They’re some of the smallest cars in the world and make up 40% of the Japanese domestic market. But could “Kei cars” find a niche here in the United States? That’s something Pres. Don Trump suggested this week as he announced a rollback of federal fuel economy standards. More from Headlight.News.
Initially positioned as Ford’s primary SUV for family buyers, the crossover was scheduled to end its run as 2025 draws to a close. But it’s gotten a new lease on life, reports Headlight.News Mexican correspondent David Loji, though in a quite different way from what we are used to.
Days after announcing plans to invest another $10 billion in the U.S. market, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda turned up his effort to minimize trade tensions between Japan and the United States by showing up in a MAGA hat and Trump-Vance campaign T-shirt at the NASCAR race at Fuji Speedway. Headlight.News has more.
As trade friction grows, General Motors wants its suppliers to stop sourcing parts and raw materials from China by 2027, according to a new report, though meeting that deadline could be challenging considering the way the global network has been set up over the last few decades. More from Headlight.News.
Sales have never lived up to expectation for the Ford F-150 Lightning, one of the market’s first all-electric pickups. The automaker idled production last month due to a shortage of aluminum and officials there reportedly are considering whether to scrap the nameplate entirely. Headlight.News has more.
Automakers suffered saw a sharp drop in electric vehicle sales during October as federal EV tax credit ended. But even sales of gas models leveled off as prices, driven higher by Trump’s auto tariffs, drove many mainstream buyers out of the market. As Headlight.News reports, the industry has become more dependent than ever on affluent households for new sales.
This year’s Japan Mobility Show proves there’s still plenty of life left on the auto show circuit. The biennial event brought out dozens of new cars, concepts – and even a rocket – during its media preview. Headlight.News was in Tokyo and takes a look at some of the most significant products to debut there.
Toyota committed to invest another $10 billion in the United States, as negotiations on a new U.S.-Japan trade deal moved forward — prompting Pres. Donald Trump to tell troops stationed in Japan, “Go out and buy a Toyota.” In an exclusive report, Headlight.News reports Toyota also is looking for ways to boost U.S. auto exports to Japan.
There were high hopes when Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and the PSA Group officially completed their merger on January 16, 2021. But things haven’t worked out quite as planned, the automaker now known as Stellantis struggling to reverse a sharp decline in sales and earnings. While the company insists it’s on the mend, some wonder if it would be better to consider this a failed experiment and break the company up. That notably includes former CEO Carlos Tavares. Headlight.News has more.
Stellantis has temporarily halted production at a Jeep plant in Warren, Michigan, even as three Ford plants sit idle. All face a shortage of aluminum due to a fire at a supplier plant. Meanwhile, automakers are beginning to fret there could be more closures coming across the industry due to semiconductor shortages – repeating a crisis that cast the industry millions of vehicles in lost production during the COVID crisis. Headlight.News has more.
The Trump administration’s trade war is proving costly for the auto industry which will wind up paying about $10.6 billion in tariffs – just on autos and auto parts imported from Canada and Mexico – through the end of October, and while they’ve largely absorbed most of those costs, so far, consumers can expect to start seeing more of those tariffs passed on in new vehicle prices in 2026 and beyond, reports Headlight.News.
Stellantis will invest $13 billion to increase production and add new products in the U.S. market, the company revealed, noting that this will be the largest investment in the history of the Chrysler Corp. side of the trans-Atlantic automaker. It also marks a...