Welcome to the Daily 5 report for Tuesday, Jan. 7.
It seems remarkable that an automaker could have only eight design chiefs over nearly 100 years, but that's the case with General Motors following today's promotion of Bryan Nesbitt to succeed Michael Simcoe on July 1. In comparison, GM has been led by 14 CEOs, including the current boss, Mary Barra, since it was founded in 1908.
A big reason for the longevity of GM design chiefs was the incredibly long tenure of the iconic Harley Earl, who held the post from 1927 to 1958. He was followed by Bill Mitchell, who took the reins until 1977. Irv Rybicki presided over the department until 1986, when Chuck Jordan took charge until 1992. He was followed by Wayne Cherry, who finished his tenure in 2003. Ed Welburn followed with his successful run in the job until 2016, when Simcoe took over. Simcoe, 67, was named an Automotive News All-Star for design in 2024.
Nesbitt, 55, has an impressive legacy to follow.
In other news today, BMW emerged as the winner of the U.S. luxury sales crown for 2024 in a tight race with Toyota's Lexus brand. As Larry P. Vellequette reports, BMW of North America said its U.S. sales rose 8.9 percent to 117,506 in the fourth quarter, allowing the German brand to finish the year up 2.5 percent at 371,346. Lexus had its best U.S. sales year at 345,669 to take second place, while Mercedes-Benz finished up 8 percent at 88,259 in the final quarter, and ended the year up 9 percent at 324,528, finishing third.
Meanwhile, CES continued to attract headlines following the splash from last night's keynote speech by Nvidia's charismatic CEO, Jensen Huang. As we reported, the chip giant is adding more automakers and behemoth suppliers to its already star-studded client roster. At last glance, Nvidia's market value has reached a staggering $3.47 trillion — with a T. That's compared with Tesla's mere $1.26 trillion.
On Wall Street, the ongoing battle between used-car retailer Carvana Co. and short-seller Hindenburg Research emerged again with Carvana announcing Ally Financial renewed an agreement for the lender to purchase up to $4 billion in used-vehicle loan receivables through the start of 2026. Carvana shares rose 5 percent to close the day at $198.35.
Looking ahead to Wednesday, we'll have an in-depth analysis on all the loose ends that remain to be tied up in the merger talks between Honda Motor Co. and Nissan Motor Co. — including Nissan's alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi and all the other companies with a stake in such a combination.
That's it for now. Have a great rest of your day.
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— Philip Nussel, online editor
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