Private hire company Uber is apparently testing an autonomous car on the streets of Pittsburgh. The company says it’s a Ford Fusion hybrid with all of the key items in the self-driving recipe book - laser scanners, high-res cameras, radar arrays.
Customers are leaking out of dealerships, costing millions in lost revenue. The parts and service side of dealerships represents US$4.8m (NZ$7.1m) in revenue for the average United States dealership For each dollar service revenue, roughly, a dealership gets a dollar of bottom-line profit.
Tesla has cool tricks - it prides itself on them. But it’s had issue an update for its Knight Ridery ‘Summon’ mode on Model X and Model S.
Nissan has taken a 34% stake in scandal-hit Mitsubishi for NZ$3.1bn. The purchase makes Nissan the largest shareholder in Mitsubishi, and puts it over the one-third ownership threshold that Japanese corporate law uses to define a takeover.
Nissan is close to taking over struggling Mitsubishi. Japan’s number two manufacturer is reportedly set to buy a stake in Mitsubishi for 200bn yen (AUD$2.4bn).
The first shipment of new Mazda CX-9 SUVs has snuck into Australia ahead of its July launch. A direct shipment from Japan with 60 of the new model docked in Melbourne yesterday.
Hino says its top-floor restructure will make it more agile. A new, more streamlined senior management structure at Hino Australia, will make the company even more agile when it responds to customer requirements.
Nissan’s launched a pilot in the UK to feed power stored in 100 Leaf electric cars back into the power network.
Japan has shrugged off the hoodoo that’s seen its passenger vehicle sales underperforming this year - rising 2.23% in April, compared to April 2015.
Relaxing rules on vehicle imports may kill used car values and push up finance costs, say auto trade insiders.