Trade News

When Chris Thomas worked as an intern at Ford Motor Co. in the depths of the Great Recession, he finagled his way into a meeting with Bill Ford Jr. and asked the company chairman to put him on the most interesting project possible.

Thomas spent his summer analyzing transportation trends in cities with more than 10 million residents. He quickly parlayed that research into a role crafting business plans for potential transportation startups, long before "mobility" became an industry buzzword.

Today, Thomas, who is based in Detroit, is a partner at Assembly Ventures, the venture capital firm focused on global transportation investments that he co-founded in 2020. He was a guest on the Oct. 2 episode of "Shift: A Podcast About Mobility" with Staff Reporter Pete Bigelow. Here are edited excerpts from their conversation.

Q: The Detroit auto show was underwhelming. How can the organizers recapture the magic? Could it be combined with the B…

The key to delivering a seamless and transparent sales experience to vehicle buyers is to figure out how to reduce the clunkiness that often interrupts the process.

One way to get there: By cutting down on the number of logins, windows and toggling back and forth that dealership sales employees have to navigate while working on a car deal.

It's one of the biggest pain points for dealership employees, and it is passed on to dealership customers in the form of extra time and potentially less transparency, which could lead to less trust, dealership leaders and industry experts said last month at an industry conference hosted by dealership software giant CDK Global Inc. in Detroit.

"In our stores, we have so many different logins to so many different programs," Sam D'Arc, COO of Zeigler Auto Group, which has dealerships in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, said during a panel discussion. "That's a friction point in delivering t…

Wholesale used-vehicle prices tumbled once again in September, marking another month of cumulative price declines that have defined the wholesale market in 2022.

Cox Automotive said Friday that wholesale prices declined 3 percent in September compared with August. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — an indicator of used-vehicle market pricing trends — declined from 210.8 in August to 204.5.

Cox Automotive reported prices were 0.1 percent lower in September than the same time last year when the index stood at 204.8. It's the first time since May 2020 wholesale values declined year-over-year, according to Cox Automotive. Those numbers are adjusted for mix, mileage and seasonality.

On a nonadjusted basis, the index fell 2.1 percent in September from its August level, with prices down 2.3 percent year-over-year.

"Vehicles are once again depreciating assets," Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke said in a news release. "As we look at the …

Stellantis has been hit with another odor violation at its Detroit Assembly Complex on Mack Avenue, marking the sixth time in a year that state regulators have flagged the Jeep plant for air pollution.

The assembly and paint complex on the city's east side was cited Tuesday for "nuisance odors" recorded by inspectors Sept. 30, according to the violation notice from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy.

"During the investigation … (Air Quality Division) staff observed persistent and objectionable paint/solvent and chemical odors of moderate intensity (Level 3) impacting residential areas downwind of the facility," the notice said.

According to investigators, the odors were of "sufficient intensity, duration, and frequency" to constitute an "unreasonable interference with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property."

Stellantis said it is investigating the incident.

"Stellantis has been implementing corrective act…

NADA charts a new auto retail path. Cobalt mining returns to the U.S. after three decades. Tesla says it will finally deliver Semi trucks. Plus, a conversation about the ways the pandemic has changed how customers communicate with dealership service departments.

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Four growing dealership groups, including two of the largest in the country, completed acquisitions in the second, third and fourth quarters.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import stores in California, Michigan, Texas, and Indiana.

Four of the deals involved a group ranked on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups.

Lithia sells Northern California Toyota store

Lithia Motors Inc., fresh off two separate store divestitures in California last month, sold another dealership this week in the Golden State.

Lithia on Monday sold Lodi Toyota to Lahham Automotive, the auto retail giant confirmed. The dealership's name remains. Lodi is south of Sacramento.

In May 2021, Lithia sold a Kia dealership in Stockton, Calif., to Lahham Automotive.

The Toyota store is Lahham's second dealership overall, said Joe Ozog, president of Ozog Consulting Group in Scottsdale, Ariz. Ozog Consulting represented Lithia in…

Booming demand for batteries powering the world’s shift into electric vehicles is rekindling U.S. cobalt production after at least a 30-year hiatus.  

Australia-based Jervois Global Ltd. is starting the first U.S. cobalt mine in Idaho on Friday, according to CEO Bryce Crocker. The mineral sits “at the top of the table” in terms of national security, said Crocker.

“There aren’t many new sources of supply, particularly in stable jurisdictions, which is why this mine in the US is very important,” he said. Cobalt hasn’t been produced in the US since at least 1994, according to data from the United States Geological Survey.

Cobalt is a crucial component in EV batteries and is on the U.S. government’s critical-minerals list. The U.S. sees widespread adoption of EVs as key to its efforts to combat climate change.

Both California and New York have passed laws that will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles in the coming decades. As automakers…

Johan de Nysschen is leaving his job as Volkswagen Group's North American COO, saying he has "done everything I have set out to do here."

De Nysschen, 62, who previously worked for Audi, Infiniti and Cadillac, framed his departure from VW as a retirement from the auto industry after a three-decade career, indicating that he plans to stay at his new home in Tennessee and "truly relax."

"It's time for me to step aside and let others who are more than capable to lead the way," de Nysschen said in an interview with Wards Auto published Thursday. "I've done everything I have set out to do here, but you are never truly 'done.' There's always the next thing in any job."

A Volkswagen of America spokesman confirmed to Automotive News that de Nysschen had voluntarily stepped down.

De Nysschen's job, which the company created for him in 2019, will be eliminated as part of a leadership restructuring, the spokesman said.

De Nysschen said he told Volkswa…

A plan to keep the wheels from falling off Toyota’s bZ4X, literally. The entry-level price for a Ford F-150 Lightning goes up again. Honda cuts production in Japan. Plus, a conversation with ONE CEO Mujeeb Ijaz talks about the battery company's planned $1.6 billion plant and his company's ambitious targets for the cost of its battery cells

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A federal court jury in California has ordered General Motors to pay $102.6 million to a class of consumers after finding that it hid an engine defect that caused problems including stalling and premature breakdown in tens of thousands of SUVs and trucks.

The verdict was handed down Tuesday following a rare class action trial in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, lawyers for the plaintiffs announced.

The winning class includes owners and lessees of SUVs and trucks sold from 2011-2014 in California, North Carolina and Idaho that contained the company's Generation IV Vortec 5300 LC9 engine. Each of the roughly 38,000 class members would get $2,700 if the verdict survives appeal.

Christopher Stombaugh of DiCello Levitt, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in a statement he was "thankful for the courage of the jury, which did the right thing in holding GM responsible for its deceit and half-hearted efforts to address its problems."

GM said in a st…

Consumer expectations have evolved. Be ready for any consumer, any deal, anywhere with this guide. While purchase path possibilities are infinite, we focus on four shoppers and their journeys: Rick: Consistent Consumer Experience Julian: Right Shopper, Right Deal Tara: Buying Signals Lily: 100% eCommerce

Prepare for individualized purchase scenarios, discovering the tools, technologies, and processes you'll need for every unique path to vehicle purchase.

Advancing autonomy is not autonomous. It’s much easier when you team up with a reliable technology partner that understands the end-to-end process. When you’re pushing into new realms of technology, it’s not always clear how to identify the right partner, one that checks all of the boxes. For example: How many miles of proven experience do they have? How big is their partner network, and who’s in it? Are they reliant on VC funding or do they have a track record of reinvesting in themselves?

These are just a few critical questions that automotive OEMs need to ask as they’re vetting autonomy partners. For more guidance, download our white paper.