Trade News

Automobili Lamborghini said it delivered a record 8,405 vehicles globally last year, up 13 percent, including an 11 percent gain in the U.S., where it delivered 2,472 vehicles.

A breakdown of U.S. sales by nameplate was not available. However, on a global basis, the Urus SUV accounted for 60 percent of the brand's sales last year, with the Huracan making up 31 percent and the Aventador contributing the remainder.

The brand, a unit of Volkswagen Group, said Europe, the Middle East and Africa was its largest region in terms of percent of total sales. The region was up 12 percent overall, followed by North and South America and its Asia-Pacific region, which both rose 14 percent.

"This record has provided confirmation of four factors for us: the solidity of our strategic plan, our brand's outstanding international reputation, the competence and passion of our people and the exceptional professionalism and dynamism shown by our 173 dealers in 52 markets, who…

WASHINGTON — Representatives from the National Automobile Dealers Association, General Motors and the UAW testified Wednesday before a U.S. House panel on the transition to electric vehicles and potential impacts for rural America.

The hearing was held by the House Agriculture Committee amid major investments by the auto industry as well as the public and private sector to spur EV development and adoption in the U.S.

"We are witnessing a point of major research, investment and adoption of electric vehicles across the country and the world, driven in large part in an effort to mitigate the impacts of climate change," Rep. David Scott, a Georgia Democrat who is chairman of the committee, said in his opening statement.

"As with so many other technological advancements like electrification, broadband or telephone service, I want to see what can be done to make sure that rural America is not left behind," he added.

Ranking member Glenn Thompson Jr. sa…

About 70 South Korean nationals who attended the giant CES tech trade show in Las Vegas last week tested positive for COVID-19, health authorities of the Asian country said on Wednesday.

These included some executives and staff of major South Korean companies, according to industry sources and a company official.

About 20 people from Samsung Electronics and about six at SK Group, parent of energy firm SK Innovation and chipmaker SK Hynix, were among those who tested positive for the virus after attending CES, the sources said.

Hyundai Heavy Industries said six of its employees who attended CES tested positive while in the United States and were quarantined. Some have since been released.

"Multiple" Hyundai Motor and Hyundai Mobis employees who attended CES also tested positive after arriving back in South Korea, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported, citing an unidentified industry source without specifying the exact number of cases.

After a near two-year border shutdown, Canadian auto suppliers are looking to rebuild ties with customers south of the border in time for an expected surge in demand for new vehicles.

Export Development Canada (EDC) predicts a 27-per-cent jump in vehicle and parts exports in 2022, erasing declines from the twin shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing global parts shortages.

Only supply chain bottlenecks are standing in the way of more vehicle sales to consumers flush with cash that they couldn’t spend in the past two years, said Peter Hall, the Crown corporation’s chief economist.

“We believe there is ultimately enough supply in the system, whether it’s raw materials, intermediate goods, computer chips or what have you,” Hall said. “But generally, things are in the wrong places.”

U.S. crossings reopened to Canadians on Nov. 8, two months after Canada began welcoming vaccinated Americans. While the bottlenecks are expected to ease, there’s …

The number of used vehicles sold in the U.S. in 2021 hit an all-time record, according to Cox Automotive, bolstered by a robust spring selling season that analysts say may not be easily repeated.

Cox Automotive estimated that overall used-vehicle sales for 2021 were 40.9 million, an increase of about 10 percent compared with 2020. Of those, an estimated 22.2 million were retail sales — vehicles sold to consumers by dealerships and other retailers such as Carvana. That also was an all-time record, Cox said, and reflected an increase of nearly 13 percent year over year.

But the records will likely stop there, at least for a while.

The used-car market will remain strong in spring 2022, but it will "struggle to see any change in volumes" compared with the record amounts last spring, Cox Automotive Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke said last week.

Cox Automotive, in a preliminary forecast, said it is predicting 2022 volume will come in at 39.3 million use…

Dealership finance and insurance departments might wish to review internal practices to head off two errors that safety and compliance firm KPA is repeatedly observing in the industry.

I asked Ryan Daly, who oversees 42 states as KPA's F&I compliance district manager, which incorrect practices stood out as those dealerships should watch out for going into 2022. He cited payment packing and a lack of vigilance regarding loan applicants.

"That's a starting point," he said.

Payment packing involves describing a price that exceeds the payment actually necessary to buy the car. "You're holding fictitious numbers," Daly said.

For example, it costs $400 a month to buy a vehicle, but the dealership tells the consumer it's $500, according to Daly. Such inflation might derive from either a fictional interest rate or the cost of products added to the deal but undisclosed to the customer, Daly said, estimating the two payme…

Sales of sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses in China rose 2 percent to top 2.42 million in December after slipping seven straight months.

On the back of a robust first-quarter rebound, deliveries increased 6.5 percent to 21.48 million in 2021, snapping a string of three consecutive annual market declines, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Wednesday. CAAM attributed the rebound in last month's light-vehicle deliveries to easing semiconductor chip shortages that have undermined global light-vehicle output for months. Electrified vehicle sales also continue to surge. 

In addition to improving microchip supplies, CAAM said more favorable raw material prices should also provide a lift to 2022 industry sales.

After decades of robust growth, the market started contracting in 2018 as some tax cuts were phased out, fallout from growing U.S.-China trade friction during the Trump administration and later th…

BEIJING -- Tesla Inc. sold 70,847 China-made vehicles in December, the highest monthly rate since it started manufacturing in Shanghai in 2019, data from the China Passenger Car Association showed on Tuesday.

Tesla's December sales, which included 245 for export, were almost three times the amount achieved in the same month last year and 34 percent higher than November's volume.

It also brought Tesla's total sales of China-made EVs in 2021 to at least 473,078, according to Reuters' calculations of CPCA's data, which prior to April did not publish figures for Tesla's China-made exports.

The tally accounts for around half of the 936,000 vehicles the U.S. automaker delivered globally last year.

Tesla's Shanghai factory, which started delivering vehicles at the end of 2019, makes the Model 3 sedan and Model Y crossover for domestic and international markets, including Germany and Japan.

The automaker, which has been able to surmount supply chai…

Volkswagen Group, the largest carmaker in China, saw deliveries contract 14 percent to around 3.3 million in 2021.

Stephan Wollenstein, CEO of VW Group China, blamed the sharp decline on widespread semiconductor chip shortages that put a dent in light-vehicle output. 

“2021 has been one of the most challenging years in our history in China,” he said in a statement this week. “[While] our order books are well-filled, we were unable to match production to demand over a lack of semiconductors,” 

Last year, VW brand volume fell 15 percent to 2.4 million. 

Three models in VW brand’s ID.-series full electric vehicles — the ID.4, ID.6 and ID.3 — hit Chinese showrooms in March, June and October, respectively. The three crossovers generated combined volume of more than 70,000 by year end.

In 2021, Skoda deliveries tumbled 59 percent to 71,200. 

Among the German group’s luxury brands, while Audi deliveries dipped 3.6 percen…

General Motors’ 2021 retail sales in China remained flat at 2.9 million despite the industrywide chip shortage that hobbled car and light-truck production.

The results came on the back of robust sales at Wuling, the entry-level brand owned by SAIC-GM-Wuling, GM’s light-vehicle joint venture with SAIC Motor Corp.

In 2021, deliveries at Wuling — minibuses, compact pickups and subcompact EVs — jumped 28 percent to exceed 1.4 million, according to GM’s China unit. The latest sales include some 400,000 Wuling-badged four-seat subcompact full electric vehicles.

At SAIC-GM, GM’s passenger-vehicle partnership with SAIC, Cadillac sales edged up 1.4 percent to a record high of 233,117. 

But Buck deliveries dropped 7.3 percent to around 820,000 while Chevrolet sales slipped 21 percent to roughly 230,000.

Deliveries at Baojun, a market-entry car brand under the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, plunged 48 percent to some 210,000. 

In 2022,…