The new year is likely to be a big year when it comes to the auto industry, especially with a new president coming into office who has signaled plans to scrap EV sales incentives and enact hefty new tariffs on imported auto parts and fully assembled vehicles. We’ve...
The explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in front of a hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump Wednesday is now being investigated by the FBI for potential ties to terrorism as well as any connection to the New Orleans truck attack that killed 15 people. Get details at Headlight.News.
While EV sales growth has slowed down this past year, demand was still up by about 10% in 2024. And the numbers would have been even bigger were it not for Tesla. While still the market leader, it suffered a first-ever annual sales decline last year. A variety of factors were at play, including CEO Elon Musk’s increasingly polarizing politics. More from Headlight.News.
He may have had just one term in the White House but it came at a critical time for the nation, as a whole, and for the auto industry, in particular. Former President Jimmy Carter, who passed away over the weekend at the age of 100 oversaw changes to automotive safety and emissions regulations. He was also in the Oval Office at a time of a major oil embargo, an assault by automotive imports and a time of reckoning for Detroit’s automakers – including the near collapse of Chrysler Corp.
In an unprecedented compromise, Volkswagen reached an agreement with its German labor union to cut as many as 35,000 jobs in Germany – though the automaker agreed not to order immediate layoffs or plant closures and dropped a demand for 10% wage cuts. The move avoided a mass walkout by members of the IG Metall union but is billed as a way to curb VW’s bloated labor costs, among the industry’s highest.
There’s been a lot of focus on building up the public EV charging network but the vast majority of owners routinely charge at home. Toyota is helping secure $28 million in funding for startup WeaveGrid in a bid to make home charging easier and more affordable – while also ensuring that the nation’s electrical infrastructure can handle the addition of millions of battery-powered vehicles.
Ford Motor Co.’s been fighting what appears to be a losing battle with quality issues — and the massive costs that come with them — for the past several years. CEO Jim Farley’s acknowledged the problem and is now making moves to improve it. He’s moving the current quality chief to a new role and hiring a new one.
Honda and Nissan are moving forward on talks that could move past simple collaboration. The two Japanese automotive giants may set up a joint holding company, according to a report, though they so far are denying that a merger is in the works. Here’s the latest.
Jean Jennings was a gifted storyteller who became one of the go-to authorities about the auto industry. Unfortunately, she was silenced by Alzheimer’s Disease, passing away this week at the age of 70. Headlight.News takes a look at her life.
It’s been a big year for Korean carmaker Kia, U.S. sales set to reach a new record. To keep momentum going it’s launching plenty of new products in 2025 and looking to enter still more “white space” beyond – a pickup one opportunity under study. But planning ahead is on hold until at least “January 21,” said the brand’s U.S. marketing chief, with the incoming Trump administration poised to address such issues as EV sale mandates and incentives, as well as tariffs on foreign-made vehicles.
General Motors is shutting down its Cruise robocab program, shifting resources to the development of self-driving privately owned vehicles. The move comes a year after the subsidiary was blamed for a near-fatal accident near its San Francisco headquarters. It effectively hands what proponents see as a potentially huge market to competitors like Waymo and Tesla.
Dodge brand boss Tim Kuniskis has returned to Stellantis after retiring in June. He’ll take charge of Ram, the automaker announced Monday. It’s just one of the first steps in what could be a much broader management shake-up to follow the unexpected resignation of Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares earlier this month.