Trade News

Small, publicly traded LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. had a goal to roll up dozens of dealerships. It stumbled on a few deals, bought eight franchised stores last year, entered into numerous contracts for more and even purchased a $5.6 million airplane.

But now those deals are collapsing. LMP is exploring alternatives, including selling its portfolio of franchised dealerships and four used-vehicle centers after it was unable to secure financing to close seven pending transactions. Combined, those transactions would have cost the fledgling company more than $296 million.

LMP CEO Samer Tawfik said in a news release Wednesday that the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., retailer planned to terminate those deals, which the company less than two weeks earlier had said would begin closing this month.

"Given the record M&A activity in our sector and multiples being paid for these transactions, LMP's board of directors has directed management to immediately pursue strate…

CANTON, Miss. — Nissan's plan to manufacture two new electric vehicles in the U.S. starting mid-decade could jolt the automaker's prospects in an emerging market.

It also promises to transform the company's production footprint in the country, starting with its underutilized 4.7 million-square-foot factory in Canton, Miss., where the Japanese automaker this week announced it would begin production of the sedan-style EVs in 2025.

The truck and sedan factory, which brought automotive production to the state when it opened nearly two decades ago, will be reincarnated as a "center for EV manufacturing and technology" as Nissan pivots toward a zero- emission future, the company said.

The planning for the $500 million project began in 2020, Nissan Motor Co. COO Ashwani Gupta told Automotive News on the sidelines of an event here.

"To prepare a plant, it takes time," Gupta said. "On one side, you're running the production, …

WASHINGTON -- General Motors and its self-driving technology unit Cruise, in a long expected move, formally petitioned U.S. regulators for permission to build and deploy a self-driving vehicle that does not need human controls.

Cruise said in a blog post on Friday it sought permission to deploy the Cruise Origin that does not need features like a steering wheel to operate safely. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has authority to grant petitions to allow a limited number of vehicles to temporarily operate on U.S. roads that do not have required human controls.

Cruise and GM first disclosed in October 2020 they planned to seek approval from NHTSA within months to deploy the Cruise Origin.

In 2018, GM petitioned NHTSA to allow a car built on a Chevrolet Bolt without steering wheels or brake pedals on U.S. roads. In late 2020, GM withdrew the petition.

NHTSA, which spent 15 months reviewing the first GM petition before seeking public…

DETROIT — Tyler Schanzmeyer's 2021 Bronco Badlands was built more than two months ago. But instead of sitting in his Boonville, Mo., driveway, it's languishing amid a sea of snow-caked SUVs in a holding lot near the Michigan Assembly Plant.

Communication from Ford Motor Co. has been "nonexistent," he said, though his dealer blamed the holdup on the global semiconductor shortage, which the automaker has confirmed. His delivery date has been pushed back five times and now is tentatively scheduled for April.

"I am concerned about my vehicle sitting out in the elements," Schanzmeyer told Automotive News. "Its value is depreciating even before I take delivery."

The lot holding Schanzmeyer's Bronco — mockingly referred to in online forums as Dirt Mountain (and lately, Ice Mountain) for a large pile of upturned earth on the site — has become a sort of measuring stick for Ford's production woes.

Dirt Mountain was packed with Broncos last summer when roof…

Audi's flagship sedan is getting a nip and tuck out front and in the back as part of a 2022 freshening.

The A8, redesigned for the 2019 model year, now has a wider grille while the rear features new taillamps. The S8 performance sedan also has a wider grille and four flow-optimized tailpipes.

The S Line exterior package now comes standard on the A8. An optional Black Optic Plus package is available for both the A8 and S8. It includes black mirrors, black badges and black 21-inch wheels.

The interiors of both models remain largely unchanged.

The A8 packs a 335-hp, 3.0-liter V-6 engine, while the S8 is powered by a 563-hp, 4.0-liter V-8.

The plug-in hybrid has been dropped for 2022.

Pricing starts at $87,595 for the A8 and $117,995 for the S8, including shipping. They go on sale in the spring.

U.S. sales of the A8 and S8 dropped 13 percent to a combined 2,069 in 2021.

Self-driving technology company Aurora Innovation Inc. affirmed it remains on pace to launch a commercial trucking business by late next year and a robotaxi service by late 2024.

Advances in lidar sensors, expansion of business partnerships and the maturation of its autonomous-driving technology have made it possible to project the start of a commercial trucking service in Texas, according to Aurora CEO Chris Urmson.

He laid out the company's strategy for reaching automated service this week during Aurora's first earnings report since it became a publicly traded company in November.

A key part of Aurora's strategy involves building an autonomous driver versatile enough to be equipped on vehicles that range from minivans to Class 8 trucks. Urmson said such underlying "transferability" should be achieved in the first quarter of this year.

Another evolving feature is Aurora's ability to bring a vehicle to a safe stop on the side of the road should …

A huge auto transport ship that regularly delivers Porsches, Audis, Bentleys, Volkswagens from Europe to the U.S. is on fire and adrift in the Atlantic.

According to an internal Volkswagen Group email obtained by Bloomberg, 3,965 U.S.-bound vehicles are aboard. About 1,100 Porches and 189 new Bentleys, several U.S.-based spokespeople for group brands confirmed to Automotive News.

The ship is more than a thousand miles off the coast of Portugal, and its crew of 22 has been safely evacuated by other vessels, including the Portuguese navy.

The boat departed the German port of Emden on Feb. 10, and was scheduled to arrive in Davisville, R.I., on Feb. 23, according to a posting on Marinetraffic.com. More than 100 of the vehicles on board were headed for Port of Houston in Texas.

The 650-foot-long, 106-foot-wide Felicity Ace was built in 2005 and sails under a Panamanian flag, according to the site.

A spokesman for Volkswagen Group…

Visteon Corp. saw flat sales and stronger margins in the fourth quarter to cap an improved financial performance in 2021, but executives warned of a "peak headwind" on the horizon in the first quarter.

The automotive cockpit electronics supplier posted net sales of $786 million in the fourth quarter, roughly equal to the same point last year, while its net income increased 70 percent to $31 million, according to its earnings report filed Thursday.

For full-year 2021, the supplier's sales rose 7 percent to $2.77 billion, with net income of $116 million, compared with a $56 million loss in 2020, when COVID-19 choked the industry.

However, the pandemic's impact has dragged on with supply chain problems a global microchip shortage and commodity cost increases, all of which took a $40 million bite out of Visteon's business last year.

"Due to the ongoing negotiations with our customers and suppliers, we're not disclosing the rates of recoveries we are a…

ACV Auctions Inc. said Wednesday that its revenue surged 86 percent to a little more than $100 million in the fourth quarter of 2021 and that it gained dealer partners, but it posted a net loss.

The Buffalo, N.Y.-based digital wholesaling firm's CEO George Chamoun said the company achieved its goal of nationwide marketplace coverage. Despite the gains, ACV posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $26.3 million, compared with a loss of about $12.3 million in the year-earlier period. ACV's total operating expenses in the fourth quarter came to almost $125.9 million.

The company said it transacted 138,565 vehicles in the fourth quarter, up 35 percent from the year-earlier period, and 560,959 in the full year, up 43 percent from 2020.

Low new-vehicle inventory has stunted the number of trade-ins entering the wholesale market. That led to a "temporary contraction" in the market ACV serves, Chamoun said. But he expects the semiconductor shortage to improve in upcom…

Subaru climbed two spots to first place in Consumer Reports' annual ranking of the most well-performing, safe and reliable automotive brands.

Mazda, which was No. 1 in 2021, finished second this year.

Six of the top 10 brands this year were Japanese; the highest-ranking U.S. brand was Buick, which was 11th.Jeep dropped three spots to last, replacing Alfa Romeo, which rose four places to 28th.

The biggest drop this year was from Tesla, which fell seven spots to 23rd place. Consumer Reports, in a press release Thursday, cited the "difficult to use" steering wheel in the Model S and Model X. The EV maker's Model 3 is its only nameplate with a high enough score to be recommended by the consumer news organization.

"It dropped more than any other automaker, kind of due to their own decisions," Jake Fisher, senior director of automotive testing at Consumer Reports, told Automotive News.

For the second year in a row, Consumer Reports gave Green Cho…