Top 10 automotive stories of 2010: Toyota's nightmare year selected as No. 1

• Source: Global Times
• [09:07 December 31 2010]
• Comments

8)  Here come the electrics

In 2010, the first major-brand electric vehicles inched out of the realm of prelaunch hype into marketplace reality. Within a week of each other in mid-December, Nissan delivered its first Leaf EV to a retail buyer and General Motors delivered its first Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid.

9)   R.I.P. Mercury

Mercury was in no-man's land. Ford Motor Co. was trying to bring Ford brand cars and trucks upscale, into Mercury's turf. But Ford said it did not want to moveMercury upscale to encroach on Lincoln.  So the automaker killed Mercury. By year end, most dealers had settlement agreements, and inventory on dealership lots was nearly gone.

10)   Outsider CEOs shake up GM

For decades, General Motors promoted company lifers to CEO, one cause of the automaker's insular, slow-moving culture. Now GM is dealing with the opposite situation.  Dan Akerson, with a background in telecommunications, is the second CEO in a row to run the largest domestic automaker with virtually zero experience in the auto industry. He succeeded Ed Whitacre, another auto neophyte, on Sept. 1, after Whitacre resigned unexpectedly.

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