Trade News

Automotive mirror supplier Gentex Corp. said ongoing supply chain issues and a decrease in light-vehicle production led to lower first-quarter profits and sales.

The automatic dimming rearview mirror and camera-based driver-assistance system company said Friday first-quarter net income decreased 23 percent to $87.5 million. Gentex earnings are typically watched closely as a quarterly bellwether for other suppliers' results.

Because of increased expenses and decreased sales, gross margin also decreased, falling to 34.3 percent.

Operating expenses increased 15 percent to $57.1 million, caused by higher cost of raw materials, freight expenses and labor. The company also hired additional workers for new product development, it said.

Net sales fell 3.2 percent to $468.3 million, with automotive net sales dropping 3.7 percent. Global light-vehicle production decreased 5 percent, which had a significant impact on the supplier's performance in the quarter…

Lithia Motors Inc., which has outsized acquisition ambitions, acknowledged its 2022 pace of buying dealerships is quicker than expected.

The company, which bought six dealerships in two first-quarter acquisitions, has additional deals under contract worth $1.9 billion in annual revenue.

"We now have either closed, or have under contract, $3 billion [of annualized revenue] so far year to date," he said during the company's first- quarter earnings call last week. "That's a big number. It's a little higher than what we expected. Most importantly, we do not adjust our disciplines. We're finding partners that are excited about joining us at multiples that we look at on a normalized basis to be able to do that."

Lithia's completed first-quarter acquisitions in Northern California and Las Vegas are expected to generate annual revenue of $1.1 billion, meaning the Medford, Ore., retailer has deals expected to generate annual revenue of almos…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Collaboration to explore EVs augmenting electric grid

Electric vehicles might provide more than everyday transportation. The U.S. Department of Energy believes the ever-growing number of EVs on the nation's roads can be energy-storage devices that supply electricity — and resilience — throughout the country's electrical grid.

The department took steps to hasten the arrival of such functionality, 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, which aims to conduct demonstration projects and collect data, Wednesday at the Net Zero Plus Electrical Training Institute in metro Los Angeles. Among carmakers, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, BYD Motors Inc. and Lucid Motors signed the memorandum of un…

TOKYO — Honda Motor Co. is planning to cut production by about 50 percent on two lines at one of its Japan factories in early May due to chip shortages and COVID-19 lockdowns, the company said on Thursday.

The factory in Suzuka will also slash production by half during April, expanding the scale of the cutback from an earlier announcement that it would reduce output by about a third. 

The company said the persistent semiconductor shortage as well as uncertain geopolitical affairs have caused delays in logistics and parts delivery.

The Suzuka plant produces the Fit, N series mini-vehicles, as well components to Honda's overseas factories in 27 nations, according to the company's website.

Production at a factory in Saitama prefecture will also be reduced by a third in April but is planning to restore normal operation in early May, the company said.

PARIS — French prosecutors issued international arrest warrants for former Nissan Motor Co. and Renault CEO Carlos Ghosn as well as four individuals they say are linked to an auto dealer in Oman, alleging the group helped Ghosn steer millions of euros from Renault SA, The Wall Street Journal reported late Thursday.

The paper, citing people familiar with the matter, said a magistrate issued five international arrest warrants for Ghosn, and the owners or former directors of Suhail Bahwan Automobiles, a vehicle distributor in Oman.

Prosecutors in Nanterre, a Paris suburb, allege Ghosn directed millions of dollars of Renault funds through the Omani car distributor for his personal use, including for the purchase of a 120-foot yacht, the paper said.

Ghosn’s arrest by Tokyo prosecutors on Nov. 19, 2018 stunned the business community, a shock that resonated further just over a year later when he escaped from Japan w…

A Maryland Kia dealership could owe customers more than $1 million in refunds after settling allegations it charged fees and shipping costs on top of the advertised vehicle price.

Owings Mills, Md.-based Koons Kia admitted no wrongdoing under the settlement announced Tuesday by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh. The dealership said its advertising complied with Maryland law and denied it violated the state's Consumer Protection Act.

The settlement requires Koons Kia to refund the disputed fees to customers, an amount the state estimated could collectively exceed $1 million. The dealership must also pay the Maryland Attorney General's Consumer Protection Division up to $200,000 to cover the agency's investigative costs. If Koons Kia meets the settlement terms and stays in compliance for a year, the state will waive $100,000 of that bill.

"Car dealers must honor the price they advertise for their vehicles," Frosh said in a statemen…

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk says he’s secured $46.5 billion in funding for a takeover of Twitter Inc. But more than two-thirds of that is either coming from his own pocket or borrowing against his Tesla shares.

Musk’s filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday details $25.5 billion in debt financing from Morgan Stanley and other financial institutions, including margin loans backed by his equity stake in Tesla. It also includes $21 billion in equity financing to be provided by Musk himself.

Musk currently has about $3 billion in cash or other somewhat liquid assets after spending $2.6 billion buying a 9.1 percent stake in Twitter in recent months, according to Bloomberg estimates. His other holdings are tied up in Tesla stock -- about $184 billion worth -- and his ownership of closely held Space Exploration Technologies Corp.

The big question is whether Musk would consider selling part of his stake in one of his prized companies to…

EAST LIBERTY, Ohio — Honda's new $124 million wind tunnel — a structure five years in the making — is coming online at a critical time. In the electric vehicle era, designers are under pressure to reduce aerodynamic drag so that battery-powered vehicles can drive farther on a charge.

The tunnel — an eighth of a mile long — will serve three functions for Honda: It will help designers create vehicles that slip through the air with less resistance; guide engineers on acoustic tuning to help reduce vehicle wind and road noise; and give the automaker's racing teams a dedicated wind tunnel to tweak competition vehicles.

But the advanced tunnel here, about 15 miles from Honda's sprawling plant in Marysville, Ohio, will also help reduce the automaker's product development bill.

No longer will Honda have to ship vehicles and engineers all over the country to use rented wind tunnels for testing.

"Those were the core reasons that…

Audi, the luxury brand of Volkswagen Group, continued to lag behind its two German archrivals, BMW and Mercedes Benz, in first-quarter sales.

All three German luxury brands posted lower sales in the first three months, with output and demand undermined by the resurging coronavirus outbreak and supply-chain bottlenecks. 

Audi was hit the hardest, with volume slumping 22 percent to 161,600 in the latest period. 

Mercedes-Benz sales fell 14 percent to 192,700. 

Combined deliveries at BMW and Mini dropped 9.2 percent to 208,507 vehicles, BMW Group said, without breaking down volume by brand.

Audi was China’s largest luxury brand until 2019, when Mercedes took over, and has struggled to reclaim the crown. BMW was the top luxury brand in 2021. 

Wholesale and retail sales of new vehicles contracted sharply in the first two weeks of April with production, shipping and deliveries severely disrupted by spiking coronavirus cases and other supply-chain bottlenecks, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association. 

During the two-week period, daily shipments of passenger vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles industrywide plunged 44 percent to roughly 24,000, the trade group said this week.

Daily retail sales of passenger vehicles across the country slipped 39 percent to around 25,000, it added. 

Severe lockdown measures aimed at curbing major COVID outbreaks, requiring employees to stay home and isolate, have forced many automotive plants and dealerships to go dark.

Volkswagen Group, Toyota Motor Corp. and China FAW Group Corp. last week resumed output at key plants in the northeast city of Changchun. 

Tesla Inc. and SAIC Motor Corp. …

Sales at Volkswagen Group, the largest carmaker in China, plunged 24 percent to around 754,000 in the first quarter. 

The decline is a result of the extended global semiconductor chip crunch and impaired supply chains amid spiking coronavirus infections across China, the Germany auto giant said this week. 

First-quarter sales at VW brand slipped 24 percent to 557,900 while Skoda volume plunged 42 percent to 15,200. Audi deliveries dropped 22 percent to 161,600 while Porsche sales fell 20 percent to 17,700. 

VW Group didn’t disclose sales at its other brands in the Chinese market during the period. 

In contrast to the sharp decline in overall sales, the German group recorded robust demand for electrified vehicles. 

First-quarter sales of new energy vehicles -- full electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids – surged 67 percent to 38,700. The tally includes 27,100 ID models. 

With Shanghai and the northeast Chi…

CATL, China’s largest battery producer for electric vehicles, has become the first EV battery maker to provide domestic battery swap services.

The first batch of four battery swap stations went into operation in the east China port city of Xiamen this week, CATL said. 

The battery giant expects to add another 27 such facilities in the city by the end of 2022, allowing customers to find one station within a radius of 3 kilometers.

It will expand battery swap services to other China cities, CATL said, without elaborating on the plan. 

Several Chinese companies such as EV startup Nio and private carmaker Zhejiang Geely Holding Group have also rolled out battery swap services for customers. 

According to statistics from the China Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Promotion Alliance, a Beijing-based trade group, the number of operational battery swap stations across China reached 1,451 in March, a jump of 138 percent from a…