Trade News

Pandemic-related disruptions have driven initial vehicle quality to the lowest point J.D. Power has recorded in 36 years.

According to J.D. Power's 2022 U.S. Initial Quality Study, supply chain issues, record-high vehicle prices and remote work environments made vehicle problems surge to a record high this year, up 11 percent from a year earlier. On average, 180 problems per 100 vehicles were tracked industrywide, according to the report.

The study, fielded from February through May 2022, was based on responses from 84,165 car buyers and lessees of new 2022 model-year vehicles.

New-vehicle quality improved at just nine of 33 brands surveyed: Buick, Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Acura, Land Rover and Audi.

David Amodeo, director of global automotive at J.D. Power, said the decline in quality could have been even steeper, given the parts shortages and other disruptions automakers have coped with over the past year.

"In gener…

Chinese battery maker Gotion High Tech said it plans to locate one-third of its production capacity outside China by 2025 to meet the growing demand from overseas EV makers and energy storage household clients.

The company, based in Hefei in Anhui province, said in a statement Tuesday that it plans to build a total battery production capacity of 300 gigawatt hours (GWh) in three years, reiterating a goal it first announced last year. In 2021, Gotion produced 16 GWh.

The company said 100 GWh of its planned total capacity would be located overseas.

Chinese battery makers are accelerating expanding production in overseas markets where rivals such as Panasonic and LG Energy Solution are more dominant.

Gotion's move also follows that of its Chinese competitor CATL, the world's largest battery giant, which aims to start cell production at its German plant by the end of the year. CATL's chairman Zeng Yuqun said earlier it is also exploring possibilities …

German industrial giant Siemens is investing more than $100 million in Volkswagen Group's Electrify America unit, becoming the first outside investor in the North American network of electric vehicle charging stations.

Including new funds from its parent Volkswagen, the Electrify America unit would receive a total injection of $450 million, the companies said in a Tuesday statement.

The partnership in Electrify America is "part of a much larger investment that Siemens is making in the electrification market," said John DeBoer, head of the Siemens' North American e-mobility unit.

Electrify America was established by VW in 2017 with a 10-year, $2-billion investment commitment in the wake of the German automaker's diesel emissions cheating scandal.

The two companies did not specify the exact amount each is contributing to the latest investment, other than to say Siemens' share is more than $100 million.

Siemens, which is making the investment …

The adoption of an open freight data exchange standard could reduce global carbon emissions approximately 22 percent by 2050 and eliminate 2.5 billion barrels of oil per year, according to a report issued Tuesday by the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility.

Clean fuel use and electrification are not enough to completely decarbonize the freight sector in the time required by the Paris Agreement, according to the report. Finding ways to improve operational efficiencies and reduce port congestion can provide further gains.

One hindrance is a lack of data standardization.

"Currently, we are using a patchwork of tools from fax machines to emails to phone calls to websites to facilitate our supply chains, which includes dozens and dozens of stakeholders for any one good," Marla Westervelt, vice president of policy for the coalition, said Monday during a press conference previewing the report's findings. "We found that through the process of digitalization, which …

Auto retail veteran Matt McGovern has quickly grown his McGovern Automotive Group from just one store in fall 2016 to 18 dealerships today, spanning three states, 18 brands and more than 1,100 employees.

McGovern Automotive of Newton, Mass., on June 22 closed its fifth acquisition of the year, buying Lundgren Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in Greenfield, Mass., from Barry Lundgren and Patrick Lundgren of Lundgren Automotive Group.

"So I often get the question, how many is enough, how many are you going to grow to?" McGovern, founder and CEO of the group, told Automotive News. "I really don't have the answer. I just feel like what we're doing, we're doing well.

"And every dealership we have bought over the last couple of years has been wildly successful. Some of it's a sign of the times, but honestly, some of it's what we do well. And we have an amazing team that helps me manage everything."It appears that McGovern, who also co-founded New England's Prime Motor…

DETROIT — Cox Automotive on Tuesday cut its full-year new vehicle sales outlook by nearly 1 million vehicles to 14.4 million, the latest forecaster to lower estimates amid persistent supply constraints.

It's the second time this year Cox has lowered its sales forecast, which initially stood at 16 million vehicles. IHS Markit and LMC Automotive have also downgraded their outlooks.

The pullback comes as Cox predicts a 19.3 percent decline in second-quarter sales compared with the same period a year earlier. It says first-half sales will fall 17.3 percent as the industry continues to struggle with a global semiconductor shortage that has upended supply chains and sapped dealer inventory.

Cox says new-vehicle supply is down roughly 280,000 vehicles compared with this time last year, and down about 1.6 million vehicles compared with 2020.

"Last June, I wrote that the concern about the supply situation could not be overstated, as we were in untested t…

Consumers want safeguards at the forefront for vehicles with automated technology such as lane centering, automated lane changing and driver monitoring, new data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows.

"There does seem to be a genuine interest in this technology. But there's also a bit of healthy skepticism around the general understanding that these systems are not meant to replace the driver, they're not self-driving vehicles," said Alexandra Mueller, a research scientist at IIHS.

The survey found that people who prefer hands-free lane-centering functionality also seem to be the most accepting of other driving technologies such as driver monitoring. However, this still presents an issue, Mueller said.

"The downside is that those people are more likely to indicate that they want to misuse these features, specifically, to use these technologies to do things that they're not supposed to be doing behind the wheel, like t…

The dynamics of dealership marketing are evolving faster than ever before. From the loss of third-party tracking “cookies” on the internet to the rise of digital-retail technologies to cybercrime, dealers face a growing array of challenges. To provide some clarity, Automotive News asked three industry insiders – John DeMarco from Experian Automotive, Rosie O’Meara from GroundTruth and Tara Rego from Spectrum Reach – for their takes on various aspects of automotive marketing in a post-pandemic world.

Q: How and why have dealers’ marketing strategies changed in the wake of the pandemic?

Rosie O’Meara: While most consumers are getting back to normal activities and shopping habits, auto marketers face some ongoing challenges as the consumer market continues to reset itself. After nearly two years of car-buying hibernation, marketing starts with understanding current buying intent. Like many other industries, auto marketers are experiencing a shift in how consumers resea…

Sweden’s Northvolt, whose customers include BMW and Volkswagen Group, is planning to go public within the next two years as battery demand for electric vehicles booms.

The company is “well positioned” for an initial public offering, founder and Chairman Carl-Erik Lagercrantz said in an interview.

The venture, which has been valued at around $12 billion after raising about $6.5 billion through debt and equity, is part of a trio of green technology startups spearheaded by Lagercrantz and private equity veteran Harald Mix.

“We have commitments in relation to deliveries from our customers -- that plays a major role in a market that is more difficult,” Lagercrantz said. A listing during the next two years is a “reasonable” expectation even as the company has “no need from a funding perspective.”

Lagercrantz, 57, initiated the push in 2016 to establish a battery industry in northern Sweden.

Northvolt’s access to renewable power and smaller CO2 …

A new wheel bearing from German supplier Schaeffler could lead to efficiency improvements in battery-electric vehicles.

The supplier's new TriFinity design differs from standard two-row ball bearings or two-row tapered wheel bearings on the market today by generating less friction, said Michael Eastman, regional head of Schaeffler's wheel bearings business unit. This is done through a unique, three-row ball bearing design that is no larger than a standard two-row bearing but can transfer bigger axle loads, last longer and have less friction, according Schaeffler.

"The concept was initially focused on trying to improve capacity density," Eastman told Automotive News.

"The initial concept wasn't developed with BEVs in mind," he said. But "the TriFinity bearing was really optimized around the idea that we need to do more on the friction side to benefit these larger electric vehicles. There's a ton of hype around electric pickups in th…

Record gasoline prices have some U.S. consumers considering electric vehicles earlier than anticipated, but the surge has not roiled the industry or prompted the kind of seismic shift in buying habits seen during previous price increases.

In 2008, the cost of gasoline peaked at more than $4 per gallon, and consumers abandoned hulking SUVs and pickups in droves. Automakers scrambled to retool factories to produce smaller, fuel-efficient sedans.

Today — even with the national average recently topping $5 for the first time — there's been no such panic.

Aside from a proliferation of electrified options, experts point to a significant improvement in the fuel economy of most internal-combustion vehicles, including large pickups and utilities. A 2022 four-wheel-drive Ford F-150, for example, is rated at 21 mpg combined, 50 percent better than a comparable 2008 model.

Although recession fears are mounting, the economy is in a …