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DAVOS, Switzerland -- President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose high tariffs on imports of cars from the European Union if the bloc doesn't agree to a trade deal.

Trump has previously made threats to place duties on European automobile imports, with the intent of receiving better terms in the U.S.-Europe trade relationship. Trump has delayed imposing the tariffs a number of times.

"I met with the new head of the European Commission, who's terrific. And I had a great talk. But I said, 'look, if we don't get something, I'm going to have to take action' and the action will be very high tariffs on their cars and on other things that come into our country," Trump told CNBC's Joe Kernen in an interview from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Former German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker at the end of 2019 as the EU's top official, becoming the first woman to hold the post.

The United States…

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor turned in its best quarterly operating profit in almost two years and said it was on track for higher profit margins in 2020, powered by sales of crossovers such as the Palisade and Kona.

Net profit for the October-December period came in at 839 billion won ($721 million), the automaker said on Wednesday. Operating profit was 1.24 trillion won ($1 billion), the highest since the second quarter of 2017.

Robust crossover sales helped Hyundai's U.S. vehicle sales grow, analysts said, though its sales in China continued to struggle.

The better-than-expected earnings indicate that measures by Hyundai Motor Group heir-apparent Euisun Chung to revamp the image of the automaker known for its sedan-heavy lineup are beginning to pay off.

While overall vehicle sales for the South Korean company held mostly steady on year over October-December, its bottom line benefited as high-margin crossovers accounted for more of the …

FRANKFURT -- Daimler issued its third profit warning for 2019, as costs related to diesel-emissions allegations, heavy investment in electric vehicles and production issues weighed on earnings.

Earnings before interest and taxes fell by about half to 5.6 billion euros ($6.2 billion) for the year, Daimler said on Wednesday in a preliminary earnings statement. 

That’s before 1.1 billion to 1.5 billion euros in legal and governmental costs in various markets where Mercedes-Benz diesel cars and vans are sold.

Daimler said that it expects the return on sales at Mercedes-Benz Cars, which includes the Smart brand, to slump to 4 percent in 2019, compared to 7.8 percent in 2018.

At its vans division, the company expects the return on sales to decrease to minus 15.9 percent from plus 2.3 percent and to 6.1 percent from 7.2 percent at its trucks unit.

One-off costs of 300 million euros ($333 million) for a review of its vans product por…

TOKYO -- Nissan will go bankrupt within two to three years, Carlos Ghosn told a lawyer during more than 10 hours of interviews before the executive skipped bail and left Japan.

The former chairman and CEO of Nissan and Renault made the prediction last year in a series of conversations about his arrest and prosecution, said Nobuo Gohara, a former prosecutor who also is a vocal critic of Japan's justice system.

"He told me that Nissan will probably go bankrupt within two to three years," said Gohara, who held a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday to discuss his conversations with the now-fugitive executive. Ghosn did not offer detailed reasons Nissan would run into difficulties, according to the lawyer.

Azusa Momose, a spokeswoman for Nissan, declined to comment.

The company is suffering from declining car sales in China and Europe, prompting it to slash profit and sales forecasts for the fiscal year ending March 31 and say it would eliminate 12,5…

TOKYO -- Greg Kelly, a former Nissan colleague of Carlos Ghosn and a U.S. citizen who is facing charges in Japan, stands a very high chance of being acquitted, as would Ghosn had he remained in Japan to face trial, a former prosecutor said.

Lawyer Nobuo Gohara, a vocal critic of what he describes as Japan's "hostage" justice system, met Ghosn in Japan on a number of occasions late last year before the former Nissan chairman's dramatic escape to Lebanon last month.

Ghosn, whose escape to his childhood homeland breached his strict bail terms, has criticized the Japanese justice system and vowed to clear his name following the downfall one of the world's most powerful automobile industry executives.

Both Ghosn and former Nissan director Kelly face charges of financial misconduct over allegedly failing to report more than $109 million in salary, while Ghosn has also been charged with aggravated breach of trust for using company funds for perso…

SAN FRANCISCO -- Cruise, General Motors' self-driving vehicle unit, revealed its first vehicle that can drive without an operator as well as plans for a new service to compete in the ride-hailing space.

The Cruise Origin, developed with Honda Motor Co., is designed with more space for passengers, and the driverless taxi will give ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft another rival, Cruise CEO Dan Ammann said late Tuesday during the vehicle's introduction.

GM is also an investor in Lyft.

The third-generation Cruise vehicle will be used first to launch the ride-hailing service, but Ammann would not provide details on timing of the rollout.

Since GM acquired Cruise, the company has worked on integrating self-driving technology into self-driving vehicles it plans to use for initial deployment.

And since Honda became an investor in October 2018, Cruise has moved more quickly to develop a self-driving, EV platform, spokesman Ray Wert said.

Am…

WASHINGTON -- Toyota Motor Corp. will recall 3.4 million vehicles worldwide because of an electronic glitch that can result in airbags not deploying in crashes.

The recall, which includes 2.9 million U.S. vehicles, covers 2011-19 Corolla, 2011-13 Matrix, 2012-18 Avalon and 2013-18 Avalon Hybrid vehicles.

The vehicles may have an electronic control unit that does not have adequate protection against electrical noise that can occur in crashes, which could lead to incomplete or non-deployment of the airbags. It could also impede the operation of seat-belt pretensioners.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in April expanded a probe into 12.3 million potentially defective airbags covering a number of automakers, including the vehicles Toyota is recalling.

NHTSA said in April it had identified two frontal crash events, including one fatal crash "involving Toyota products where (electrical overstress) is suspected as the likely cause" of a…

WASHINGTON -- Honda Motor Co. is recalling 2.7 million older U.S. vehicles in North America for potentially defective airbag inflators.

The defect involves a different type of Takata inflator than those that have prompted the largest-ever auto safety recalls worldwide covering more than 42 million U.S. vehicles by 19 automakers with Takata airbag inflators.

The new recall covers Honda and Acura automobiles from the 1996 through 2003 model years. Honda said it is aware of one field rupture of a inflator in the new recall campaign - a 2012 crash in Texas that resulted in an injury - and two in junkyards in Japan.

The campaign covers 2.4 million U.S. vehicles and 300,000 in Canada, Honda said, adding that it has not determined recall numbers for other countries.

Takata issued a new defect notice in November for inflators from four automakers, including Honda.

Honda said all three vehicles "potentially were exposed to unusually high amounts of …

Volvo Car USA promised to give away $1 million in cars to randomly selected contestants if a safety occurs during the Super Bowl on Feb. 2.

Participants will design their own Volvo vehicle to win, Jim Nichols, product and technology communications manager at Volvo Car USA, told Automotive News.

"The value is dependent on what people configure," Nichols said. "People need to go on the website and configure the car they would hope to win and then submit that configuration as their entry."

"If a safety occurs, we'll start picking random configurations from people and try to find the car that's as close as possible to that configuration," he said.

Participants must enter to win at VolvoSafetySunday.com, where they will be prompted to design their own Volvo vehicle and submit a "configuration code" before kickoff of the Feb. 2 Super Bowl, according to a press release. They can choose one of any 2020 Volvo models currently …

Tesla Inc. said on Monday there was no unintended acceleration in its vehicles, as it responded to a petition to a U.S. safety regulator to investigate and recall around 500,000 of the company's electric cars over the alleged defect.

On Friday, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it would review the petition and released a redacted version that said "Tesla vehicles experience unintended acceleration at rates far exceeding other cars on the roads."

The petition urged the agency to recall all Tesla vehicles, the Model S, Model X and Model 3, produced beginning in 2013. It cited media reports of crashes attributed to unintended acceleration and complaints filed with NHTSA.

Tesla said the petition was "completely false" and was brought forward by a short-seller.

Brian Sparks, who is currently shorting Tesla stock, according to CNBC, submitted the petition in September.

"Over the past several years, we discussed with …

General Motors donated the first-off-the-line 2020 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray to an auction benefiting the Detroit Children's Fund that netted $3 million.

GM's auction of the red sports car took place Saturday at the 49th annual Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale Auction in Arizona. Rick Hendrick, founder of Charlotte, N.C.-based Hendrick Automotive Group and self-avowed Corvette junkie, was the winning bidder.

The black-on-black 3LT Corvette, powered by the Z51 performance package, was auctioned off weeks before the 2020 Corvette starts shipping to Chevrolet dealers, according to a news release from General Motors.

Last week the eighth-generation Corvette won the 2020 North American Car of the Year award in Detroit. 

"Reaction to the midengine Corvette has been extraordinary," GM CEO Mary Barra said in the release. "It's both humbling and exciting to harness that success and provide the proceeds to the Detroit Children's Fund."

The Detroit-b…