Trade News

Finance and insurance provider and administrator APCO Holdings on Jan. 3 bought competitor National Auto Care, creating one of the industry's largest providers.

Tony Wanderon, 60, who led National Auto Care as CEO, replaced Scot Eisenfelder as CEO of APCO Holdings. Eisenfelder left APCO, the company said.

Leadership from both companies would not disclose the purchase price, but Wanderon told Automotive News combined revenue for the companies is close to $300 million.

Wanderon said he and APCO President John Lee had been discussing ways to merge their companies, "and finally, we had the opportunity this past year to be able to put that in play and close today."

"We're going to be one of the top two or three providers in the country at the size and scale that we are today," Wanderon added. "Our focus is really going to be driven around adding dealer profitability and adding value to our relationships in the marketplace and investing heavily as we ne…

Hyundai and Kia capped a year of U.S. market share gains with double-digit sales gains in December as the auto industry's lean stockpiles continued to rebound, overcoming rising interest rates and new-vehicle prices, and the growing prospects of an economic slowdown.

Volume rose 40 percent last month to a December record of 72,058 at Hyundai Motor America, driven by a 27 percent rise in retail deliveries. Hyundai said it was its fifth straight month of record retail sales, with utility vehicles accounting for 74 percent of retail volume.

While it finished the year with five consecutive monthly sales gains, Hyundai's 2022 U.S. sales tallied 724,265, a 2 percent decrease compared with 2021. The company said it ended December 2022 with 37,379 cars and light trucks in U.S. inventory, down slightly from 39,898 in November but up from 21,420 at the close of 2021.

At Kia, sales rose 25 percent to a December record of 60,422, its fifth straight monthly advance.…

Chrysler will be the first Stellantis brand in North America to deploy the automaker's next-generation technology in the cockpit.

Stellantis is demonstrating a mock-up of its two-seat Chrysler Synthesis layout during CES in Las Vegas this week. The Synthesis design incorporates several upcoming Stellantis tech platforms, including STLA Smart Cockpit, STLA Brain and STLA AutoDrive. The automaker brands the trio as "Advanced Technology for Real Life."

The company says the advanced artificial intelligence technology will be able to adapt and enhance the user interface over time. For example, it will be capable of learning owner preferences.

The system also allows Stellantis to make over-the-air vehicle updates, a function automakers are racing to adapt.The use of such updates, according to Stellantis, will enable the "quick creation and updating of software features, automatically downloading content and enhancements over the air to keep the vehicle fresh, e…

Rivian Automotive said it came up just short of its 2022 production target of 25,000 units due to supply-chain issues and a slow ramp at its assembly plant in Normal, Ill.

The EV startup on Tuesday said it produced 24,337 vehicles in its first full year of production, comprised of R1T pickups, R1S crossovers and EDV delivery vans for Amazon. Rivian does not break down production by model.

Rivian had originally forecast 2022 output at 50,000 vehicles before a lack of critical parts caused repeated shutdowns of its assembly line and a re-assessment of its potential in mid-2022. The Irvine, Calif.-based automaker delivered 20,332 vehicles last year, leaving about 4,000 in inventory.

For the fourth quarter, Rivian produced 10,020 vehicles after adding a second production shift on improving parts supply and delivered 8,054. In its third-quarter earnings report, the company said it had a backlog of more than 100,000 preorders for the R1T and R1S, in addition…

Making new sedans sexy to consumers is proving to be an increasingly heavy lift in the U.S. market, so Volkswagen has settled on ensuring that the debut of its upcoming electric sedan at CES is "lit" — albeit temporarily — while giving the car a new name to go along with its unique camouflage scheme.

The German brand has redubbed what had been known as the ID Aero the ID7, a roughly Passat-sized sedan that will go on sale next year in the U.S. with what is expected to be VW's best range from its growing family of battery-electric vehicles. The vehicle on display, a production-intent version, is expected to be rated at around 700 kilometers (435 miles) of range in Europe under the continent's looser Worldwide Harmonised Light Vehicle Test Procedure regimen, the brand said. Range figures for U.S. versions have not been released.

VW said the ID7 will feature a 15-inch infotainment screen incorporating a "new display concept," along with digitally controlled autom…

A coveted luxury auto account will be up for grabs in 2023 as BMW of North America is conducting an agency review for creative, media, social and CRM, the brand confirmed to Ad Age on Tuesday. Ad Age is an affiliate of Automotive News.

Omnicom’s Goodby Silverstein & Partners has held the creative account since 2018, when it took over from KBS, which later rebranded as Forsman & Bodenfors after a merger with the Swedish shop. The incumbent media agency is Interpublic’s UM, while IPG’s Performance Art handles CRM. Other roster agencies include Omnicom’s Critical Mass, whose duties include web development and digital marketing, and independent shop Anchor, which has social media.

BMW in a statement referred to the review as “part of our normal course of business,” meaning that it is a procurement-mandated review that happens on a regular basis every several years. The review, which is already underway, is expected to take the majority of the calendar…

Roland Berger's Isaac Chan talks about the industry's move toward electric vehicles and the possible barriers in the way of wider acceptance of EVs. Plus, NVIDIA’s Danny Shapiro discusses the future of in-car gaming as the tech titan announces an array of partnerships with automakers from around the world.

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A transforming market on display in Las Vegas

Electric vehicles, leaps in sensor technology, car connectivity and in-cabin gaming will head the automotive-related news coming out of the sprawling CES in Las Vegas this week.

Stellantis, which has trailed most rivals in the electric vehicle transition, will unveil its Ram 1500 Revolution battery-electric vehicle concept. Ram needs the pickup to stay competitive with the Ford F-150 Lightning — already on the market — and the Chevrolet Silverado EV, which goes into production this year.

Also at CES, BMW will showcase its Neue Klasse next-generation platform, which it expects to build vehicles upon starting in 2025.

The Ram 1500 Revolution illustrates how the electric vehicle market is transforming. A decade ago, it was a niche business dominated by Tesla and augmented by small-volume compact models such as the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid. But now EVs have spread to giant v…

Tesla Inc. is set to pay more for the lithium that powers its EV batteries after a supplier amended their deal amid a relentless price rally of the metal.

Piedmont Lithium Inc. will now supply an increased 125,000 metric tons of lithium concentrate to the EV giant starting in the second half of this year through the end of 2025, according to a statement Tuesday. Unlike prior agreements where prices are locked in, Piedmont’s deal with Tesla relies on a floating mechanism based on market prices, according to the statement.

The change in the supply agreement between Piedmont and Tesla is “significant” because the EV giant typically has fixed prices for the materials it needs for batteries, according to analyst David Deckelbaum at Cowen & Co.

“As more contracts shift toward variable pricing, Tesla’s lithium costs inevitably move higher,” Deckelbaum said in an email.

As the biggest buyer in a sector filled with startup miners, Tesla has wielded out…

SEOUL -- South Korea's antitrust regulator said it would impose a 2.85 billion won ($2.2 million) fine on Tesla for failing to tell its customers about the shorter driving range of its electric vehicles in low temperatures.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said that Tesla had exaggerated the "driving ranges of its cars on a single charge, their fuel cost-effectiveness compared to gasoline vehicles as well as the performance of its Superchargers" on its official local website since August 2019 until recently.

The driving range of Tesla cars plunges in cold weather up to 51 percent versus how they are advertised online, the KFTC said in a statement on Tuesday.

Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment.

On its website, Tesla provides winter driving tips, such as pre-conditioning vehicles with external power sources, and using its updated Energy app to monitor energy consumption but does not mention the loss of driving range in sub-zero…

SEOUL -- Hyundai Motor and affiliate Kia forecast that their combined global vehicle sales will jump nearly 10 percent in 2023, even as last year's sales fell short of target due to supply chain disruptions.

The companies sold 6.85 million vehicles in 2022, about 4 percent less than their combined target of 7.16 million vehicles, largely due to problems including chip and component shortages.

The companies said they would target global sales of 7.52 million vehicles this year.

"Hyundai plans to expand market share and operate profitability oriented businesses by flexibly responding to market changes, accelerating its transition to electrification, responding to global environmental regulations, and optimizing production, logistics and sales by region," the company said in a statement.

Analysts said the sales targets of the two companies for this year appear to be aggressive but achievable, considering pent-up demand for vehicles.

"Hyundai M…

Tesla's China chief Tom Zhu has been promoted to take direct oversight of the electric car maker's U.S. assembly plants as well as sales operations in North America and Europe, according to an internal posting of reporting lines reviewed by Reuters.

The move makes Zhu the highest-profile executive at Tesla after CEO Elon Musk, with direct oversight for deliveries in all of its major markets and operations of its key production hubs.

The reporting lines for Zhu would keep Tesla's vehicle design and development -- both areas where Musk has been heavily involved -- separate while creating an apparent deputy to Musk on the more near-term challenges of managing global sales and output.

The Tesla posting showed that Zhu's title of vice president for Greater China had not changed and that he also retained his responsibilities as Tesla's most senior executive for sales in the rest of Asia as of Tuesday.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters requ…