports+ drive mode that pips performance, the company said in an Oct. 20 release after debuting the car for the South Korean home market.

Meanwhile the 3.3-liter V-6 Sports package is equipped with a variable exhaust valve system, for a throatier exhaust signature, and a new dynamic all-wheel-drive system that has a drifting mode.

On the outside, the restyling imbues the Genesis brand’s best-selling nameplate with a massive crest grille and the marque’s signature two-lined quad lamps up front.

Designers rounded out the new look with quad lamp taillights.

The new G70 als…