Trade News

If you're a faithful reader of our fixed ops coverage — and if you're reading this newsletter, I'm going to assume you are — you probably got an email earlier this week inviting you to register for our annual Fixed Ops Journal Forum.

In case you didn't, here's the link. Please go sign up.

This year, we're holding the five-week event in September and October after hosting them in July the past couple of years. It will be virtual and available on demand again. Though we'd love to be in person with all of you, it makes sense right now to present these weekly hourlong sessions online, where most of you can view them during a lunch hour or after work. We know it's difficult to walk away from the shop for a couple of days.

Our theme this year is "Get Your Service Department Up To Speed." We'll present four consecutive hourlong sessions on Tuesdays starting Sept. 13 and running through Oct. 4. Our exclusive lead sponsor CDK Global will present the fifth session…

General Motors' defense unit said Tuesday it has been selected by the U.S. Army to provide a battery-powered electric vehicle for "analysis and demonstration."

GM Defense said it will leverage the GMC Hummer EV to meet the Army's requirement of a "light to heavy duty battery electric vehicle to support reduced reliance on fossil fuels both in the operational and garrison environments."

The 1,000-hp Hummer EV uses the Ultium platform and can obtain enough charge in 12 minutes to travel up to 100 miles. The vehicle has 329 miles of driving range and can go from 0 to 60 mph in three seconds, GM Defense said.

GM spokesperson Sonia Taylor wrote in an email to Automotive News that the military would purchase one Hummer. She said GM Defense is fully aligned with GM's goal to be fully electric by 2035 and is well positioned to aid the Army's transition to EVs.

"With an ability to leverage GM's portfolio of commercial battery electric technology and $35 bi…

SHANGHAI -- China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group said on Wednesday it had received non-binding preorders for more than 37,000 units of its first model, the Hengchi 5.

Preorders for the Hengchi 5 have far exceeded the company's expectations, president Liu Yongzhuo said at an online event.

The electric vehicle unit of Evergrande started to accept non-binding preorders two weeks ago, with buyers paying 1,000 yuan ($148.13) as a deposit for the pure-electric sport-utility vehicle priced from 179,000 yuan.

The EV unit also said it will start delivering the first batch of 10,000 Hengchi 5 cars from Oct. 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023. Buyers will be fully refunded if they change their minds within 15 days after pickup.

Mass production of the Hengchi 5 has been delayed until the third quarter, from June, according to company executives' recent statements, while parent Evergrande Group has been reeling under more than $300 billion worth of liabilities. Read more

With nagging driver shortages and a dramatic increase in home delivery, commercial trucking and logistics are key and potentially lucrative applications for autonomous-vehicle technology. But first, AV developers must prove to freight companies, government regulators and the public that their self-driving technology is fail safe.

What happens if something goes wrong with a self-driving big rig or autonomous Amazon delivery van, for example, and there isn't a driver on board or even remote control to safely pull the vehicle off the road?

For AV tech company Aurora Innovation, the answer is a Fault Management System designed to detect issues with the company's self-driving system and safely guide a truck or van from the road sans human involvement.

This year, Aurora said it would demonstrate a third-generation beta version of the system in the third quarter. Last week, the company revealed it was "a quarter ahead of schedule." In June, Aurora says it succ…

The first week of public comments on the Federal Trade Commission's proposed rules for dealership advertising and finance and insurance offices saw the National Automobile Dealers Association and the American Financial Services Association ask for an extension.

The 60-day public comment window opened July 13, with comments due by Sept. 12. Both NADA and AFSA asked for at least another 120 days on top of that.

Several dozen comments came in during the first week, the vast majority in support of the FTC taking action. Some credited the Your Advocate Alliance vehicle shopping and consumer education company for encouraging them to comment.

Here are excerpts.

Dustin Ervin: "Sales [practices] constantly evolve in a competitive environment. Vehicle sales are among the most competitive environments out there. Furthermore, nothing could be less capitalistic than a rule such as this. There are already several laws covering every issue raised in the rule. Th…

Despite a drop in new-vehicle sales, Lithia Motors Inc.'s second-quarter net income increased.

The growing dealership group profited with higher used-vehicle sales and double-digit percentage gains in gross profit per new vehicle sold, finance and insurance revenue and climbing average vehicle selling prices on new and used vehicles.

Net income jumped 11 percent to $337.6 million, as revenue increased 20 percent to $7.2 billion, a second-quarter record, the Medford, Ore., retailer said on Wednesday.

"The second quarter results demonstrate the diversity and strength across our business lines as we have delivered the highest quarterly revenues in our history," Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer said in a statement.

Even as Lithia has expanded its dealership network through a brisk acquisition pace, new-vehicles sales fell 8.5 percent to 68,752. Used-vehicle sales, however, rose 15 percent to 81,026.

Lithia, the nation's second-largest new-vehicle retail…

U.S. semiconductor manufacturer SkyWater Technology Inc. on Wednesday said it plans to invest $1.8 billion for a chip research and production facility in Indiana, in partnership with the state and Purdue University.

The announcement comes a day after the U.S. Senate voted to move ahead with a slimmed-down version of a legislation, known as the CHIPS Act, to give billions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits for the semiconductor industry.

"This endeavor to bolster our chip fabrication facilities will rely on funding from the CHIPS Act," said SkyWater CEO Thomas Sonderman. The Bloomington, Minn.-based company supplies automakers and other industries.

"Federal investment will enable SkyWater to more quickly expand our efforts to address the need for strategic reshoring of semiconductor manufacturing."

SkyWater expects the ground breaking for the new facilities to happen in 2023, according to its spokesperson, but the timing would depend on whethe…

The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it plans to buy at least 25,000 electric delivery vehicles -- more than twice its prior estimate -- as it works to replace an aging fleet.

USPS told Reuters it is proposing to purchase at least 25,000 EVs out of its initial order of 50,000 next-generation delivery vehicles from Oshkosh Defense. That's up from USPS' prior plan to buy at least 10,019 EVs, or about 20 percent of the first order. USPS also plans to buy more than 34,500 commercial off-the-shelf delivery vehicles over two years.

The company plans to buy up to 20,000 left-hand drive Commercial Off-the-Shelf vehicles, "including as many BEVs as are commercially available and consistent with our delivery profile" and up to 14,500 gas-powered right-hand drive vehicles.

In total, USPS says at least 40 percent of the 84,500 vehicles it will buy will be EVs.

USPS said in March it planned an initial $2.98 billion order. Last month, the company told Reute…

Brooklyn Mitsubishi and Brooklyn Volkswagen have agreed to pay more than $800,000 in combined penalties and restitution and admit violations to end a case brought by a New York consumer agency.

The June 28 settlement also saw the city temporarily suspend two Brooklyn Mitsubishi licenses from July 3 to 9.

Brooklyn Mitsubishi and its used-vehicle business were tied to the bulk of the 13 administrative law counts alleged by the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, including more than 7,000 instances of deceptive trade practices encompassed within one count.

The accused parties, which included the dealerships' parent companies and management, must collectively pay a $500,000 penalty and $304,900 worth of restitution to consumers. The city said it will keep any unspent restitution money as a civil penalty.

"We are helping deliver more than $300,000 back into the pockets of New York City consumers who were ripped off by Brooklyn …

A jury found Tesla Inc. just 1 percent responsible for the death of a teenager who crashed a Model S into a wall at high speed, concluding that the 18-year-old and his father were 99 percent to blame for the 2018 accident.

The verdict Tuesday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., follows the first trial the electric car-maker faced over a fatal accident involving one its electric cars.

The family of Barrett Riley sought to prove the company played a role in his death when service technicians removed a speed-limiting feature from the Model S that they had previously installed at the request of his mother.

Riley and his friend sitting in the passenger seat, also 18, were killed when he lost control of the vehicle at 116 miles per hour and crashed into a concrete wall of a Fort Lauderdale house in 2018.

A claim that a defect in the car’s battery caused it to explode in flames at the crash scene was dismissed before the trial started.

Tes…

Growing Canadian retailer Foundation Automotive Corp. has entered a new state and added a new brand, Nissan, to its portfolio with its latest acquisition of dealerships.

Foundation Automotive bought Jones Buick-GMC, Jones Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and Jones Nissan in Savannah, Tenn., and Jones Chevrolet Humboldt in Humboldt, Tenn., from Jones Motor Co. on Friday, according to Andy Gill, CEO of Gill Automotive Group, a sell-side firm in St. Augustine, Fla., who represented the sellers in the deal.

Foundation is retaining the dealership names.

Savannah is east of Memphis and just north of the Mississippi and Alabama borders. Humboldt is northwest of Savannah.

Jones Motor Co., owned by brothers Clark Jones and Charlie Jones as well as Chad Jones, Clark's son, still owns Jones Ford in Savannah, which was not included in the sale to Foundation, Gill said.

Foundation said Chad Jones "will continue to work with Foundat…