Trade News

Three auto retailers acquired dealerships in second-quarter transactions across Florida, Alabama and Missouri.

Here's a look at the deals involving domestic and import dealerships. One of the transactions involved a group ranked on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

Morgan Automotive Group, which this month purchased two Tampa, Fla., dealerships, has acquired a Kia dealership in Clermont, Fla.

Morgan Automotive of Tampa, bought Fuccillo Kia of Clermont on May 23 from Fuccillo Automotive Group, Morgan Automotive CEO Brett Morgan confirmed to Automotive News. Clermont is west of Orlando.

Morgan Automotive, in a May 25 Facebook post, said Kia of Clermont marked the group's 56th dealership.

"This brand new store features 45,000 square feet of state-of-the-art facilities and 19 acres of new and pre-owned inventory," according to the post.

Brett Morgan said his group was interested in the store because they are "bullish on …

Hitchcock Automotive sold its remaining three Toyota dealerships in February 2022 after the passing of its legendary founder, Frederick “Fritz” Hitchcock. Toyota of Santa Barbara and Northridge sold to Van Tuyl Companies and Puente Hills Toyota sold to Kaminsky Automotive. Kerrigan Advisors represented Hitchcock Automotive in the sale and had the opportunity to interview Ted Hitchcock, son of founder Fritz Hitchcock, and Howard Hakes, President of Hitchcock Automotive, after the sale.

Why did you decide to sell Hitchcock Automotive?

Howard Hakes: At the beginning of 2021, we had no intention of selling Hitchcock Automotive. Fritz, Ted, and I were enjoying the business and believed the next few years would be incredible for auto retail. But tragically Fritz passed away unexpectedly last August and that changed everything. His estate plan stated we should sell the stores in the event of his passing, so we proceeded down that road.

Ted Hitchcock: This was a very…

Stellantis will build a large commercial van for Toyota Motor Corp. in its factories in Poland and Italy starting in mid-2024, including a full-electric version.

The collaboration will give Toyota a large van to sell in Europe for the first time.

Stellantis currently builds compact and midsize vans for Toyota, in both commercial and passenger versions. No name was announced for the new van, but Toyota’s compact van is called the Proace City and the midsize van the Proace.

The Proace has been built at Stellantis’ factory in Hordain, France, since 2012, and the Proace City in Vigo, Spain, since 2019.

The new model will be built at Stellantis’ Sevel factory in Atessa, Italy, and Gliwice, Poland. The move will give Stellantis five brands on common van platforms: Citroen, Fiat, Opel, Peugeot, Toyota and Vauxhall.

The large Toyota-branded van will join the Citroen Jumper, the Fiat Ducato, the Opel/Vauxhall Movano and the Peugeot Boxer. Stellant…

BENGALURU, India -- Tata Motors has signed an agreement to potentially buy a Ford manufacturing facility in the western Indian state of Gujarat as it looks to ramp up its production of electric vehicles.

The owner of Jaguar Land Rover already dominates India's fledgling electric car market, which the government is trying to grow by offering companies billions of dollars in incentives.

The memorandum of understanding announced on Monday covers the land, assets and all eligible employees working at the Sanand facility. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.

Tata said it would invest in new machinery and equipment at the plant through its electric mobility unit and expects the facility to have a production capacity of 300,000 units each year after the works complete. The capacity can be increased to more than 400,000 units.

"Rising customer preference for passenger and electric vehicles made by Tata Motors has led to a multi-fol…

The nation's largest new-vehicle retailer has begun a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign aimed not at car shoppers, but at potential employees.

AutoNation's "Go Be Great" campaign began airing on TV networks including ESPN, CNBC and NBC last week, ahead of the Indianapolis 500 race on Sunday, May 29. AutoNation is a sponsor of Indy 500 driver Helio Castroneves. The race aired on NBC.

The campaign, which also appears in radio, print, online and social media, was developed by AutoNation, I Think Studios and Zimmerman Advertising.

Marc Cannon, AutoNation's chief customer experience officer, in an email to Automotive News did not specify how much the retailer plans to spend on the campaign.

Cannon said the ads highlight AutoNation employees, "the people who make us a great place to purchase, sell or service a vehicle."

AutoNation's jobs page last week showed 1,263 results for positions ranging from sales associate, finance and insurance…

Automotive News has added to its multimedia team and hired a social media editor.

Laura Harris joined Automotive News as a video reporter and anchor. The Chicago native last worked in South Carolina.

Harris, 26, is a graduate of the University of Missouri's journalism school and earned a master's degree at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her background includes documentary storytelling and hosting her own show.

Marisa Marcinkowski has joined Automotive News as a social media editor. Marcinkowski, 28, brings expertise in social media, content creation and brand management.

Most recently she was brand manager for the Agency Hall & Hunter in Birmingham, Mich.

Marcinkowski also was social media manager for Crain Homes, managing its Instagram, Facebook and TikTok accounts and producing video content.

She will help develop and execute Automotive News' social media strategies.…

There may never be the perfect time to sell your dealership. Dealer principals who consider selling are motivated by many reasons; some are related to market conditions and others related to personal goals. Thus, it is rare in our industry to find a dealer who is 100 percent certain that (a) selling is the best option and (b) now is the best time to sell.

I won't give advice regarding personal reasons to sell, but the market conditions that exist right now have opened a window of opportunity that may not come around again for a while. If there is ever a time when the stars are lined up for sellers, that time is now.

Consider how the following factors affect buy-sell activity and dealership valuations, and how these factors may change in the next year.

Cost and access to capital: Buyers care about two things: the cost of borrowing capital and access to capital. When access is high and cost is low, more buyers are on the hunt. These conditions create a se…

Hyundai Motor Group was slow to jump on the hybrid-powertrain bandwagon, as rivals surged ahead with the fuel-sipping technology.

But the Korean lines are making up for lost time.

Hyundai Motor Co. is on an aggressive path to electrification that seeks 7 percent of the global battery-electric market by 2030.

In the U.S., Hyundai hopes half of its new-vehicle sales will come from EVs in that time frame.

But part of transforming itself into an electric automaker is offering a conventional hybrid-electric or plug-in hybrid variant for every model in its gasoline-powered lineup.

That approach represents a pivot for the automaker.

"What prompted the change was a significant shift in strategy" to go all electric, Jose Muñoz, Hyundai Motor Co.'s global COO, told Automotive News in an exclusive interview.

"We see hybrid buying habits as the next step toward electrification," he said.

Read more

Comedian Jay Leno loves cars but says driving the Ford F-150 Lightning converted him into "a truck guy."

Leno tested one of Ford's new electric pickups — with CEO Jim Farley riding along — for an episode of his CNBC show, "Jay Leno's Garage," that will air this fall.

"As much as I love my internal combustion engines, this has sold me," Leno said on CNBC this month. "It's very impressive."

Leno said he was particularly impressed by the truck's quick acceleration, quiet cabin and ability to function as a generator during a power outage. To demonstrate the Pro Power Onboard feature, Leno said he had the lights for his interview with Farley plugged into the pickup instead of the electrical grid.

In a teaser video, Farley is shown telling Leno that the automaker had a number of internal disagreements about the Lightning.

"We were arguing about this truck more than almost any vehicle I've seen in my career," he said.

Ford originally appr…

CJ Moore, a former Autopilot software engineer for Tesla Inc., has left Apple's secretive autonomous-vehicle project after just seven months.

Moore's latest employer is Luminar, a company that makes lidar. Lidar is a technology used by most companies working on autonomous-driving systems — except Tesla, which uses only cameras for its Full Self-Driving feature and has labeled lidar a "crutch."

Moore's departure from Apple signals another shake-up for Project Titan, the tech company's meandering effort to develop an autonomous vehicle.

Meanwhile, Luminar has managed to hire top talent from around the tech and auto industries; it also added Taner Ozcelik, the founder of Nvidia's automotive business, last week.

"We're attracting the best leaders in the world in their fields to execute our vision and deliver on the future of transportation," Luminar CEO Austin Russell said in a statement.

Russell has dubbed himself the "…