Paul A. Eistenstein’s (2019) story about the end of production for the Volkswagen Beetle makes an odd editorial decision. He treats the Beetle as a unified product line that stretches all the way back to […]
When I started reading Automotive News in the mid-70s, one thing that struck me was how few women were in leadership positions. Only one or two would be listed on two-page displays of industry “all […]
Elon Musk now admits that Tesla nearly died last summer. The sidelined CEO told Axios on HBO that “the company was bleeding money like crazy” during the Model 3 production ramp up. Musk added that […]
In developing an electric truck, Rivian Automotive has promised to reset expectations about a market segment that has been short on innovation for decades. At least that’s what R. J. Scaringe, CEO of the Detroit-based start-up, told […]
In his rousing introduction to Auto Extremist’s annual “Brand Image Meter,” Peter DeLorenzo (2018) argues that “image wrangling is now the Number 1 priority in this business.” The reason is that a “democratization of technology […]
Press reports indicate that a freshening of the Toyota Prius will tone down its sci-fi styling. In the wake of drastically lower sales, “the base Prius will likely get some minor tweaks to its front and […]
With the 2015 redesign of the Mustang, Ford had the potential to reassert its leadership in what I have referred to as the faux pony car field. Instead, Ford took the cheap and easy way […]
(UPDATED 12/15/2022) Volkswagen Group’s global design chief Walter de Silva is worried that optimizing aerodynamics in order to meet tightening emissions standards could hurt aesthetics and branding. In an Automotive News question-and-answer piece, he complained […]
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