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Volkswagen loses thousands of vehicles in Chinese explosion

Yesterday, a blazing, explosive fireball erupted from a port in the city of Tianjin, in China, lighting up the night sky and shattering windows with the force of 21 tons of TNT. Hundreds were injured and the death toll continues to rise, with the most recent reports claiming 50 were killed. While the human cost of this tragedy simply can't be overstated, it hasn't taken long for corporations to look into what the enormous explosion cost them. And for Volkswagen, the answer is quite a lot. According to our friends at Jalopnik, a Chinese source claims the German giant, which remains one of the PRC's most popular brands, lost thousands of vehicles. The automotive casualty sheet lists 1,065 Touaregs, 391 Beetles, 257 Tiguans, 114 Golfs, 84 Up! minicars, 39 SportVans, and 28 Magotans (a locally built version of the Passat). While those are the only vehicles listed, the Chinese source said over 2,700 vehicles were destroyed. For example, both Land Rover and Renault lost an unspecified number of Discovery SUVs and Koleos CUVs, respectively. The explosion also affected Toyota. Its research and design facility with joint-venture partner Sichuan FAW also suffered an unspecified amount of damage. You can check out the translated source article here. As Google Translate jobs go, though, this one is particularly bad, but it still offers some details of the automotive cost of this disaster.

Toyota found not at fault in alleged unintended acceleration crash

Toyota has already paid out millions and billions of dollars in settlements surrounding unintended acceleration, but the first lawsuit in the matter, which headed to a California court in July, has reached a verdict. Following the 2009 death of Noriko Uno, whose 2006 Camry was hit by another car and then sped out of control before crashing into a tree, the jury found that Toyota was not at fault in the crash.
Even though the 2006 Camry (shown above) wasn't involved in any of the unintended acceleration-related recalls and it was not equipped with a brake override, Automotive News reports that the jury's verdict says there was no defect in the car and actually blames the entire incident on the driver that ran into Uno's car - to the tune of $10 million. The accident started when the other driver ran a stop sign and hit Uno's car, and the report says that medical conditions (including diabetes) caused Uno to fail to stop her Camry.
The AN article also states that this lawsuit was a bellwether case for around 85 other personal-injury and wrongful-death suits against Toyota, but there are still many impending suits across the country. Scroll down for an official statement on this particular case from Toyota.

2023 Chicago Auto Show Mega Photo Gallery: See all the new cars from the show

The 2023 Chicago Auto Show played host to a number of reveals this year, and we were there to capture all of them. In traditional auto show fashion, that means you’re getting a mega gallery of galleries to flip through and see all the vehicles on the show floor. Our EditorsÂ’ Picks from the show are already out — spoiler alert, the 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander took home the prize. That said, there were other important reveals like the 2024 Volkswagen Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport and the 2024 Subaru Crosstrek. We also learned some interesting tidbits, such as the fact that VW is considering a pickup, and Jeep owners really are plugging in. To see the photos, scroll on down and start flipping through those galleries.   2024 Toyota Grand Highlander 2024 Toyota Grand Highlander View 7 Photos 2024 Volkswagen Atlas 2024 Volkswagen Atlas View 14 Photos 2024 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport 2024 Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport View 7 Photos 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse with its carbon fiber wheels 2024 Ford Mustang Dark Horse with carbon fiber wheels View 7 Photos 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray 2024 Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray View 10 Photos Jeep Wrangler Anniversary Editions Jeep Wrangler Anniversary Editions View 3 Photos 2023 BMW XM 2023 BMW XM View 6 Photos Ram Revolution Concept Ram Revolution Concept View 6 Photos NASCAR Chicago Street Race Pace Car — Toyota Camry NASCAR Chicago Street Race Pace Car ? Toyota Camry View 4 Photos Everything else at the 2023 Chicago Auto Show Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 View 12 Photos Related video: Chicago Auto Show BMW Buick Chevrolet Ford GM GMC Hummer Jeep Lamborghini RAM Toyota Volkswagen Truck Coupe Crossover SUV Concept Cars Electric Hybrid Luxury Off-Road Vehicles Performance Supercars Sedan