Trade News

It's early in the platform's life, but Sonic Automotive Inc.'s online EchoPark e-commerce tool has so far proved successful at selling finance and insurance products to its initial users.

Sonic launched the EchoPark digital retail option in North Carolina and recently expanded it to South Carolina, Chief Digital Officer Steve Wittman told an earnings call last month.

"Of those cars sold end-to-end online, financing penetration is 100 percent and extended warranty penetration is 50 percent," Wittman said Feb. 16.

Wittman said this vehicle service contract penetration was similar to physical locations and consumers "love the value reframing we do" on the site. He described the latter as comparing the costs of the contract and repairs.

The F&I penetration had surpassed the company's expectations, Wittman said.

"It sure is a great relief," Sonic President Jeff Dyke said. He called it "fantastic news" to see online warranty and financing p…

SHANGHAI -- Volkswagen asked staff at its Shanghai plant to prepare sleeping bags and yoga mats so they can deploy a system that allows the automaker to continue to operate despite parts of the Chinese city being under a strict COVID-19 lockdown.

The arrangement will enable the plant, which VW runs with local partner SAIC Motor Corp., to run a so-called closed loop system when the west of the city is locked down for four days from April 1 for a mass testing blitz, people familiar with the matter said.

Workers were informed about the plan in a company message Wednesday, according to the people, who asked not to be identified because the information isn’t public. They were also asked to bring two weeks’ worth of medicine for ailments such as colds and conditions like high

The arrangement is still being worked out alongside Shanghai government requirements and it's not clear whether VW will be able to execute it, the people said.

VW's plant is locat…

Waymo, Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving car unit, said it would begin offering rides in San Francisco without a driver behind the wheel, seeking to catch up to rival Cruise on its home turf.

The driverless rides will be available only for Waymo staff to start, the company said Wednesday in a statement.

Waymo also announced plans to expand its Arizona operations to cover downtown Phoenix. It has offered autonomous journeys to the public in the Phoenix metropolitan area since 2020.

"We've learned so much from our San Francisco Trusted Testers over the last six months, not to mention the innumerable lessons from our riders in the years since launching our fully autonomous service in the East Valley of Phoenix," co-Chief Executive Officer Tekedra Mawakana said in the statement.

Cruise LLC, majority owned by General Motors, announced it would start offering driverless rides to the public in San Francisco last month — the rides …

Vietnamese automaker VinFast will build an electric vehicle assembly plant and a battery manufacturing facility in Chatham County, N.C, with an initial $2 billion investment.

VinFast, which opened its U.S. headquarters in Los Angeles last year, intends to move rapidly into the North America EV market with the VF 8 and VF 9 crossovers currently available for order.

VinFast and North Carolina officials signed a memorandum of understanding as the initial step to establishing the Vietnamese automaker's first North American plant, VinFast said in statement Tuesday.

"Having a production facility right in the market will help VinFast to proactively manage its supply chain, maintain stabilized prices and shorten product supply time, making VinFast's EVs more accessible to customers," VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said in the statement.

Construction on the factory's first phase will start later this year once a permit is granted, VinFast said. Vehicle outpu…

UAW President Ray Curry said Tuesday the union's membership fell roughly six percent to 372,254 last year, according to an annual financial report that will be made public this week.

The LM-2 report, filed with the Department of Labor, compares union membership as of December 2021 to the same period a year earlier. Curry, speaking at an Automotive Press Association event, said the dip is attributable to the timing of the report, since payroll and dues processing was delayed by end-of-year downtime or temporary layoffs because of the semiconductor shortage.

"Our union's on solid footing," Curry said.

The UAW, however, faces a number of challenges as it prepares to bargain new labor contracts with the Detroit 3 automakers late next year. General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis are making significant investments in electric vehicles, and Curry said he's continuing to monitor those investments and looking for opportunities to unionize planned joint-ve…

LONDON — Lotus applied its sports-car design and performance ethos to develop the Eletre full-electric SUV.

The Eletre, revealed in London on Tuesday, will become the flagship model for the automaker’s new range of ‘lifestyle’ electric vehicles that will be built in Wuhan, China, for global markets.

The high-performance SUV is the automaker’s first five-door vehicle. It will be an electric rival to luxury SUVs powered by powered internal-combustion engines such as the Porsche Cayenne, Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus.

The Eletre marks the U.K. sport-car brand’s embrace of two big industry trends – electric power and high-riding SUVs.

“It’s a significant transformation that has never been undertaken in the automotive industry before,” Lotus Cars CEO Matt Windle said during a preview of the vehicle.

Lotus said the Eletre will accelerate from 0-100 kph (62 mph) in less than three seconds, which would make the SUV faster than Aston …

Vietnamese startup VinFast is moving ahead with a U.S. manufacturing plan — and thinking big.

According to a report from the News & Observer, VinFast plans to ultimately spend more than $4 billion to open an assembly plant in North Carolina that will create about 7,500 jobs by 2027. The initial investment will be $2 billion, according to a statement issued by North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper.

The company eventually plans to build 200,000 or more vehicles a year at the North Carolina plant, which the newspaper said will be located on a 2,150-acre site in Moncure, a 30-minute drive south of Raleigh.

The automaker has not begun selling vehicles in the U.S. yet.

“North Carolina’s strong commitments in building a clean-energy economy, fighting climate change and reducing greenhouse gas emissions in transportation make it an ideal location for VinFast to develop its premium, smart and environmentally friendly EVs,” VinFast CEO Le Thi Thu Thuy said in…

Lithia Motors Inc. will instantly pay customers who sell their cars to the dealership group via its Driveway digital retailing platform, collaborator U.S. Bank said last week.

Lithia is piloting the immediate electronic funds transfers in Portland, Ore., and the approach is expected to be expanded to Driveway nationwide after that pilot is complete. Mike Jorgensen, U.S. Bank senior vice president of emerging solutions and strategy, told Automotive News last week that no regulatory barriers existed to expanding it to all 50 states.

Driveway customers selling vehicles to the dealership group currently receive electronic payments through the Automated Clearing House Network and have to wait 24 to 48 hours for their money to arrive, according to U.S. Bank. A paper check could take several days.

"We go as fast as seconds," Jorgensen said.

And while ACH is limited by banking hours, which means extra delays for holidays, the new…

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government will mandate the sales of EVs and wants a 42 percent reduction in emissions from the oil and gas sector as part of Canada’s plan meet its 2030 emissions reduction goal.

In its 2030 Emissions Reduction Plan, the government says it will enact a sales mandate to ensure at least 20 percent of new light-duty vehicle sales will be zero-emission vehicles by 2026, at least 60 percent of sales being ZEVs by 2030 and 100 percent by 2035.

To reduce emissions from medium-and heavy-duty vehicles (MHDVs), the Government of Canada will aim to achieve 35 percent of total MHDV sales being ZEVs by 2030. It doesn’t say in the report it will “mandate” those numbers the way it does for light-duty vehicles.

The government says it will expand the EV rebate program by C$1.7 billion ($1.36 billion).

The Canadian Press reports that the coming federal budget is expected to expand that program to include used vehicles and …

Michigan environmental regulators issued a violation notice to Jeep parent Stellantis late last week for "objectionable paint/solvent" odors at Detroit Assembly Complex on Mack Avenue.

It is the latest in a growing list of air quality violations for the automaker, which said Monday it is addressing the concerns "with urgency."

The violation issued Thursday was the result of a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy investigator documenting odors of "moderate intensity" in neighborhoods near the Detroit plant, according to a copy of the violation notice.

The paint smell constituted an "unreasonable interference with the comfortable enjoyment of life and property," the notice said.

Stellantis must respond to the latest violation by April 14, according to regulators.

"EGLE continues to respond to and evaluate complaints," department spokeswoman Jill Greenberg said in a statement. "EGLE is working through the escalated enforc…