Trade News

Work Truck Solutions targets an auto retailing niche: helping dealers better manage their commercial inventory and connect with buyers. That focus fills a market void, leaving industry insiders such as Dan Bryan eternally grateful.

Bryan, a customer and general manager of specialty auto retailer Ricart to Business, explained that dealer-centric software companies typically overlook the space in which his company operates.

"I sat through an AI demo earlier that was so focused on the retail side, the commercial side wasn't even brought up," Bryan said. "The commercial side is behind the retail [technology] business in some aspects."

Kathryn Schifferle is the founder of Work Truck Solutions, a software company launched in 2011 in Chico, Calif. It employs roughly 80 people and has raised a little over $12 million in venture capital funding to date from investors including Autotech Ventures, WomensVC Fund and Golden Seeds, among others…

A used Mini store in Scotland is battling BMW with emojis and a sense of humor.

The fight began after Bridgend Motor Group opened Mini World, a showroom specializing in the tiny British cars, in December. Someone tipped off BMW, Mini's German parent company, which forbade Bridgend from using the word "Mini" on its signage. The store first tried crossing off the brand's name and logo while airing the dispute in the court of social media.

"Apparently, we're not allowed to use the word MINI when we're trying to sell used Minis," Bridgend wrote on Facebook. "Not on our signs, our flags or our website. We're not even sure if we're allowed to think the word now! They were so stern about it.

"Anyway, we are sincerely sorry for our genuine mistake and for the avoidance of doubt, we sell used Minis, and are definitely not a MINI dealer. We're much cheaper!"

When that didn't appease BMW, the store covered the "M" with a variety of …

NEW YORK — The electric pickup with a 500-mile range that Ram showed here last week represents the future for Stellantis.

But getting there by late 2024, when the Ram 1500 REV is slated to reach dealerships, is a costly proposition. That's why company executives at the New York International Auto Show emphasized the need to boost profitability, cut costs and confront sliding sales of today's gasoline-powered lineup to fund the shift to electric vehicles.

The REV is "what we're here to celebrate and talk about, but it's expensive," Ram CEO Mike Koval Jr. told Automotive News. "That's the elephant in the room for everybody. The cost of electrification is expensive, so for sure we need to make sure that we protect the profitability of our current in-market [internal combustion engine] business to help fund the transition to electrification."

Protecting those profits amid the pandemic, inflation, regulatory changes, the microchip shorta…

Wholesale used-vehicle prices rose again in March, according to two major indicators.

One of those, the Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index, recorded a fourth-straight month of increases because of continued tight used-vehicle supply.

Cox Automotive said Friday its Manheim index — a measurement of wholesale used-vehicle prices calculated by tracking vehicles sold at Manheim's U.S. auctions and applying statistical analysis to those figures — rose 1.5 percent in March from February. Cox adjusts that figure for mix, mileage and seasonality.

Black Book's Used Vehicle Retention Index — another indicator of wholesale prices, weighted based on registration volume and adjusted for seasonality, vehicle age, mileage and condition — rose 2.9 percent in March from February.

Still, wholesale prices were down compared with a year earlier. The Manheim index was 2.4 percent lower last month compared with the same month in 2022, according to Cox. The company also r…

Toyota CEO Koji Sato announces plans to turbocharge the company’s EV sales to 1.5 million vehicles in 2026.  Tesla cuts prices again. Plus, Steve Kramer of the electronic payment and billing platform PayNearMe says auto lenders should embrace QR codes and other quick payment methods.

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Maybe fleet sales aren't so bad after all.

U.S. light-vehicle deliveries rose 8.5 percent in the first quarter of 2023, according to the Automotive News Research & Data Center, as an easing of the global microchip shortage improved inventories for most brands.

General Motors and Hyundai Motor Group each posted double-digit gains, even as transaction prices remained at record levels. Cox Automotive said the industry's annualized selling rate jumped to 15.3 million, from 14.1 million a year ago.

"Anyone looking for signs of a recession won't find it in the new-vehicle market," Cox Senior Economist Charlie Chesbrough said.

Much of the increase was driven by fleet sales, as higher production levels allowed automakers to fill orders more easily instead of diverting their limited supplies to retail buyers.

Ford said fleet sales across the industry rose 37 percent from a year ago. The automaker did not break out its own fleet sales but repor…

An iconic downtown Los Angeles dealership has new owners, a group bolstered its Kia portfolio, an acquisitive auto retailer expanded again and a Stellantis dealership changed hands, all in three fourth-quarter transactions and one deal that closed this week.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import stores and dealerships in California, Florida, Tennessee and Indiana.

Two transactions involved an auto retailer ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups.

Auto retail investment company Open Road Capital and Rinaldi Halim on Dec. 19 bought an iconic Chevrolet dealership in California — known for its sign featuring Felix the Cat.

Open Road and Halim bought Felix Chevrolet in Los Angeles, a dealership dating back to 1921, from owners Darryl Holter and his wife, Carole Shammas, Tim Batchelor, an Open Road Capital partner, confirmed to Automotive News.

Open Road and Halim ret…

WASHINGTON — General Motors' self-driving unit Cruise LLC recalled 300 robotaxis and updated their software after a March 23 crash with a San Francisco bus.

In a document submitted Monday to NHTSA, Cruise said the collision was caused by "an issue related to prediction of the unique movements of articulated vehicles," such as buses and tractor trailers.

In the San Francisco incident, Cruise said its robotaxi initially perceived both sections of the bus as it was pulling out of a bus stop. As the bus proceeded forward into the Cruise robotaxi's lane, the rear section of the bus blocked the front section, and the bus began decelerating.

Cruise told federal regulators that its vehicle "inaccurately determined that the bus was continuing to move forward in traffic based on the anticipated behavior of the front section of the bus, which was by then obstructed, and the [automated driving system] commanded the [autonomous vehicle] to begin decelerating too lat…

WASHINGTON — As the Biden administration works to strike a balance between two objectives — accelerating electric vehicle adoption and securing a domestic supply chain — forthcoming guidance that further constricts battery material and component sourcing rules could tip the scale.

The U.S. Treasury Department last month released its much-anticipated proposed guidance on battery sourcing rules in the Inflation Reduction Act's consumer tax credit for new EVs, known as 30D. The rules are designed to incentivize domestic production and reduce reliance on foreign supply chains.

When those requirements take effect April 18, fewer EVs are expected to qualify for the full $7,500 credit, potentially triggering a short-term slowdown in new EV sales as automakers and consumers untangle the complex eligibility restrictions, industry experts told Automotive News.

Adding to that: Treasury still needs to release guidance on how strictly it will enforce the law's "fore…

Tesla Inc. nominated JB Straubel, a co-founder and former senior executive, to join its board of directors as part of a broader reshaping of the carmaker’s senior management structure.

Straubel would replace Hiromichi Mizuno, who won’t seek reelection, Tesla said in its proxy statement filed Thursday. The company has also named Tom Zhu, who was the driving force behind its Shanghai plant, as its senior vice president for automotive operations.

The proposal to elect Straubel is one of five issues the company has asked investors to consider at its May 16 annual meeting. The proxy contains just one shareholder proposal, in contrast to the eight that investors voted on last year.

That sole shareholder resolution comes from Karen Róbertsdóttir, an investor in Reykjavik, Iceland, who wants Tesla’s board of directors to prepare and publicly disclose a report on Tesla’s key-person risk.

Tesla has regularly said in filings that it is “highly dependent on…

Tesla Inc. cut prices across its U.S. lineup late Thursday after reporting first-quarter sales that were sharply higher but failed to meet CEO Elon Musk's internal goal of 50 percent per year for the foreseeable future.

Earlier this week, Tesla reported first-quarter deliveries of 422,875 globally for a 36 percent increase over last year. Tesla doesn't break out U.S. sales, but Cox Automotive estimated first-quarter deliveries at 180,993.

Tesla also said Thursday that its most inexpensive vehicle, the base Model 3 sedan, would lose half of the current $7,500 federal tax incentive later this month when new battery-sourcing rules take effect.

"Based on new IRS guidance, the $7,500 credit will be reduced for Model 3 Rear-Wheel Drive on April 18 to $3,750," the automaker said on its online order page.

On Twitter Friday, Musk said cutting prices was the best way to stimulate sales since affordability is holding back buyers and not demand.

Musk …