Trade News – Page 322

Striking truckers in South Korea could block coal to power plant

Striking South Korean truckers are considering blocking shipments of coal to a power plant if the government rejects their demands for minimum pay guarantees, a senior trade union official said Monday.

The Cargo Truckers Solidarity Union, on strike for a seventh day, is weighing several options to press its demands, including stopping coal to generate electricity and shutting down petrochemical complexes by blocking their shipments in and out.

"We are thinking of a complete blockade," union leader Kim Jae-gwang told Reuters, referring to coal shipments to a power plant in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province that he did not name, which uses trucks for its coal.

"But we hope such a situation doesn't happen."

The impact of a power plant blockade would be limited in terms of national electricity output, even in the high-demand summer, but would mark a significant intensification of the truckers' action.

The government …

Insights from an ambassador in the automotive industry

In March, when Mary Jo Wheeler-Schueller traveled to the NADA Show in Las Vegas, she took her 21-year-old son Zach, a student at Northwood University.

Invariably, when the pair approached a booth, says Zach, “They’d reach out first to me, to shake my hand and ask me a question. I’d have to stop them and say, ‘Actually, my mom runs the store.’”

Mom Mary Jo is president and co-owner of Wheelers Family Auto Group and its four General Motors dealerships in central Wisconsin. From her perspective, the NADA experience is a sign that although the industry has made progress in its opportunities for and support of women, there’s still work to be done. “It’s changing, but slowly. It’s still a very male-dominated field,” she says.

Wheeler-Schueller is not only a dealer principal, but chairs the General Motors Women’s Dealer Advisory Council and is vice chair of the first all-women’s NADA 20 group. She also is president of both the Chevrolet and Buick marketing asso…

EV-truck startup Electric Last Mile files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, plans to liquidate

Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. said it plans to liquidate through a Chapter 7 bankruptcy process, a decision that comes almost one year after the electric-vehicle startup went public and just four months after both its CEO and chairman resigned.

The suburban Detroit company said in a statement late Sunday that its board and interim CEO, Shauna McIntyre, decided to liquidate after a review of Electric Last Mile’s products and plans turned up no better option for stockholders, creditors and other interested parties.

The filing will make Electric Last Mile the first of the EV startups that merged with special purpose acquisition companies to go out of business amid the recent market slump. On May 27, the company had warned it might run out of cash this month. Its shares have fallen 93 percent this year, closing last week at 51 cents.

Founders James Taylor and Jason Luo had planned to import electric delivery vans from China and assemble them at a forme…

Jeep ready to go electric in Europe, not as quickly in U.S.

Jeep's off-road contingent can take quiet excursions into the wilderness these days with the brand's plug-in hybrid 4xe models. For limited distances, at least.

The Grand Cherokee 4xe can get up to 25 miles of electric range, while the plug-in Wrangler offers 21. This capability represents a steppingstone to the next phase of electrification for the SUV brand.

But Jeep's electric vision goes much further. Its eyes are set on delivering purely electric jaunts along the 22-mile Rubicon Trail without using an ounce of gasoline while still having considerable range left at the end of the journey.

"Our perspective is you're going to be able to do the Rubicon Trail and have another 100 miles at the end of the Rubicon to go to a charging station," said Jeep CEO Christian Meunier. "That's what we need to be able to do, and I think we can do it with a BEV."

The era of zero-emission capability is coming quickly for Jeep. An all-e…

Wholesale used-vehicle prices show some easing

For dealers dependent on auctions for cars and trucks, elevated wholesale used-vehicle prices were a pain point throughout 2021.

But there could be some relief in store: Forecasters saw limited price hikes during the 2022 spring selling season. Wholesale prices grew modestly for about eight weeks in a row — a pattern usually exhibited during the spring season as consumers spend their tax refunds on vehicles.

But now that the market is past that window, prices could smooth out even more.

"Dealers are starting to see the wholesale market behave pretty normally, just like we're seeing in retail pricing, so I think down the road, there'll be less pressure on that front," Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke told Automotive News.

Dealers who source inventory from auctions have been taking the brunt of up-to-date market prices, which have gone through an extended bout of inflation, Smoke said.

Wholesa…

Musk’s pattern: Promise, backtrack

TO THE EDITOR:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk continues to make promises that he can't fulfill and statements that he consistently backtracks from: Cybertruck, where is it? Roadster, where is it? Autonomous driving capability? Now reportedly emails to employees about job cuts and working from home.

Musk is a visionary, but his wealth and ego have allowed him to act as if he can say or do anything he wants without considering the consequences.

FRANK LINZNER, Los Angeles. The writer is retired.

How tech can boost dealers’ used-vehicle acquisition odds

Finding quality used vehicles continues to be a challenge for auto dealers, from high pricing to low availability.

New tools aim to make it easier for retailers to keep their lots stocked.

Several retail technology companies are boosting their own capabilities to assist dealerships with used-vehicle sourcing, including by giving consumers an outlet to sell their vehicles.

Vehicle listings company CarGurus in January 2021 acquired a 51 percent stake in wholesale trading platform CarOffer, which allows dealers to create standing buy orders and automatically matches them to available inventory. CarGurus last year also introduced its Instant Max Cash Offer feature, through which consumers can sell their vehicles online.

Rival listings sites Cars.com and TrueCar have added tools of their own. Cars.com in March completed its acquisition of the assets of Accu-Trade, a provider of vehicle appraisal and valuation data and logistics technology. Company le…

No reason to trust Musk on recession

TO THE EDITOR:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk's pessimistic view of a recession coming to the automotive industry can't be taken seriously ("Elon Musk's warning about recession seen as 'canary in the coal mine,' " autonews.com, June 4).

In my humble opinion, Musk simply has a focus problem. Like a kid in a candy store, he jumps from one company division to the next. Today, it's Tesla electric vehicles. Tomorrow, it's SpaceX and launching a bunch of satellites. Then there's the hot and cold issue of buying Twitter. To me, it's a "focus du jour" problem.

Granted, there are chip shortages slowing down the shipment of new automobiles getting to dealer showrooms. But demand for new cars and trucks is skyrocketing.

An email from Musk reportedly told executives Tesla would need to cut about 10 percent of salaried jobs worldwide. Musk later discounted any big staff changes.

But why would Tesla even consider this? It's better to keep employees and cross-train …

OBITUARY: Richard Niello Sr.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Richard Niello Sr., who once led Niello Co. dealership group, died June 4. He was 99. After taking over his father’s dealership in San Francisco, Niello opened a Volkswagen store in Sacramento in the 1950s with partner Wes Lasher. Niello Co.’s 13 dealerships sell Jaguar, Land Rover, Acura, Audi, BMW, Mini, VW, Volvo and Porsche brands in Sacramento and the surrounding area.

2023 Cadillac Escalade-V, at $149,000, packs more hp, profit

PHOENIX — When it comes to luxury nameplates, BMW has long banked on the 3 Series sedan, billed as the ultimate driving machine, while the E Class sedan has carried the torch for Mercedes-Benz and the RX crossover has been a gold mine for Lexus.

Cadillac, feeling some heat in the light-truck market on its 120th anniversary, is cranking up the volume on its undisputed crown jewel.

Large luxury SUVs are moving more upscale in price, content and performance — see the 2022 Range Rover with optional third-row seating — and new entrants such as the Jeep Grand Wagoneer, which can top $100,000, are crowding in, so the Cadillac Escalade is getting fortified with an extreme performance model.

The 2023 Cadillac Escalade-V, packing a 682-hp, 6.2-liter supercharged V-8 engine with 653 pound-feet of torque, is a 3-ton luxury SUV that zips from 0 to 60 mph in under 4.4 seconds.

Priced at $149,000, including shipping, it will become t…

GM worker in Michigan leaves $1.1M to charities

A 35-year career at a General Motors truck plant made Gary Kendrick a millionaire, but no one knew it until he donated the money to two children's charities after his 2021 death.

Kendrick, who worked in the body shop at GM's Flint Assembly Plant in Michigan, had no close family or friends to include in his will. After he retired in 2006, he contacted an estate lawyer and directed her to split his assets between the Make-A-Wish Foundation and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

When Kendrick died in February 2021 at age 67, the gifts turned out to be more generous than his lawyer, Dawn Weier, realized.

"I was able to start doing discovery on Mr. Kendrick's assets," Weier told a Flint TV station last week. "That's when I discovered he had in his General Motors profit sharing plan alone more than $1.3 million."

The charities, which help children with serious illnesses, each received a check from Kendrick's estate for $…

Ex-salesman is back at dealership smoking ribs

Earnest Morgan now smokes Texas-style barbecue ribs in the Infiniti showroom where he used to sell Q50s.

Morgan was the top salesman at Crest Infiniti and among the top 6 percent for the brand nationwide, before quitting to focus on the church he had founded and, eventually, a barbecue food truck.

Crest, in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, persuaded Morgan to come back — not as a salesman, but as its pitmaster. He and his wife, Cicely, turned the cafe by the service department into Earnest B's BBQ, a busy lunch spot.

Even Texas Monthly, the state's unofficial barbecue bible, has taken notice of Morgan, a Mississippi native the Frisco Chamber of Commerce named Citizen of the Year in March.

The magazine's barbecue editor, Daniel Vaughn, said he had been skeptical. But Morgan's ribs "would have been impressive even if I hadn't ordered them inside a car dealership," he wrote in a story published last week.

"I went in expecting a gimmick but inste…