Aurelia Butler

A Toyota executive believes average new-car prices will surpass the $50,000 mark in 2023, according to a report by Automotive News.Jack Hollis, head of sales for Toyota North America, said demand will keep exceeding the company’s ability to build new vehicles, as pandemic-induced supply-chain issues continue in 2023.Higher costs of raw materials are also a contributing factor, and while some of these costs are being passed onto the consumers, Hollis said Toyota is “eating it in our own profitability.”In February, average new-car prices reached a new peak, jumping by 4.8 percent from a year ago to $46,229, according to J.D. Power. The consistent increases over the past few years may seem untenable—like the bubble will have to burst soon—but a Toyota executive thinks the average is only going to continue rising. Jack Hollis, head of sales for Toyota’s North American division, said he believes the average transaction price will crest the $50,000 mark in 2023, as reported by Automotive News.ToyotaAlthough Hollis believes that an economic recession is already underway, it does not match the usual expectations for how the market in recession should behave, with demand for new cars remaining extremely high. “We will sell every vehicle that we can make,” Hollis explained. “The only thing holding us back is the totality of the supply chain and the fragility of it, because we’re not back to normal anywhere globally.”Hollis thinks that the U.S. car market could account for nearly 17 million sales in 2023, if it weren’t for supply issues. The 15 million predicted sales for this year leaves “another 2 million vehicles added to pent-up demand.” This will result in continued strong demand in the used-car market, lessening depreciation and keeping residual values high. More on Car PricesThe rising prices have mostly been the result of higher raw material costs, according to Bob Young, vice president of purchasing supplier development for Toyota. While Young says there are starting to be improvements in this area, the reduction in material prices likely won’t be seen by consumers until 2024. Hollis predicts that Toyota and Lexus—which combined moved 2.1 million units in the U.S. in 2022—could add another 100,000 sales, but the company’s market share might suffer. The higher material prices might also need to be soaked up by the automakers. Hollis acknowledged they are trying to figure out how much they can pass onto consumers, but said, “We’re eating it in our own profitability.” The company expects to end 2023 similarly to how it ended 2022, with only around 30,000 vehicles in inventory on dealership lots due to the heavy demand.This content is imported from poll. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.Associate News EditorCaleb Miller began blogging about cars at 13 years old, and he realized his dream of writing for a car magazine after graduating from Carnegie Mellon University and joining the Car and Driver team. He loves quirky and obscure autos, aiming to one day own something bizarre like a Nissan S-Cargo, and is an avid motorsports fan. More

WWE champ turned superstar actor John Cena made his first appearance in the Fast & Furious franchise with F9 in 2021. If there was any doubt about his enthusiast credentials, we can put them to rest right now thanks to this interview.Cena appeared on the Whisky Ginger w/ Andrew Santino podcast last week, where he revealed his daily driver: a Honda Civic Type R. The clip about the hot hatch was also shared widely on Twitter and TikTok.This content is imported from Tiktok. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.”It’s got tech, it’s manual, it’s reliable,” Cena said. “It’s a 2020 and it’s got a third pedal. At 145 [mph] it’s stable. It’s got seats in the back, I can actually pick people up.”In F9, Cena, who played Dominic Toretto’s brother Jakob, drove a Ford Mustang and a Toyota Supra. More Cena, More Type R”If you have a purse in a Countach, you’re screwed,” Cena added. “They’re a little rough around the edges. The clutch is a dogfight and it’s really tough to get those things running right. So if I actually need to drive a car more than 10 miles, it’s the Civic.”Check out the full interview right here:This content is imported from Tiktok. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.It’s John Cena! | Whiskey Ginger w/ Andrew Santino 231Watch onYouTube IconYouTube IconRoad & Track staff writer with a taste for high-mileage, rusted-out projects and amateur endurance racing. More

GM has launched a new educational tool called EV Live to answer customers’ questions about electric vehicles and how to charge them.The site is open to all—you can ask about charging, range, and even non-GM products, though they’re happy to discuss GM vehicles and technology.On evlive.gm.com, users can schedule a live session with a real person.Other carmakers have various means of educating and informing potential electric-vehicle buyers about EVs, but none has gone as far as General Motors’ new EV Live. Through an online web address, evlive.gm.com, anyone who wants to can schedule a meeting with a living, breathing, walking, and talking product expert who can answer just about any question or concern you may have about electric cars. More on EV LiveThe experts can also literally take you inside any of GM’s various electric-car offerings, from a Bolt EUV to a BrightDrop commercial vehicle, all from a space inside GM’s Tech Center in Warren, Michigan. EV charging questions are open for discussion, too. “Anybody can access it—it’s always available, and it’s free,” said Hoss Hossani, GM’s vice president of the EV Ecosystem. “It’s not just for GM customers. It’s really for anybody. It’s basically an interactive education platform.”A potential customer uses EVLive online on a tablet.GMAnd the answers cover the whole of the EV universe, delivered by a real person.”There’s a lot of content on the site,” Hossani said. “The ideal experience is to actually speak with one of our EV Live specialists that are real humans. These aren’t avatars or bots or ChatGPT AI. Behind the scenes is a real human being. You can see them on video (they can’t see you), and you can ask them literally any question you have about EVs: charging, range, batteries, longevity, sustainability, recyclability, cost of ownership. They’re really there to help demystify EVs for the masses. And for folks who are on the fence, or maybe they don’t believe in EVs altogether. So that’s the gist of what EV Live is all about.”We Put It to the TestI got to try it out. A technician in a big hotel meeting room in Los Angeles showed me the EV Live experience on a large TV screen. Most people will be watching this on their phones, though you can connect to it on any internet-capable device. Immediately I was whisked virtually into a studio in wonderful Warren, Michigan, and there was a confident and friendly EV expert. She showed me around the EUV Bolt, pointing out a few features.I asked a question I’ve heard many times: How can I charge an EV if I live in an apartment? “Oh gosh, we have lots of solutions,” said Jen, the EV specialist on the screen. Know Your StuffJen told me that she herself wants to buy a Chevy Bolt EUV. In her apartment complex there is a charging hub for residents, with three charging cables available, she said, and that at some workplaces there are charging outlets that allow EV owners to charge while at work. And if that doesn’t do it for you, there are more fast chargers being built all the time. For public chargers, you can get an EVGo credit of $500, Jen said. I asked about BrightDrop, GM’s commercial-electric vehicle. Jen recommended I set up a tour with Trish, the EV Live BrightDrop specialist. GM offers a lot of EVs, with more coming soon.GMThere are separate GM EV Live studios for Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC. “We have this very seamless handoff between the EV Live studio and, for example, the Chevy studio if you want to find out more about the Equinox that’s coming out—whether it’s a gasoline Equinox, or the electric Equinox—this studio is meant to be focused on that education, around EVs.”EV Live is not the only way for customers to become educated about GM EVs.”Every General Motors customer, if they have a Chevrolet, they have a myChevrolet app. If they’ve got a GMC, they have a myGMC app,” said Hossani. “People are initiating a live call or looking to go deeper than the information we’re providing on the website, which is the whole point, to allow us to have deeper conversations that are more personalized to your individual use case.”Why this? Why now? Last year 6 percent of vehicles sold in the U.S. were electric. That could be a tipping point.”Based on what we’ve seen in China and in Europe, once you hit that 5 or 6 percent of new-vehicle sales being EVs, you start to see an acceleration,” said Hossani. “So the next five years, we’ll see it become a tipping point. I see a lot more people getting into electric over the next five years than we did over the last 10.” Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism. He started writing for City News Service in Los Angeles, then moved to Europe and became editor of a car magazine called, creatively, Auto. He decided Auto should cover Formula 1, sports prototypes and touring cars—no one stopped him! From there he interviewed with Autoweek at the 1989 Frankfurt motor show and has been with us ever since. More