Trade News

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. has sued two dealership owners, seeking a combined $3 million in deposits the auto retailer made to acquire stores and property in New York and Texas. The lawsuits follow LMP Automotive terminating the deals this year.

An affiliate of the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., retailer filed a lawsuit May 27 in federal court in Albany, N.Y., against James Zappone, Zappone Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram in Clifton Park, N.Y., Zappone Property Management and an escrow agent seeking return of the $1 million deposit LMP had made for the acquisition.

On Friday, just two weeks later, LMP filed a lawsuit in federal court in Houston against Houston dealerships Tom Peacock Nissan and Tom Peacock Cadillac, partners David Peacock and Aldo Paret, and affiliated real estate companies seeking the return of $2 million in deposits it made to buy the dealerships and real estate.

The lawsuits are the latest in a string of challenges for the fledging auto retailer a…

General Motors' electric van unit, BrightDrop, said it acquired technology startup Marain Inc. to "analyze, forecast and identify multi-modal solutions for fleet customers."

BrightDrop launched as a GM subsidiary in January 2021 to produce electric products, software and services to "empower delivery and logistics companies to move goods more efficiently." Since then, BrightDrop has developed the Zevo electric van and Trace e-carts and partnered with large delivery companies such as FedEx and retailer Walmart.

In a statement released Friday, BrightDrop said it will use Marain's software to help improve the flow of goods and services through the delivery cycle and "maximize uptime." The statement said the technology will allow BrightDrop to model its products' efficiency gains compared to competitors

"The integration of Marain's technology offers a myriad of possibilities for evolving our software offerings down the road to better support our customers' n…

As Electric Last Mile Solutions Inc. prepares to liquidate under Chapter 7 bankruptcy, the company's rollercoaster ride is a sobering lesson for startups and investors in the EV space, according to industry observers.

ELMS excited investors with its concept of electric last-mile delivery vans, reaching a $1.4 billion market value shortly after it started trading a year ago. But it soon was confronted with a harsh reality: making cars is hard.

"You can attract a lot of capital, but eventually you have to produce a car or van or truck, which is very hard to do and expensive," said Steven Wybo, senior managing director at Riveron. "It costs billions of dollars. They were kind of doomed from the start unfortunately."

The company, founded in 2020, announced late Sunday that it planned to liquidate, but it has yet to make the formal filing, according to bankruptcy records.

Its stock was trading at 19 cents per share as of Monday afternoon, losing nearly…

DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Monday the automaker is "selling every truck we can build" and expanding North American truck-building capacity, even as U.S. gasoline prices hit record highs.

Barra made her comments during the automaker's annual shareholder meeting.

GM is pursuing a two-track strategy: Investing heavily in electric vehicles for North America, China and other markets, and funding those investments by trying to maximize profits from its North American combustion pickup truck and large SUV lineups.

Barra said GM is planning higher-priced versions of its Silverado large pickup and its large SUV models.

GM and its Detroit rivals Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis rely heavily on sales of large pickups and SUVs for global profits. High U.S. gasoline prices in the past have undermined consumer demand for relatively inefficient models.

Nominal pump prices hit an average of above $5 a gallon for the first time ever last …

Kellen Walker gives you the top headlines. Jeep is ready to go electric in Europe, but not so fast in the U.S. Wholesale used cars got a bit cheaper in the first quarter. EV truck start-up Electric Last Mile files for bankruptcy. Plus, WiTricity CEO Alex Gruzen talks about Siemens’ new $25 million strategic investment in the company to help boost wireless EV charging technology.

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WASHINGTON - General Motors, Ford Motor Co., Chrysler-parent Stellantis and Toyota Motor North America on Monday urged Congress to lift a cap on the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, citing higher costs to produce zero-emission vehicles, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

The CEOs -- GM's Mary Barra, Ford's Jim Farley, Stellantis' Carlos Tavares and Toyota North America CEO Tetsuo Ogawa -- said in the joint letter to congressional leaders that they have pledged to invest more than over $170 billion through 2030 to bolster electric vehicles' development, production and sale.

The $7,500 tax credit phases out after a manufacturer hits 200,000 vehicles sold. Both GM and Tesla Inc. have already hit the cap and are no longer eligible for the consumer tax credits.

"We ask that the per-(automaker) cap be removed, with a sunset date set for a time when the EV market is more mature," the automakers said in the letter.

"Recent economic pressures and s…

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 …

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'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…

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…