NOTICE TO READERS
The Intersection newsletter is going on holiday hiatus and will resume Jan. 9.
| The art of this business: dealing with all the change |
Was this year nuts or what?
These 12 months have been a stream of improbable scenarios: the lingering pandemic, the microchip shortage, the inability of factories to build the vehicles they want to, the almost incomprehensible shortage of workers, logistics bottlenecks, the depletion of retail inventories, relentless consumer demand, roaring sales increases, booming profits and breathtaking market valuations of startup companies…
But through it all, the auto industry continues making forward progress.
In this week’s issue we focus in on perhaps the most stunning evolution of the year, if not the past century — the rapid industry makeover to electric vehicles. Barely a month ago, we were quoting Toyota President Akio Toyoda urging the world to stay calm and slow down its mad rush to EVs. This week we show you how Toyota’s new $70 billion electrification plan will usher in EV after EV, and how the plan will push its Lexus brand out in a starring role in the strategy.
At the same time, we share an interview with Hyundai Motor Co. CEO Jaehoon Chang in which he declares Hyundai’s determination to become an EV leader. New development work on internal combustion engines will stop, he says — from now on, EV is the Korean giant’s priority.
Tesla is entering into the halls of the industry establishment, we tell you on one page of this week’s Automotive News. On another we spell out how rivals are trying to catch up: The biggest manufacturing investments of this year — all were for EV factory capacity, battery-making plants or both.
All this made us stop and take stock: What, exactly, have we witnessed this year?
We had to go back through a year of issues to look.
What we found was that people all over the industry are churning out new ideas to address these changes, to cope with these disruptions, and to take advantage of these times.
We picked a number of examples — 21 of them — just to remind you of some of the clever new ideas we told you about during the year. In retailing. In manufacturing. In technologies. In employee recruiting. We call the package “21 in ’21.” But honestly, we could’ve called it “101 in ’21.”
That’s the beauty of this business: Throw a curveball at the auto industry and somebody brilliant will knock it out of the park every time.
 |
 |
 |
In Monday’s Automotive News:
Hot-selling Hyundai: Hyundai has successfully ticked off a long to-do list as it moved its namesake mass-market marque and its Genesis top-shelf stablemate upmarket and up the sales chart. Quality? Check. Design? Crossovers? Done, and done. Premium brand? Roger that. The new top priority: cracking the rapidly expanding electric vehicle market. CEO Jaehoon Chang gives Automotive News the details about the company’s EV prospects. He says he expects global EV sales to surge 56 percent to 220,000 vehicles at Hyundai and Genesis next year on the way to Hyundai Motor Group’s goal of selling 1.7 million electric vehicles globally in 2026.
Speaking of premium … : Lexus’ “100 percent electrification by 2030” pledge is aspirational, U.S. brand head Andrew Gilleland explains to Automotive News. Still, the Japanese luxury brand is planning to move heavily into EVs with at least five vehicles, including the new RZ 450 crossover, a larger, three-row crossover and a two-seat sports car. Gilleland said that through a subscriptions service, Lexus will make sure that Lexus EV customers still have access to gasoline-powered hybrids from dealer courtesy fleets in case they want to use them for longer trips.
Weekend headlines
Manchin says no to Build Back Better, killing EV tax credit momentum: Sen. Joe Manchin said Sunday he won’t support the $2 trillion tax-and-spending plan that’s the heart of President Joe Biden’s economic agenda.
GM’s Mary Barra dismissed Cruise CEO Dan Ammann over mission, IPO timing, report says: What seemed abrupt to outsiders and people working at Cruise had been building for months. The two executives didn’t agree on how to focus the breakthrough self-driving technology that the Silicon Valley unit is preparing to launch with a taxi service.
 |
GM innovation chief departs: Pamela Fletcher, an engineer who launched the Chevrolet Bolt and had been charged with leading much of the automaker’s transformation heading into the EV era, will become Delta Air Lines’ chief sustainability officer.
More lawsuits for Tesla: Six more women, who are current or former employees, have sued the EV maker for sexual harassment. The complaints detail harassment from male colleagues and supervisors as well as a lack of response from Tesla. The plant in Fremont, Calif., has long been the subject of complaints about racial and sexual harassment.
<!–*/ */ /*–>*/
 |
|
|---|
 |
 |
 |
Dec. 21, 1979: Congress passed the Chrysler Corp. Loan Guarantee Act. The government would guarantee loans for Chrysler Corp. up to $1.5 billion.