Trade News

A Volkswagen dealership in Marion, Ill., is deploying strategies traditionally used to foster vehicle sales to encourage staffers to buy more used cars directly from consumers to help the store stock its lot.

The efforts have helped reduce Volkswagen of Marion's reliance on buying from wholesale auctions, lowered its per-vehicle acquisition costs and boosted used-vehicle sales and overall dealership profitability, said Ashlee Church, general manager at Volkswagen of Marion.

Store leaders ramped up efforts to purchase directly from consumers in early 2019, bolstered tracking procedures around those acquisitions and subsequent sales and implemented bonus opportunities for sales reps who were successful at the new approach. The dealership also scaled back emphasis on its business development center.

"We really had to work to get everybody to embrace this philosophy ... that acquiring a vehicle from a customer today generates a future …

Acura's Precision EV concept, which serves as a roadmap for the brand's upcoming electric vehicle lineup, shares some design and aerodynamic elements with Honda Performance Division's next-generation ARX race car.

The ARX-06's exterior design was crafted at the Acura Design Studio in Torrance, Calif., by the team that developed the Precision EV concept. It uses a new hybrid power unit and will compete in the 2023 IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar GTP Championship.

The Precision concept designers worked closely with performance division engineers, who guided them on what they should and shouldn't be doing in terms of aerodynamics and fluid flows, said Dave Marek, Acura's executive creative director at Honda R&D Americas. The group also worked with French racing chassis-maker ORECA to help maximize aerodynamic performance of the race car.

"The race car dictates knowledge to us, and it's just logical thinking to put it into these cars,"…

Commercial vehicle manufacturer Shyft Group is developing a portable charging system it believes will help fleets transition to electric vehicles without making costly infrastructure investments.

Shyft, which was formerly Spartan Motors, launched marketing of its Blue Arc Power Cube remote-controlled, portable charging station in July.

The Power Cube carries three megawatts of onboard power, enough to power six vehicles at once, according to the company.

It has fast-charging capabilities that the company says can charge passenger cars and all classes of commercial vehicles.

The new offering comes several months after the suburban Detroit commercial vehicle maker established its Blue Arc EV Solutions unit, which sells an electric chassis and a Class 3 electric delivery van.

As potential delivery van customers voiced concern over charging infrastructure, Shyft developed the portable charger to address their…

DETROIT — Dodge believes there's an opening in the compact crossover segment that it can speed through with its upcoming Hornet, even if the muscle car brand seems out of step with someone who buys a Toyota RAV4 or Honda CR-V.

Dodge is sticking with the performance-driven messaging that has been its bread and butter for years, while pushing the Hornet as the latest entry into its "Brotherhood of Muscle."

Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis is ready to emphasize the Hornet's fleetness, even though buyers in the segment tend to be focused on practicality. He believes there's a contingent of compact utility shoppers who can be lured by this focus on speed and unique features such as a temporary horsepower boost called PowerShot.

"You could say the way we're positioning Hornet is a total failure because you're going into a segment that buys on price, value and fuel economy and you're not talking about price, value or fuel economy," Kuniskis told …

ONTARIO, Calif. — Peter Voorhoeve remembers talking at a conference in Singapore five years ago about the potential self-driving trucks held for the freight industry and wondering if any of it would come true during his career or even lifetime.

Now head of Volvo Trucks North America, Voorhoeve, 57, is part of the global leadership team helping to guide the company through rapid technology advancements. Volvo has grabbed an early U.S. lead in heavy-duty electric trucks with 56 registrations for its Class 8 VNR Electric tractor. It has sales agreements that add up to 330 more VNR Electrics in addition to the vehicles in operation.

And it is pushing into autonomous trucking. With Aurora Innovation as the driving system supplier, Volvo has an initial deal to begin hauling freight with its Class 8 VNL autonomous truck prototype for DHL in Texas. For now, a safety driver will be in the cab. At some point, Volvo and Aurora plan to pull the human monitor and gain the …

Nissan Motor Co. will ax the Rogue Sport crossover as it focuses on higher-volume models and revamps its lineup for an electric future.

Production of the Rogue Sport will end in December, Nissan told dealers in a memo obtained by Automotive News.

"With the all-new Rogue and recently redesigned Kicks, we will continue to cover this part of [the] market effectively," Nissan Vice President Scott Shirley noted in the memo.

Dropping the Rogue Sport allows Nissan to shift production to higher-demand models such as Rogue, Kicks and Pathfinder.

"We are also able to invest more resources in our current vehicle lifecycles and next-generation products," Shirley noted.

Rogue Sport sales will continue into early 2023, as inventory is available and Nissan will provide parts support through 2033.

The Rogue Sport, sold as the Qashqai outside the United States, shares a platform with Rogue compact crossover. It is slightly smaller, with a different …

General Motors' is idling production at two plants next week: The main plant in Mexico that makes GMC and Chevrolet pick-up trucks as well as the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Both plants are halting production over supply chain and parts issues, the company said Friday.

The U.S. carmaker will suspend work beginning Aug. 29 and aims to restart Sept. 5, it added.

Production at GM's other three full-size truck plants in North America is not impacted. The automaker's Flint, Michigan, truck assembly plant will be operating extra shifts this weekend.

"General Motors is working actively with its base of suppliers to resolve issues as they arise to meet customer demand," GM said in a statement.

It added that North America production has been "relatively stable" since the third quarter of last year, but supply chain interruptions have continued.

DETROIT — The six generations of Mustangs introduced over the past six decades have often reflected Ford Motor Co.'s priorities and ambitions at the time.

The first pony car, for example, was aimed at attracting the coming wave of postwar baby boomers who wanted something more hip and exciting than their parents' sedans. The Mustang II was a smaller, fortuitously timed answer to the oil crisis of the 1970s. The current generation was the first to go global as Ford strove to be more competitive and profitable in overseas markets such as Europe and China.

The seventh-generation Mustang, debuting within weeks, is a product of a company that's reinventing itself. Ford is slashing jobs and reorganizing its work force to prioritize electric vehicles, which account for less than 3 percent of its U.S. sales so far this year.

That mix is beginning to shift quickly, though, and Ford is rushing to get ahead of the curve. Since April 1, it has reported selling 286…

A dashboard showdown is brewing between Apple CarPlay and automakers. Porsche puts a big dollar sign on its upcoming IPO. Warren Buffett is bullish on driverless trucks. Plus, the co-hosts of Service Drive Live talk about why so many in the service and parts industry think the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) needs to be changed or eliminated.

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WASHINGTON -- President Joe Biden on Thursday signed an executive order on implementation of the $52.7 billion semiconductor chips manufacturing subsidy and research law, the White House said.

Earlier this month, Biden signed the bill to boost efforts to make the United States more competitive with China's science and technology efforts. By subsidizing U.S. chip manufacturing and expanding research funding, the law aims to alleviate a persistent shortage that has affected everything from cars and weapons to washing machines and video games.

The "Chips and Science" law also includes an investment tax credit for chip plants estimated to be worth $24 billion.

The White House said the Commerce Department launched CHIPS.gov. The department will make funding awards for chips production.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said the department has been preparing for months for the program.

"We are committed to a process that is transparent and fair,…

Porsche has lined up investor interest for its initial public offering at a valuation of as much as $85 billion, signaling one of Europe’s biggest-ever listings is poised to go ahead despite market headwinds, according to people familiar with the matter.

Volkswagen Group’s sports-car brand has secured pre-orders that exceed the shares on offer at a valuation between 60 billion and 85 billion euros ($85 billion), said the people, who asked not to be identified because discussions are private.

Porsche plans to announce its intention to float in Frankfurt in the first week of September after a supervisory board sign-off, barring unexpected market shocks, they said.

Big-name investors including T Rowe Price Group and Qatar Investment Authority have already indicated interest in subscribing to the IPO in that valuation range, the people said.

Porsche has also been gauging interest from billionaires including the founder of energy drink maker Red Bull,…