Trade News

Chinese automaker Leapmotor -- a potential Volkswagen partner in China -- will expand sales of its vehicles into new European market starting next year.

The company, which already sells the T03 electric minicar in France through a local importer, will launch in Germany and other European countries, said the head of international operations Matt Lei.

Leapmotor presented the C10 electric SUV, its first model developed for international markets, at the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich on Monday.

The automaker plans to launch five globally oriented models over the next two years.

Leapmotor is counting on its software-defined Leap 3.0 architecture to win buyers.

The architecture integrates four domains -- cabin, intelligent driving, powertrain, and body control -- into a unified platform,

This ensures the "best smart mobility experience" in the industry, Lei said.

Leapmotor's models will not cost more than comparable combustion e…

Magna International is in talks to produce vehicles for Chinese brands in Europe as they expand in the region.

The supplier’s Magna Steyr contract manufacturing facility in Graz, Austria has some spare output capacity, according to Magna Europe President Uwe Geissinger.

“Whether we make them in Graz or a new facility depends on how the talks turn out,” he said in an interview.

The Canadian supplier has been producing cars for the Chinese market for BAIC at a joint-venture facility in the Asian country but will tread carefully when it comes to future partnerships.

"We are closely studying the financial standing of any new production partner," Geissinger said.

Only one in 10 of new entrants in the market have the potential to succeed, he said.

In June, leading automotive buy-sell advisor Haig Partners negotiated a record-setting sale in which Florida-based Morgan Automotive Group bought Al Hendrickson Toyota in Coconut Creek, Fla., for what’s believed to be the highest price ever paid for a car dealership. What factors enter into forging a landmark sale like this? And what lies ahead in the buy-sell arena as dealership profits begin to normalize after an unprecedented run during the past few years? Alan Haig, the company’s president and founder, provides insights below.

Q: We are reading about declining dealership profits, but you recently sold Al Hendrickson Toyota for an amount that set a record for the highest price ever paid for a single dealership. How does that happen? 

Alan Haig: I’m going to make an analogy about great cooking. It’s all about the best ingredients: A well-crafted recipe and the right timing.

We knew we had a special opportunity when one of my partners, Kevin Nill, start…

MUNICH -- CATL will produce its upcoming fast-charging Shenxing battery at its plants in Germany and Hungary alongside China, principal engineer Gao Pengfei said at the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich.

The battery will be mass-produced in China from late 2023 and available in electric vehicles from 2024.

Gao declined to provide a timeline for production in Europe and said no offtake agreements had been finalized with customers in the region yet.

CATL, the world's largest battery maker, claims the new Shenxing battery made with lithium iron phosphate, or LFP, will be able to drive 400 kilometers (248 miles) on a 10-minute charge and 700km at full charge.

LFP chemistry comes at a lower cost than the nickel-cobalt-manganese batteries used in cylindrical cells by automakers such as BMW or Tesla, Gao added.

CATL began production at its plant in the central German state of Thuringia in December 2022 and is building Europe's largest battery plant…

As digital transformation reshapes North America’s automotive industry, some companies may be challenged by the resources and effort required to build and operate the digital factory. The solution? Digital factory-as-a-service.

In the digital factory, the barriers between functions and processes are broken down and replaced by an integrated digital operating and control environment in which automotive companies’ ERP, MES, CRM and other systems communicate seamlessly across the enterprise and the supply chain, typically via the cloud. Connecting the top floor to the shop floor offers companies many advantages: more transparency, optimized production, improved operations, lower costs, higher quality, less downtime, fewer bottlenecks, and a better customers experience.

Building and operating a digital factory can be challenging. The applications and interfaces that underpin the digital factory are continually evolving and improving, and companies’ IT teams need t…

MUNICH – China’s Xpeng plans to expand into more European markets, including Germany, Britain and France in 2024, President Brian Gu told reporters on Monday at the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich.

The company will enter the German and French markets starting in 2024 with the G9 and G6 SUVs and P7 large sedan and will offer its G6 as its first right-handed model, Gu added.

Xpeng's visibility soared after VW recently announced it would work with the company to develop electric models for its budget Jetta in the Chinese market.

Volkswagen Group is adding improved design to a string of changes aimed at enticing more buyers as sales of electric models in China flag and competition intensifies.

VW will strengthen the hand of its designers, who will work more closely with brand chief executive officers, the automaker said Sunday on the eve of the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich.

The goal is to better differentiate the company's stable of ten brands and boost demand for its upcoming electric-car offerings.

"Our refined design principles aim for higher design quality," VW Group CEO Oliver Blume, who also heads sports-car maker Porsche, said in a statement.

VW is busy implementing improvements aimed at turning around a slide in sales in China, where the company’s EVs have fallen flat amid strong local competitors like BYD.

The struggles follow Porsche, Audi and Volkswagen’s namesake models facing years of delays due to software hiccups.

In July, VW announced a …

MUNICH -- Volkswagen brand will launch a performance version of its upcoming small battery-electric car using its GTI badge.

VW previewed the high-powered small EV with the ID GTI concept. The car was unveiled Sunday ahead of the IAA Mobility auto show in Munich, taking place from Sept. 5 to 14.

"We are transporting the GTI DNA into the electric age," VW brand CEO Thomas Schaefer, said in a statement.

The ID GTI harks back to the original Golf GTI first revealed 48 years ago at the 1975 IAA Frankfurt auto show.

Original GTI details echoed in the concept include a golf ball inspired central controller in place of the original golf ball gear shifter, and a chequer patterned interior fabric recalling the original tartan seats.

Drivers can choose a "Vintage mode" setting for the digital cockpit that brings up a recreation of the dials from the Mk2 Golf GTI.

The concept also features the GTI's signature red surround to the radiator grill…

MUNICH — BMW expects to sell more light vehicles in China this year despite a local price war in the electric vehicle segment, and muted demand overall, the luxury carmaker's CFO said at the IAA car show in Munich.

In his first interview since becoming finance chief in May, Walter Mertl told Reuters that BMW had been able to grow 3.7 percent in China in the first half, faster than the world's top auto market as a whole, and expected this trend to continue.

"We are assuming, and we are seeing this at the moment, that we will sell more this year than last year," Mertl said with regard to China, adding that the price war was predominantly affecting less expensive segments of the auto market, where BMW is not active.

China's passenger vehicle sales fell for a second month in July, as discounts and government support measures failed to lure consumers wary of buying cars amid a sputtering economy and a prolonged slump in the housing market.  

Pri…

MUNICH — While Mercedes-Benz has focused on electrifying its flagship cars and SUVs, the German luxury marque is now turning its gunsights on the other end of the product portfolio.

On Sunday at the Munich auto show, Mercedes revealed the Concept CLA Class, a four-door coupe that previews a new "electric-first" platform, underpinning future compact and midsize electric vehicles.

The concept features a drivetrain derived from the Vision EQXX concept, which Mercedes said can drive from New York to Cincinnati on a single charge and is as aerodynamic as a football.

Mercedes and German rival BMW are preparing software-driven vehicle architectures for a new next-generation of EVs to claw back market share from a surging Tesla.

The Austin, Texas, EV juggernaut has negatively impacted Mercedes sales, with the German brand's lower-priced models taking the brunt of those losses.

"With Tesla dominating the electric vehicle market and the Model 3 tak…

While Volvo, Volkswagen and Buick trim or eliminate wagons from their U.S. lineups, Mercedes-Benz is sticking with a different direction — off-road — with the next-generation E-Class wagon coming next summer.

The 2024 E-Class All-Terrain, introduced Sunday at the Munich auto show, grows taller, wider and longer than the outgoing model, and undergoes a host of upgrades designed to appeal to customers who like the look of a beefy wagon that can traverse dirt and gravel country roads.

The All-Terrain's Airmatic suspension system places air suspension bellows at each wheel to maintain ground clearance regardless of the load.

The interior has electrically folding rear seats and a total cargo capacity of more than 64 cubic feet. The tailgate opens and closes electronically via the key fob. The All-Terrain's exterior has wheel arch cladding, a twin louver grille and an under-vehicle guard panel.

No word yet on prices.

The All-Terrain is expected…

EV auto finance subject of new F&I special section

Electric vehicles made up 7.2 percent of second-quarter U.S. registrations, ahead of the 5 percent "inflection point" Chase Auto CEO Peter Muriungi said could signal EVs reaching 25 percent of the market within just two or three years.

For auto lenders and dealership finance offices, the question is: How are people currently paying for their EVs, and how will the potential impending flood of adopters pay for them in the future?

In this quarter's Finance and Insurance special section, we look at trends dealership sales and F&I departments might see today or leverage in years to come.

Our lead story demonstrates automakers whose vehicles do not qualify for the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act's new-EV tax credit are indeed capitalizing on the commercial vehicle tax credit by incentivizing leasing. Lease deals boomed from 7 percent of the EV market to 26 percent of new EV transactions between D…