Trade News

Kia America executives presented plans to dealers at their make meeting Saturday, assuring them the company will keep the brand on a roll as it transitions to more electric vehicle sales.

Kia was one of the few automakers, of those reporting sales, to post a gain in February as the industry coped with supply constraints and winter storms.

But Kia is now busily readying dealers to sell EVs, said James Morrell, head of the brand's dealer council, who co-owns Destination Kia in Albany, N.Y.

"Fortunately, we had a big head start because we've been selling the Niro EV for quite a while," Morrell said outside the meeting.

He noted that 98 percent of Kia's 750-plus dealerships are already eligible to sell the EVs because they've installed the necessary chargers with the automaker's help.

Kia considers a dealership eligible when it has a fast charger on premise and a trained contingency of salespeople who can educate consumers on the product, sai…

From left, Myra Dandridge of NADA; Damon Lester of the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers; Julie Herrera of Toyota of Cedar Park, near Austin, Texas; Marita Thomas of Cars.com; and Veronica Dunford of Women in Automotive talk about ways to boost representation in the auto industry during a Cars.com panel on diversity Saturday. The industry, long dominated by nonminorities, must "close the gap" by extending opportunities to diverse applicants, Lester said.

EV maker Rivian has hired a top executive from a major auto supplier as its next COO, according to people familiar with the matter, an effort to get its troubled manufacturing operations back on track.

Rivian has struggled to ramp up production, citing supply chain constraints such as a shortage of semiconductors. To help tackle those production snags, it has chosen Frank Klein, the head of the car-making unit at Canada's Magna International Inc., said the people, who declined to be named.

A representative for Rivian declined to comment.

Rivian CEO R.J. Scaringe told analysts Thursday that a COO would be named next week, saying the new executive would focus on scaling up the company's production and supply chain operations.

"With our 2022 priorities, we've been very focused on ensuring we have the right team working towards our mission," Scaringe said on a conference call.

The EV-maker is closely followed and backed by a long list of stella…

Franchised auto dealers are now better positioned to defend their historic way of retailing vehicles in the U.S. and continue to improve the experience for customers because the interests of dealers and their manufacturing partners have never been more closely aligned, outgoing NADA Chairman Paul Walser said Friday in his final address.

Walser said dealers are facing threats to their business model from direct sellers, but they "have a better idea: Let's take what's already built and improve it."

"Rather than letting seismic shifts [in automotive propulsion] rock us to the core, let's make this a defining moment and create our own destiny," he told the NADA Show audience.

He asked retailers to "imagine a working relationship with our OEM partners built on mutual trust — where short-term goals take a back seat to long-term success, where both parties are fully committed to each other, and where communication is centered not so much on who gets what, but…

Alfa Romeo dealer Kareem Radwan is looking forward to seeing the brand expand this year with the upcoming Tonale plug-in hybrid crossover.

The Tonale will be Alfa's first new vehicle since the Stelvio crossover in 2017 and its first electrified option, offering 30 miles of electric range.

Larry Dominique, Alfa's North America vice president, on Friday said he hopes the Tonale can help build familiarity for the brand in the U.S. as it prepares to go fully electric by 2027. This was the first make meeting for Alfa since its 2014 return to the U.S., and Dominique was pleased by a strong turnout.

Radwan, who owns K&S Alfa Romeo of San Diego, said the meeting had positive vibes. Executives told dealers they would work to ship more high-performance, hot-selling Quadrifoglio trims of the Stelvio and the Giulia sedan.

"The brand awareness is getting out there now," Radwan, who has been an Alfa dealer for a little more than a year, told Automotive Ne…

AutoSpin USA's exhibit features the highest rotating vehicle display platform at the NADA Show. The portable display spins a 10,000-pound vehicle 25 feet in the air at more than two revolutions per minute.

Ford Motor Co.'s radical rethink of how it will sell electric vehicles has the auto retail industry on edge, and it was on the mind of Nissan dealers at the brand's make meeting Friday.

Retailers asked management whether the automaker planned a Ford-style separation of its EV and combustion businesses.

And Nissan dealers wondered if their brand might adopt an agency-type model that would make retailers less involved in the sale and more like delivery and service providers. The answer they received was unequivocal.

"We're going to continue to use our dealer body," Nissan division U.S. sales chief Judy Wheeler told Automotive News after the meeting. "We're not going to change our agreements. It's business as usual."

Scott Smith, chairman of the Nissan National Dealer Advisory Board, said the brand is committed to using the "dealer body as the instrument to sell EVs."

Globally, Nissan Motor Co. is making a nearly $18 billion bet on electrifi…

Fox News personality Dana Perino described franchised dealers as the "most natural politicians" she knows.

"And that is not meant to be an insult," Perino, who was White House press secretary in the George W. Bush administration, said Friday during an NADA keynote address. "You do it well, and your leadership is needed more than ever."

Perino, who co-anchors "America's Newsroom" and co-hosts weekday opinion talk show "The Five" on Fox News, even suggested dealers should consider running for president.

"We don't need all the senators. They say that every senator that looks in the mirror sees a president staring back," she said. "You know people. You know what they need. You know what their anxieties are, and you're problem solvers."

Perino also pointed to dealers' penchant for community involvement.

"The way that this is a family and a community business, the way that you create the jobs that are really the power engines of these economies…

Mazda North America CEO Jeff Guyton assured dealers that the brand is not behind on electrification at its make meeting Friday.

The general sentiment at the meeting was positive, according to Mike Engle, general manager of Jim Shorkey Auto Group, which has 15 stores in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Georgia. Mazda thinks "they have a plan," Engle said after the meeting.

Mazda currently offers only one full electric vehicle, the MX-30, a 100-mile range crossover being rolled out in limited volume to customers in California.

The transition to electric will require a significant investment from dealers, Guyton said after the meeting.

"MX-30 is a toe in the water for us, prior to more product and national rollout, which is going to start later this year," he said.

"I want to support [the dealers] to make a good return on their investment," Guyton said. "We need to know what we're doing in this space."

Engle said the nationwide rollout could st…

Rivian Automotive Inc. is slashing production targets for its electric vehicles, backing off on price hikes for some customers and posting huge financial losses.

But the young automaker still has ambitious plans.

In the short term, there's not a lot the California EV startup can do to speed output of the R1T pickup, R1S SUV and EDV delivery van, given supply-chain bottlenecks for critical parts.

CEO RJ Scaringe said Thursday the Amazon-backed automaker continues to put maximum pressure on suppliers as it tries to surpass a production target of 25,000 vehicles this year, which is half the number it could make at its Normal, Ill., assembly plant if it had enough parts in the pipeline.

"While the near-term industry conditions remain very fluid, our path to creating long-term value is unchanged," Scaringe said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. "We are targeting the most attractive market segments with exceptional products…