Leo Michael Cartoons - Q1 2021

Production complications due to the microchip shortage are hitting Ford, General Motors, Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Volvo.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now also the "Technoking of Tesla," and CFO Zach Kirkhorn has added the title "Master of Coin," according to a regulatory filing. Jerome Guillen is now president of Tesla heavy trucking.

First, manufacturers were shut by the pandemic. Then as demand rebounded, vital microchips became scarce. Now a shortage of seat foam could be the next kink in automotive supply chains.

Despite a pandemic that shut down some stores' showrooms for most of last spring, U.S. dealerships on average posted their highest profits ever in 2020.

Jaguar is about to undergo its fourth reinvention in five decades as owner Tata Group takes a second crack at shaking up a brand whose glorious past has rarely translated into a profitable present or sustainable future.

AutoForecast Solutions has increased its estimate of how many vehicles will be lost as a result of the supply line problem. Globally, the forecasting firm says the industry has already announced volume cuts totaling 680,350 vehicles, and forecasts that number could grow to 1,321,701 as other auto plants and their supply chains run out of microchips.

Auto retailers have added back most of the jobs lost during the coronavirus pandemic and are scouring the hospitality and leisure industries to fill remaining slots.

Fourteen years ago, General Motors surprised the industry by unveiling the Chevrolet Volt, a car meant to kick-start the automaker's journey toward electrification. In another 14 years, GM hopes to sell nothing but EVs.

James David Power III, who turned a scrappy home business that tracked customer satisfaction with new-vehicle quality into a giant global market research firm, died January 23. He was 89.

Stellantis is here, and that means some of the seven Fiat Chrysler Automobiles brands, coupled with the five of PSA are bringing to the table, might not be around for much longer.

It was a banner week for General Motors, with a new EV logo and a stock price jump.