Trade News

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…

The chief executives from trade associations representing franchised dealers and automakers said the two major stakeholders must work together as the industry commits billions to produce and sell more electric vehicles by the end of the decade.

"Dealers are all-in and can't wait for the product to arrive," NADA CEO Mike Stanton said Thursday during a session at the Automotive News Retail Forum. "They've invested big dollars."

Stanton, citing NADA estimates, said dealers have invested as much as $3 billion to prepare for EVs and are "essential" to the rollout.

"It's been great to see the car companies … recognize that the dealers are essential in the journey to electrification and that we need to get there together," he said.

"That's how it's going to happen: if we're aligned."

John Bozzella, CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, said the industry will have invested $330 billion in electrification by 2025.

But achieving a 4…

As the auto industry moves aggressively into electric vehicles in a transition that will redefine much of a dealership's operations, NADA aims to equip retailers with the knowledge they need at its new EV Solutions Center in the convention's North Hall.

The center will be open Friday through Sunday at booth 6557N.

NADA says dealers can meet with experts who will "address issues one-on-one" and "provide comprehensive step-by-step processes to successfully transition into the EV marketplace."

Dealers can learn how to discuss range anxiety with consumers and go over the most cost-effective ways to install charging stations at their stores. Retailers also can get more details on local, state and federal EV incentives.

As dealers are walking through the skybridge that connects the convention center's west and north ends, they'll see the new Electric Avenue that provides a quick look at the history of EVs.

Th…

Dealerships have work to do, but retailers can help accelerate electric vehicle adoption, and that transformation really could go faster than sometimes it appears, according to a couple of presentations at the J.D. Power Auto Summit on Thursday.

On the to-do list, J.D. Power's Stewart Stropp said: Dealerships need to train personnel in many areas other than just the vehicle itself, such as home charging.

In a separate presentation, Scott Painter, CEO and founder of vehicle subscription company Autonomy, said dealers should offer subscription services as a way to get EV skeptics to try out electric vehicles.

Ownership via subscription is unorthodox as opposed to a loan or lease, but a car that's purchased for use in a subscription service "still represents a sold car for the dealer," said Painter, who also is the founder of CarsDirect.com, TrueCar and Fair.

In his presentation, Stropp, managing director for the J.D. Power…

Cox Automotive last month unveiled Upside, which the company calls a solution that could help dealers fetch more profits when they sell cars in the wholesale market.

Upside — and Upside Direct, its accompanying store among Manheim's other online marketplaces — has its roots with Dale Pollak, executive vice president of Cox Automotive.

Pollak spoke with Staff Reporter C.J. Moore to discuss Upside, dealer misconceptions about wholesale and Whole Truth, his new book on the subject. Here are edited excerpts.

Q: How does Upside work for dealers who send cars to wholesale auctions?

A: We're going to take that car that you don't want to keep for your retail lot, and we guarantee you $300 minimum profit. We're going to represent that vehicle on your behalf in the Upside Direct market, using those best practices.

When that vehicle sells, we're going to give that dealer 90 percent, almost …

A day after his company created an Internet sensation by revealing the European version of its ID Buzz retro-styled electric microbus, Volkswagen Group of America CEO Scott Keogh had a much more grounded message for dealers here: Focus on your employees.

"I think the single biggest topic that needs to be addressed is employment, compensation and labor, and I think the opportunity that we all have is to introduce a new world of people to our industry," he told a packed room Thursday at the NADA Show. "This is not a dinosaur business that's been doing the same thing for 30 years. You have new technologies, new innovations, new ways of learning."

Keogh said that as automakers and dealers see their lineups transform from traditional internal combustion-powered vehicles to EVs, it is an opportunity for dealers to refocus their operations and concentrate on building staffs that are helpful experts to their customers.

The "biggest differentiator" for dealers …

WASHINGTON -- U.S. regulators on Thursday issued final rules eliminating the need for automated vehicle manufacturers to equip fully autonomous vehicles with manual driving controls to meet crash standards.

Automakers and tech companies have faced significant hurdles to deploying automated driving system vehicles without human controls because of safety standards written decades ago that assume people are in control.

Last month, General Motors and its self-driving technology unit Cruise petitioned the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for permission to build and deploy a self-driving vehicle without human controls like steering wheels or brake pedals.

The rules revise regulations that assume vehicles "will always have a driver's seat, a steering wheel and accompanying steering column, or just one front outboard passenger seating position."

"For vehicles designed to be solely operated by an ADS, manually operated driving c…

LAS VEGAS — Damian Mills said he was turned down four times before he landed a salesman position in June 1992 at a Crown Automotive Dodge dealership as he looked for a summer job during college.

And it wasn't until Mills met a mentor — his sales manager — that he began to see he could do much more in life, he told the Automotive News Retail Forum: NADA in Las Vegas on Thursday.

Mills said that mentorship immediately began. His mentor helped him with "everything from taking me to a men's store to buy a suit to walking me into Wachovia when I got my first real check and helping me to establish a bank account to showing me the potential of what I could do and giving me permission to want to be more than what I was and what I saw that I was when I walked in that door."

Today, Mills is CEO of Mills Automotive Group in Charlotte, N.C., and is a mentor to many.

Mills bought his first dealership in 2004, a Ford store, and now has 19 dealerships in four s…

As Cadillac's first fully electric vehicle starts arriving at dealerships in the coming weeks, the brand's dealers are clamoring for more to follow quickly.

Cadillac executives have said the luxury brand's entire portfolio will be electric by 2030, but so far, Cadillac has outlined specific plans for only one high-volume EV: the Lyriq midsize crossover that debuts this month.

As dealers spend big money to update their showrooms and service bays for EVs, they're banking on the brand rolling out more battery-powered crossovers and SUVs as quickly as possible after the Lyriq to make their investment worthwhile.

"The majority of today's consumers still want that midsize crossover where they can hold five or six people. They can hold some gear, but they're really focused on the economy and value," said Justin Gasman, financial services director at McCaddon Cadillac-Buick-GMC in Boulder, Colo. The Lyriq "is the first step in the right direction."

Cadi…

The new owners of the most expensive home ever sold in Detroit are Stellantis North America COO Mark Stewart and Antonio Gamez Galaz.

The Fisher mansion sold last week for $4.9 million, the top home sale in the city's history. Stewart and Gamez Galaz bought the Palmer Woods home from Dan Ammann, the former General Motors Co. executive and Cruise CEO. Amman was dismissed from the role in December over disagreements over the direction of the robotaxi startup.

In a statement, a Stellantis spokesperson said Stewart and Gamez Galaz said they were proud to be the home's new owners.

"They have long been passionate about its architecture and are excited to become part of the city's renaissance by making Detroit their home," the statement said. "They look forward to preserving this piece of automotive history for years to come."

The mansion at 1771 Balmoral Dr. north of West Seven Mile Road and west of Woodward Avenue, was built for Alma and Alfred Fisher…

Genesis Motor America has hired away Infiniti's top marketing executive to help the Korean luxury brand expand in the U.S.

Wendy Orthman, 45, previously Infiniti's global head of brand, marketing and communications, will be executive director of marketing for Genesis, the global luxury division of the Hyundai Motor Co.

She will report to Claudia Marquez, COO of Genesis Motor North America.

"Genesis is a new brand with an incredible opportunity to grow," Marquez said in a statement. "I am looking forward to working with Wendy to enhance and grow our presence in the market."

Orthman held marketing and communications roles at General Motors and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, now Stellantis, before joining Nissan North America in 2015. Prior to her relocation to Yokohama in early 2020 to head up Infiniti marketing, she managed product life cycle, lifestyle and brand communications for Nissan in Nashville.

At the time of Orthman's promotion to Infin…