Trade News

Daimler CEO Ola Kallenius is pursuing a higher valuation for the luxury-car maker as the manufacturer shifts deeper into EVs packed with digital gadgets. 

Following the spinoff of Daimler's truck unit in December, the automaker is changing its name to Mercedes-Benz on Feb. 1, to signal its segue to a nimble standalone unit tackling the industry's transformation.

Mercedes aims to have battery-powered models in all its segments this year to rival Tesla.  

"We have a real chance to raise the multiple," Kallenius told reporters on Friday, without naming a specific target valuation for the company, which has gained around 40 percent in value over the last 12 months to a current value of 74 billion euros ($82.4 billion). 

Kallenius pointed to the higher valuations attached to other luxury and technology stocks. "If we can boost cashflow and our multiple, there’s lots of potential in the Mercedes-Benz stock," he said.

Traditi…

Stellantis is suspending full implementation of a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for salaried, non-union workers in the U.S.

The decision comes a few weeks after the automaker pushed back a Jan. 5 deadline for workers to be fully vaccinated. But the company said the latest move isn't related to a Supreme Court decision this month that rejected an Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule that would have required 80 million workers at large companies to get shots or periodic tests.

Stellantis said 97 percent of its salaried, non-represented work force is either vaccinated or has an approved exemption.

The company said it will "continue to monitor the situation and the guidance of public health authorities to make any modifications necessary to ensure we are doing everything we can to protect our work force."

The automaker adopted a vaccine mandate in November as it prepared for a phased reopening in 2022, while gettin…

CARMEL, Calif. — Like its platform mate, the redesigned 2022 Tundra pickup, the Toyota Sequoia large SUV was showing its age in unflattering ways, a victim of the Japanese brand's extremely long product cycle for its body-on-frame light trucks.

Its last full redesign had occurred in 2008, in the midst of the Great Recession and a lifetime in automotive terms. Its fuel economy, towing capacity and ride and handling were all largely leftovers from that era. There was a minor freshening in 2018, but even that was trimming on an SUV serendipitously named after one of Earth's oldest living organisms — a giant hulk of a tree.

Enter then the redesigned 2023 Sequoia, with a long-overdue infusion of new technology, practicality and refinement and arriving as more customers demand crossovers and SUVs with useful third-row seating and towing capacity. Toyota is confident that this bottom-to-top overhaul, including a new hybrid powertrain, will restore some of the market …

Shares of Tesla Inc. slumped on Thursday, with competitors also taking a hit after the electric vehicle maker warned that supply chain problems will last throughout 2022.

Tesla's stock closed down 11 percent at $829.10 when the market closed Thursday, its worst one-day percentage decline since early November after the company late on Wednesday posted a strong quarterly report but warned that component shortages would limit production this year. Tesla stock was down 6 percent in after hours trading.

Shares of several other electric vehicle makers also fell, with Rivian Automotive Inc down 10 percent, its lowest level since the EV pickup truck maker's November Wall Street debut.

Lucid Group Inc. dropped 14 percent, Lordstown Motors Corp. lost 8 percent and Nikola Corp. fell 9 percent. U.S. shares of Chinese EV maker Xpeng Inc. slumped 12 percent.

The slump in EV stocks was far worse than the Nasdaq's 1.4 percent decline at the market close.

O…

A dealership group this month bought an Infiniti store in the South, while three Ford dealerships exchanged hands in single-store deals, either in December or January.

Here's a look at the transactions involving luxury and domestic brands. One deal involved a group on Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups list.

Georgia acquisition

Jim Hudson Automotive Group has expanded its footprint in Georgia with the acquisition of an Infiniti dealership.

Jim Hudson Automotive, of Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 20 bought Napleton Infiniti of Augusta from Napleton Automotive Group.

The dealership was renamed Jim Hudson Infiniti of Augusta.

It marks the first Infiniti franchise for the group, said Josh Waters, director of public relations for Jim Hudson Automotive. The group also has Acura and Lexus stores in Augusta.

Jim Hudson Automotive now has nine dealerships and a used-only store in its portfolio across Georgia and South Carolina.

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The Tesla Model 3 sedan and Kia Niro EV crossover top all other battery-electric vehicles in their segments in owner satisfaction, according to a new J.D. Power study.

The Model 3 topped the premium BEV segment for the second-straight year in J.D. Power's U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Ownership Study, with a satisfaction rating of 777 points out of a possible 1,000. Likewise, the Niro topped all mass-market BEVs for the second time in the survey's two-year history, with a score of 744.

The latest figures could give automakers more confidence in U.S. customer adoption of future EVs as billions of dollars in investments begin to yield more vehicles reaching dealer lots.

“Making the initial leap of faith into owning a BEV is proving to be very satisfying,” said Brent Gruber, senior director of global automotive at J.D. Power, in a statement.

J.D. Power and California-based EV research firm PlugShare surveyed 8,122 owners of 2016-22 model year ve…

SHANGHAI – The month ahead of the Chinese lunar New Year Holiday is often a peak period for new car sales. The 2022 holiday begins on Feb. 1 but the bump didn’t materialize in January.

Retail sales of sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multi-purpose vehicles in China are forecast to come in at 2.05 million this month, a 6.2 percent drop from a year earlier, the China Passenger Vehicle Association said this week.

The trade group blames the latest dip, after a 4.5 percent rebound in December volume, on China’s toughening measures to curb sporadic coronavirus outbreaks in several major cities. 

Inventories also remain constrained as a result of tight microchip stockpiles and other supply-chain bottlenecks.

On January 9, Tianjin became the third major city to adopt partial lockdowns, following Xi’an and central Zhengzhou, after omicron, a highly transmissible strain of the coronavirus, was detected in local communities. 

The three cities …

Net profits at Great Wall Motor Co., China’s largest domestic light-truck maker, rose 26 percent to approach 6.8 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in 2021, according to a preliminary tally the company disclosed this week.

The company cited sharp increases in vehicle sales and prices for the profit growth.

Great Wall delivered some 1.28 million crossovers, SUVs, pickups and sedans in and outside China last year, a 15 percent jump from a year earlier.

The average price of its products increased 15 percent to 106,400 yuan.

As a result, revenue surged 32 percent to 136.3 billion yuan last year, Great Wall said.

In addition to China, Great Wall produces vehicles in Russia and Thailand. 

In 2021, the company sold roughly 142,793 vehicles overseas, more than doubling the tally a year earlier. 

Great Wall, based in the North China city of Baoding, is listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Smart Automobile Co., Geely Holding Group’s joint venture with Mercedes-Benz, plans to sell China-built, Smart-badged electric vehicles in Southeast Asia.

The EVs will be exported and distributed in Malaysia and Thailand first by Proton Holdings, the Malaysian carmaker partly owned by Geely, according to a tentative agreement signed by Proton and Smart Automobile last week. 

Under the agreement, it will establish a multi-level sales and service network in Malaysia and Thailand as well as a brand experience center for Smart, Proton said.

Additional details about the partnership were not disclosed.

Smart Automobile was formed in 2019 as a 50-50 partnership between Geely and Mercedes-Benz to develop a new vehicle architecture for Smart-brand EVs.

Under the joint venture deal signed by the two companies at the time, the EVs will be designed by Mercedes-Benz, engineered by Geely and produced in China. 

Smart introduced an elec…

Tesla doesn't typically break out U.S. sales as part of its quarterly earnings report, but data from Cox Automotive suggests the EV leader snatched the luxury sales crown from BMW last year, regardless of fuel type.

Tesla, which reported global vehicle sales this month and fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, garnered 72 percent of the U.S. EV market in 2021, down from nearly 80 percent in 2020, Cox said in a report Tuesday on EV and electrified vehicle sales.

EVs are defined as vehicles powered exclusively by batteries, whereas electrified vehicles include hybrids and plug-in hybrids, which are primarily powered by internal combustion engines.

Relatively new models to the EV market such as the Volkswagen ID4, Porsche Taycan and Ford Mustang Mach-E took a small share from Tesla, in addition to gains by established models such as the Chevrolet Bolt, Hyundai Kona electric and Nissan Leaf, Cox said.

The 89 percent surge in EV sales last year put deli…

Ford Motor Co. and longtime Chinese partner Jiangling Motors Corp. formed a joint venture aimed at strengthening Ford's sales efforts and reach in China, the companies said Wednesday.

Jiangling Ford Automobile Technology (Shanghai) Co. aims to sell Ford passenger vehicles — mainly SUVs and vans — built by JMC through a network of 181 showrooms in major Chinese cities.

The portfolio includes the recently launched Ford Equator Sport, a five-passenger midsize crossover with such features as advanced driver assist, a Tencent infotainment system and mobile device interface and wireless over-the-air software updates.

Other Ford models to be sold through the new JV are the Territory, Everest, Equator and Tourneo.

Ford and its two joint ventures – one with Changan Automobile Co. and the other with Jiangling Motors Group – delivered 624,802 vehicles last year in China, an increase of 3.7 percent from 2020.

The tally includes 91,621 Lincoln vehicles,…