Trade News

DETROIT — President Joe Biden became the first person not associated with Ford Motor Co. to drive the F-150 Lightning.

His joyride Tuesday on the automaker's test track turned into a viral commercial for the upcoming electric pickup on cable newscasts, late-night TV and newspaper front pages.

It was an impromptu decision that left Ford's communications team with little time to respond.

As is customary for any presidential visit, Ford and the White House had been coordinating details for weeks. While there was some talk of potentially driving a prototype early on, the idea appeared to have been ruled out quickly, said Mark Truby, Ford's head of communications.

But Monday evening, less than a day before the president's arrival, the White House mentioned that Biden, a self-described car guy whose father managed a dealership in Delaware, might want to get behind the wheel after all.

The Ford team scrambled to have something ready to go, just …

Tesla Inc.’s growth in China slowed precipitously last month, adding to the company’s headaches after an embarrassing protest at the Shanghai auto show and several headline-generating crashes involving its electric vehicles.

In April, 11,949 China-built Teslas were registered in the country, according to data from state-backed China Automotive Information Net. That’s down sharply from a record 34,714 registrations in March.

A Shanghai-based Tesla representative said in a WeChat message the sequential decline was linked to a two-week adjustment to an assembly line for the Model Y SUV and increasing export volume. The company is accelerating production to get cars delivered to customers as soon as possible.

Separate data that China’s Passenger Car Association released last week showed Tesla sold 25,845 locally made vehicles in April, down from 35,478 units in March. Of those vehicles sold in April, 14,174 units were exported, due in part to demand from t…

Zeigler Automotive Group is set to acquire its first Subaru dealership with the purchase of International Subaru of Merrillville in Indiana.

Zeigler, a large, privately owned Midwest dealership group, said the deal is scheduled to close on Wednesday. Zeigler is buying the dealership from International Autos Group of West Allis, Wis. Neither party used a broker.

Terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but the store will be renamed Zeigler Subaru of Merrillville.

Zeigler, with the Subaru store, will have 26 new-vehicle dealerships in Michigan, Illinois and Indiana. Zeigler also owns three Byrider used-vehicle stores, a pre-owned store in Berwyn, Ill., and a motorsports store in Kalamazoo, Mich.

While the Subaru dealership will be the group's second new-vehicle dealership in Indiana, its location in the northwest part of the state is near the Illinois border, where Zeigler has 15 rooftops throughout the Chicago suburbs.

"With Zeigler on track t…

Rick Tewell, COO of the lidar startup, discusses the industry's road toward mass-producing the 3D-sensing technology used in advanced driver-assist systems.

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The car may be fading from showrooms but Mercedes-Benz will have nothing to do with market shifts when it comes to its flagship sedan. The venerable S-Class, redesigned for 2021 and code-named W223, is built on a new platform referred to internally as MRA2.

It is an evolution of the outgoing sedan's underpinnings but has been reworked with a new rear-steer axle and a larger battery for plug-in hybrid variants.

Core dimensions have changed as well, and the footprint is bigger. The distance between the front and rear axles has been increased by 2 inches to 126.6 inches on the latest sedan. Overall length has grown 1.3 inches to 208.2 inches, width has jumped by 2.1 inches and height has increased by 0.4 inch.

In the U.S., the entry-level S-Class is the S 500 4Matic. It is powered by a 3.0-liter inline-six cylinder engine with a 21-hp, 184-lb-ft EQ Boost mild-hybrid system. It produces 429 hp and 384 lb-ft of torque. The S 580 4Mati…

Spy photographers have caught a first glimpse of the North American version of the new 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross, a subcompact crossover the Japanese automaker will build beginning this year at a new joint-venture factory with Mazda in Alabama.

Like other automakers doubling up in the subcompact-crossover segment, Toyota plans to sell the Corolla Cross alongside the C-HR, at least for now. A similar vehicle with the same name debuted in Thailand in summer 2020, though the U.S. version is expected to be slightly different.

The subcompact-crossover market is on fire and continues to attract new entries such as the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Encore GX, Kia Seltos, Mazda CX-30 and Hyundai Venue.

U.S. sales in the segment grew 4.8 percent to nearly 900,000 in 2020, when the overall market declined amid the pandemic, and another 44 percent in the first quarter, making it the third-biggest utility segment — mass market or luxury — behi…

DETROIT — The heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado pickups will soon get a popular cross-functional feature to match their light-duty sibling: the Multi-flex tailgate.

The 2022 Silverado 2500 and 3500 will come with the Multi-flex tailgate option, which includes six functions that allow for easier access to bed cargo, a better loading entry and a standing workstation, Chevy said in a statement Monday.

The feature became available on the light-duty Silverado for the 2021 model year, following the introduction of a similar MultiPro tailgate on the GMC Sierra.

The Multi-flex tailgate will be an option on all trims of the heavy-duty Silverado, and a power up/down tailgate will be available on the LT, LTZ and High Country trims.

Chevy also is adding a new color, Greenstone Metallic, for the 2022 model year.

The pickup will be available this summer.

Intel Corp.s Mobileye and German supplier ZF said Tuesday they will jointly develop advanced safety systems for future Toyota Motor Corp. vehicles.

Mobileye will provide its camera-based system-on-a-chip, which ZF will integrate with its latest automotive radar system, the companies said.

The technologies will enhance a range of automated safety functions, including automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control and lane keeping, on highways as well as some secondary roads.

The new systems will be rolled out in a variety of Toyota cars, trucks and utility vehicles over the next few years, according to Mobileye and ZF executives.

Advanced driver assistance systems with vision and radar sensors are an intermediate step toward fully automated self-driving systems.

The new systems that are being developed for Toyota can be further upgraded with additional sensors and technologies such as laser-based lidar and dynamic mapping, according …

Volkswagen of America said it will suspend vehicle production at its Chattanooga complex for two weeks beginning June 7 because of the global semiconductor shortage.

Output will resume June 21, the company said in an emailed statement Monday.

VW builds the Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport crossovers and the Passat sedan in Chattanooga. Last year, it sold a combined 87,362 Atlases and Atlas Cross Sports in the U.S., a 7.2 percent increase over Atlas sales in 2019. (The Cross Sport went on sale in 2020.) Meanwhile, U.S. sales of the Passat, which will end production at the plant in 2023, rose 63 percent to 22,964.

During the downtime, the automaker will focus on line and quality improvements, training and preparation for production of the ID4 electric crossover, which is scheduled to begin in 2022.