Trade News

Volvo Cars is gearing up for an electric blitz to convert all its mainstay models -- three crossovers and two sedans -- into battery-electric vehicles and to introduce a luxury electric van aimed at boosting sales in Asia, two people with knowledge of the plans said.

The Swedish carmaker, 82-percent owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is expected to launch at least six new battery-electric vehicles through 2026, the two people told Reuters.

Volvo has announced an objective to make its entire lineup fully electric by 2030. The company’s Australia unit has said it plans to sell only EVs in that market by 2026.

The previously unreported product plans amount to the largest revamp of Volvo’s model line-up since Geely acquired the brand from Ford Motor in 2010. Under its new owners, Volvo started to share technologies such as car platforms with Geely.

The makeover for Volvo, a Swedish brand that built a reputation for safety and utilitarian …

SAN FRANCISCO - Tesla Inc. suppliers are bracing for pressure from Chief Executive Elon Musk and his team to cut their prices further after the EV maker aggressively slashed vehicle prices in a slowing economy, industry officials who work with the automaker and its suppliers said.

The suppliers saw as ominous last month's comments by Tesla Chief Financial Officer Zach Kirkhorn that the automaker was "attacking every other area of cost" including the supply chain, and would work closely with suppliers. During Tesla's earnings conference call last week, Musk said a recession could lead to "meaningful decreases" in almost all its input costs.

"It is never good for suppliers when (automakers) cut vehicle prices because that pressure rolls downhill," said Dan Sharkey, an attorney who represents suppliers to Tesla and other automakers. "I never like it, because I know eventually they're going to try to get it out of one of us."

"My message is, there's not goin…

Porsche dealers came to the brand's make meeting at the NADA Show with one thing on their minds — product supply, or the lack thereof.

Most questions from retailers centered around the sports car maker's sales and production outlook, Mike Sullivan, Porsche Board of Regents chairman, told Automotive News.

The dealers' message to the factory was: We need more cars.

For a niche purveyor of six-figure, high-performance metal, tight vehicle supply is typically a feature, not a bug. Scarcity creates desirability and lifts profitability.

Porsche is the master of the "one-short model," said Sullivan, referring to the brand's desire to build one car fewer than the market demands.

But in the era of microchip shortages and COVID-19-related production disruptions, it's more like "10 short," said Sullivan, managing partner of the LAcarGuy group and dealer principal of Porsche South Bay in Hawthorne, Calif.

A…

LAS VEGAS—Daimler Truck North America unveiled its SuperTruck II Wednesday, showing off an efficient diesel big rig intended to demonstrate fuel-saving technologies that can be deployed as the trucking industry pivots to zero-emission vehicles.

The sleek cab, painted in a pixelated rainbow livery to evoke a sense of effortless motion, is more of a proof-of-concept vehicle rather than the typical pie-in-the-sky concepts common in the auto industry.

"We focused on technologies and ideas that could be realistically implemented. We don't do science projects at DTNA," said Daimler Truck North America CEO John O'Leary.

The concept truck is based on Daimler's Freightliner Cascadia model, which with nearly 40 percent of the market is the leading seller among Class 8 trucks in the U.S.

The project's aim is to develop a tractor-trailer combination that demonstrates advances in aerodynamics, diesel engine technology, tire rolling resistance and other system…

Road trips in electric vehicles could soon become more feasible and easier to plan with Electrify America charging stations located at travel centers across the U.S.

Electrify America and TravelCenters of America detailed a new partnership Monday to install 1,000 chargers at 200 TravelCenters locations along major highways over the next five years. The companies plan to launch the first chargers this year.

The partnership will add Electrify America charging stations to major travel corridors, aiming to ease consumers' range anxiety on road trips, Rachel Moses, an Electrify America director, told Automotive News.

The installation will further expand access to EV chargers along highways. General Motors, EVgo and Pilot Flying J in July made a similar agreement with plans to install 2,000 chargers at 500 Pilot and Flying J travel centers.

The pace of installation and the locations of the chargers will depend on grant funds and utilization by region, …

Paul Meijer, host of "Sunday Night Live" on LinkedIn, and Robert Sebestyen of service department training company Gravitational Business spoke on Meijer's Jan. 29 show about selling customers new tires or brakes by talking about the improved safety aspects.

Sebestyen: "People buy improvements; they don't buy products. This is the feature, but what is the improvement to my life? The more you can articulate the impact for the client, the more they're going to see the value. If you don't articulate the value, it doesn't matter how good a deal it is, [the customer is] going to feel like it's not a good value, like [they're] overpaying."

Meijer: "It's not even about price. It's about understanding the value. If they understand the value, price becomes secondary."

There was a tie for the first time in the Women Driving Auto Retail video contest. Leslie Jefferson, an acquisition executive at Pohanka of Salisbury in Maryland, and Alicia Rivera, assistant service director at Trophy Nissan in Dallas, were named the winners at the NADA Show in Dallas last week.

The video contest, started in 2018, is part of the National Automobile Dealers Association's Women Driving Auto Retail initiative, which highlights women working in dealerships and encourages other women to pursue automotive careers. The contest celebrates women who work in all areas of the store.

The two women each received a $1,000 gift card and complimentary registration to the 2024 NADA Show in Las Vegas. The eight runners-up received $500 gift cards. Here are the videos from Jefferson, Rivera and the runners-up.

Jefferson was in a motor vehicle accident in 2020 that resulted in a spinal cord injury. But she made a remarkable recovery and was working full …

The Range Rover Velar, the most on-road-friendly vehicle in the Land Rover lineup, is getting a slight revamp for the 2024 model year.

The interior sports most of the revisions, which include a new and larger floating curved glass touch screen, available active noise cancelation, new upholstery and an optional air purification system.

The Range Rover Velar gets a new, more streamlined grille and headlights, plus a new lower rear bumper. Two engines remain available — a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder and a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six with a mild hybrid system.

Prices, including shipping, range from $62,275 for the Velar P250 S to $79,675 for the Velar P400 Dynamic HSE.

Hyundai and Kia racked up another month of U.S. sales gains in January on improved inventory levels, higher fleet volume and electric-vehicle demand.

Volume rose 9 percent to 52,001 at Hyundai and 22 percent to 51,983 at Kia, the companies said Wednesday. It was the sixth consecutive month of year over year gains for the two brands, with Hyundai edging Kia by just 18 vehicles in January.

Hyundai said retail sales rose 1 percent to 48,247 last month. The company said it ended January with 45,158 cars and light trucks in stock, up from 37,379 at the end of December and 18,060 a year ago.

Kia set a January record and said five models – Niro, Sportage, Telluride, Carnival and Forte – also posted record deliveries for the month. Combined deliveries of Kia’s electrified vehicles jumped 128 percent.

Genesis also reported record January sales of 3,905, a 7.3 percent gain.

Toyota Motor Corp., Honda Motor Co., Subaru and Mazda were scheduled to rele…

Credit Acceptance Corp.'s net income fell 42 percent to $127.3 million during the fourth quarter, a decline driven primarily by a need to set more money aside for potential credit losses in light of changing cash flows.

The bruised credit auto lender said Tuesday it expected to collect smaller percentages of the indirect loans it obtained from dealerships in 2021 and 2022, resulting in a $41.1 million decline in forecasted net cash flow.

Credit Acceptance predicted its loans from each of the years 2018 to 2020 as of Dec. 31, 2022 were on track to perform more than a percentage point better than it had originally expected. However, its portfolio of loans written in 2022 looked to return 66.3 percent of all the principal and interest theoretically due the company, down 1.2 points from the yield Credit Acceptance originally expected. (However, loans from the fourth quarter were tracking 0.3 points better than expected.)

Chief Treasury Officer Doug Busk tol…

Battery startup Our Next Energy Inc. raised $300 million in its series B funding round, the company said Wednesday.

The investments valued the Michigan company at $1.2 billion.

The company intends to use the funds for building the second phase of a $1.6 billion battery-cell factory slated for completion in 2024, company founder and CEO Mujeeb Ijaz told Automotive News.

Coupled with $220 million in grants from the state of Michigan, the company, known as ONE, now has received more than $500 million to fund the Van Buren Township, Mich., battery cell factory. Workers completed construction of the factory's exterior in December 2022.

The company's long-term approach relies on developing batteries not dependent on hard-to-source rare earth elements and instead relies upon a lithium iron phosphate chemistry. That technical strategy attracted investors despite a high interest-rate environment, said Ijaz, a veteran of Ford Motor Co. and A123 Systems.

Jimmy Powell is the fixed operations director at Horne Auto Group in Gilbert, Ariz.

First car: Dodge Avenger (trash)

First concert you attended: Linkin Park

Name a pet peeve: Professionally, an unprofessional service adviser 🙂

Most thrilling/adventurous thing you've done: Nothing stands out; this question made me realize how boring I am.

Your personal hero: Jesus Christ

First job: Lifeguard

Something on your bucket list: Wouldn't mind traveling to a few different football stadiums to watch our Arizona Cardinals.

One thing you learned on the job you never forgot: As a manager, we are to remove obstacles for our employees.

If you could pick up a new skill, what would it be? Woodwork/framing

What did you want to be when you were a kid? NFL quarterback

Do you collect anything? Baseball cards

You're king for a day — what's your …