The first 2023 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 produced by General Motors was delivered this month to dealer Rick Hendrick, who bought it for $3.6 million at a charity auction in January.
Hendrick, a noted Corvette collector and CEO of Hendrick Automotive Group, also bought the first 2023 Z06 convertible for $1 million.
TO THE EDITOR:
Regarding "EVs are viable for long distances — with planning, luck," Richard Truett, autonews.com, Nov. 8: I'm wondering why Truett didn't use Ford's built-in navigation planner or the independent app A Better Routeplanner? This would have helped route him to compatible DC fast charging stations and taken into account things like weather, payload, etc.
Second, it was a big mistake not to charge to 100 percent. You can use the full battery capacity for exactly this type of scenario.
It's a fair critique that private/inaccessible charging stations are listed on Ford's app. There is, however, a DC fast charger at the GM dealer in downtown Findlay, Ohio, that shows up on PlugShare.
When Truett couldn't initially find the chargers at the casino, why didn't he check PlugShare? It says parking Level 1, and people have left notes on where to go.
Truett mentioned getting stuck in traffic as a hazard. But if you're in stop-and-go, your…
SAN DIEGO — The used-car market perseveres, but industry experts warn the conditions that allowed dealers to sell with ease and vigor in 2021 no longer exist. And dealers are buckling down to be ready for the changes afoot.
2023 is shaping up to be a year of caution and diligence on the used-car side, according to dealers, used-car-related company leaders and analysts who convened at the Used Car Week event in San Diego last week. Some are bracing for what could become severe destruction of used-car demand but say it has not yet reared its head. Still, speculation of recession and signs of a more prolonged slowdown are pushing players in the market to tighten their belts and get ready.
That's already happening at traditional dealerships and at online upstarts such as Carvana Co., which last week said it was cutting 1,500 jobs, or 8 percent of its work force.
"Making sure that you kind of batten down the hatches and get ready for …
Thierry Bollore's two-year stint as CEO of Jaguar Land Rover was memorable for failing to generate a single profitable quarter during a period when rival luxury automakers were posting record margins.
The Financial Times in the United Kingdom reported it was Bollore's inability to mitigate the industry's microchip shortage that prompted JLR owner Tata Motors to push for his resignation. Tata said he will step down effective Dec. 31 for "personal reasons."
In what will presumably be his last public appearance with JLR, Bollore spoke passionately on this month's quarterly results call about the chip crisis.
"We should not forget that the supply of chips is really a crisis in our sector," he said, adding that it would take "years" before the situation returned to normal.
As a smaller player in the industry, JLR found it harder to get much-needed deals with chip makers amid the supply squeeze. In September, one supplier sever…
There has been consternation recently over how long it will take to solve the puzzle of full vehicle automation. But do not overlook how technologies are bridging the gap until that far-off day and preventing crashes and saving lives — now.
A pair of reports last week show how two increasingly common safety technologies can make a difference.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that the rear-end crash rate of pickups equipped with automatic emergency braking was 43 percent lower than those without it. Given that modern full-size pickups have curb weights that tip the scales at 2 or even 3 tons, plus the weight of passengers, cargo and maybe a trailer, they can do extensive and deadly damage in a collision with other vehicles and pedestrians. That's a lot of tonnage to stop, and the braking tech can mitigate some of the damage from human error — or prevent it.
The second study, a collaborative effort between government and automakers, found …
Police in Michigan said a group of more than 20 people broke into a vehicle holding lot last week, had a shootout with a security guard before making off with 13 vehicles and led officers on a lengthy high-speed chase.
One of the thieves died after crashing a 2022 Ford Mustang he had taken, according to TV station Fox 2 in Detroit, and students at Oakland University were told to shelter in place for five hours after police found another stolen vehicle abandoned on campus and assumed the suspects were still armed.
It wasn't clear whether the lot where the vehicles were stolen was affiliated with a dealership or an auto auction. The vehicles taken were expensive, high-powered models from multiple brands.
Police recovered seven of the 13 vehicles but had located only one suspect, aside from the Mustang driver who died, ABC 12 in Flint reported. They said large-scale vehicle thefts have become increasingly common in the area, but that…
TO THE EDITOR:
Regarding "FTC's new rules would only punish honest car dealers," Rob Cohen, autonews.com, Oct. 23: I couldn't agree with Mr. Cohen more when he writes of the Federal Trade Commission's proposals, "Every time the agency does this, lawyers like me make money, and lots of it."
We must recognize that passing laws and regulations does not necessarily solve problems. We need education and increased moral standards by engaging each other with love and respect.
I wish legislatures would abolish laws rather than write more of them. We are humans with feelings and emotions. What can a law do to make people really care for each other?
NAI NAN KO, President, Ko Automotive Group, Wellesley, Mass.
General Motors says it will generate more revenue from electric vehicles in 2025 than crosstown rival Ford Motor Co. brought in from its F-Series pickup line last year.
More importantly, those EVs will be "solidly profitable" by then, GM says, with margins nearly matching those of its internal combustion vehicles. And it plans to build a lot of EVs — 1 million a year at five North American assembly plants, a pace that will require at least three U.S. battery plants to build a total of 1.2 million cells a day.
GM is projecting low- to mid-single-digit margins on EVs by mid-decade, when emissions credits and software and aftersales revenue are included. It expects to generate more than $50 billion in revenue from EVs and $225 billion in total revenue in 2025.
That compares with global revenue of $127 billion for GM in 2021. Ford has said it generated nearly $40 billion from selling about 850,000 F-Series in North America last year.<…
North American factories were forced to eliminate another 79,000 vehicles from their production plans this week because of ongoing shortages of microchips, according to AutoForecast Solutions.
As the industry nears the end of a second full year of the shortages worldwide, automakers still face more schedule changes to deal with the problem.
According to AFS’ latest forecast, microchip shortages will have knocked 4.4 million vehicles out of global production plans by the end of 2022. That is nearly 400,000 more vehicles than already have been eliminated this year — and with barely a month left in the 2022 calendar.
AFS indicates that China’s auto factories have been relatively spared from the chip crisis this year.
Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com
Here are highlights from the latest episodes of 'Daily Drive', Automotive News' weekday podcast, Nov. 14-16, hosted by Jamie Butters with Kellen Walker.
“It’s not about ratting you out to your boss. It’s really about warning you in real time as you’re about to fall asleep or as you’re looking at your phone and something dangerous comes up.” - Stefan Heck, CEO of Nauto, on how the company’s AI cloud data platform can be used to crack down on drowsy driving for fleets
“We’ve got more automakers back, we’ve got more activations, more street drives, indoor rides, than really in the history of our show. And this year is going to really set the precedent for auto shows to come for us.” - David Fortin, vice president of marketing for the Los Angeles Auto Show
“We’re going back to our model on the Model A and the Rouge, where we insource motors and gearboxes and … [the EV] equivalent to axles. … We’re going back to where we were at the beginning of the century. …
Hyundai Motor Co. is showing its EV prowess at the Los Angeles Auto Show this week with the debuts of the Hyundai Ioniq 6 sedan and Genesis X Convertible concept, but the automaker's rapid U.S. growth is also driven by transitional vehicles such as hybrids, said Jose Muñoz, the automaker's global COO.
Hyundai Motor Group, including Kia, is the No. 2 electric vehicle seller in the U.S. behind Tesla, but it's also rapidly growing market share and delivering record profit to dealers by providing a wide range of future-forward vehicles, Muñoz said.
"We at Hyundai thought about how we navigate the transition," Muñoz said Friday at the Automotive News Congress in Los Angeles. "Based on the information we get from our customers, not all are ready to transition to an EV in just one shot."
In addition to his global role, Muñoz is CEO of Hyundai and Genesis Motor North America.
"We decided to invest in hybrid, hybrid plug-in and electric at the same time,"…
Buick's next electric vehicle to be sold in China will be a crossover.
The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology published photos of the Buick Electra E5 online this week as part of a public comment period. The Electra E5 will be produced and marketed in China by General Motors' joint venture with Chinese automaker SAIC, according to reports.
The five-seat crossover is 192.6 inches long, 75 inches wide and about 66.2 inches tall, with a 116.3-inch wheelbase, according to reports. In June, Buick unveiled the Electra-X SUV concept in China, noting at the time that future production vehicles in the country would carry some of the concept's design features.
"It is common practice in China to submit potential future vehicles to governing bodies for awareness," a Buick spokesman told Automotive News in a statement. "Following the debut of the Electra-X concept SUV in June, the Electra E5 will be the first Ultium-based …