News

Honda Stays in the Black Despite Industry Squeeze, Sets New Electrified Sales Record

American Honda wrapped November with 102,824 units sold, a double-digit monthly drop but still enough to keep the company 1.8% ahead year-to-date—a respectable feat in a market still hamstrung by semiconductor shortages and supply-chain snags. What’s keeping Honda’s momentum alive? A balanced product mix, big gains from fresh sheetmetal, and an electrified lineup that just notched a new annual sales record.

Honda: Trucks Pull the Weight, Hybrids Surge

The Honda brand delivered 91,582 vehicles in November and continues to run 1.8% ahead YTD. Light trucks remain the backbone of the lineup, crossing 60,000 monthly sales for the 10th consecutive month.

Passport Breaks Records

The all-new Honda Passport was the standout, logging its best November ever at 4,363 units, a massive 73% jump YTD. Honda’s midsize SUV continues to carve out its niche between the compact CR-V and full-size Pilot.

CR-V Continues to Dominate

Unsurprisingly, the CR-V led the brand—and the company—yet again with 29,421 units sold. More than half (54%) of those were hybrids, underscoring Honda’s accelerated shift toward electric-assisted drivetrains.

Other Notables

  • HR-V: 10,821 units, strong volume for Honda’s entry-level crossover.
  • Pilot: 9,234 units, continuing to rebound with the latest redesign.
  • Ridgeline: 3,352 units, up YTD as Honda’s unconventional pickup finds its audience.
  • Odyssey: 5,492 units, showing year-to-date growth in a shrinking minivan segment.

Passenger Cars Hold Steady

Honda cars nearly hit the 28,000-unit mark.

  • Civic: 17,353 units in November, with the Civic Hybrid setting a new November record at 6,426 units, accounting for 37% of the mix.
  • Accord: 10,613 units, with hybrids making up 47%.

Electrified Honda Models Smash Annual Record

Honda’s hybrid and electrified portfolio delivered 28,258 units in November, pushing the brand to a record 385,453 electrified sales YTD. That’s 30.9% of all Honda sales, and a clear indicator of where product planning—and consumer demand—are headed.

Acura: Momentum Led by Integra and the New ADX

Acura sold 11,242 vehicles in November, a marginal dip for the month but still 1.9% ahead YTD, with over 121,000 units sold so far in 2025.

Gateway Models Power the Brand

The entry duo—the sporty Integra and the newly launched ADX—hit their best combined performance yet with 4,781 units in November.

  • The ADX, Acura’s latest compact luxury crossover, posted a new monthly record at 2,837 units and already holds a segment-leading 30% share only months after launch.
  • The Integra recorded 1,944 units, its best since April, maintaining its own 37% segment share.

SUVs Back on the Rise

Acura’s SUVs totaled 8,659 units, up 6.5% YTD.

  • MDX + RDX: A combined 5,800 units, their strongest month since May.

The Bottom Line: Honda’s Strategy Is Working

Despite a rough November—cars down 5.6%, trucks down 18.8% year over year—American Honda’s broader story is one of stability and strategic success:

  • Light trucks continue to be the sales engine.
  • Hybrids are surging across both Honda and Acura.
  • New models like Passport and ADX are outperforming expectations.
  • Electrified vehicles are now central, not supplemental, to Honda’s sales mix.

The semiconductor bottleneck may persist, but Honda’s disciplined product cadence—and a customer base eager for fuel-efficient and electrified options—has kept the automaker not just afloat, but positioned for a strong year-end close.

Source: Honda

News

Meet Hyundai MobED: The Autonomous Platform With Suspension Tricks Supercars Envy

Tokyo’s International Robot Exhibition (iREX) isn’t usually where you’d expect to find something that feels like the spiritual offspring of a rally car and a lunar rover. But Hyundai Motor Group used the 2025 show to debut the production version of MobED, a fully autonomous mobility robot platform that—despite its droid-like footprint—borrows more engineering attitude from performance vehicles than you might think.

First teased as a rolling concept at CES 2022, MobED has grown up. What was once a tech demo is now a mass-produced, AI-driven robot platform ready for real-world industrial work, last-mile logistics, research labs, and even filming crews. Hyundai brought not one but two trims—MobED Pro and MobED Basic—to Tokyo, each showing off a different side of the platform’s personality.

And yes, there is a personality. Because underneath the clean industrial design and understated metalwork lies some seriously clever mechanical wizardry.

Adaptive Mobility: The Robot Equivalent of Adaptive Dampers

Let’s start with the headline tech: MobED’s eccentric control mechanism, a system so automotive in spirit that suspension engineers might do a double take.

Instead of trying to brute-force traction or stability, the platform constantly adjusts its posture, ride height, and tilt to maintain balance over almost anything: rough pavements, inclined walkways, tight indoor corners, or wavy ground. Think of it like an EV skateboard chassis paired with active suspension from the future.

Key mobility highlights:

  • 360° rotating eccentric DnL modules handle posture, drive, and steering in one integrated unit.
  • Height adjustment up to 100 mm of eccentric movement keeps the platform level when the terrain isn’t.
  • Curbstone clearance of 100–200 mm means it can hop small urban obstacles without hesitation.
  • Up to 2.8 m/s (about 10 km/h) top speed in manual modes with stability maintained even in quick posture changes.

These are not numbers you’d typically associate with a delivery robot.

Intuitive Autonomy: A Robot Anyone Could Drive

Hyundai isn’t just selling hardware—it’s pushing accessibility. The wide touchscreen controller and 3D UI look less like industrial equipment and more like a sci-fi tablet interface designed by a UX team that actually understands users.

MobED Pro steps further into the future with:

  • LiDAR + camera fusion
  • Predictive navigation
  • Obstacle avoidance
  • Follow-me mode for logistics or camera crews

It’s basically Level 4 autonomy shrunk down to carry 47 kg of gear instead of passengers.

MobED Basic, meanwhile, strips out the autonomy layers, leaving a modular, blank canvas for developers and researchers.

Infinite Journey: One Platform, Countless Roles

Hyundai envisions MobED as a modular workhorse—less “robot dog” gimmick and more “Swiss Army chassis.”

The frame supports:

  • Universal mounting rails
  • Multiple power outputs (24V/48V)
  • APIs for add-ons
    (Ethernet on Pro, RS422 on Basic)

The company showcased MobED doing everything from loading/unloading and delivery to golf course support, broadcasting rigs, and urban courier tasks. The message is clear: instead of building a dozen robots for a dozen tasks, Hyundai wants one platform to do them all.

Pro vs. Basic: Think AWD vs. Base Trim

MobED Pro

For users needing autonomy, sensors, and rugged capability.

  • Up to 88 kg tare weight
  • 47 kg payload
  • Full autonomous drive modes
  • LiDAR-camera fusion
  • API via Ethernet
  • Better for outdoor, commercial, or security tasks

MobED Basic

The “developer spec.”

  • Lighter at 78 kg
  • Higher payload at 57 kg
  • Manual drive only
  • API via RS422
  • Ideal for R&D labs or custom robotics builds

Both offer the same charging times (just under 2.5 hours), 4+ hours of runtime, IP54 protection, and 1-year warranty. Hyundai even includes optional automatic charging modules for continuous deployment.

Design: Brutalist Futurism With a Purpose

Hyundai calls the aesthetic Refined Edge, and that checks out. Straight lines deliver structure and seriousness, while soft curves and flush sensor housings prevent the robot from looking like an industrial hazard.

It’s not meant to be cute. It’s meant to look like a tool you can trust. And the precise machining and metalwork give it the sort of visual credibility usually reserved for high-end camera rigs or aerospace components.

Why MobED Matters

MobED isn’t the first platform to promise modular robotics, but it is one of the first to combine:

  • Real automotive-grade engineering
  • Active posture control
  • Multi-directional movement
  • Reliable autonomy
  • Industrial durability

Hyundai isn’t pitching a toy—it’s pitching the future of small-scale autonomous logistics. A future where a robot carries your gear across a film set, follows you through a warehouse, navigates city sidewalks with packages, or transports sensors through a research lab.

And it does all of that while acting more like a highly engineered mechanical athlete than a box on wheels.

If Boston Dynamics’ Spot is the parkour athlete of the robotics world, Hyundai’s MobED is the compact crossover—practical, endlessly configurable, and ready to tackle both the indoors and the outdoors with surprising finesse.

MobED is not a robot trying to impress with tricks. It’s trying to earn a PhD in practicality.

And in true Hyundai fashion, it’s doing it with advanced tech, thoughtful design, and a level of engineering ambition that feels straight out of a concept car playbook.

Source: Hyundai

News

Gerry McGovern Fired as New JLR CEO Makes First Major Move

In a move that caught the industry flat-footed, Jaguar Land Rover has dismissed its long-standing design chief Gerry McGovern, according to multiple sources within the company. The decision, delivered at the start of the week, reportedly ended his tenure on the spot.

JLR isn’t offering explanations—official responses have been limited to a terse “no comment”—but the abruptness of the exit suggests more than just a routine leadership transition. One source close to the matter claimed McGovern was escorted out of company offices following the decision, though the specifics remain murky.

What is clear is the timing: McGovern’s departure comes only days after PB Balaji, previously the financial head at Tata Motors, stepped in as JLR’s new CEO. His predecessor, Adrian Mardell, retired last week, and Balaji’s arrival appears to signal a more hands-on approach from the India-based parent company. If that’s the case, McGovern may have been the first casualty of a sharper, more centralized direction for JLR’s future.

A Titan of Modern British Automotive Design

McGovern’s exit closes the book on a 21-year run that reshaped Land Rover and Jaguar more dramatically than any other designer in the brand’s recent history. The Coventry-born creative led the aesthetic renaissance of the modern Defender, refined the four-model Range Rover family into the luxury benchmark it is today, and helped reposition Jaguar for its upcoming electric era. His role in JLR’s 2021 Reimagine strategy—arguably the brand’s most ambitious transformation plan—cemented his influence inside the boardroom.

Even before his JLR fame, McGovern contributed to some of the UK’s most memorable projects: the MG EXE concept, the MGF, and the first-generation Land Rover Freelander. His career took him stateside in 1999 to lead design for Lincoln-Mercury, where he established new California studios before eventually returning to Britain and rejoining Land Rover in 2004.

What Comes Next for JLR?

The sudden vacancy at the top of JLR’s design organization raises immediate questions about the future of both the Land Rover and Jaguar brands. With the company mid-stream in a massive EV transition and preparing to roll out a new generation of luxury models, the absence of its long-standing creative voice creates both risk and opportunity.

McGovern’s design language has been so strongly woven into the brand DNA that any successor—internal or external—will face the delicate challenge of honoring that legacy while steering the company toward its next chapter.

For now, the silence from both JLR and Tata Motors leaves the industry guessing. But one thing is certain: this isn’t just a changing of the guard. It’s a tectonic shift inside one of Britain’s most storied automakers—and the ripple effects are only just beginning.

Source: JLR

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