Trade News

Larry Dominique is just happy to see people talking about Alfa Romeo.

The Italian brand grabbed headlines in late August by unveiling the limited-edition 33 Stradale, a supercar that surpasses 620 hp with a twin-turbo V-6 engine or more than 750 hp in an electric iteration.

Although Alfa Romeo is building only 33 of the stylish two-seaters, Dominique said the attention the Stradale draws helps the brand's quest to build awareness in the U.S. A spokesperson said the Stradale has attracted vast media coverage around the world from nonautomotive outlets covering art, technology and luxury.

Alfa Romeo is in the midst of a brand evolution that includes delving into electrification this year with the Tonale, its first plug-in hybrid and last new model with an internal combustion engine. The brand plans to go all-electric by 2027.

Its marketing leaders have described ad spending for the Tonale launch as unprecedented in a …

Electric vehicle newcomer VinFast Auto plans to import three additional crossovers to join its midsize VF 8 that went on sale this year. Most of the automaker's lineup is scheduled to be assembled at a $2 billion North Carolina factory, starting in 2025.

VinFast is off to a slow start for VF 8 sales, with just a few hundred vehicles delivered through July, according to a company spokesperson. But the EV maker is rapidly introducing new models in Vietnam that will make their way to U.S. shores.

Next to go on sale is the stylish VF 9, a three-row crossover. The company plans to import its smaller VF 6 and VF 7 crossovers next year.

VinFast is drawing attention with its design choices of modern interiors and adventurous exteriors. Pininfarina collaborated on the VF 8 and VF 9, the automaker said, while Torino Design worked on the VF 6 and VF 7.

Originally, VinFast planned to sell its EVs separate from their batteries, which would be leased for a mon…

Contract talks between the UAW and Detroit 3 automakers are in the critical post-Labor Day stretch, with a Sept. 14 contract expiration approaching.The union seeks a self-described “audacious and ambitious” list of demands that include a 46 percent raise, a return to traditional pensions and a 32-hour work week.Ford, GM and Stellantis have made their offers to the union public. The UAW has so far been critical of the proposals.Follow this liveblog for regular updates.

It will be busy next week in the heart of the U.S. automotive world.Industry leaders will convene in Michigan for three major events — the North American International Detroit Auto Show and the Automotive News Congress, both in Detroit, and the Battery Show in the suburb of Novi. The future of transportation will come into sharp focus at all three.The Automotive News Congress theme is Investing in Innovation. There will be keynote sessions with General Motors President Mark Reuss, Ford Blue President Kumar Galhotra and Hyundai Motor Co. COO Jose Muñoz.The Battery Show will zoom in on pressing issues such as battery plant timelines, regulations and recycling, while the auto show will feature the latest in electric vehicles and includes a mobility forum.Automotive News will cover each right here.

DETROIT — When the Toyota Prius hybrid compact car debuted some 25 years ago, its breakthrough fuel-sipping gasoline-electric drivetrain shattered industry norms.

In doing so, the Prius also proved that Toyota Motor Corp., a company renowned for safe and reliable, but conservative, cars could throw down the gauntlet with revolutionary new technology.

Now, Toyota wants to rekindle that pioneering spirit by overhauling its R&D operations to be better, faster and cheaper in a cultural shift to unleash its engineering corps' creative juices.

The goal is shedding Toyota's traditional risk-averse mindset to deliver vehicles that are revolutionary, not just evolutionary, to compete in the ultracompetitive age of new mobility.

Leading the charge in North America is newly appointed Chief Technology Officer Mike Sweers, the truck-crazy Toyota veteran who took the helm of the region's R&D nerve center on July 3.

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The 2023 Detroit auto show, while smaller than pre-pandemic events, is expected to showcase at least a handful of reveals from the city's hometown automakers.

Ford Motor Co. plans to unveil a freshened F-150, including an updated hybrid variant. General Motors has press conferences scheduled for its GMC and Cadillac brands, while Stellantis has one scheduled, for Jeep.

Overall, the show says 35 brands will be represented through manufacturer- and dealer-sponsored displays. Notable among the 16 corporate exhibitors will be electric vehicle giant Tesla, which traditionally has avoided the Detroit show.

"We're thrilled to be able to bring auto show audiences a broad spectrum of brands and vehicles," Rod Alberts, the show's executive director, said in a statement. "As a dealer association-backed auto show, one of our main goals is to display all the brands that are sold in our region. This blend of bringing together corporate- and dealer-supported vehicles …

As an upstart interloper in a market dominated by what was then "The Big Three," Toyota established a beachhead in the U.S. pickup market five decades ago with a small, fuel-efficient, utilitarian offering that separated itself from the much larger trucks rolling out of Detroit.

Today, Toyota's pickups are much larger, as is both the Japanese automaker itself and its share of the total U.S. market, where the brand is one of the last full-line automakers left. But as Ford's small, fuel efficient, utilitarian Maverick pickup continues to leave consumers waiting months for delivery, could a return to its heritage with a Corolla-based pickup give Toyota a second pickup segment to dominate, like it does with the Tacoma?

"We've obviously watched Maverick closely," Toyota brand head Dave Christ told Automotive News ahead of this week's Toyota dealer meeting in Las Vegas. "If you think about our pickup trucks, they've gotten bigger over the years. You …

After a long, slow climb back, new-vehicle inventory levels in the United States topped 2 million last month for the first time since April 2021 as the industry continues to move away from production disruptions, according to estimates by Cox Automotive and the Automotive News Research & Data Center.

Cox Automotive estimated inventories at 2.06 million vehicles in its latest report, up more than 837,000 vehicles from a year ago, or 68 percent. Inventories reached their lowest levels in September 2021, when they dropped under 830,000, Cox said, and spent much of the next year hovering between that low and 1.1 million, before beginning to steadily gain ground in August 2022.

Despite the recent gains, automakers and dealers still have about 1.4 million fewer vehicles on their lots today than they did at the same point in 2019, and about 400,000 fewer than they did at this point in 2020, according to Cox estimates.

Asian brands conti…

Nearly two years after purchasing Larry H. Miller Dealerships in one of the largest deals in auto retail history, Asbury Automotive Group Inc. has lined up an encore.

Publicly traded Asbury plans to buy the privately owned Jim Koons Automotive Cos. of the mid-Atlantic in what would be the first dealership megadeal since the frenzied fourth quarter of 2021. That time period, in which fellow public retail giants Group 1 Automotive Inc. and Sonic Automotive Inc. also bought large private groups, solidified the latest era of dealership consolidation.

Asbury, of Duluth, Ga., on Friday, Sept. 8, said it had agreed to spend $1.2 billion to purchase Jim Koons Automotive, a top 25 dealership group. The deal, expected to close in the fourth quarter or early in the first quarter, would add 20 franchised dealerships, six collision centers and one used-car store to its portfolio.

The Koons group reported $3.2 billion in revenue and sales of 26,188 new vehicles in 2…

Volvo Cars is restructuring its U.S. and Canadian operations as part of an $88 million global effort to tighten spending, drive efficiencies and update its work force for an all-electric future.

Volvo Car USA and Canada President Michael Cottone said the initiative, code-named CORE+, is "all-encompassing."

"There's not any area of the business that is not impacted," Cottone told Automotive News. "We have [many] different reports and jobs, and we're looking at them to make sure these are the ones that give us the biggest impact and put our resources toward them."

The Swedish automaker is cutting more than 10 percent of its nearly 1,000 white-collar work force in the U.S. and Canada, a source briefed on the plan told Automotive News. Volvo will also trim its regional ranks through early retirement offers. The head count reduction is expected to take effect by early October.

Adam Clarke, Volvo’s head retail network development and customer experienc…