Trade News

Private equity firm One Planet Group has completed its acquisition of dealership marketing company AutoWeb Inc., which no longer will be publicly traded.

Walnut Creek, Calif.-based One Planet Group said Wednesday that AutoWeb — a provider of consumer leads to auto dealerships — will operate as a standalone business within One Planet's portfolio.

"I am so excited to welcome AutoWeb into the One Planet Group family," CEO Payam Zamani said in a statement. "AutoWeb has an incredible legacy in the automotive space, and I believe that its brand, assets and expertise offer a foundation that will allow us to build it back into a business that will lead the next evolution of the industry."

In July, AutoWeb, of Tampa, Fla., disclosed the acquisition plans after earlier saying its board would explore strategic alternatives for the company, including a potential sale or restructuring, including through federal bankruptcy protection. AutoWeb said "substantial doubt" …

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co. and Rivian are urging the federal government to expedite the permitting process for U.S. critical mineral mining projects that support domestic battery production for electric vehicles.

In comments submitted Tuesday to the U.S. Department of the Interior, Ford said the permitting process for mining projects that support high-capacity battery manufacturing "should be no longer than three years."

"Today's lengthy, costly and inefficient permitting process makes it difficult for American businesses to invest in the extraction and processing of critical minerals in the United States," Chris Smith, Ford's chief government affairs officer, said in a letter to the department.

Current U.S. permitting requirements for critical mineral production can take up to 10 years, he said. "In contrast, Canada and Australia have adopted mineral permitting policies that enable producers to complete the process in two to three years, while maintai…

Sales representatives who exceed car dealership expectations can yield a significant competitive advantage to an indirect auto lender, a J.D. Power analyst said this month.

J.D. Power's recently released 2022 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study, which polled 3,578 auto dealership financial workers in April and May, found only 44 percent of lender sales reps exceeded expectations. But the lender reps who reached this higher bar produced dealership satisfaction scores as much as 190 points higher than competitors, according to Patrick Roosenberg, J.D. Power auto finance intelligence director.

Expertise with lending programs and responsiveness are among the sales rep qualities J.D. Power identified as driving dealership satisfaction.

According to Roosenberg, desirable expertise in lending programs would include explaining how the lender's qualities would benefit that specific dealership.

"It can't be a blanket statement," he told Automotive Ne…

BMW AG has started producing the fuel-cell systems for its hydrogen-powered iX5 crossover, moving forward with a climate-friendly alternative fuel that its German rivals don't expect to be viable in passenger cars.

"Hydrogen will become more relevant in individual mobility due to its advantages," Chief Executive Officer Oliver Zipse said Wednesday at an opening event for the production site in Munich. "Hydrogen-powered cars are the ideal technology for us to complement pure battery-electric vehicles."

BMW is the last remaining German luxury-car maker to pursue hydrogen drivetrains: Mercedes stopped building its GLC fuel cell SUV to concentrate on battery-powered cars; Audi shelved hydrogen test-fleet plans for the same reason.

Zipse said hydrogen fuel cells could provide a climate-friendly option for a significant segment of consumers – 20 percent to 30 percent, he estimated -- who won't be well enough served by the charging infrastructure to use a fully…

The Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy has joined auto industry groups in petitioning the Federal Trade Commission to give financial institutions and dealerships another year to meet the revamped Safeguards Rule as the compliance deadline nears.

Following a rule-making process dating to 2019, the FTC in October 2021 voted 3-2 to update the Safeguards Rule. The agency gave businesses until Dec. 9, 2022, to comply with the revised regulations, which are an element of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act governing consumer information security.

"While preserving the flexibility of the original Safeguards Rule, the revised Rule provides more concrete guidance for businesses," the FTC wrote in a May guide for companies. "It reflects core data security principles that all covered companies need to implement."

The National Automobile Dealers Association, auto lender trade group American Financial Services Association, credit bureau org…

Randy Miller, Global Advanced Manufacturing and Mobility leader at EY, discusses findings from the new Consumer Index Study including post-COVID mobility trends, Car Boom Beacons and the outlook on consumer EV adoption. 

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co., General Motors and electric pickup maker Rivian have issued safety recalls affecting nearly 400,000 U.S. vehicles, according to separate reports filed with NHTSA and made available Wednesday.

The largest of the recalls covers more than 277,000 Ford Super Duty models and Lincoln Continental luxury sedans from the 2017-20 model years.

An internal lens on the rearview camera that is equipped on those vehicles has an antireflective coating that may degrade over time from exposure to ultraviolet radiation. The degradation "can lead to a progressively foggy or cloudy rearview camera image," according to the safety recall report.

Magna Electronics in Holly, Mich., supplies the rearview camera.

Ford told U.S. auto safety regulators it is aware of 7,625 Super Duty and 1,236 Lincoln Continental warranty reports in the U.S. as of July 13 that are potentially related to the defect. The automaker is not aware of any reports of acc…

Bosch Group said it will invest more than $200 million to produce fuel cell stacks in its South Carolina facility, as the German company accelerates its transition to electrification.

Bosch, the world's largest auto supplier, said on Wednesday it will expand its existing Anderson facility to support fuel cell production, which is planned to start in 2026 creating at least 350 new jobs.

The fuel cell stacks produced in the facility will drive hydrogen-powered trucks coming to U.S. roads in the next few years, the company said.

The move comes as the U.S. Environment Protection Agency proposes to cut nitrogen oxide emissions from heavy trucks of 47 percent to 60 percent by 2045, which will force the industry to adopt hybrid and electric powertrains.

A fuel-cell power module is a system that generates electricity from hydrogen in vehicles and is essentially used in commercial vehicles.

Last year, Bosch signed a deal with electric truck maker …

Tom Pappert, a longtime Chrysler sales executive who earned a reputation as an outspoken advocate for dealers both during and after his tenure, died Monday in suburban Detroit after a three-year battle with cancer.

He was 82.

A native of Pittsburgh and a graduate of Duquesne University, Pappert joined Chrysler in 1962 as a trainee in a regional sales office in his hometown. He spent the first 14 years of his career with the automaker's regional sales operations moving with his wife, Joyce, and their young family across the mid-Atlantic region, then to Florida, the Midwest, then the West Coast before landing in Detroit in 1976.

Pappert was one of the few top Chrysler executives to remain when Lee Iacocca was recruited to become CEO, and stayed on through the automaker's first brush with bankruptcy, in 1979. He became the company's head of sales in 1980, and held the job until he retired in 1998.

During his tenure, Pappert focused tirelessly on imp…

Editor's note: Automotive News reached out to the 2021 CADIA Impact Award winners after they were named. To see who won, click here.

DETROIT — The Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement is accepting nominations for the second annual CADIA Impact Awards, which recognize achievements in automotive diversity, equity and inclusion.

The awards will be presented Nov. 17 to individuals, teams or companies making a measurable impact on DE&I in the industry and that have worked to support CADIA's mission of doubling the number of diverse leaders by 2030.

"The Impact Awards were created to recognize all of the individuals, teams and companies that are working to create a more inclusive auto industry," Cheryl Thompson, CEO of CADIA, in a press release. "We hope that sharing these stories of success will motivate other companies to begin DEI work in their companies as well."

The categories are:

Leadership Commitment: A leader who…

Toyota’s global output sinks for the fourth straight month. Nikola plans to raise up to $400 million with its stock sale. Tesla runs afoul of federal labor law. Plus, consultant and transportation strategist Selika Josiah Talbott makes her case for creating a federal AV and EV czar.

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Lucid Group Inc. on Monday filed for a new offering of up to $8 billion as the luxury electric-vehicle maker looks to beef up working capital at a time when supply snarls have crimped its production.

The company, which has a market capitalization of about $27 billion, halved its production forecast for EVs earlier this month, blaming supply chain and logistics challenges.

EV startups that promised to disrupt the automotive industry are now scrambling to keep a lid on costs and to bring vehicles to market, amid parts shortages and rising raw material prices.

Lucid filed for a mixed shelf offering, under which it may sell different types of securities in one or more separate offerings with the size, price and terms to be determined at the time of sale.

The company's shares fell 7.5 percent to $14.96 on Tuesday afternoon -- adding to its 57.5 percent losses so far this year.

California-based Lucid, which went public via a shell company in 2021…