Trade News

China’s demand for electric vehicles has delivered the nation’s homegrown carmakers a seemingly unassailable and irreversible lead over foreign rivals in the world’s biggest auto market.

Led by the likes of BYD Co. and Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., Chinese firms grabbed more than 50 percent of total auto sales for the first time in July, according to China Automotive Technology and Research Center data.

That growth is coming at the expense of legacy German, U.S. and Japanese automakers including Volkswagen, Ford and Toyota. UBS AG analysts earlier this month warned western carmakers are set to lose a fifth of their global market share because of the rise of more affordable Chinese EVs.

As Chinese buyers increasingly favor domestic brands, foreign manufacturers are in retreat. Hyundai is selling production facilities, Ford has cut jobs and Stellantis last year shuttered its only Jeep factory in China. Mazda Chief Executive Officer Masahiro Moro openly …

U.S. market share for electric vehicles rose to 7.2 percent in the January to July period, according to new-vehicle registration data from Experian, with Tesla spurring demand with escalating price cuts throughout the year.

New U.S. EV registrations rose to 655,986 in the seven-month period for a 67 percent rise over the year-earlier period when EV share was 4.9 percent. Total new light-vehicle registrations for the seven months were about 9.1 million, the data showed.

Tesla had 390,377 registrations from January to July — a 50 percent increase compared with the year-earlier period for a 59.5 percent share of the EV market, the data showed.

In July alone, Tesla had 60,769 new registrations compared with all other EV makers combined with 48,566, Experian said.

Still, Tesla's EV rivals such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Rivian made significant share gains from last year, the data showed. Ford, Hyundai and Kia saw new registrations rise, but their marke…

The growth of software-defined vehicles is set to upend the traditional relationship between automakers and suppliers, according to a report released Tuesday by Deloitte.

Software-defined vehicles are expected to account for at least 90 percent of the new-vehicle market by 2029, up from only 2.4 percent in 2021, Deloitte said in the new study. Likewise, global revenue from over-the-air updates is expected to surge to about $14 billion by the end of the decade, compared with $3.3 billion in 2022.

Software-defined vehicles, those with software capabilities that continually improve over the vehicle's life cycle, present both a major opportunity and a pressing challenge for traditional automakers, said Chris Ahn, connected services and electrification leader at Deloitte Consulting LLP.

"It's a pretty significant paradigm shift for a lot of these automakers," Ahn told Automotive News. "Once these traditional automakers figure out how to navigate that paradig…

MUNICH — When it comes to in-car digital displays, BMW thinks more isn't necessarily better.

While automakers carpet vehicle dashboards with jumbo displays, the German luxury automaker is steering toward a less-distracting digital experience in its future electric vehicles.

"Your car is your last private space," said Stephan Durach, BMW Group senior vice president for connected company development. "Sitting in front of a wall of screens is not a nice [customer experience]."

So BMW is ditching its dashboard-riding slabs of curved glass for a less-intrusive driver experience in its Neue Klasse platform EVs that arrive mid-decade.

"We looked at the [Mercedes] Hyperscreen, we looked at our own solutions," BMW Group Chief Technology Officer Frank Weber told Automotive News ahead of this month's Munich auto show. "We saw the limitation of bigger and bigger displays."

Weber said the new concept merges physical and digital experiences.

Whi…

J.D. Power said Tuesday it agreed to acquire Autovista Group, a provider of European and Australian automotive data, analytics and industry insights.

Autovista Group's senior leadership and 700 employees will stay with the company as it becomes J.D Power's auto market intelligence platform for Europe and Australia, according to a news release. Autovista Group CEO Lindsey Roberts will work as president of J.D. Power Europe and report to J.D. Power CEO Dave Habiger.

Autovista Group, of London, includes five brands — Autovista, Eurotax, Glass's, Schwacke and Rodboka — through which it analyzes technical attributes for vehicles produced in the European and Australian markets.

"By pairing our leading pan-Europe- and Australia-focused datasets with J.D. Power's robust North American and Asian market data, analytics and insights, we are creating the truly global solution the industry needs to manage through this period of radical change,"…

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk ignored warnings from confidantes including Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and his own brother that he was driving advertisers away with his erratic behavior, according to an upcoming biography.

The billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, has a long list of wealthy, powerful advisors he habitually ignores, according to Walter Isaacson’s new biography.

In the months surrounding Musk’s chaotic takeover of Twitter — when he was sending out provocative tweets — Zaslav cautioned about ‘self-destructive’ behaviors that were spooking advertisers.

Musk should instead focus on improving video and making better ads, the executive counseled, according to the book, which is coming out this week.

The board of Tesla, Chairman Robyn Denholm and his brother Kimbal Musk also warned Musk that controversies at X were hurting the car company’s brand.

But the billionaire did not seem to think his behavior was a probl…

Join us at noon EDT Wednesday for a LinkedIn Live talk with Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds, on the buzz from the North American International Detroit Auto Show.

Joining Caldwell will be Automotive News Executive Editor Jamie Butters and Staff Reporter Lindsay VanHulle, who covers General Motors.

They will share insights and take your questions. We encourage you to ask questions in advance in the comment section here.

Days before it's threatening to strike the Detroit 3, the UAW has reduced its demand for pay raises over the next four years to the mid-30 percent range, according to people familiar with the offer.

The union in recent days has made counteroffers to all three automakers that include the new target. It previously had demanded raises totaling more than 40 percent.

Exact details of the proposal were not immediately available, and the situation remains fluid as all three companies pass counterproposals back and forth. One person familiar with the offers said the UAW's new request was as low as 36 percent.

The union's original demand, announced Aug. 1, called for a 20 percent raise upon ratification followed by four 5 percent raises each of the four years of the contract. With compounding, that would amount to a 46 percent increase by 2027.

The updated range is notable in that it marks a willingness by the union to compromise on one of its top demand…

The automotive industry is advancing at a rapid pace, and many dealerships are successfully applying those advancements to their variable operations. Recent research shows, however, that service departments have fallen behind – meaning there is big opportunity in fixed ops for dealerships willing to take on the challenge.

In this guide, 3 Profit Opportunities for Today’s Fixed Ops, you’ll learn how to apply these proven principles to increase service profits:

Transparency: Build trust with clear pricing, digital quotes for multipoint inspections, and more. Optimization: Increase efficiency with electronic communications, online scheduling, online payments, and more. Integration: Achieve goals by connecting processes and platforms.

South Korea's largest auto supplier, Hyundai Mobis, will mark a major expansion of its North American R&D operations center this week by welcoming customers, politicians and media to the Plymouth, Mich., site for a tech event showing off its newest electrification and autonomous driving technology.

Mobis Technical Center of North America has new or upgraded labs and engineering equipment, as well as a new customer experience center with 18 displays showcasing its latest technology. The investments allow for more development work to be done on site, as well as conducting more technical discussions with automakers such as General Motors and Stellantis locally instead of at Mobis headquarters in South Korea or at trade shows.

The expanded presence is one of the latest investments illustrating how auto suppliers are being nudged to step up with investment money as automakers pursue aggressive targets in EVs, driver-assistance systems and softwar…

Limited inventory, affordability challenges, reduced customer loyalty—we all remember the significant changes brought about by the pandemic. While these issues have started to dissipate, the automotive industry is now entering a new era as electric vehicles (EVs) take center stage. For as many opportunities as this next frontier creates, an equal number of challenges emerge. These headwinds include slowing sales velocity, EV prices that are still higher than ICE vehicles, and a noisy market saturated with new EV models.

In recent months, new-vehicle inventory levels have been on the rise, reaching some of their highest point in two years, according to monthly reporting by Cox Automotive. And when you drill into this issue, you quickly see that EVs are among the segments with the highest inventory — many EVs had more than 100 days’ supply at the end of July 2023. Additionally, Kelley Blue Book reported that the average price of an EV in July 2023 was still several tho…

BEIJING — Western sanctions against Russia are boosting demand for China-made light vehicles, and the surge could continue as long as the sweeping sanctions remain in place, an executive with China's auto association said on Monday.

Chinese automakers are also seeking to assemble vehicles in Russia and localize production, Xu Haidong, deputy chief engineer at the China Association of Auto Manufacturers, told reporters.

"There's still huge demand in the Russian market but that won't necessarily be solely reliant on imports," Xu said.

"China's auto exports to Russia will still be in high demand over next 2-3 years and after that China's auto sector will likely increase their localization in the Russian market."

Russia was the top destination for China's auto exports in the first seven months of the year, CAAM data showed, with 464,000 cars sold. Mexico ranked second with 224,000 Chinese imports.

In 2022, Mexico was the top importer of Chinese…