Trade News

DETROIT — General Motors on Tuesday said about 5,000 of its salaried employees have elected to leave the company through voluntary buyouts.

CFO Paul Jacobson shared the number during a Bank of America automotive conference and said the program came in line with the automaker's expectations as part of an effort to cut $2 billion in costs over the next two years. The number represents about 6 percent of the 81,000 salaried employees GM had globally at the end of 2022.

GM leaders told employees in a memo Tuesday that no layoffs or terminations are on the table for now.

“These results confirm that a company-wide Involuntary Separation Program is not a consideration at this point,” said the memo, which was signed by CEO Mary Barra, Jacobson and Chief People Officer Arden Hoffman. “As always, leaders will continue to have the flexibility to manage their organizations to drive high performance and impact.” The leadership team plans to update employees furt…

Stellantis' U.S. sales fell 9.1 percent in the first quarter on declines for Jeep and Ram, its highest-volume brands.

Jeep volume fell 20 percent in the quarter, while Ram slipped 6.8 percent from the year-earlier period.

Although Ram was down, sales of its outgoing ProMaster City more than tripled. Ram told Automotive News in August that it was discontinuing the ProMaster City, the smaller of its two van offerings, after the 2022 model year. The brand said ProMaster City shipments to dealers were slated to continue through the first quarter of 2023.

Dodge and Chrysler each saw gains in the quarter from higher sales of the Charger, Challenger, Durango and Pacifica.

Brands: Ram, down 6.8%; Jeep, down 20%; Chrysler up 9.6%; Dodge up 43%; Fiat down 59%; Alfa Romeo down 27%.

Notable nameplates: Compass, down 4.9%; Wrangler, down 17%; Grand Cherokee, down 27%; Gladiator, down 24%; Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, down 59%; Ram pickup, down 17%; ProM…

Lithia officially sits atop the dealership group mountain, beating AutoNation in total sales last year. A look at early first quarter sales results. And Tesla’s price cuts boost sales.

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Hyundai Motor America closed the first quarter strong with best-ever March sales and also posted the fifth consecutive month of record sales, while crossovers continue to provide a major lift to Genesis.

Hyundai logged U.S. sales of 75,404 in March, representing a 27 percent increase over the year-earlier month. Hyundai's first quarter sales rose 16 percent to 184,449, compared with the same period last year.

Compared with March 2022, Genesis posted sales of 5,656, an increase of 23 percent over March 2022. In the first quarter, Genesis sales of 13,769 were up 17 percent compared with the first three months of last year. The top-selling GV70 crossover was up 41 percent with deliveries of 2,100, according to the brand. In its first month on sale, The electric variant of the GV70 logged 45 sales, according to Genesis. Sales of the GV80 sedan tallied 1,491, a 21 percent increase.

Notable nameplates: Hyundai Elantra, up 32% in March, up 47% in the first quar…

Honda Motor Co.'s U.S. sales rebounded in March, after a February dip and a January gain, with the company posting its best month since July 2021.

Honda and Acura sales combined to top 116,000 vehicles in March. Honda division sales hit 103,000 units, up 8.8 percent, led by strong sales of electrified vehicles and revamped light trucks. Acura, with 13,500 vehicles sold for a 2.6 percent increase, saw its best month since August 2021.

In the first quarter, American Honda sales rose 6.8 percent compared with the same period last year, to 284,607 vehicles. The Honda brand saw a 5.4 percent increase, while Acura was up 18.5 percent.

The company has been battered by the global shortage of microchips, most of them sourced from inland China, and has told dealers inventories won't fully recover until the fall.

Notable nameplates: Honda Accord, down 6.2%; Civic, up 67%; HR-V, down 34%; CR-V, up 3.8%; Ridgeline, up 52%; Acura TLX, down 9.7%; MDX, down 5.1%;…

Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. convinced an Ohio federal judge on Friday to throw out a $64 million jury verdict over its alleged theft of trade secrets related to self-inflating tires.

U.S. District Judge Sara Lioi said most of the trade secrets that Czech company Coda Development accused Goodyear of stealing were too vague to be legally protected.

A spokesperson for Goodyear said Monday that the company agrees with the decision and "respects the intellectual property rights of others." Attorneys for Coda did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Coda sued Akron, Ohio-based Goodyear in 2015, and said in an amended 2019 complaint that Goodyear copied Coda CEO Frantisek Hrabal's technology to keep tires inflated with an internal tube, after discussing a potential collaboration in 2009 for General Motors Co.'s Chevy Volt.

A jury decided last year that Goodyear misappropriated five of the 12 trade secrets Coda accused it of misus…

Transportation and logistics company Ryder System Inc. on Monday said it was buying 4,000 electric delivery vans from General Motors' BrightDrop commercial vehicle unit over the next three years for use in its lease and rental fleets.

As a result of that and other deals, BrightDrop said it has now sold out of its Zevo 600 van for the 2023 model year. It did not disclose the number of vans it will produce for 2023 but said it was now taking reservations for 2024 vehicles, with deliveries expected to begin in the middle of this year.

Ryder said it planned to add the Zevo 600 and smaller Zevo 400 to its lease and rental operations through 2025. The first 200 vans will be ordered this year, the company said. Ryder said 2023 Zevo 600 vans will be rented to customers in California, New York City and the Dallas area this year, while 2024 Zevo 600 and Zevo 400 vans will be available as soon as this summer.

"Electrifying lease and rental vehicles can have a signi…

Kia America posted its best quarter ever and a near 20 percent increase in U.S. sales in March thanks to recovering inventory and healthy demand for crossovers as well as availability of "green" vehicles.

In the first three months, Kia logged U.S. sales of 184,136, an increase of 21 percent over the same period last year, and a 15 percent boost over its previous high set in 2021. March also marks Kia's eighth consecutive month of record-breaking sales.

Eric Watson, Kia America's sales chief, also attributed the strong growth to efforts the company has made over the past few years to launch quality products, improve residual values and attract a more affluent customer.

"We're now starting to pull away and see much better performance than the industry and our competitive segments," Watson said.

Dealers also are selling deeper into their stock than ever before.

"We've been able to keep our turn rate high," said Watson. "Prior to the pandemic, …

Subaru of America's sales rose for an eighth-straight month in March, up 23 percent to 53,213, including a March record for the Crosstrek, the brand's top-selling nameplate. For the quarter, the Japanese brand's sales were up 8.3 percent to 143,376.

Brand: Up 23% in March, 8.3% for the first quarter

Notable nameplates: Crosstrek, up 4.3%; Outback, down 4.1%; Forester, up 56%

Incentives: $859 per vehicle in the first quarter, down 4.7% from a year earlier, TrueCar says.

Average transaction price: $34,704 for the first quarter, up 0.1% from a year earlier, according to TrueCar.

Quote: "Enthusiasm for Subaru vehicles remained high in March, and we anticipate continued excitement as the weather warms up and car buyers begin planning spring and summer adventures," Troy Poston, Subaru's newly appointed senior vice president of sales, said in a written statement.

Did you know? After having its launch stymied last year by the stop-sale that …

General Motors' U.S. light-vehicle sales rose 18 percent in the first quarter to 599,187 vehicles as all four of its brands achieved increases, the automaker said Monday.

Buick led GM's sales growth, with sales nearly doubling. Cadillac and Chevrolet reported double-digit increases, while GMC sales rose 7.6 percent.

"GM is off to a great start in 2023," GM North America President Steve Carlisle said in a statement. "We gained significant market share in the first quarter, pricing was strong, inventories are in very good shape and we sold more than 20,000 EVs in a quarter for the first time."

Duncan Aldred, vice president of global Buick and GMC, told Automotive News in January that 2023 represents a rebound year for Buick after the brand was "severely impacted" by microchip shortages in 2022. First-quarter sales of the Buick Encore GX subcompact crossover more than doubled, and sales of the Envision compact crossover more than tripled.

GM said its…

This year’s annual dealership group ranking chock-full of change

It won't take long for readers of Automotive News' latest ranking of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. to notice changes in the lineup.

Starting at the top, for the first time, is auto retail giant Lithia Motors Inc.

Lithia, once the smallest publicly traded dealership group before embarking on a multiyear dealership buying spree, passed longtime No. 1 AutoNation Inc. in new vehicles sold in 2022. The toppling of AutoNation, which had held the top spot since 1997, was expected as Lithia purchased dealerships at a rate far outpacing its rival.

It's fitting that Lithia, which has helped drive the dealership buy-sell market to new heights with its acquisition strategy, is now No. 1 on a list that strongly reflects the impact of consolidation in auto retail.

After seeing megadeals completed in 2021, new buyers entered the market, including dealers who hadn't previo…

It won't take long for readers of Automotive News' latest ranking of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S. to notice changes in the lineup.

Starting at the top, for the first time, is auto retail giant Lithia Motors Inc.

Lithia, once the smallest publicly traded dealership group before embarking on a multiyear dealership buying spree, passed longtime No. 1 AutoNation Inc. in new vehicles sold in 2022. The toppling of AutoNation, which had held the top spot since 1997, was expected as Lithia purchased dealerships at a rate far outpacing its rival.

It's fitting that Lithia, which has helped drive the dealership buy-sell market to new heights with its acquisition strategy, is now No. 1 on a list that strongly reflects the impact of consolidation in auto retail.

After seeing megadeals completed in 2021, new buyers entered the market, including dealers who hadn't previously explored growth through the acquisition space, said George Karolis, p…