Trade News – Page 190

NHTSA: Closely watching automated-driving tech since 2022

What it is: Since July 2021, the federal government has been collecting data on crashes involving vehicles that have advanced driver-assistance systems and automated-driving systems. Crash reports include the name of the reporting company, the type of vehicle involved and details such as collision severity and damage and whether injuries or deaths occurred. New data is released on or around the 15th of each month.

Where it comes from: The data is collected through a NHTSA order issued last year requiring vehicle, equipment and software manufacturers of advanced driver-assistance systems and automated-driving systems to report crashes where the system was engaged within 30 seconds of the crash and damage or injury ensued. Companies subject to the order must report to the agency within 24 hours of learning of the incident and provide additional updates by certain time frames.

How it's used: The data helps NHTSA identify potential defect trends an…

Editorial: EV tax credits sound simple, but they’re not

The failure of the IRS to establish rules for electric vehicle tax credits by the end of 2022 as ordered by the Inflation Reduction Act is disappointing and raises questions about the execution of Congress' many-layered scheme.

The old EV tax credit was a bit convoluted, but the system crafted by Senate Democrats to meet the demands of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is a regulatory puzzle to say the least.

The Manchin compromise with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer relieved automakers of volume-related limits on zero-emission vehicle tax credits, which General Motors and Tesla had exceeded, in exchange for no fewer than five limits based on vehicle price, buyer income, source of battery minerals, source of battery components and where the vehicles undergo final assembly.

Some rules are easy to enforce, such as the prohibition on federal support for vehicles assembled outside North America. Others are more complicated, such as documenting what per…

Connecting the dots between vehicle safety and entertainment is critical

The love affair that people have with their automobiles continues to flourish. The record prices consumers remain willing to pay for new vehicles in a supply-constrained environment offers indisputable evidence of the ongoing demand for cars and light trucks that feature the latest safety and infotainment technologies.

Rapidly evolving next-generation innovations — including advances in wireless networking, edge computing and intelligent imaging technologies, among many others — are elevating the driving experience while introducing opportunities to significantly enhance road safety.

Fulfilling the full potential of technology for safety and entertainment, however, will only be realized if drivers and passengers understand, trust and properly use the features and functions being made available. This is why it is so important to connect the dots between auto technology and human adoption. It is imperative as a growing number of consumers view their vehicles as …

TrueCar: What the market will bear

What it is: A monthly forecast of the average new-vehicle price paid by U.S. consumers across 12 auto manufacturers. TrueCar also forecasts a monthly average across the industry. Current-month data is presented alongside a comparison with the previous and year-ago months to show the percentage increase or decrease in average prices paid.

Where it comes from: TrueCar uses data from its network of 10,000 dealers in the U.S. to calculate average transaction prices, or ATP. TrueCar also says its insights come from an analysis of industry sales trends and conditions.

How it's used: ATP data is used to show the threshold that consumers are willing to pay for a new vehicle during a given period of time, which could reflect external macroeconomic factors impacting the industry, including interest rates, inflation, income and unemployment levels. The microchip shortage coupled with the sharp increase in demand following the pandemic created an imbalance in supply and de…

Highlights from the latest Daily Drive podcasts, Dec. 26-28

Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, Dec. 26-28, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker.

"I've heard from all three of the brands ... that they were all definitely disappointed — and some, you would say, irritated — by the rug that was pulled out from underneath them." -- Carly Schaffner, Automotive News reporter, on the reaction of Hyundai, Kia and Genesis' U.S. brands to being left out of new electric vehicle consumer tax incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act

"You can maybe invest $10 billion to get autonomous vehicles up and running, and maybe that's not enough. Maybe there's another $10 billion ahead right now. And not everybody wants to continue playing that game." -- Pete Bigelow, Automotive News director of tech and innovation coverage, on the ups and downs of the autonomous driving industry in 2022

Experian vehicle registration data

What it is: U.S. new-vehicle registration data gathered by the financial services firm Experian. The data set provides greater detail than monthly or quarterly sales reports from automakers. Experian breaks down the new registrations by state, region, fuel type and other categories. The California New Car Dealers Association uses the Experian data in its quarterly sales report.

Where it comes from: Experian collects the new registrations filed with individual state departments of motor vehicles and other sources to feed its North American vehicle database. Experian says its database has information on more than 900 million current and out-of-operation vehicles.

How it's used: Registration data offers granular detail to identify sales trends and also provides a window into manufacturer sales activity. For example, Tesla does not break out its reported global sales numbers by individual country on a monthly basis, but the new registration data serves as a rough e…

Automotive News Research & Data Center: What’s being built

What it is: A breakdown of how many new vehicles have been produced in North America — sorted by automaker, brand, model, country, plant and other categories.

Where it comes from: The production figures are pulled together from a combination of automaker reports, third-party input and Automotive News estimates. Automotive News does not disclose the third-party sources or how it calculates the estimates.

How it's used: The data can be useful in determining changes in factory production levels over a period of time. It is an especially helpful tool for tracking vehicle demand or for highlighting the operational impact of the global semiconductor shortage and other supply chain snarls and labor challenges in recent years. The data provides a general sense of what inventory levels or sales might be in a given month.

How it might be misused: Because some numbers are estimates, it can be hard to accurately compare production figures betwee…

Acura, dealers working to develop digital shopping tool

Acura is working with a small group of dealers to develop an online shopping platform that will roll out when its first electric vehicle, the ZDX crossover, goes on sale this fall.

Honda Motor Co.'s luxury brand is adjusting to the digital car-shopping habits increasingly adopted by consumers in the wake of the pandemic. But Acura said it will not try to deploy a so-called agency model, where a customer orders a vehicle from an auto manufacturer then chooses a delivery dealer.

To the contrary, Acura's dealer network will serve as the nucleus of the equation, leveraging a tool being developed with the automotive retail platform Tekion to create a sales experience that fits a customer's needs.

"The dealers are really the center," Emile Korkor, Acura's assistant vice president of sales, told Automotive News. "They're the ones that create that bespoke experience and, of course, they're going to help us make it simple and frictionless."<…

McLaren’s U.S. dealers seeing high profitability, freshened facilities

LAS VEGAS — McLaren Automotive's retail operations in the U.S. are relatively young, with the first vehicle sales here starting in 2011. With only 25 stores, McLaren's dealership footprint is the smallest amongst major exotic and ultraluxury brands.

Now, as it enters a new vehicle cycle with the launch of the Artura plug-in hybrid, McLaren's U.S. retailers are reaching new levels of profitability while also investing in new or freshened dealerships, according to Nicolas Brown, president of the company's Americas region.

2022 will go down as the most profitable year for McLaren dealers in North America, Brown said at a media event here in December. The rise has been driven by a shift in more customers ordering bespoke vehicles and growing margins on pre-owned vehicles.

"It's been pretty consistent, going back to, let's say, 2018," Brown said, speaking with Automotive News for the first time in his current role. "Especially when you…

Breaking language barrier for sales success

Audi Dominion in San Antonio is one of the top-performing Audi dealerships in the country, averaging more than 100 new vehicles and 170 used vehicles sold a month.

Martin Silva, the dealership's general manager, attributes that success to building a staff that reflects the Alamo City's diverse population and cultural backgrounds.

"When you live in a community like that and decide to go into any kind of retail business, the easiest decision is to provide opportunities to anyone who wants to put their head down and hustle and grind in an industry that's competitive — but also to make sure that our customer has someone they can relate to at the dealership level when it comes to sales, technicians and service advisers."

San Antonio is one of the fastest growing areas in the U.S., and Latino residents account for much of it.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, two-thirds of San Antonio's 1.45 million residents in 2021 were Latino or Hispanic, and ab…

Baidu, Pony.ai begin driverless taxi tests in Beijing

Baidu Inc. and Toyota Motor Corp.-backed startup Pony. ai said on Friday they been granted the first licences to test fully autonomous vehicles without safety operators as a backup in Beijing.

Baidu and Pony.ai said they would begin testing 10 driverless vehicles each in a technology park developed by the Beijing government as a step toward commercial robotaxi services in China’s capital.

Beijing-headquartered Baidu, which generates most of its revenue from its internet search engine, has focused on self-driving technologies over the last five years as it looks to diversify.

It started to charge fees for its robotaxi service Apollo Go last year. It has predicted a robotaxi ride would eventually cost about half as much as one in a commercial car with a driver. The company said it would add another 200 robotaxis to its network across China in the coming year.

Apollo Go, which operates in Wuhan and Chongqing without a safety driver, delivered a tota…

China Evergrande EV unit lays off staff, trims salaries

China Evergrande Group's electric vehicle unit said on Friday it was laying off workers and cutting the salaries of some employees as a part of cost-reduction measures.

The unit, China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group, also said it was arranging for some employees to take a break from work.

The statement comes after Reuters reported that the unit was planning to lay off 10 percent of its workers and suspend salary payments to 25 percent of workers for between one and three months.

The unit also said that it is continuing mass production of the Hengchi 5 electric crossover and has delivered 324 units to customers.

Reuters reported earlier this month that the company had suspended mass production of the model because of a lack of new orders.

The EV unit is key for the transformation plans of Evergrande, once China's top-selling property developer and now at the center of a deepening debt crisis.