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Airbag recall widens to include BMW, Chrysler, Ford and Toyota

The recall of faulty airbag inflators supplied by Takata has exploded today to grow to seven automakers. In most cases, only models in certain high-humidity regions were affected because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration found in its investigation that moisture played a roll in determining whether there would be a problem. However, some companies opted for national campaigns. The exact number of affected models for these campaigns isn't yet known at this time.
BMW is recalling an undisclosed number of 325i, 325Xi, 330i and 330Xi models from the 2001 through 2005 model years and the 2001-2006 model year versions of the 325Ci and 330Ci for the driver side and passenger side inflators. Only vehicles currently registered in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands are covered under this recall.
Neither Chrysler's filing with NHTSA nor its press release list the specific models affected, but a company spokesperson told Autoblog that at this time it only covers the driver and passenger side inflators for the 2006 Dodge Charger in Florida, Puerto Rico, Hawaii and the US Virgin Islands

Lexus back in luxury sales race after three-year absence

Think the only challengers for the title of best-selling luxury brand hail from der Vaterland? Wrong. Lexus outsold the likes of Mercedes-Benz for the second time in 2014 last month. In fact, the Japanese luxury marque's total sales this year are a mere 12,000 units behind BMW.
Lexus was able to move 26,921 vehicles last month, a year-over-year increase of 21.1 percent, respectively. Mercedes, meanwhile, was just barely beaten, moving 26,617 units in April. The difference, though, is that Lexus has made far bigger year-over-year gains than Mercedes, which recorded a YOY increase of just 4.13 percent.
This is particularly troubling for the Germans, as it marks a return to form for Lexus that we haven't seen since before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami that decimated Japan. Prior to that natural disaster, Lexus enjoyed nearly a dozen years at the top of the luxury heap.

Anti-EV, pro-hybrid ad from Lexus gets a whole lot wrong

Tell us if you're surprised that Toyota (through its Lexus brand) is putting out some questionable information about electric vehicles. While it's one thing for company executives to be anti-EV, it's quite another to put out obviously false information when you speak ill of plug-in vehicles, especially when you also sell them. The automaker offers the RAV4 EV and Prius Plug-In, albeit in limited numbers, First, let's look at what Lexus is saying. On the company's consumer site, in the hybrid section, there are a number of slick videos. In one ("Hybrid Overview"), Lexus makes it look like charging an EV takes four hours. That may be true in some situations, but the video shows an anonymous driver plugging a Nissan Leaf into something that looks like a AeroVironment DC fast charger, which takes around a half hour to charge. Granted, the site has a disclaimer that says, the "charge time represents the average time to charge from empty to full using typically available 240V commercial charging stations," but in everyday use, that's not something EV drivers often do. Charged EVs mentions two previous studies that show how most EV charging is done at home. Lexus knows all this, of course, but doesn't mention it. Lexus says that there are 20 states with an "established infrastructure" for hydrogen. Another video on the site, one that talks about future alternative powertrain technologies, says that there are 20 states with an "established infrastructure" for hydrogen and 37 with the same for electric vehicles. It also blatantly says that we need to consider all of the emissions from the fossil fuels used to make electricity (carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, etc.) but does not say anything about the fossil fuel emissions used to make hydrogen. You can see some screen grabs in the gallery or watch the video yourself. It's all blatantly one-sided, especially since the official numbers from the Department Of Energy say that there are Level 2 public EV chargers in literally every state except Alaska and only 11 public hydrogen stations in the US. Ten of them are in California, the other is in South Carolina. A Lexus spokesman told AutoblogGreen it will ask TeamOne, its ad agency, and the Lexus marketing department for clarification on where the data in the videos comes from. We will update this post when we hear back.