Trade News

Automotive CX is shifting gears. The rapid rise of EV disruptors and mobile/connected innovation is dramatically changing customer expectations of how they buy and service their vehicles. Automotive brands are being pressured to transform the automotive buying and ownership experience, but where does the rubber meet the road in improving the CX automotive journey? To find out, Concentrix Catalyst and Salesforce surveyed leading OEMs and dealers for their perceptions on delivering compelling customer experiences. Download the report and then take our Automotive Maturity Assessment to see how you stack up to the industry compared to your peers.

Empower your team with daily defection-based training.

The sharp rise of U.S. new-vehicle inventory levels at the close of 2022 is being tempered with an affordability crisis, high dealership turnover rates, and the fact that many of today’s salespeople only started working at their dealerships during the pandemic. The path to dealership profitability is evolving and it starts with one thing – smarter, daily defection-based training.

Unlock the full potential of your dealership through the three benefits of daily defection data.

Support salespeople with near real-time feedback on what’s working and what isn’t. Train salespeople on known lost opportunities when a lead defects. Help salespeople pivot messaging to nurture relationships with defected customers and encourage repeat business with customers who defected within the same brand. Using in-market leads can save time, save money and retain more salespeople – and having access to daily-defection data is where…

Executives at vehicle listings company CarGurus Inc. remain bullish about its wholesale digital trading platform CarOffer, despite a fourth-quarter loss in the newly called out reporting segment of digital wholesale.

CarGurus' digital wholesale segment, which includes dealer-to-dealer and Instant Max Cash Offer services and products sold via CarOffer, booked a $2.6 million operating loss in the fourth quarter, down from $16.7 million in operating income in the fourth quarter of 2021. Digital wholesale revenue in the fourth quarter plunged 33 percent to $120.5 million vs. $178.6 million a year earlier.

"I don't think there's a long-term change," CarGurus President Sam Zales said of CarOffer during the company's earnings call. "We think the biggest opportunity here … is to put CarOffer and CarGurus together to create dealer opportunity to source market and sell their vehicles in the most efficient way possible."

CarGurus acquired a 51 percent interest in…

"The reason why women aren't drawn to our industry is because they think we're selling cars. If they knew that it was so much more about the people, this would be one of the No. 1 industries that women were flocking to. So I think we have to reframe what this industry is about." — Kerri Wise, chief marketing officer at AutoFi and president of Women Of Color Automotive Network, speaking to content creators Automotive State of the Union at the NADA Show in Dallas

Parts sourcing and management software provider PartsEdge is hosting a seven-week workshop on inventory control, pricing and management strategies for parts departments.

The hour-long workshops, which begin March 16 and continue for the next six Thursdays, will focus on a variety of topics.

These are:

• Inventory management and planning tools

• Inventory control

• Sales vs. receipts

• Daily, weekly and monthly checklists for success

• Auditing your ordering process, fill rates and lost sales

• Sourcing and control

• Ideal pricing formulas

• Wholesale business

Additionally, PartsEdge will offer individual consultations for attendees interested in the extra help. Go here to register.

When service advisers make recommendations for repairs or maintenance, sometimes the customer will decline, saying they have a friend who can do the work. But instead of giving in to defeat, service adviser and coach Coralee Zueff has a different suggestion.

"I recommend selling the parts," she said.

Zueff, author of "Five Star Service Advisor," reasons if the customer really has someone else to do the work, they will appreciate saving time having the parts available.

"If the person ends up not doing the work, the customer is more likely to bring the vehicle back to you for the work," said Zueff, who sees about 40 percent of customers return to have the work done. "At the end of the day, would you prefer to sell the parts or nothing?"

Tesla Inc.'s plan to build a new assembly plant in Mexico is a clear sign the country will be a center for electric-vehicle making, even as the U.S. tries to bolster domestic, union-based manufacturing with the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act.

The planned factory in Monterrey will be one of Mexico's first that's entirely dedicated to the expensive and complex process of making electric cars. The Latin American nation, long a supply base for makers of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles, brings with it advantages including relatively cheap labor and free trade agreements with 50 countries. The U.S. has similar deals with just 20.

One of the key agreements is between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, making it possible for electric vehicles made south of the border to be eligible for up to $7,500 in tax credits offered in President Joe Biden's IRA. Barring big changes to the law, automakers could build even more EVs in Mexico, which drifts away from S…

Private equity investors plowed at least $647.5 million into automotive-related startups in February.

Of that, almost 71 percent, or $457.5 million, went to companies working on battery technology, one of the safer bets in the electric vehicle space thanks to the federal government's industrial policy and incentive programs.

While automakers invest billions on EV development and production, new suppliers of batteries or battery components are emerging to support their efforts, and venture capital is an important way for those companies to raise money to fund research or build out operations.

"EV batteries are a safe investment compared to, say, autonomous vehicles and robotaxis, which are kind of tenuous at this point," Mike Ramsey, a transportation and mobility analyst at Gartner Inc., told Automotive News.

The tax and funding provisions for EV batteries and chargers in the Inflation Reduction Act and Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act have …

Editor's note: Redwood will soon produce cathode from the recycling program. An earlier version of this story misstated that status of that production. Redwood also clarified that other packs were recycled outside of the California pilot program.

Redwood Materials recycled more than 1,000 end-of-life battery packs last year to produce high-quality battery materials through a pilot program with California.

The battery recycling company worked with Toyota Motor Corp., Ford Motor Co., Volvo Cars, Volkswagen Group of America and dismantlers to collect and recycle lithium ion and nickel metal hydride batteries in California as part of a program launched in February 2022, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Redwood recycled the batteries at its facilities in Nevada and has started to produce anode from the recycled batteries that can be used by battery cell manufacturers. Redwood will soon produce cathode from the packs, spokeswoman Alexis Georgeson to…

One of the six publicly traded auto retailers sold a dealership in the San Francisco Bay Area, while a dealer and three groups expanded their holdings — all in fourth-quarter acquisitions.

Here's a look at the deals involving import and domestic brands and stores in California, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York.

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

California dealer buys dealership from Penske Automotive; purchases Chevrolet store

Penske Automotive Group Inc. divested a Honda dealership in northern California late in the fourth quarter.

The publicly traded auto retailer sold Marin Honda in San Rafael, Calif., north of San Francisco, to Mike Patel and Jeff Christoffel on Dec. 19, Patel confirmed to Automotive News in an email.

Patel said he is the dealer principal and majority partner, while Christoffel is minority partner. The dealership was renamed Honda Marin,…

Vroom Inc. said Tuesday its revenues, sales and total gross profit per e-commerce vehicle all tumbled in the fourth quarter, a period in which the company continued pulling back on growth in favor of improving its per-vehicle economics and other business processes.

The online used-vehicle retailer reported a net profit of $24.8 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, though that was primarily driven by a $127 million gain on debt extinguishment due to its repurchase of convertible notes, which "more than offset the impact" of lower sales and lower profit per vehicle, Vroom CFO Bob Krakowiak said on a Wednesday earnings call.

That net income is compared with Vroom's $129.8 million net loss in the same period a year earlier and its net loss of $51.1 million in the third quarter of 2022.

Vroom said its revenue tumbled in the quarter to $209.3 million, down 78 percent compared with the year-earlier period.

Earlier in 2022, Vroom undertook a business re…

BERLIN/HAMBURG – Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board will discuss plans to build a new U.S. factory at a meeting on Friday, two sources close to the matter said, with one adding the board was expected to approve the project.

The factory is a new plant for the Scout brand, according to one of the sources, which Volkswagen has said will be designed, engineered and manufactured in the U.S. with production due to start in 2026.

Volkswagen declined to comment. The automaker has previously said a decision on whether to build a plant for the brand had not yet been made.

Scott Keogh, the former VW Group of America CEO who last year was tapped to lead Scout Motors, also declined to comment.

Last week, Automotive News sibling publication Automobilwoche, citing company sources, reported that VW Group decided to build the Scout plant on its own after considering contract manufacturers Foxconn and Magna.

Volkswagen is expanding its Chattanooga plant t…