Toyota Pumps Another $700 Million Into American SUV Expansion
Toyota Motor Corp. has poured more money into yet another North American plant to boost production of the SUVs and trucks U.S. customers increasingly seek instead of sedans, reports The Detroit News. The Japanese automaker said Friday it has spent $700 million and hired 150 new workers at its plant in Princeton, Indiana, mostly to increase production of its Highlander sport utility vehicle. The outlay is part of a $1.3 billion injection into the factory and a broader pledge by Toyota to invest $13 billion at its U.S. facilities through next year, about half of which the company will detail into next year. The spending – which has helped Toyota fend off tariff threats made by President Donald Trump – is designed to align production with demand for more SUVs and trucks. Read more here.
Americans Show Scant Interest in Electric Vehicles, Subaru CEO Says
Subaru Corp.’s chief executive said he didn’t see much evidence Americans want electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids and expressed frustration at navigating between environmental regulations and consumer demand, reports The Wall Street Journal. “The only EVs that are selling well are from Tesla,” said Subaru’s Tomomi Nakamura at a briefing for journalists. Tokyo-based Subaru relies on the U.S. for two-thirds of its global sales, and has already had a tough experience trying to sell a vehicle that can be charged at home. In 2018, it introduced a plug-in hybrid version of the Crosstrek. It said just 300 units of the model were selling each month on average. In this area, Mr. Nakamura said, “We think the U.S. market is really difficult.” Mr. Nakamura said he didn’t think the U.S. market was ready to clear the tighter standards, given the lack of consumer demand aside from vehicles sold by Elon Musk’s Tesla Inc. Read more here.
Tesla Slams Acceleration Petition Brought by 'Short Seller'
Tesla Inc. fired back against a petition filed with U.S. regulators, saying in a blog post Monday that it’s “completely false and was brought by a Tesla short seller.” Bloomberg reports that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is evaluating allegations that Tesla Inc. vehicles contain a defect that can cause sudden unintended acceleration, according to a notice posted on the agency’s website last week. The review was prompted by a petition asking the agency to open a defect investigation of some 500,000 Tesla vehicles over the alleged flaw. The petition cited 127 consumer complaints to the agency and claims of 110 crashes. The Palo Alto, California-based maker of electric vehicles said it investigates every incident where a driver “alleges to us that their vehicle accelerated contrary to their input.” In every case where Tesla had the vehicle’s data, it confirmed the car operated as designed, the carmaker said. “The car accelerates if, and only if, the driver told it to do so, and it slows or stops when the driver applies the brake,” Tesla said in the post. Read more here.
Muñoz Tweaks Hyundai Dealer Pay Plan Amid Mission to Boost Retail Health
When Hyundai Motor America CEO Jose Muñoz pitched a new pay program to dealers at a meeting in Las Vegas last fall, there were plenty of skeptics in the room, reports Automotive News. Muñoz, just six months into the job, was best known to the retailers in the MGM Grand ballroom as a former top executive at Nissan North America, where dealer relations were in shambles. Introducing a variable-margin program, with the usual facility requirements and other hoops to jump through, was never going to be easy, especially from an executive known for aggressively pushing volume at Nissan. Hyundai eased the blow in Las Vegas with a sneak peek of the next-generation Tucson crossover and the new Santa Cruz lifestyle pickup. Dealers said they left loving the product, but not so much the early outlines of the pay program, designed to elevate the brand's distribution network by improving customer satisfaction and modernizing stores. In the months that followed, Muñoz listened to dealers and made an important pivot in the final version of the brand programs — called Accelerate at Hyundai and Keystone at Genesis — before they were presented this month. Read more here.
Nissan Dealers Give CEO an Earful
In his first meeting with U.S. dealers, Nissan Motor Co.'s newly minted CEO Makoto Uchida faced a volley of pointed questions but offered few answers, reports Automotive News. A group of nine retailers gathered in a conference room at Nissan North America's headquarters in Nashville and urged the visiting Uchida to take action on several fronts. They asked for faster product updates and greater marketing and incentive support, according to dealers at the meeting. They expressed frustration with slumping residual values and profitability at the Nissan brand, and they sought assurances of a game plan to lift Nissan's reputation in the U.S. from what some retailers have described as a "bargain-basement brand" perception. Uchida, who must steer Nissan through an existential crisis, came to the dealer meeting seeking unvarnished feedback from the front lines. Read more here.
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Around the Web
The Recession in Global Car Sales Shows No Sign of Ending [CNN Business]
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Mercedes to Debut 2020 F1 Car on Valentine's Day [Autoblog]
Kia Planning 11 All-Electric Models by 2025 [The Detroit Bureau]
