A welcome shot or two of the traditional

You might find some good news, amid so much relentless change and disruption in the auto industry, to read in this week’s issue that the traditions of the industry are still in place.

There’s the new Nissan Z car. Auto makers around the world are going electric, but we’ll tell you that Nissan has kept its Z as it was – a two-seater road beast. The redesign of the 2022 model gets more gasoline muscle, claiming 400 hp for this new generation.

Electrification is not lost on Nissan: the automaker helped usher in the new era a few years ago with the Leaf electric family car. But people still want an engine, Florida dealer Bill Wallace reminds us. “Electrification is the future everyone is talking about,” says Wallace Auto Group CEO. “But today, in 2021 and 2022, there is still a great thirst for internal combustion cars. We could sell every unit we get.”

There’s also the new Hyundai Santa Cruz, featured on page 1 this week. You could call it another case of business disruption because it’s a compact crossover with a pickup bed. But look at it this way: Hyundai is on a roll in the US market, and it’s expanding its product line. So which way does it turn? To the microphones, of course. Familiar, functional, traditionally American pickups.

Don’t call it that. Hyundai insists: It’s not a pickup.

OKAY.

Finally, this week we present the 2021 class of Rising Stars in Automotive News. We share the stories of 25 promising managers from across the industry who are shaping their businesses, taking on new challenges and solving new problems.

Talk about tradition.

What greater tradition exists in the automotive industry?

Whatever disruption and chaos threatens to derail this business, it’s sure to continue to attract the best and the brightest – people still early in their careers who know how to isolate a challenge and crush it, or turn it into gold.

This tradition will surely never pass.

– Lindsay Chapel