Trade News

Wholesale used-vehicle prices fell "substantially" in August to cap off a summer that had been marked by more gradual monthly price declines.

Cox Automotive said Thursday that wholesale prices declined 4 percent in August compared with July. The Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index — an indicator of used-vehicle market pricing trends — declined to 210.8, down from 219.6 in July.But wholesale prices remained elevated year over year. They were 8.4 percent higher in August than in the year-earlier period, when the index stood at 194.5. Those numbers are adjusted for mix, mileage and seasonality.

On a nonadjusted basis, the index fell 2.6 percent in August from its July level, with prices up 5.9 percent year over year.

Used-retail sales did see some growth, rising 11 percent in August from July. But sales were down 9 percent compared with the same time last year, when they were more robust, according to Cox Automotive.

Average wholesale prices for 3-year…

A new survey shows retailers are getting more worried about the economy. Japan says new EV tax credits might violate international trade law. Jeep and GM make big EV rollouts. Plus, North American International Detroit Auto Show co-chair Thad Szott previews next week's event.

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Mullen Automotive Inc. acquired a controlling interest in fellow electric vehicle manufacturer Bollinger Motors, of Oak Park, Mich.

Mullen, headquartered in Brea, Calif., bought a 60 percent stake in Bollinger for $148.2 million, the company said Thursday.

The deal marks Mullen's first foray into the electric truck market, with Bollinger Motors introducing both electric SUVs and chassis cabs in the past half-decade.

Just last week, Bollinger said it would produce the Bollinger Motors B4 — a battery-powered Class 4 chassis cab. The automaker did not include a production timeline in the announcement.

"This acquisition is one of the largest in the EV industry to date and provides Mullen with the unique opportunity to aggressively expand into the high-demand commercial EV space," Mullen CEO David Michery said in a statement.

Since its launch in 2015, Bollinger Motors has been plagued by problems, especially surrounding its release windows. In J…

The Chinese market for new passenger vehicles expanded for the third-straight month in August in an extended rebound, the China Automobile Dealers Association said Thursday. 

Last month, retail sales of new sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles industrywide jumped 29 percent year on year to top 1.87 million, according to the trade group’s tally.

The extended market rally came after the lifting of a two-month pandemic-triggered lockdown on Shanghai -- China’s financial center and industrial hub, and the roll-out of a six-month tax incentive for gasoline vehicles on June 1. 

Under the tax incentive program, purchase tax was halved to 5 percent for new light vehicles with engine sizes of up to 2.0 liters and priced at 300,000 yuan ($43,103) or below.

The market rebound also came as a result of explosive demand for electrified vehicles. 

In August, the retail volume of new electrified passenger vehicles spiked 111 p…

Volvo Car Corp.’s China deliveries surged 31 percent year on year to 17,179 vehicles in August. 

It was the third straight month the Swedish carmaker recorded sales growth in the market after Shanghai, China’s largest city and auto production hub, came out of a two-month lockdown in June.

Last month, Volvo delivered 1,337 electrified vehicles in China, a 22 percent jump from a year earlier. The volume includes 845 plug-in hybrids and 492 full electric vehicles, according to Volvo’s tally.

For the first eight months, Volvo sold 102,899 vehicles in China, its largest single market worldwide, slumping 16 percent from the same period last year.

During the period, its electrified-vehicle sales rose 13 percent to 7,194. The tally is composed of 5,474 plug-in hybrids and 1,720 EVs. 

While registering robust sales recovery in China, Volvo said its local production was contained by power crunch and stringent anti-pandemic measures in the c…

Magna International Inc. is building a fleet of cooler-size robots for Cartken, an autonomous delivery technology startup.

Although Cartken announced the contract Wednesday, Magna started building the robots last month.

It made an initial order of 50 Cartken Model C robots at its plant in suburban Detroit and is increasing capacity, Matteo Del Sorbo, executive vice president at Magna, told Automotive News.

The agreement calls for Magna to build thousands of the six-wheel robots, but the companies did not provide an exact number or a dollar value for the contract.

Cartken sees a market for robots for autonomous deliveries at hotels, universities, warehouses and other locations. The Oakland, Calif., company is the developer and won't be providing the service.

Other companies will use the robots to do the actual deliveries. It is a business model similar to self-driving car companies such as Argo and Motional.

"This partnership is a sig…

Stellantis will keep its second shift going in Windsor, ON. Auto safety regulators offer new cybersecurity guidance. Volvo tries to open doors to younger buyers. Plus, Carnegie Mellon autonomous vehicle expert Dr. Phil Koopman dissects Cruise's rocky rollout in San Francisco.

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Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

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Elon Musk can use a whistleblower's claims in his legal case against Twitter Inc. but the billionaire cannot delay the trial over his attempt to walk away from his $44 billion deal for the company, a judge ruled Wednesday.

"I am convinced that even four weeks’ delay would risk further harm to Twitter," wrote Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of Delaware's Court of Chancery, in affirming the trial will start next month.

“We are hopeful that winning the motion to amend takes us one step closer to the truth coming out in that courtroom," said Alex Spiro, an attorney for Musk, in a statement.

Musk's legal team argued on Tuesday that justice demanded delaying the five-day trial so Musk could investigate claims by whistleblower Peiter Zatko, known as "Mudge," that Twitter hid weaknesses in its security and data privacy.

Musk's initial case against Twitter claimed the company misrepresented the prevalence of spam or bot accounts on the platform.

Las…

MEXICO CITY - Mexican automotive production and exports rose in August compared with the same month a year earlier, data from the national statistics agency (INEGI) showed on Wednesday.

Production increased 31.36 percent to 316,815 vehicles and auto exports rose 16.93 percent to 248,704 units, the data showed.

According to INEGI monthly production also rose in May, June and July, 2022 compared to a year ago.

WASHINGTON — The nation's top auto safety regulator on Wednesday released updated guidance to the automotive industry for improving cybersecurity in new vehicles.

The latest version updates NHTSA's voluntary guidance from 2016 and covers a range of cybersecurity issues as cars become more connected and potentially more vulnerable to hacking.

"As vehicle technology and connectivity develop, cybersecurity needs to be a top priority for every automaker, developer and operator," said NHTSA Administrator Steven Cliff, who is leaving the agency this month to join the California Air Resources Board as its executive officer.

"NHTSA is committed to the safety of vehicles on our nation's roads," Cliff continued, "and these updated best practices will provide the industry with important tools to protect Americans against cybersecurity risks."

NHTSA in January 2021 — during the last days of the Trump administration — sought public comment on draft guidance …

Stellantis has named Chris Taylor its chief digital information officer, a newly created position as the automaker works to become a "mobility tech company."

Taylor reports to Xavier Chéreau, chief human resources and transformation officer, and Ned Curic, chief technology officer. The move was effective Sept. 5.

Stellantis said Taylor will drive its digital strategy and technologies and "be responsible for improving IT project execution and organizational efficiency."

"Chris brings deep knowledge of cutting-edge digital technology to support our sophisticated business needs, both at Stellantis and for our customers," Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement. "His background in cyber security, new business models and customer-centric solutions will drive the business value we require to meet our aggressive Dare Forward 2030 targets."

Taylor has nearly 30 years of global information technology experience in multiple industries, including a…

For many years, China’s electric vehicle market was primarily driven by policy. The combination of fuel economy regulations, a new-energy vehicle quota system, government fleet mandates and direct purchase subsidies all added regulatory pressure and incentives for both automakers and consumers to go electric.

The policies still matter, but recent BloombergNEF analysis shows EV adoption is now running well ahead of what’s required purely from national regulations and policy targets. City-level policies are still playing an important role because they make it difficult to get a new license plate for internal combustion vehicles in China’s major cities, but even that isn’t enough to explain why adoption is rising so quickly.

There are many factors at play when a consumer technology starts to take off. Technology maturity, cost competitiveness and word of mouth all play a role. In China’s EV market, there’s another factor at play, namely that homegrown EV startups…