Automotive News

TOKYO — Honda aims to wow with three world premieres at next month’s Japan Mobility Show, including a concept model of an electric sports car that could be a spiritual successor to the NSX.
Also on tap will be a pint-size EV concept called the Sustainia-C made of recycled acrylic resin in a nod to environmentally sustainable technologies planned for tomorrow’s cars.
Among the new four-wheeled offerings on display, Honda Motor Co. also plans a two-seat micro EV pod car called the CI-MEV. It uses “cooperative intelligence” and automated driving technology to deliver easy last-mile mobility for people in areas with no public transportation.

Honda outlined the debuts in a Tuesday statement detailing its plans for the Japan Mobility Show. The reincarnated Tokyo Motor Show runs Oct. 25-Nov. 5, with media days on Oct. 25-26.
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, which organizes the event, wants to cast a wider net beyond traditional automakers by rebranding the exhibition as a mobility show.
As such, Honda’s stand will host an assortment of far-flung mobility products.
Motorcycles of all kinds will be out in force, including all-electric two-wheelers. But so too will be airborne mobility such as the Honda Jet, represented by a full-size interior mock-up.
Looking further into the future, the company will show its Honda eVTOL, which models a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle to be powered by a gas turbine hybrid system.
An avatar robot with a multifingered hand will be unveiled, envisaging a product that allows people to perform tasks remotely. And Honda will proffer its Uni-One hands-free seated mobility device, a kind of runabout stool that a person steers simply by shifting weight.
As for the EV sports car, Honda was short on details.
Honda offered only this insight about its so-called Specialty Sports Concept: “The concept model of an electric sports car which will enable the driver to experience the pure joy of driving (driving pleasure) and transcend the constraints of time, even in the era of electrification for carbon neutrality and the popularization of automated driving technology.”
Last year, CEO Toshihiro Mibe said Honda wants to launch two all-electric sports cars in the mid-2020s. One will be a “specialty” vehicle, the other a “flagship model.”
Teaser shots released at the time depicted cars under wraps with low-slung silhouettes reminiscent of the NSX. Acura retired its NSX hybrid supercar last year, capping its run with just 350 of the high-performance NSX Type S variant. The Integra Type S will fill the role of Acura’s halo performance vehicle for now, but it’s possible an all-electric NSX could pop up in 2026.
Japan’s No. 2 automaker is in the midst of a radical corporate makeover to fully ditch internal combustion by 2040. As part of the carbon neutral push, it has unveiled plans to roll out 30 full electric vehicles globally and build production capacity for 2 million EVs annually by 2030.

Tesla and European automakers that export from China to the European Union will be part of the bloc’s probe into whether the country’s electric vehicles industry is receiving unfair subsidies, the Financial Times reported, citing Brussels’ most senior trade official.
The European Commission has launched an investigation into whether to impose punitive tariffs to protect EU producers against cheaper Chinese EV imports that it says are benefiting from state subsidies.
EU executive vice president Valdis Dombrovskis said the probe is not limited to EVs from Chinese brands.
“It can be also other producers’ vehicles if they are receiving production-side subsidies,” Dombrovskis told the Financial Times.
Tesla exports the Model 3 to Europe from its Shanghai plant, Renault exports the Dacia Spring EV to Europe from China, BMW exports its China-built iX3 EV to Europe and some Volvo models as well as Polestar models sold in Europe are built in China.
During the evidence-gathering precipitating the EU’s announcement this month of its anti-subsidy probe into Chinese EVs, Tesla was among the companies found to have likely benefited, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
The investigation’s aim is to determine whether, and to what degree, China has subsidized Tesla and domestic manufacturers including BYD, SAIC Motor and Nio, and to take any necessary counter measures to level the playing field for the EU’s industry, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations.
Tesla started exporting Model 3 sedans built at its Shanghai factory in late 2020, less than a year after starting production at its first car plant outside the U.S. By July 2021, Tesla referred to the facility as its primary vehicle export hub.
Through the first seven months, Tesla sold an estimated 93,700 China-made vehicles across Western Europe, accounting for roughly 47 percent of its total deliveries, according to Schmidt Automotive Research. The next biggest EV exporter from China to Europe was SAIC’s MG, with roughly 57,500 registrations.

Tesla has enjoyed perks in China that other international companies struggled to obtain, the most notable being the Chinese government’s blessing to wholly own its domestic operations, rather than have to share custody with a local joint venture partner.
Tax breaks, cheap loans and other assistance helped turn China into Tesla’s most important market outside the U.S.
These and other forms of support that China provides domestic manufacturers, including credits from state-owned banks, capital provisions from state investment funds, and provisions of land and electricity, are now coming under EU scrutiny. Chinese automakers also benefit from subsidies in related sectors across the value chain, including batteries and software.
The EU probe has the potential to reshape the competitive dynamics in Europe, the world’s second-largest EV market, after China.
Both sides have ample reason to proceed carefully: While the EU risks exposing its manufacturers to potential retaliation, the bloc is the most attractive export destination for Chinese companies rife with excess production capacity.

BMW and Renault operate joint ventures with Chinese manufacturers. A BMW spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment and a representative from Renault had no immediate comment. 
After having collected initial evidence that formed the basis for launching the investigation, the EU is now looking to consult with relevant authorities — including in China — and companies to determine how much subsidies might be undercutting EU producers, if at all.
In recent probes of other sectors such as e-bikes and fiber-optic cables, the EU discovered subsidy margins ranging from 4 percent to 17 percent, people familiar with the findings said.
Any edge is critical in the low-margin auto industry, which Europe is increasingly pressuring to electrify as part of its broader Green Deal initiatives.
The EU adopted standards earlier this year requiring manufacturers to slash CO2 emissions 55 percent from new passenger cars by 2030, and to allow only zero emission car to be sold after 2035.
Bloomberg and Reuters contributed to this report

The European Union’s probe into Beijing’s electric-vehicle subsidies is meant to protect its carmakers from a flood of cheap Chinese cars. But if it leads to tit-for-tat tariffs, Mercedes-Benz  and BMW’s biggest moneymakers will be most exposed.
For Germany’s high-end manufacturers, including Porsche, China has proven an insatiable market for their most expensive models, such as the Mercedes S-Class, BMW 7-Series and Porsche Cayenne. Those vehicles, however, are mainly imported, putting them in the line of fire if Beijing retaliates against any EU measures.
“Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones,” Bernstein analysts Daniel Roeska and Eunice Lee said in a research note. The three German luxury-carmakers are at greatest risk of taking a big hit should the trade dispute escalate, they said.
China is the biggest destination for Germany’s most expensive vehicles. Last year, the country accounted for more than a third of global sales of BMW’s 7-series and Mercedes’ S-Class. The 1.47 million yuan ($201,000) ultraluxury Maybach built by Mercedes ships more than 1,000 times a month from Chinese showrooms.

For Volkswagen Group subsidiary Audi, China made up more than a third of global sales. Last year, the carmaker exported to China more than 10,000 of its A8 luxury sedans, which are made exclusively in Neckersulm, Germany.
Roeska and Lee estimate that Chinese revenue streams represent more than 25 percent of the German automakers’ underlying net income.
For some higher-volume models such as smaller and mid-sized sedans, BMW and Mercedes have local manufacturing partnerships that allow them to sell those cars without the current 15 percent import tariff. But their high-end models are generally produced in Europe and North America.

Mercedes sold more than 750,000 cars in China last year. A bit more than 20 percent were imported. BMW shipped in about a third of Chinese deliveries while Porsche does not build any cars in China.
The exposure has only increased in recent years as the carmakers, faced with supply chain logjams, focused resources on making and selling their highest margin vehicles. Under CEO Ola Kallenius, Mercedes has been pursuing a luxury-first strategy, partly modeled on the company’s sales profile in China.

The EU’s chief trade negotiator Valdis Dombrovskis reaffirmed the bloc’s “more assertive” stance on trade with China in a speech in Beijing on Monday.
If China decides to respond with import tariffs, “Made in Germany” — long considered a badge of sophistication — could prove a drawback.

An armed man shot and killed a female employee at a Calif. dealership last week, authorities said. The suspect was later shot and killed by police.
The shooting occurred at Toyota of Berkeley Certified Service Center last Thursday, according to a statement released by Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguín. The shooting was an act of domestic violence, the Alameda Co. Sheriff’s office said.
The center is in Albany, Calif., but authorities from Berkeley and Alameda Co. responded to the shooting along with Albany police. Berkeley police officers were the first to arrive at the scene after authorities received reports of an active shooter shortly after 11 a.m., the sheriff’s office said.
Berkeley police found the suspect on the second floor of the building and multiple officers discharged their weapons. The suspect was shot in the exchange; his death is being investigated as an officer-involved shooting by the sheriff’s department.

Berkeley police’s “rapid response may have prevented further casualties. We are grateful to our officers for putting their lives on the line to confront this armed suspect,” Arreguín wrote in the statement. “On behalf of the City of Berkeley I want to extend our heartfelt condolences to the victim’s family.”
The sheriff’s office said witnesses told them the suspect entered the building and shot the victim, whose name has not been released. The suspect’s name also was being withheld by authorities. It is unclear if he had any connection to the dealership beyond his relationship with the victim.
The victim identified sales leads in the store’s business development center, local TV station KTVU Fox 2 reported. A spokesperson for the sheriff’s office said Albany police would be investigating her death.
Toyota of Berkeley did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for the Berkeley police could not say if there were any other injuries from the incident.

Porsche will switch its flagship model — the Cayenne crossover — to battery power in 2027.
Meanwhile, the sports car maker is broadening the nameplate’s lineup with plug-in hybrid offerings.
The 2024 Cayenne S E-Hybrid, available in coupe and crossover body styles, will be the third electrified Cayenne model when it arrives in the U.S. in spring.
The midsize crossover will start at $100,750, while the coupe launches at $105,650. Both prices include shipping.
The third-generation Cayenne is likely the final internal combustion engine version. Production is expected to end in early 2029, according to AutoForecast Solutions.
The Cayenne is Porsche’s second-bestseller after the Macan compact crossover, accounting for 8,911 U.S. sales in the first half of this year.

The new Cayenne variant, which slots between the E-Hybrid and the performance Turbo E-Hybrid PHEV models, delivers on the attribute that Porsche buyers crave — power, said Ryan Kirchner, new-vehicle sales manager at Porsche Main Line near Philadelphia.

The S E-Hybrid “fills the power gap,” Kirchner said. “Porsche wants its customers to be able to build their dream car, so that means having several variants to fit individual preferences.”
The Cayenne S E-Hybrid targets the Porsche customer seeking affordable performance, relatively speaking. The top-of-the-line V-8 twin-turbo-powered Turbo E-Hybrid carries a nearly 50 percent premium with its $153,050 starting price.
The newest Cayenne PHEV is aimed at consumers who find the E-Hybrid variant too tepid and the Turbo E too much, said Ivan Drury, insights director at Edmunds. He said the variant risks cannibalizing sales of the more aggressive and even the standard Cayenne hybrids.
“But in true Porsche fashion, the S E-Hybrid offering allows Porsche’s picky customer base to have their Cayenne in any flavor that best suits their needs,” Drury said.
The S E-Hybrid has a high-power three-liter V-6 turbo engine, compared with a V-8 on the gasoline-powered equivalent. The PHEV’s 348-hp engine is paired with a 174-hp electric motor, delivering a combined output of 512 hp and 553 pound-feet of torque. That power propels the crossover from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds, and it reaches the quarter-mile marker in 13 seconds, a tenth of a second quicker than its nonhybrid twin-turbo V-8 counterpart.
Kirchner said the absence of a V-8 is unlikely to tap the brakes on adoption of the new hybrid model. “I don’t think it will hurt demand because those are different customers,” he said.

The S E-Hybrid is powered by a 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery mounted below the trunk. An 11-kilowatt on-board charger can juice up the vehicle in about 2.5 hours with a Level 2 charger on a 240-volt circuit. While Porsche has not disclosed EPA estimates on the S E-Hybrid’s electric-only range, the base E-Hybrid with a similar-sized battery goes about 55 miles with zero emissions based on European test cycles.
The crossover rides on an adaptive air suspension system with a new two-chamber, two-valve technology as standard equipment. According to Porsche, it allows separate compression and rebound settings adjustments, improving comfort and handling. The suspension also reduces dive and squat motions when accelerating and braking.

Porsche is upping value by including more bells and whistles as standard equipment, including 20-inch wheels, high-definition LED headlights, and an exhaust system with two twin tailpipes in brushed stainless steel.
Standard interior features in the S E-Hybrid include eight-way seats and stainless steel pedal pads. Optional features include a new air quality system that filters particles and hazardous substances.
The latest PHEV carries over a new driver-focused concept blending digital and analog worlds that debuted in the Cayenne this summer.
New dashboard elements from Porsche’s electric Taycan fastback include a free-standing, curved 12.6-inch digital instrument cluster and a revamped center console. A multifunction steering wheel, introduced in the latest-generation Porsche 911, puts driving mode controls and instrument cluster display settings within easy reach.
The Cayenne’s gear selector is moved to the right of the steering wheel, making space for a large air-conditioning controller on the center console. The vertical air outlets ditch their traditional louvers.
An optional 10.9-inch passenger display takes the fun beyond the driver’s seat. Passengers can use the touch screen to operate the navigation system or select media content. Screen-dimming technology prevents the driver from viewing the passenger screen.