Trade News

"We are a lot more creative in the ways that we approach our customers. Parts department, service department come together and we listen to the people that come in to do business with us. If we're not listening, then we just do the same thing over and over again. As our customers' habits develop into better use of technology, they see comfort and ease in their transactions in other areas. We try to beat our competition to that. So mobile service is a huge part of our growth. Servicing fleets, taking care of customers that didn't want to come in and wait ... We've decided that we would not say 'no' to a customer." — Robert Sullivan, fixed operations director at Mercedes-Benz of Hoffman Estates near Chicago, on the "Driving Vision" podcast hosted by Sam D'Arc, COO of Zeigler Auto Group.

Group 1 Automotive Inc.'s net income plunged 22 percent for the first quarter even as acquisitions, service business growth and elevated vehicle pricing pushed the dealership group's revenue to a new quarterly record.

Net income for the quarter was $158.4 million, Group 1 reported Wednesday. Revenue increased 7.4 percent to $4.13 billion.

Group 1, of Houston, retailed more new and used vehicles in the quarter, but per-vehicle gross profits for both dropped by double-digit percentages.

Net income dropped because new-vehicle supply "has loosened" and gross profits are coming down as a result, CEO Daryl Kenningham told Automotive News after first-quarter results were released. In other words, while new-vehicle inventory levels are still historically low for the industry and prices still elevated, the market is starting to normalize from the extremes experienced the past few years.

"We all knew it was going to happen," Kenningham said. "The question …

California-based battery manufacturer startup Sparkz Inc. said Tuesday it had agreed to a partnership with the UAW as it finalizes plans to begin commercializing zero-cobalt, zero-nickel battery production.

The UAW has been working to organize new battery facilities as the auto industry shifts to electric vehicle production. Sparkz and the UAW said they had signed a memorandum of understanding establishing a national labor-management agreement and statement of neutrality.

"Sparkz is proud to partner with the United Auto Workers to secure the American worker's place in the new energy economy, while re-engineering the battery supply chain domestically," CEO Sanjiv Malhotra said in a statement.

White House climate adviser John Podesta praised the announcement.

"With this partnership, Sparkz and UAW are helping create good-paying, high-quality American jobs building batteries for our clean energy and transportation future," he said in a statemen…

Stellantis plans to cut about 3,500 hourly jobs in the U.S. through buyouts and retirement incentives. Earnings fall for Asbury and Penske. Honda executives get an unpleasant surprise at the Shanghai auto show. Plus, a conversation about the ever-evolving state of EV tax credits in the U.S. and how it affects retailers.

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Tesla Inc. supervisors at a Florida service center violated U.S. labor law by telling employees not to discuss pay and other working conditions or bring complaints to higher level managers, a U.S. labor board official has ruled.

Managers at the Orlando repair shop illegally silenced workers in 2021 after some of them complained that new hires were being paid more, according to the decision issued Tuesday by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge Michael Rosas. 

The judge ordered Tesla to cease and desist from violating workers' rights and to post notice of the violations in the service center and email it to employees. 

The ruling is the latest loss for Tesla before the labor board as it also faces lawsuits alleging widespread race and sex discrimination at its assembly plants. 

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

In late 2021 employees became aware that new hires at the…

Auto retail giant Lithia Motors Inc. exited Alabama last month with the sale of a Subaru dealership and the group sold two additional dealerships — which it owned for just a few months — in the third quarter of 2022.

Ryan Mayer, owner and president of Tameron Gulf Coast dealership group, bought Subaru of Mobile on March 30, he confirmed to Automotive News.

The dealership was renamed Tameron Subaru. It marks the first Subaru dealership for Mayer's group and its first acquisition since buying a Mississippi Kia dealership from Group 1 Automotive Inc. in April 2021.

"Subaru is high on our list of brands that we want to acquire," Mayer told Automotive News. "Obviously, there's not many Subaru dealerships around and that one was right in the center of what we consider our market. We aggressively pursued Lithia and eventually were able to come to an agreement. It was something that made sense for them and for us."

Tameron Gulf Coast, of Daphne, Ala., no…

A Calabasas, Calif., luxury used-vehicle dealership challenging automaker off-lease buyout policies in court has settled with Mercedes-Benz and seen its lawsuits against General Motors and BMW dismissed.

Calabasas Luxury Motorcars had objected to GM, BMW and Mercedes allegedly refusing to allow third-party retailers to buy or accept as trade-ins vehicles leased by the three automakers' customers. According to Calabasas, the brands have improperly limited this off-lease capability to their franchised dealers.

All three automakers argued the lessees don't own their leased vehicles and any right those customers have to buy their leased models is not transferable.

The three cases also explored whether two sections of California code implied a right for customers and third-party dealerships to arrange lease buyouts — an argument rejected by two federal judges but not ruled out by a third.

An attorney for Calabasas has not yet responded to an April 21 …

Tesla Inc. is now charging less for the cheapest version of the Model Y crossover than what the typical new vehicle sells for in the U.S., a threshold Elon Musk crossed in blazing fashion.

At $46,990, the base Model Y now costs $759 less than the average amount paid for a car or truck in the U.S. The differential between these figures has changed by more than $20,000 since the middle of last year.

No carmaker has made such a dramatic reduction to a high-volume vehicle in the modern age of the automobile. The Model Y was the best-selling EV in the U.S. last year, and one of the top crossovers of any type.

While Musk has denied that Tesla is starting a price war, his peers see it differently. Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley, whose Mustang Mach-E SUV lost considerable share to the Model Y last quarter — despite some discounting — said last week that price battles are “breaking out everywhere.”

Indeed, Tesla has been slashing prices beyond America’s b…

Robert Bosch plans to acquire a California microchip maker and invest around $1.5 billion in it to help meet growing demand for silicon carbide chips in electric vehicles, the world's largest parts supplier said Wednesday.

It will be Bosch's first U.S. chip plant. The move comes as the Biden administration tries to foster more microchip manufacturing here.

The supplier said it will acquire TSI Semiconductors in Roseville, Calif., near Sacramento, subject to regulatory approval. TSI employs about 250 people primarily in the production of chips on 200-millimeter silicon wafers for use in the automotive, communications, energy and life sciences industries, according to its website.

In a news release, Bosch said it planned to invest more than $1.5 billion in TSI's Roseville foundry to convert the 39-year-old building into a modern source of silicon carbide microchips for EVs by 2026.

Bosch did not disclose costs of the acquisition. It said the "full …

Dealership finance and insurance personnel should educate their customers, advises Doug Timmerman, dealer financial services president at Ally Financial.

"Try to sell less, and try to teach more," he says.

Retailers who educate customers about the value and benefit of an F&I product will "ultimately sell more product," Timmerman says, calling this the best approach for sales.

Have a good F&I tip to share? Submit it to John Huetter at [email protected] and Gail Kachadourian Howe at [email protected].

Vietnam’s richest man Pham Nhat Vuong and Vingroup JSC will sink an additional $2.5 billion into the company’s electric-car unit VinFast ahead of its planned U.S. initial public offering.

Vuong, Vingroup’s founder who in 2019 said he would commit $2 billion of his wealth to VinFast, will personally give $1 billion to VinFast within the next year, according to a statement from Vingroup. The company will provide VinFast a loan of up to five years for $1 billion. Vingroup will also give VinFast $500 million.

“The additional $2.5 billion in funding and loans will create more resources to promote and facilitate VinFast to accelerate development so that it can quickly achieve its growth goals on a global scale,” Vingroup said in the statement. 

The infusion of cash comes as the Vietnamese automaker steps up efforts to crack overseas markets. VinFast, which plans to build a factory in North Carolina, shipped its second batch of EVs to North America April …

While competitors struggle, Aurora Innovation Inc. has seen its stock price increase more than 10 percent during the past month.

Shares of the Pittsburgh self-driving technology company went from $1.28 per share on March 24 to $1.42 at Monday's close. Year to date, Aurora's unit price is up 17 percent.

Aurora's share gains are bit of good fortune in a bleak landscape for the autonomous trucking world. Shares of TuSimple Holdings Inc. have declined 3 percent during the past month and 20 percent year to date. Embark Trucks laid off approximately 70 percent of its staff in March and is mulling a complete shutdown. Its stock, which traded at a high of $117.60 per share last spring, hovered at $2.64 on Monday.

Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Waymo said in January it had "slightly delayed" its internal timeline for commercially deploying self-driving trucks amid layoffs.

This isn't the first time Aurora's share price outperformed peers. In September, its stock…