Trade News

LOS ANGELES — American Honda Motor Co. CEO Shinji Aoyama will leave his post as head of U.S. and North American operations on Oct. 1 to dedicate himself to a new role as full-time global officer in charge of electrification, Honda said late Wednesday.

Aoyama will be replaced in North America by Noriya Kaihara, who is currently chief officer for customer operations and officer of risk management at Honda Motor Co. Kaihara is also a managing executive officer.

Aoyama has been serving as the global electrification officer since July 1 from North America, the company said. The electrification post was created in May as Honda begins a steady shift away from internal combustion engines.

"In his new dedicated role, Aoyama will lead the establishment and implementation of electrification strategies which leverage the unique strength of Honda as a company including motorcycle, automobile, power equipment and other businesses," Honda said.

Aoyama joined Ame…

With the Biden administration expected to announce new standards for vehicle greenhouse gas emissions on Thursday, industry experts say there will be a greater reliance on electrification to meet the president's climate and energy goals.

As automakers set targets for electric vehicle-only lineups and seek to sell more electrified options in the U.S., EPA official Bill Charmley says the agency's performance-based emissions requirements ensure the industry is making progress on meeting clean air and environmental goals.

"It's not the type of thing that you want to leave it to chance," said Charmley, director of the assessment and standards division within EPA's Office of Transportation and Air Quality.

Charmley spoke Wednesday during a hybrid version of the annual CAR Management Briefing Seminars.

"We want the industry to be successful on this transition," he said. "We want to make sure that EPA's policies help provide lo…

Uber Technologies Inc. spent heavily to lure drivers back in the second quarter, resulting in a wider-than-predicted loss and raising fresh doubts about the reliability of its labor model long-term. Shares declined about 4 percent in extended trading.

The loss before interest, tax and other expenses was $509 million in the period that ended in June, Uber said in a statement Wednesday. That’s wider than the prior quarter but narrower than a year earlier. Analysts expected a loss of $325 million, according to an average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Uber said the loss will be less than $100 million in the third quarter and that gross bookings will be $22 billion to $24 billion. The forecast is about in line with analysts’ estimates. Uber cautioned that a wider outbreak of the delta variant could change the results.

“We invested in recovery by investing in drivers, and we made strong progress,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statemen…

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. -- Automakers are facing significant questions on how to turn their aspirations on electric vehicles and advanced new technologies into marketplace reality.

How to pay for the infrastructure that will be needed to support the industry's electrification is one of those questions, a group of government policy experts said Wednesday at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars here.

"The short answer to these questions is 'it's complicated,' " said John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation. "We've got to navigate an extraordinarily complex external environment."

But that complexity means teamwork between the industry and government entities will be "critically important," industry experts said — especially as the nation navigates the COVID-19 pandemic, a global chip crisis and the dynamic U.S. political environment.

"We need to recognize that no one sector of the economy — no one company…

Auto suppliers are going to have be faster and more flexible to innovate new products as the industry shifts to electric vehicles and autonomous-drive technologies, according to a panel of experts from companies that were cited for recent component advances.

It also will require continual investment in new technology and manufacturing equipment, and a greater willingness to collaborate with automakers and other suppliers, they told an audience Wednesday at the Center for Automotive Research's Management Briefing Seminars.

Suppliers might also have to look for component solutions far outside their wheelhouses.

That's the successful recipe that saw American Axle & Manufacturing, ArcelorMittal and L&L Products win the 2021 Altair Enlighten Awards, which were announced during the industry event. The Altair awards honor companies that use advanced design, material and production techniques to reduce weight.

American Axle, which is broadening it…

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — It costs more to service electric vehicles than their gasoline-powered counterparts, but the gap narrows over time, according to new data from analytics firm We Predict.

The company, which released data this year saying EVs were 2.3 times more expensive to service than ICE vehicles after three months of ownership, said Wednesday that there is a caveat: After one year, EVs are just 1.6 times more expensive to service.

We Predict looked at the data of about 19 million vehicles between the 2016 and 2021 model years.

The main factors in the narrowing over that nine-month period included a 77 percent drop in maintenance costs as well as a slight decline in repair costs. Still, the data showed that service techs are spending twice as long diagnosing problems with EVs vs. those with gasoline vehicles. They are spending 1.5 times longer fixing them, and their average labor rate was 1.3 times higher.

Renee Stephens, a vice president …

A bill signed by Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker reinforces a requirement that automakers pay dealerships for warranty work at the same labor rate consumers are charged.

House Bill 3940, which will take effect Jan. 1, also establishes methodology for calculating the average labor rate and ends automakers' ability to refuse parts markups that they deem "unreasonable."

The current law says manufacturers have to pay dealerships no less than the retail rate for warranty work, adding this charge must be "reasonable" — defined as the market's "prevailing wage rates."

The bill drops those subjective terms and lays out a specific means of calculating the automaker warranty labor rate. This charge will be based upon the average of any 100 sequential customer-pay repair orders submitted to the manufacturer by the dealer. The repair orders must have occurred within 180 days of the submission and will not include "simple maintenance" repair orders.

"House Bill 3940…

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The rise of electric vehicles is triggering big changes in the auto industry. But it will also bring about new innovations in how autos are made and how companies think about their operations, Magna International CEO Swamy Kotagiri told an industry audience Wednesday.

"We know that mobility is evolving fast and at an exponential pace, faster than ever before," Kotagiri said, kicking off the Center for Automotive Research's annual Management Briefing Seminars here.

"It's clear that the next generation of vehicles will be shaped by four simultaneous revolutions happening now: electrification, autonomy, connectivity and mobility as a service, called new mobility."

But he said getting there will cause automotive manufacturers to begin asking new questions about how they do business.

Kotagiri, a longtime Magna executive, stepped into the role of CEO on Jan. 1. The Canadian company is North America's largest auto supplier, with 20…

As Nissan prepares to introduce a second battery-powered model — the Ariya crossover — the automaker is giving its original EV a more than $4,200 price cut.

The 2022 Nissan Leaf starts at $28,375 and reaches $38,375 for the top trim. Pricing on all models includes a $975 destination charge but does not include government EV tax credits.

The Leaf, which launched more than a decade ago, also receives more standard EV-focused features for model year 2022, including a CHAdeMO Quick Charge port and a portable 240-volt charging cable for every model.

Additionally, eight features previously available in the Technology Packages for the SV PLUS grade, including ProPILOT Assist, will now be standard.

The price reduction sets up Nissan to launch the Ariya in the first half of next year. The new Rogue-sized crossover is built on a new architecture and offers up to 300 miles of driving range.

The two EV models “need to sit together well, you don't wa…

Lyft Inc. on Tuesday posted an adjusted quarterly profit three months ahead of target, seizing on a leaner cost structure as rides rebounded, but it warned of ongoing driver shortages and the spread of the delta coronavirus variant.

The company reported adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization for the first time in its nine-year history, and said it would remain profitable on that basis going forward.

Lyft shares initially gained 6 percent in after-hours trading following the announcement but pared gains when executives said during the company's earnings call that revenue per ride was expected to decrease on a sequential quarterly basis. 

The company said ongoing investments in driver incentives and a decrease in prices for riders would pressure revenue in the third quarter.

"The road still remains bumpy given the delta variant and consumer concerns," said PP Foresight analyst Paolo Pescatore.

Lyft on T…