Trade News

DETROIT — General Motors could enter the baby pickup market with an electric entry smaller than the Ford Maverick and the Hyundai Santa Cruz.

The automaker is considering a two-door pickup with a 4- to 4.5-foot-long bed and low roofline. The vehicle would be part of GM's lineup of affordable EVs priced under $30,000.

The pickup, seen by Automotive News Wednesday at GM's affordable EV design studio in Warren, Mich., is futuristic and sporty. Marketing images behind the pickup showed consumers using it for recreational activities, such as surfing.

GM did not provide a name, brand, image or production timeline for the mini truck.

"We're creating these to get a reaction and then to try to modify it or move on. What does work? What doesn't work? What's expected?" Michael Pevovar, director of Chevrolet affordable EV and crossover design, told reporters. "Affordability is the key portion of this, and there's lots of different ways to approach it."

Auto refinancier and digital auto retail platform provider Upstart will begin to expand its indirect auto lending business to dealerships nationwide starting next quarter, the company said this week.

The company also will give dealerships using its Upstart Auto Retail platform the opportunity to let their customers obtain a car loan and even complete a purchase entirely online. These new features on what was once the Prodigy auto retail platform also will begin to roll out during the second quarter, Upstart said.

Right now, only about 30 of Upstart's nearly 800 dealership customers have been able to use Upstart's artificial intelligence-based, highly automated indirect lending system to find loans for their customers. The capability has only been available in-store, not for online retail, according to Alex Rouse, vice president and general manager of Upstart Auto Retail.

Rouse called results from dealership testing of Upstart loans "really, really impre…

Doug Betts, president of the Automotive Division at J.D. Power, talks about the firm’s new EV index. Renault’s Alpine brand sees a big opportunity in the U.S. And some auto loan rates could grow almost a full percent this year.

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Automotive News Retail Forum: NADA on Jan. 26 in Dallas will feature conversations with key retail industry leaders and dealers that will explore top-of-mind topics, including the new tax credits for EVs and how proposed regulatory changes could impact advertising and finance and insurance practices.

Attendees will hear from auto industry leaders including Damon Lester, former president of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers who now owns a Maryland Nissan dealership; Group 1 Automotive Inc.'s new CEO and longtime executive Daryl Kenningham, and Larry Van Tuyl, who in 2015 sold his dealership empire to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. In 2020, Van Tuyl began again to acquire dealerships and now has eight stores in his Visionary Automotive Group.

Two panel discussions with dealers and industry experts will dive into EVs and tax credits and a Federal Trade Commission proposal, along with its possible impacts to dealership advertising an…

Elon Musk misled Tesla Inc. shareholders when he tweeted in 2018 about taking the company private with "funding secured" and cost them millions of dollars, a lawyer for investors told jurors at the chief executive officer's securities fraud trial.

"His lies caused regular people, like Glen Littleton, to lose millions and millions of dollars," attorney Nicholas Porritt said in his opening arguments Wednesday, referring to the named plaintiff in the class-action case. In order for markets to operate normally and fairly, it's "critical that he is held, and the company is held, liable," Porritt said.

Alex Spiro, Musk's lead lawyer, countered in his address to jurors that Musk's intention to take Tesla private was "indisputably true," and the messages on Twitter "didn't materially matter to the market."

Funding to take Tesla private wasn't a problem, Spiro said, explaining that Musk was "serious" about taking the company private, but used the "wrong words." H…

Electric truck and charging station company Forum Mobility is teaming up with CBRE Investment Management on a $400 million joint venture.

The partnership between Forum and CBRE's investment arm to electrify the infrastructure of California's coastal port communities and small independent truck operators is the latest deal involving a major real estate player and an electric or autonomous truck technology company.

Last year, real estate firm Alterra Property Group inked a deal with Embark Trucks, a San Francisco self-driving company, to build hubs for autonomous trucking. Industrial warehouse giant Prologis signed a similar deal with Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving technology subsidiary, last year.

Forum Mobility, of Oakland, Calif., and CBRE Investment Management's joint venture plans to install electric truck depots at several California ports. These include Long Beach and Oakland.

The venture comes as the California Air Resources Board is conside…

The investment division of Volvo Group has made an undisclosed investment in Canadian autonomous driving technology company Waabi Innovation.

The investment by the company that manufactures Volvo and Mack heavy-duty trucks represents its view that the commercialization of autonomous driving will come in freight movement before passenger cars.

"Volvo Group can add considerable strategic value to the development of their business. We are currently exploring ways to cooperate," says Martin Witt, Volvo Group Venture Capital president.

Volvo Trucks North America, the U.S. division of the Swedish company, already has a partnership with Aurora Innovation and plans to test autonomous trucks on freight routes.

Fully autonomous trucking would add to freight capacity, increase efficiency through better utilization of expensive Class 8 trucks and improve safety, Volvo Group said.

In a blog post, Waabi said the trucking industry is challenged by a persi…

Bank interest rates will grow to 6.9 percent on direct 60-month new-vehicle loans and 7.8 percent on direct 48-month used-vehicle loans over the course of the year, Bankrate chief financial analyst Greg McBride predicts.

McBride's projections this month give dealership staff seeking to match customers with indirect auto loans from partner lenders a sense of the APR competition they'll face if those consumers already secured direct financing from banks. The average new-vehicle interest rate from a dealership loan reached 6.5 percent in the fourth quarter, while the average used-vehicle dealership APR reached 10 percent, according to Edmunds.

Five-year new-vehicle loans directly from banks started last year at 3.9 percent interest Jan. 5, 2022, and rose to 6.1 percent by Dec. 28, 2022, according to Bankrate. APRs on four-year used-vehicle bank loans climbed to 6.8 percent from 4.4 percent during the same time, Bankrate said.

McBride's new- and used-vehicl…

Volkswagen of America will promote two longtime executives into sales and marketing roles and has parted ways with a former Honda sales executive.

Hein Schafer, 43, currently senior vice president of product marketing and strategy, will become senior vice president of sales operations for the German brand's North American region. Schafer — a 2020 Automotive News Rising Star — is a native of South Africa who's been with VW since 2006, including a stint in Brazil, where he worked from 2015 to 2018 alongside current VW of America CEO Pablo Di Si. In his current role, Schafer manages the brand's product planning in the region.

He will succeed Ray Mikiciuk, a 30-year veteran of American Honda who joined VW in October 2020. He has left the company, VW said.

Rachael Zaluzec, 42, will be promoted to a newly created position of senior vice president of customer experience and brand marketing. Currently, Zaluzec, who has been with VW since 2008, is vice president …

The transition from gasoline to electric vehicles mainly depends on the supply chain for batteries and their materials.

Domestic shortages of lithium and other critical minerals have plagued U.S. auto manufacturers trying to keep up with EV demand, which is growing at a steep 30 percent annually, according to EVAdoption.com.

The largest shortfall is domestic lithium production. Australia accounts for half of the 100,000 tons of lithium produced globally, according to the World Economic Forum. Chile and China are next. The U.S. lags far behind, producing fewer than 1,000 tons of lithium annually.

The same is true for other critical minerals used in batteries. The U.S. has relied on countries like Russia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while U.S. mining has stagnated.

As the U.S. EV market expands, the federal government and industry players are looking to build out a domestic mineral supply chain.

Th…

Volta Inc. said on Wednesday that a Shell Plc subsidiary would take over the electric vehicle charging network operator in an all-cash deal valued at about $169 million.

Shell USA Inc will acquire all outstanding shares of Class A common stock of Volta for 86 cents apiece in cash in a deal that is expected to close in the first half of the year, Volta said.

Shell and other companies such as France's EDF and Norway's Statkraft have been investing in EV charging infrastructure to cash in on the growing demand for electric vehicles.

The announcement follows other investments in the EV charging infrastructure space, including Mercedes-Benz, which is poised to invest billions of dollars to build 10,000 fast-charging points in North America, Europe and China by 2030.

As part of the deal, Shell USA will also provide loans to Volta to help the company through the closing of the deal.

The acquisition of Volta — which installs chargers with large vid…