Trade News

LOS ANGELES — Lincoln Motor Co. spent the better part of the past decade reinventing itself around the idea of a sanctuarylike driving experience it calls "quiet flight."

But with electric vehicles popularizing the idea of quiet cabins even on mass-market models, Ford's luxury arm is looking to differentiate itself even further. The Lincoln Star concept, unveiled here last week, signals the brand plans to do so by engaging nearly all of the driver's senses.

Key to the concept's interior are what the brand calls "rejuvenation moods" that include audio, ambient lighting, video animations and even scents pumped through the cabin and tailored around specific themes. Executives hope those moods, along with interior design flourishes such as the curved, full-width display and new exterior lighting cues, will help Lincoln's first wave of EVs stand apart and appeal to a different type of buyer looking to go electric.

"We get the opportunity to start over again,…

Mazda is trumpeting its new CX-50 compact crossover as an alternative to its popular CX-5, but some observers predict the automaker will do what it has done in the past — eventually kill the older product in favor of the newer one.

"CX-5 should be around for a couple years, and then it's gone," said Ed Kim, president of AutoPacific.

"Mazda is spinning it as having two models in the same segment for different buyers. But in reality, it's just like what happened when they introduced the CX-30," Kim said. "CX-3 stuck around a couple of years and then was gone."

The CX-30 launched for the 2020 model year and offered buyers a slightly larger footprint than the CX-3 subcompact crossover. One year later, Mazda announced that 2021 would be the CX-3's final model year.

Another analyst predicts the same scenario.

"The CX-5 will only stick around for another one to three years after CX-50 sales pick up," said Ivan Drury, senior manager of insights a…

50 with Subaru

Brian Rapp, second from left, co-owner of Bill Rapp Inc., receives a 50-year award for Bill Rapp Subaru in Syracuse, N.Y., from Adam Kovalsky, left, Subaru Distributors Corp. sales and marketing operations manager. Also pictured from Bill Rapp Inc. are Rebecca Choquette, general manager, and Frank Signorelli, sales manager.

TOKYO — Honda Motor Co., in the midst of a massive corporate makeover, is planning a radical ramp-up of electric vehicles in North America, from barely any sales today to enough factory firepower to sell 800,000 in 2030 as the Japanese automaker piles on local capacity to build battery-powered cars.

Part of that surge will come from a production-sharing plan with partner General Motors.

But from the 2026 model year, Honda will introduce its own EVs and start making them in North America, sometime between the latter half of 2025 and early 2026, said Shinji Aoyama, senior managing executive officer in charge of Honda's electrification strategy.

Detailing the game plan last week at Honda's global headquarters, Aoyama said EV production should account for 40 to 50 percent of the company's total output in North America in 2030. That target equates to volume of around 800,000 vehicles, he said.

"This is in line with our 205…

Asbury Automotive Group Inc. — which exceeded automaker-set limits on the number of Lexus and Toyota dealerships it could operate after two large December acquisitions — has completed the sale of dealerships it needed to jettison to comply with both brands' policies.

Asbury, which in December bought Larry H. Miller Dealerships and Stevinson Automotive, sold two Lexus dealerships and five Toyota stores across four states over the course of six weeks.

"This was brutal because obviously you don't want to sell any of these stores," Asbury CEO David Hult told Automotive News.

But Hult said he knew he would have a problem to fix with Lexus and Toyota after closing on the mega Larry H. Miller Dealerships group with 54 new-vehicle dealerships across seven Western states and Stevinson, with its eight stores in the Denver area.

Those deals gave Asbury 10 Lexus stores — two more than high-performing dealership groups are allowed …

Supply constraints sent dealerships' new-vehicle inventory levels plunging last year, and while 2022 could bring a slight improvement in vehicle production, the industry may not see relief until at least next year, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.

But the coronavirus pandemic and microchip shortage also have made dealers more creative and efficient in how they do business, from diversifying how they source used vehicles to improving salesperson productivity, Patrick Manzi, NADA's chief economist, told Automotive News last week.

Those are among the takeaways from the association's NADA Data 2021 report, an annual financial profile of U.S. franchised new-vehicle dealerships. The report highlights inventory levels, new- and used-vehicle sales, employment and payroll trends, among other metrics.

"The biggest issue has been sourcing inventory and just helping customers find cars," Manzi said. "That's going to b…

Surging demand for light trucks could have BMW expanding production south of the border.

BMW is exploring plans to build its top seller — the X3 compact crossover — at its underutilized Mexico assembly plant, according to a production forecaster who has familiarity with the discussions.

Such a move would give the luxury automaker elbow room at its maxed-out U.S. factory to satisfy customer demand for its entire line of crossovers.

Without revealing specific plans, BMW Group CEO Oliver Zipse said crossover production will come to Mexico.

"Mexico will play an important role in our complete setup," Zipse told Automotive News this month. "At some point in time, you will see X models because the market demand is so high. That's all I can say right now."

BMW's U.S. crossover sales are on a tear. It sold 204,658 X-line vehicles in the U.S. last year, up 55 percent from five years earlier. In comparison, the over…

Early last year, a sales employee at Delray Buick-GMC in Florida submitted a two-week notice of resignation. Another staffer signaled he was thinking about doing the same.

After the dealership had forged some success hiring a younger generation of sales employees new to the industry, the news of the likely departures triggered a rethink by store leaders. Those newcomers' introduction to the business had come with the long workdays that have traditionally defined dealership jobs, said Kevin Connolly, managing partner of the store in Delray Beach, Fla., part of Garber Automotive Group.

But that kind of schedule was beginning to lead to employee burnout, Connolly said, and some questioned whether a dealership career was the right path for them. Of the store's eight new-vehicle sales reps, five came in with no car sales experience. Of the three who had a background selling cars, one was of the millennial generation — a key demographic for the dealership group.

Electric vehicles might provide more than everyday transportation.

The U.S. Department of Energy believes the ever-growing number of EVs on the road can serve as energy-storage devices that supply electricity — and resilience — throughout the country's electrical grid.

The department took steps to hasten that possibility last week by establishing a first-of-its-kind agreement between itself, national laboratories, state and local governments, utility companies, automakers and others to explore the feasibility of widespread bidirectional charging.

Eighteen participating organizations unveiled the collaboration last week at the Net Zero Plus Electrical Training Institute in metro Los Angeles, with plans to conduct demonstration projects and collect data. Ford Motor Co., General Motors, BYD Motors Inc. and Lucid Motors signed the memorandum of understanding.

The push comes as more Americans are buying electric vehicles. Nearly 150,000 were sold in …

The Texas attorney general's office is suing Vroom, an online used-vehicle retailer, for allegedly misrepresenting and failing to tell customers about holdups in transferring vehicle titles and obtaining registrations.

The deceptive trade practices lawsuit, filed this week by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, claims Vroom "burdened thousands of customers" by not making them aware of document processing hiccups.

The lawsuit also alleges Vroom misconstrued the history, condition and finance terms of vehicles it sold. Vroom is also accused of mismanaging its pandemic-era growth to a point that company procedures have become ineffective, according to the suit.

In the last three years, consumers "filed nearly 5,000 complaints with the Better Business Bureau and Office of the Attorney General of Texas" over these alleged issues, according to the lawsuit. About 4,000 of those complaints were made in the last 12 months, it said.

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Stellantis is making two executive changes to expand the reach of hydrogen technology in commercial segments.

The company named Jean-Michel Billig chief technology officer for hydrogen fuel cell development.

Billig is a former executive for French defense contractor Naval Group, where he was president of its Australian future submarine program. He begins on June 27 and will report to Harald Wester, the company's chief engineering officer, and Ned Curic, chief technology officer.

In another move, the company said Opel Brand CEO Uwe Hochgeschurtz will take on the "additional responsibility to pilot commercialization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles worldwide."

Stellantis said Hochgeschurtz will lead a dedicated team to strengthen its commercial offensive with a specific focus on Europe initially.

The automaker launched hydrogen commercial vans in Europe late last year that it says combine "the advantages of hydrogen fuel cells and electric batt…