Trade News

Group 1 Automotive Inc. will stay focused on growth through acquisitions, both in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, as the public dealership group prepares for a CEO changeover next year.

Daryl Kenningham, Group 1's president of U.S. operations since 2019 until his promotion this week to president and COO, will take over as chief executive in January following the year-end retirement of CEO Earl Hesterberg, which was announced Wednesday. Kenningham told Automotive News that the dealership group will look for "quality acquisitions" with regard to locations and vehicle brands that best align with the company's direction.

"We're not going to just chase revenue for the sake of chasing revenue," said Kenningham, who declined to discuss whether Houston-based Group 1 has deals in the pipeline. "We get plenty of acquisition opportunities across our desks that are either in places that we don't feel it's a place we want to be or brands that we feel like we can't make su…

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Apple's new version of CarPlay is designed to take over every screen on the dashboard, replacing user interfaces and controls while gaining access to crucial vehicle and driver data. It's likely to launch a turf war with automakers reluctant to give up such valuable real estate.

Where drivers view extending iPhone functions into the dashboard as a matter of convenience, automakers and tech companies see a big dollar battleground. McKinsey & Co. estimates vehicle data will be worth up to $400 billion annually by 2030. Fortune Business Insights predicts the global connected-car market will grow from nearly $60 billion in 2021 to more than $190 billion in 2028.

As cars have become more connected, automakers envision vehicle data as an essential and profitable component of their future business plans. They want to sell services such as pay-per-mile insurance and route-based offers from retailers.

"At stake is the search experience in cars, which are ess…

Ford Motor Co. is increasing the starting price of the Mustang Mach-E electric crossover between roughly $3,000 and $8,000, depending on trim, due to rising material costs and supply chain constraints that have wiped out the vehicle's profitability.

The largest price hike comes on the California Route 1 all-wheel-drive extended range, which will cost $64,875 including shipping, up from $56,575. The California Route 1, previously offered in either a rear-wheel-drive or AWD configuration, will now be offered only as AWD, Ford said.

The cheapest model — the Select RWD standard range — will now cost $48,195, including shipping. The MSRP of that and the AWD standard range model has been increased by $3,000.

Prices of the Premium RWD and AWD standard range models are up $5,875.

The GT AWD extended range model's price has been increased $7,900 to $71,195, including shipping.

In addition to the changes in MSRP, F…

Auto industry brass and multigeneration enthusiasts collided this month around Monterey, and Carmel on California's central coast to ogle shiny, futuristic electric concept vehicles, new and vintage performance cars and priceless antique autos.

More like an al fresco experience than a traditional tire-kicking auto show, the annual celebration draws throngs of dapper, big-budget attendees to peruse would-be purchases and admire museum-quality collectibles. But amid the dreamy sheet metal art of decades past, new concepts provided a glimpse of what the coming decade might bring — in some cases sure bets, in others, stunning maybes.

Czinger 21C V Max, above: A hypercar with no rear wing, an extended tail and fighter jet-inspired tandem seating. The 21C V Max uses a turbocharged hybrid V-8 with 1,250 hp.

Genesis X Speedium Coupe: An electric grand touring coupe concept that embodies Genesis' future EV design language.

Audi urbansphere: The third an…

CATL, China’s largest EV battery maker, saw its net profit spike 82 percent from a year earlier to 8.2 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) in the first half of this year. 

The main driver of its profit surge was strong battery demand in and outside China, enabling its sales revenue to rally 156 percent to 113 billion yuan, the company said in its financial statement for the first six months. 

It also attributed the profit growth to cost control measures such as signing long-term contracts with battery material suppliers and recycling battery materials. 

In addition, it has “dynamically adjusted product prices through friendly negotiation with customers, which has to some extent passed on the pressure of raw material price increases,” CATL said.

In the first half, the Chinese battery giant shipped 71 gigawatt hours of batteries for EVs, a 116-percent jump from a year earlier, according to Korean market research firm SNE Research.

CATL…

Electric-vehicle startup Leapmotor Technology Co. has received the go-ahead from the China Securities Regulatory Commission to launch an initial public offering in Hong Kong.

It approved Leapmotor’s plan to raise up to 291 million yuan ($42.4 million) via an IPO on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, the Beijing-based market watchdog said this week. 

In China, companies seeking to go public in overseas stock markets must clear regulatory oversight at home. 

Leapmotor filed its IPO application to the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong in March. 

With the green light from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the company is on track to become the fifth Hong Kong-listed Chinese EV startup, following Nio, XPeng Motor and Li Auto.

Leapmotor, established in the east China city of Hangzhou in 2014, has launched sales of four products -- the C11 compact crossover, the C01 and S01 compact sedans, and the T03 subcompact sedan.

In Ju…

SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile, General Motors’ light-vehicle partnership with SAIC Motor Corp., began sales of its first hybrid vehicle on Thursday as part of its effort to improve its product lineup’s fuel economy. 

The vehicle, the Xingchen, is a hybrid compact crossover marketed under the Wuling brand. It has a 99,800 yuan ($14,569) starting price, SAIC-GM-Wuling said. 

The vehicle is 180 inches long and 72 inches wide, roughly the same size as a Chevrolet Equinox. 

The Xingchen is fitted with two electric motors and a 2.0-liter gasoline engine. It can reach a speed of 60 kilometers per hour in 3.2 seconds. 

The hybrid crossover drives on batteries only at low speeds, and is powered by engines at high speeds.

Its overall fuel consumption is 5.7 liters per 100 km. On urban roads, the fuel consumption can be lowered to 4.6 liters per 100 km, according to SAIC-GM-Wuling.

SAIC-GM-Wuling, based in the southwest China ci…

GM Financial will replace its General Motors-branded finance-and-insurance product portfolio in the fourth quarter with a new lineup developed with Safe-Guard Products International.

Safe-Guard will replace the Amynta Group as GM Protection's white-label F&I product partner. Amynta did not respond to a request for comment.

"We're out talking to dealers right now," GM Financial Senior Vice President Matt St. Charles told Automotive News Tuesday. St. Charles, who leads the GM Protection arm of GM Financial, said the reception has been positive.

St. Charles said the switch in providers and product revamp followed General Motors' decision about 18 months ago to move F&I protection operations from its manufacturing business into GM Financial.

That change led to a re-examination of the protection business and a rethinking of "what the experience should look like for both our dealers and our customers," St. Charles said, adding Safe-Guard seemed …

Mercedes-Benz Group and Volkswagen Group on Tuesday signed deals with the Canadian government to secure access to Canada’s large stores of key battery materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel and graphite, as the German companies compete for scarce supplies of raw materials with other automakers shifting to electric vehicles.

Markus Schaefer, chief technology officer at Mercedes-Benz, and outgoing Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess each signed a memorandum of understanding with François-Philippe Champagne, federal Minister of innovation, science and industry, in Toronto Tuesday morning.

The signing of the pair of battery value chain collaboration agreements followed comments from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about the need for greater Canadian-German collaboration as global unrest roils traditional supply chains.

“What we are experiencing right now is a perfect storm — a multitude of overlapping and mutually reinfo…

Mercedes and Nissan's vehicle and engine-sharing collaboration moves closer to ending. Some of Hyundai and Kia’s most popular models get hit with a stop sale. Ford discontinues the Transit Connect in the U.S. after next year. Plus, electrification advocate Ari Matusiak talks about what the Inflation Reduction Act means for electrifying cars, trucks, and just about everything else in our lives.

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