Ford bought its way into Rivian’s good graces — and its proprietary “skateboard” electric vehicle platform — with a $500 million pledge back in April of 2019. In January we learned that the “all-new, next-generation battery electric vehicle” promised a year earlier would wear a Lincoln badge, with most observers expecting that model to appear as a midsize, three-row SUV (mirroring Rivian’s own R1S).

Scratch all that, Ford Motor Company said on Tuesday. The joint vehicle is off the table, but the relationship is still on. So what now? (Read More…)

Not sure about you, but these past few weeks has seen yours truly think more about remdesivir and potatoes (at alternating times) than the Buick brand. I’d put the ratio somewhere close to 99:1, though you could add an extra digit to that first number and probably still be bang-on.

Yes, it’s a brand that’s not top of mind, earning itself more headlines for ditching cars than for adding crossovers. And yet, when our lockdowns end the the virus is vanquished and the open road cries out its alluring siren song, cushy, long-legged cruising machines might be the first thing to cross your mind. It seems Buick has just the thing for you, but you’ll have to act fast — and search long and hard. (Read More…)

A South Carolina assembly plant that took major damage from a tornado back on April 13th is making headway in returning to production. It’s still a long way from normal, but the plant’s promise of “limited production” in the coming weeks should be music to the ears of Ford, which relies on the Seneca, SC facility for components for its biggest-margin vehicles.

It still isn’t known when exactly Ford plans to restart vehicle assembly in the U.S., but May 18th has been floated as a possibility. In Seneca, the tornado-toppled BorgWarner plant, builder of transfer cases for 4×4 systems, could be back in business by that point. Sort of. (Read More…)

Amid steep drops in operating profit and a dismal sales outlook, both Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler are appealing to the state in a bid to generate sales demand.

Both automakers appealed to the German government for assistance on Wednesday, Reuters reports, ahead of a meeting of auto industry leaders. With vehicle production making up a big part of Germany’s GDP, the shutdowns enacted to slow the spread of COVID-19 has left the sector hurting. That pain is expected to last through 2020. (Read More…)

The man behind the expressive designs rolling out of Hyundai and the newly sporty elegance of the fledgling Genesis brand is leaving the company. As reported by Automotive News, Luc Donckerwolke, who joined the automaker in 2015 after a prestigious career at Volkswagen Group, is stepping down as chief designer.

The automaker cites “personal reasons” for the resignation. (Read More…)

Call it the coronavirus crash. Ford Motor Company released its first-quarter 2020 financial results late Tuesday, revealing a deep dip into the red as March’s production shutdown and and domestic (and overseas) sales dive ate into earnings.

Free cash flow was negative $2.2 billion last quarter, Ford said, as it reported a net loss of $2 billion. Recall that a big deal was made over the company’s less-than-stellar Q4 2019 earnings report, which carried the weight of recalls and a botched product launch. That report now looks rosy.

As bad as Q1 2020 looks, Ford cautioned investors to brace themselves for an even grimmer Q2. (Read More…)

Typically, using the word “sport” to describe a sportier, more powerful version of a bread and butter model goes over well with consumers. It’s straightforward, leaving little room for confusion.

Well, sport is out at Hyundai, and N Line is in. No, not “N” — that’s the Korean marque’s full-on sporting sub-brand. The trim level below it, which still offers improved power and road-holding, is N Line. Think of it as N Lite, if that helps.

Which is a lengthy way of saying N Line is exactly was Sport was, and will remain when the next-generation Elantra sedan gets around to welcoming a warmed-up variant. (Read More…)

Yes, one day this could all be yours. When the last leases signed for this now defunct model run their course, the base Chevy Cruze could be the depreciation special that finds its way into your driveway. I’ll still be paying mine off. Of course, you can’t criticize anything you read here today too harshly, […]

Ever been to a party where the most interesting person wasn’t the life of the room, but the quiet person in the corner, calmly — perhaps a little shyly — sipping their drink and taking in all the things occurring before them?

Vehicle designers seem like that person. The braggadocious CEOs and upper-level execs can have their carefully scripted buzzwords and future-minded visions of a soulless future filled with robot cars and never not working, but a designer will want to talk about emotion. A feeling. A simple pleasure. A small feature with outsized importance.

Jaguar’s design boss likes to talk about those things, but he’s not afraid to raise the errors of the past. (Read More…)

Nissan can’t catch a break. Instead of the new decade heralding sunnier skies and calmer seas for a financially compromised Nissan, the first quarter of the year (and counting) brought nothing but grief.

Declining sales and shuttered plants spurred by the coronavirus pandemic further destabilized the automaker’s balance sheet. It was the kind of out-of-the-blue event both beancounters and executives feared, occurring just as the automaker was preparing (hoping?) to exit its present crisis with the help of a new CEO and a new plan.

Clearly, that recovery will have to wait, as analysts are now mentioning 2008 in the same sentence as “Nissan.” (Read More…)

Unlike their foreign rivals, Ford, General Motors, and, belatedly, Fiat Chrysler held off on nailing down a specific date for a production restart. The latter company was expected to begin ramping up production starting May 4th, but last week’s announcement by UAW President Rory Gamble made it the odd man out. The plan’s now off the table.

According to one report, the three automakers will present a united front, with each operation coming back online on the same day. (Read More…)

The ongoing fight against an increasingly terrifying virus that can ruin your life in a dozen different ways has led to a conundrum. People are advised to stay at least six feet away from each other, but the spaces we’ve built for people often requires them to move in much closer formation.

Public transit, airliners, nightclubs, even sidewalks are designed for crowds, for people rubbing elbows, for packing in as much humanity as regulations will allow. What happens when every last one of those people suddenly requires an order of magnitude more space? (Read More…)

Following two weeks of unseasonably cold weather that seemed to put spring on hold, Saturday was a gorgeous day in this writer’s city. Warm temps, endless sunshine, and a pandemic that compelled public health officials to tell everyone to stay indoors for the fifth weekend in a row. Or was it the sixth? Time feels more fluid than it once was.

Anyway, yours truly was on the road, seeking an escape from humanity. With too many potential walking or running spaces overrun with people or, oddly, closed off for public safety, I realized I needed to go further afield to distance myself from this constrained, antsy populace. And so I hopped on the highway… and found myself driving in a near-normal level of traffic for the first time since this all began.

Was everyone being an asshole? Was I? (Read More…)

Mitsubishi, the automotive brand TTAC readers can’t get enough of, is going further into money saving mode amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The automaker announced late last week that it will revisit and revise its 2019 fiscal year financial forecast and rein in its spending, starting with the pay checks it sends to officers and directors. (Read More…)

Burning through piles of cash as plants sit idle, sales plummet, and the bulk of its vast workforce still demands payment during the virus-borne production shutdown, General Motors is taking new measures to protect its finances.

On Monday, the automaker announced a number of steps designed to anger shareholders in the short term, but a production restart date remains as elusive as before. (Read More…)