Trade News – Page 167

Column: GM’s new small-block V-8 is the best powertrain for pickups and SUVs

At industry confabs over the past five years or so, we've heard powertrain experts proclaim that the internal combustion engine isn't dead yet.

General Motors affirmed that outlook this month with plans to invest nearly $1 billion in four engine plants that will produce the automaker's sixth-generation small-block V-8. Some electric vehicle components will also be made at those plants.

GM, for now, says it is also sticking with the quiet, smooth-running 3.0-liter inline turbodiesel engine that is optional in its big pickups and SUVs.

You might think this investment at the dawn of the modern electric era — when buyers are finally warming up to EVs, range is improving and prices are falling — would be a foolish way to spend hundreds of millions of dollars. You would be wrong.

Big pickups and SUVs are still more practical (and profitable) with a gasoline or diesel engine than with an electric powertrain.

Example: A 2023 Chevrolet Silverado wi…

In-cabin experience will set pickups apart

TO THE EDITOR:

I enjoyed "Ford, GM and Ram primed for EV pickup battle" (autonews.com, Jan. 1). As noted, a lot of buyers are new to the pickup segment, which means that brands can't count on loyalty. But that also means that a lot of buyers' expectations will be based on nonpickup models, like cars and SUVs. And while Ford and Rivian are among the first to the segment, "first" has a short shelf life.

Together, this means that successful models will be those with solid and positive differentiators, and they need to go beyond what is expected from traditional internal combustion engine pickups.

The technical differentiators can include the usual ones for electric vehicles (range and speed to recharge), assuming all accelerate quickly.

The real differentiators will be the in-cabin user experience. This is new technology to many buyers, and buyers are coming from outside the segment, so interior systems will need to be focused on education, ease of o…

Highlights from the latest ‘Daily Drive’ podcasts, Jan. 23-25

Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, Jan. 23-25, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker and Jake Neher this week.

"In total, we are investing $750 million in that, our core market. And there is more to come."--Makoto Uchida, CEO of Nissan, who says EV growth is prompting his company to make another big investment in a U.S. plant

"It's one of those things that just kind of took off as a side effect of profitability staying high."--Jack Walsworth, reporter covering dealership buy-sells for Automotive News, on the growing number of first-time dealership owners

"We've got the traffic, the inventory is starting to build, and we'll be expanding our dealer footprint. So a lot of good signals going into 2023."--Mike Darrow, CEO of TrueCar, on the automotive pricing and information website's outlook for 2023

— Listen to these and other shows at autonews.com/dailydrive.

Autoliv’s price increases help boost Q4 core earnings

Autolivreported fourth-quarter core earnings above analyst forecasts after the supplier restored profitability by passing higher costs on to its customers, sending its shares up almost 8 percent.

Rising raw material prices have squeezed car suppliers for some time now. Autoliv CEO Mikael Bratt said the cost inflation seen by Autoliv in 2022 was the worst in three decades.

Despite this, the Swedish company has been able to meet or exceed analysts estimates in the past quarters as it has continued to negotiate price hikes with automakers, which Bratt told Automotive News Europe was "new territory" for both.

"But I think we found good resolutions," he said.

The Swedish company delivers its equipment -- which includes seatbelts, airbags and other safety solutions -- across broad swathes of the auto industry.

That includes a growing number of EV startups based in Asia and the U.S. that Bratt told Automotive News Europe have turned to Autoliv be…

Why Super Bowl auto ad spending is trending down

Last year’s Super Bowl drew a significant number of auto advertisers despite a supply shortage that caused brands to think twice about spending big on marketing to spur demand.

The game emerged as a tool to broadcast big electric vehicle investments by those shelling out millions of dollars to appear in commercial breaks, including Kia, BMW, General Motors and EV startup Polestar.

But this year — even as EV sales continue to rise — larger economic concerns are keeping automakers and automotive websites on the sidelines, including softening demand that is forcing more execs to scrutinize budgets.

“Clients are being very cautious about how much they spend,” said one ad agency executive who works on automotive and spoke on the condition of anonymity. “Does it make sense to frontload the year with a big Super Bowl ad? Probably not.”

So far only one auto brand — Kia — has confirmed an ad buy in the Feb. 12 game on Fox. And while more automakers a…

Column: What a French sports car says about Renault-Nissan’s future

An underappreciated piece of news recently came out of France. It was the declaration by the CEO of Alpine — the high-end sports car brand of Renault — that the brand intends to move into the U.S. market.

Laurent Rossi told reporters that his fledgling brand, which sold barely 3,500 cars last year and has just one factory with a production capacity of only 6,000 vehicles a year, expects to grow to about 150,000 a year by 2030. And getting there, Rossi made clear, will rely critically on entering the American market in 2026 or 2027.

Here's why this is a remarkable ambition: It reveals the sort of change that's now coming to what had been Carlos Ghosn's Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance.

As head of two automakers for most of a generation, Ghosn wrote and enforced the ground rules for Nissan and Renault until his leadership ended after his arrest for alleged financial improprieties in Japan in 2018. The basic understanding was that Ni…

Swope’s path to better F&I? Collaboration

Jennifer Swope was convinced the F&I departments at the six stores owned by the Swope Family of Dealerships had untapped revenue potential.

The main obstacle? Silos.

From her perspective, each finance department worked independently with little collaboration, even though five of the stores are close to each other along what's known at Swope as the Miracle Mile on Dixie Avenue in Elizabethtown, Ky.

So Swope, who is general manager of Swope Hyundai and Genesis of Elizabethtown and also the granddaughter of the company's co-founder, Bill Swope, demolished those silos.

Her wrecking ball? Monthly meetings with the company's eight finance managers and six general managers.

Held on the first or second Friday of each month at Swope Toyota in Elizabethtown, the 90-minute meetings, which began in September 2020, have boosted revenue.

The companywide average F&I profit per vehicle retailed profit per vehcile retailed in 2021 increased…

GM to include dealers in vehicle software sales

General Motors will include its franchised dealers — and compensate them in some form — as part of its strategy around future software sales after a vehicle purchase, executives said.

GM is developing its approach toward the sale of vehicle software and services in conjunction with its dealer councils and boards, GM North America President Steve Carlisle said in an interview at the NADA Show. The automaker is drawing on its experience with its OnStar in-vehicle safety and security service.

Carlisle said GM is working on a financial aspect to the relationship with dealers, possibly as a commission or some other structure, but added that he would not call it revenue sharing.

"Whatever the product is, the dealer channel is a very effective sales and marketing channel. So that's the spirit in which we enter into it," Carlisle said.

He added: "Given that it is a very effective sales and marketing channel, then, obviously, there's a recognition of tha…

Toyota execs talk launches, franchise dealer model to packed house

For the first time in years, the Toyota and Lexus make meeting would have been standing room only on Friday.

Would have been, that is, if local police and fire officials had allowed all the dealers in who wanted to attend, instead of leaving many standing outside in line while the doors closed to a packed house.

Toyota executives told Automotive News they had requested NADA move their make meeting from Sunday to Friday of convention weekend, after attendance in previous years had dwindled to fewer than 200.

That plan worked and then some, with the meeting's 450 chairs completely occupied even after nonspeaking Toyota executives in attendance were asked to leave to make room for more dealers.

Even then, a handful of dealers and others were still standing in line after the doors were closed, having to wait for someone to exit before they could go in. At least some of those in line abandoned the effort.

Inside the meeting, dealer…

Audi aims to increase leasing, CPO sales

Audi plans to work with its dealers to improve leasing rates in 2023 as inventory levels start to rebound after years of supply chain disruptions.

The brand told dealers its leasing rates have plummeted by roughly half since 2019, according to Brett Morgan, CEO of Morgan Automotive Group in Tampa, Fla., which includes one Audi store. He said the Audi make meeting Friday focused heavily on the desire to boost leasing and increase certified pre-owned sales.

“It was a pretty positive meeting,” Morgan said.

Michelle Primm, dealer principal at Audi Cuyahoga Falls near Cleveland, also said leasing and CPO sales were big topics. She noted that the brand is more open to working together with its retail network than in the past.

The collaboration between Audi and the dealer body has never been stronger,” Primm said. “Traditionally an OEM would identify a problem, come up with a solution and then tell the dealers what they’re going to do. That’s not…

Mercedes reports upcoming models, new dealer support model

Mercedes-Benz has significant fresh models coming to showrooms this year, it told dealers at the make meeting — a meeting in which some lamented they are frustrated they can’t get the inventory they want.

Mercedes’ luxury products are chock-full of technologies and features and, like other manufacturers, shortages of critical semiconductors to create dealer orders.

“We’re already in a much better shape than we were 12 months ago,” said Senol Bayrak, Mercedes vice president of sales, after the meeting. “But we do face challenges, and we’re working to make our whole value-added chain more efficient in getting cars from the factory to dealers.”

The company told dealers at the meeting that a redesigned GLC SUV will arrive in the first half of this year. The GLC is the brand’s No. 1 selling nameplate. The new EQE SUV will also reach dealerships this year.

Mercedes also reported on the launch of a new networkwide support model for dealers that i…

Column: EV tax credit needs a portal

The EV tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act are a mess: The eligibility of vehicles is opaque at best.

Even when the rules are written, they will still be very complex — limited by where the vehicle is made, where its battery components come from, where the minerals for the batteries came from, its classification. And that’s before we get to whether the customer qualifies for one credit or another.

It’s too much to expect of the mass-market consumer. What we need is a computer.

Call it a website, call it a portal. Whatever. We need someplace we can go to find out if a vehicle qualifies for a $7,500 credit, a $3,750 credit or nothing.

It’s going to have to be VIN-specific, because some models are made in different places or equipped differently in ways that regulators deem crucial, like whether an ID4 has all-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive.

Ultimately, each vehicle is unique.

“Having one central location for that data, we th…