Trade News

Nissan sales continue to sputter in the year's second half, though dealer inventory shows improvement.

Nissan Motor Co.'s U.S. sales tumbled 23 percent during the third quarter to 154,086. Nissan Division sold 142,845 vehicles in the latest period, down 24 percent from a year earlier.

Most Nissan brand nameplates witnessed year-over-year sales declines in the third quarter. However, the updated Altima midsize sedan and Z sports car saw a surge in sales.

Infiniti's volume rose 5.4 percent to 11,241 vehicles in the July-September period, powered by sales of the redesigned QX60 midsize crossover.

Judy Wheeler, Nissan Division vice president of sales and regional operations in the U.S., said dealers began seeing "incremental improvements" in inventory starting in August.

Shipments to dealers are estimated to improve 30 percent through the end of 2022, Wheeler said in an email to Automotive News.

"W…

In his final interview as Ford’s chief industrial platform officer, Hau Thai-Tang talks about his career and his decision to retire. The first sales results are in for the third quarter. Tesla reveals its humanoid robot. And the head of Stellantis expects the chip crunch to continue through next year.

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Georgia state officials said on Monday they were disappointed after a local court rejected a joint proposal to secure local incentives for Rivian Automotive Inc.'s $5-billion manufacturing plant in the state.

"We remain undeterred in our efforts to bring high-paying, American manufacturing jobs to Georgia, and are currently assessing all legal options," the Joint Development Authority (JDA) of Jasper, Morgan, Newton, and Walton counties and Georgia Department of Economic Development said in a joint statement.

Morgan County Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell on Thursday rejected the agreement between the local development authority and the Amazon.com Inc-backed EV company on grounds that the proposal did not appear feasible and failed to establish that it would promote the welfare of local communities.

A Rivian spokesperson declined to comment.

Rivian had announced in December its plans to set up the Georgia plant and had said at the time that …

General Motors on Monday said improved microchip supplies helped stabilize its production in the third quarter, pushing its U.S. sales 25 percent higher than a year ago.

It was the first increase in five quarters for GM, which said its retail market share rose nearly 3 percentage points as a result. Increased deliveries to commercial customers propelled fleet sales up 66 percent, the automaker said.

Chevrolet, GMC and Cadillac each posted double-digit gains, but Buick sales fell for a fifth consecutive quarter, giving the brand its lowest total in the first nine months of a year since 2009.

GM said it achieved record combined sales of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV, with volume more than tripling from a year earlier after a $6,000 price cut. The company plans to build more than 70,000 Bolts in 2023, about 60 percent more than this year.

GM also plans to increase output of the Cadillac Lyriq in the fourth quarter and add production shifts for the GM…

Intel Corp. has filed for an initial public offering of its self-driving technology business, Mobileye Global Inc., braving the worst market for new U.S. listings since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

The company didn’t disclose terms of the planned share sale in its filing Friday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Mobileye will continue to be controlled by Intel after the IPO, according to the filing.

Intel expects the IPO to value Mobileye at as much as $30 billion, less than originally hoped, Bloomberg News reported this month.

If the listing goes ahead this year, it would be one of the biggest U.S. offerings of 2022. Currently, only two companies have raised $1 billion or more on New York exchanges since Jan. 1, compared with 45 in 2021. This year, the U.S. share of IPOs has shrunk to less then a seventh of the global total from half in 2021.

Mobileye would also be following in the tracks of Porsche's market-defyin…

Implement the service strategies of thriving, profitable dealers. Despite supply chain concerns, dealerships are succeeding by accelerating digital adoption and utilizing their data insights:  Review past service records for potential acquisition opportunities Buy from customers with repair-prone vehicles Bring your sales team into the service loop to seek out in-demand vehicles Flag declined service recommendations for service-weary customers Create a dealership-wide plan to ensure marketing, sales, and service, and operations are all in sync Download our guide to learn more about these service strategies and overcome your inventory challenges.

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Nearly 150 different plug-in vehicles are on their way to U.S. dealerships now through 2026. That's in addition to a number of battery-electric offerings automakers already have rolled out this year.

At the moment, electric vehicles are still a small fraction of total sales, but that's certain to grow rapidly as they start to make up more of dealership inventories in 2023 and beyond. Several brands now intend to go fully electric later this decade, while others are still years away from introducing their first EV.

Here's a chronological look at the battery EVs and plug-in hybrids that Automotive News has reported are on the way. Prices listed include shipping.

BMW i7: The all-electric version of the 7 Series sedan features dual motors that deliver a combined 536 hp and an EPA-estimated range of up to 307 miles.

Mercedes EQE sedan: The battery-electric midsize sedan is based on the EVA2 pl…

U.S. light-vehicle sales remain in low gear as the third quarter winds down, while slumping consumer sentiment threatens a further downshift.

Cox Automotive on Wednesday, Sept. 28, cut its full-year new-vehicle sales outlook to 13.7 million — down more than 9 percent from 2021 and the industry's lowest tally in a decade.

It's the third time this year Cox has lowered its sales forecast, which initially stood at 16 million vehicles.

Most automakers are expected to release third-quarter U.S. sales results early this week.

Charlie Chesbrough, Cox Automotive senior economist, said COVID-related production disruptions and the war in Ukraine scuttled the anticipated improvement in inventories at the start of the year.

Now the industry faces a new wrinkle.

"It seems likely that much of the pent-up demand from limited supply is quickly disappearing as high interest rates eat away at vehicle buyers' willi…

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Detroit 3 are pushing rapidly toward an electric future for their light-duty pickups, but it's a different story for the biggest trucks in their lineups.

Heavy-duty pickups are among the few vehicles still seeing big investments toward development of more powerful gasoline and diesel engines. Although the segment isn't huge, the money at stake is. Ford Motor Co. says it gets more revenue from Super Duty sales alone than Southwest Airlines, Marriott International and many other Fortune 500 companies generate.

These big trucks are high-margin profit machines that will be key to funding automakers' electric ambitions, but executives say they'll likely be among the last vehicles in the industry to get battery power — if they ever do.

"If you're pulling 10,000 pounds, an electric truck is not the right solution. And 95 percent of our customers tow more than 10,000 pounds," Ford Motor Co. CEO Jim Farley told media at the Churchill Downs…

Tesla Inc. announced lower-than-expected electric vehicle deliveries in the third quarter, as logistical challenges overshadowed its record deliveries.

The EV maker said in a Sunday statement that "it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure vehicle transportation capacity and at a reasonable cost," but some analysts were also concerned about demand for high-ticket items due to the weakening global economy.

"The economy around the edges is still having a negative impact for Tesla that's mostly logistical. But that I think there is some demand (issues) sprinkled in there," Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives told Reuters after the delivery results.

"There is a dark cloud over the auto sector. And Tesla is not immune."

Ford Motor Co. said last month inflation-related costs would be $1 billion more than expected in the third quarter and that parts shortages had delayed deliveries.

Apple Inc. is backing off plans to increase production o…

LAS VEGAS — Ambitious targets for electric vehicle sales — in California or nationwide — will be hard to achieve by 2030 or 2035, Akio Toyoda told reporters here last week.

Regarding California's mandate that will ban the sale of gasoline-burning vehicles by 2035, the Toyota Motor Corp. CEO said: "Realistically speaking, it seems rather difficult to really achieve that."

He added that a national goal of 50 percent zero-emission vehicles by 2030 would be "very difficult."

As a global automaker serving 200 countries, Toyota must take into account the wide variety of conditions in those various markets, including the needs of the 1 billion or so people who don't have reliable access to electricity. Through a translator, he cautioned that regulations "tend to narrow the options available for solutions toward carbon neutrality."

Longer term, he sees hydrogen combustion as a compelling offering. In the short term, hybrids may provide the greatest good…

See the changing industry from the auction lane

For another perspective on the evolution of the auto industry, let's look at what's happening at wholesale auctions.

In this week's issue, we not only examine how traditional auction companies are seeing a complex downswing in volume, but also how they're pivoting to keep in stride with dealers' evolving acquisition habits and with a swirl of announcements from automakers about new vehicle production and concepts.

On Page 1, I lay out the amalgam of shifts that have reshaped the auction industry. You'll read about how COVID-19 and the resulting slowdown in production of new cars and trucks disrupted typical volume flows at auctions, to this day making some types of highly sought inventory hard to come by.

Conditions have even led some dealers to cut back on their buying in physical auction lanes in favor of purchasing of used vehicles directly from consumers.

Changes in dealer appetites acco…