Trade News

PHOENIX — The launch edition of the GMC Hummer EV is already the most well-equipped trim the brand offers on any vehicle, but early buyers are decking out the pickup even further.

"Every Hummer is loaded up. Every single one," said Howard Drake, dealer principal at Buick-GMC Sherman Oaks in Southern California.

Nearly all of Drake's 17 Hummer Edition 1 customers have spent $4,000 for an exterior lighting package and the hard power-retractable bed cover. That's on top of the $112,595 price, including shipping.

Many customers also have purchased the tailgate audio system and a kit to store the Hummer's roof panels in the front eTrunk.

Drake's dealership sits near star-studded Hollywood and Beverly Hills, Calif. Most of his initial Hummer buyers are household names, including renowned chef and restaurateur Wolfgang Puck.

More than 66,000 less famous consumers have reserved a spot in line for the pickup or the…

BMW has named automotive finance veteran Birgit Boehm the CEO of BMW Group Financial Services in the U.S. and Region Americas.

Boehm had been BMW Group senior vice president finance and group treasurer prior to assuming the CEO role at the BMW captive finance company Friday. She has been with the automaker since April 2018 and spent 26 years in finance roles prior to joining BMW, the company said. She has held a variety of roles at General Motors and its then-subsidiaries Opel, Vauxhall and Saab. She also was with Opel and Vauxhall under the pre-Stellantis PSA Group.

"Birgit brings a wealth of global experience, a familiarity with the U.S. market and a long track record of success to her new role," BMW Group Financial Services global head Gerald Holzmann said in a statement. "Under her guidance and leadership, I have no doubt that BMW Group Financial Services in the region will continue to be an asset not only to the national sales companies, bu…

Elon Musk is having quite the week.

On Monday, we learned Tesla’s CEO had taken up a more than 9 percent stake in Twitter, making him the social networking company’s largest shareholder. The service the world’s richest person uses to ask for input and promise product improvements then announced Tuesday that Musk will join its board of directors.

We’ll see what fresh surprises Musk has next for Twitter after these disclosures drove its shares up 30 percent in the course of just a couple sessions — the biggest two-day jump for the stock since the company’s initial public offering.

This much we do know: on Thursday, attention will turn back to Tesla. And on Friday, the focus will be on SpaceX, the rocket company Musk runs.

Musk will first host a massive party at Tesla’s new factory in Austin, Texas.

The company has a permit to host 15,000 people for what it’s calling a “Cyber Rodeo,” nodding to the Cybertruck the CEO unveiled to enormous fan…

California EV startup Rivian Automotive reported first-quarter production of 2,553 vehicles from its Normal, Ill., manufacturing plant and 1,227 deliveries during the same period as it continues to struggle with supply-chain issues felt throughout the global auto industry.

"These figures are in line with the company's expectations, and it believes it is well positioned to deliver on the 25,000 annual production guidance provided during its fourth-quarter earnings call on March 10, 2022," the automaker said in a regulatory filing.

Rivian did not provide production numbers for individual models in the first quarter. Shares in Rivian rose 1.45 percent to $42.80 in after hours trading on Tuesday.

Rivian said during the March earnings call that it could make about 50,000 units a year of its three vehicles if it had enough parts, including semiconductor chips. The company said it has 83,000 preorders of the R1T and R1S, in addition to its initial Amazon order …

DETROIT — Assembly plants will become more flexible and agile thanks to the rise of big data, the shift to electric vehicles and increased visibility into the supply chain, a Toyota Motor Corp. manufacturing executive said Tuesday.

Brian Eggleston, Toyota general manager, strategy and planning, told attendees at SAE International's World Congress Experience in Detroit that the industry's transformation is giving companies an "amazing opportunity to re-imagine the infrastructure" they have come to rely on in recent decades.

He said assembly plants are beginning to leverage huge amounts of data from their machines, giving the company more insight into how to make their production lines more efficient — potentially changing the role of humans in the factory.

"We are going to be able to get the work force further and further away from repetitive action that takes less thought and move towards decision-making," Eggleston said. "How we present the data to the …

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government may need more than 100,000 charging stations to support widespread EV use, a government watchdog told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

The Government Accountability Office said in testimony that as of March, federal agencies own about 1,100 charging stations. President Joe Biden in December signed an executive order directing the U.S. government to end purchases of gas-powered vehicles by 2035.

The House Oversight and Reform Committee is holding a hearing on the U.S. Postal Service's plans to buy mostly gas-powered next-generation delivery vehicles. USPS is not covered by Biden's executive order.

Less than 0.3 percent of the government's 657,000 vehicles were electric as of 2020, or 1,777. In 2020, the government spent $4.2 billion on vehicle costs, including $730 million for fuel.

The General Services Administration on Tuesday said that as of March 10, federal agencies have ordered an additional 1,854 zero-em…

Three domestic-brand dealerships sold in separate, first-quarter deals to growing dealership groups.

Here's a look at the deals involving dealerships in Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Wisconsin. One transaction involved a group on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

#1 Cochran Automotive made its first acquisition in more than three years, CEO Rob Cochran confirmed, when it bought a Ford dealership in late March.

#1 Cochran, of Monroeville, Pa., on March 23 bought Butler County Ford in Butler, Pa., north of Pittsburgh, from Cathy Glasgow.

"After much consideration, I felt it was time to pass the torch," Glasgow said in a statement.

The dealership was renamed #1 Cochran Ford of Butler County. It's the second Ford dealership for the group. #1 Cochran is planning to build a new Ford showroom and service center for the dealership within two years.

"As Ford continues to ramp up its EV and traditional engine businesses, we …

WASHINGTON/SEOUL -- The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday said it is opening a review to ensure all defective batteries produced by LG Energy Solution have been recalled by automakers.

The auto safety agency noted Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler-parent Stellantis, General Motors and Hyundai Motor Co. have issued recalls since 2020 due to internal failures in high-voltage vehicle batteries that pose fire risks.

NHTSA said the equipment query covers 138,324 vehicles and will communicate with LG "and other companies that might have purchased the same or similar equipment from LG, notify them of this defect in any vehicles they manufactured, and to ensure thorough safety recalls are conducted where appropriate."

An LG Energy Solution spokesperson in a statement said the company understands the request by NHTSA is a follow-up procedure, adding, "LG Energy Solution will fully cooperate with the inquiry."

Among recalls cited by the …

Something of a common theme emerged at the NADA Show this year: Auction companies have artificial intelligence on their minds. They've cast aside science fiction-inspired apprehension about AI replacing humans, and now they want to see how this technology can be used to hone the vehicle imaging and inspection process.

Take ACV Auctions, for example. The used-vehicle online auction company recently spent $19 million to acquire Monk, a Paris-based AI solutions company. On the NADA Show floor, Monk demonstrated a guided photo capture that can be done remotely. Users with an enabled smartphone can scan a vehicle exterior, then get a damage report on it in about 60 seconds, the company said.

Such AI-enabled tools are useful, but they won't kick humans out of the vehicle inspection process, according to Michael Pokora, ACV Auctions' senior director of research and development. That's not the purpose, he said.

"It's something that's going to help us chew throug…