Trade News

Two-thirds of automaker executives think a hybrid of automakers and dealers will "own the primary customer relationship and most customer data in five years," according to the inaugural 2023 Kerrigan OEM Survey.

The results show "that the industry is evolving," said Erin Kerrigan, managing director of Kerrigan Advisors, a dealership sell-side firm in Incline Village, Nev.

Kerrigan Advisors collected about 115 responses from automaker executives from December through May and plan to make the poll annual, Kerrigan said. "These are individuals that don't often get surveyed," she said. "We're getting a window into their views on what's going on."

A majority of automaker executives, 69 percent, expect dealership profits in the next 12 months will decline, while 24 percent expect profits to stay the same and 7 percent expect profits to increase. And almost three-quarters of the surveyed executives think new-car margins will settle somewhere between pre-COVID…

ChargePoint, one of the largest public electric vehicle charging networks in the U.S., has launched a four point plan to improve the reliability of its chargers.

Charger reliability has become a major sore point for EV drivers. They often pull up to a public charging station only to find it is out of order or won't sync with their vehicle. Auto industry research firm J.D. Power said one in five public charging attempts failed in the first quarter.

The ChargePoint initiatives include opening a network operations center for around-the-clock station monitoring, tracking social media posts that mention charging issues at one of ChargePoint's ports and developing a training and certification program for charger technicians.

The company also plans to incentivize site hosts—or the property owners who own and operate the chargers—to decommission chargers that are no longer functional. ChargePoint will remove and repurpose those chargers.

"Every month or…

TOKYO – Honda Motor Co.’s operating profit jumped 78 percent in the latest quarter as improved semiconductor supply fed North American production and boosted the Japanese automaker’s sales.

Operating profit climbed to 394.4 billion yen ($2.73 billion) in the company’s fiscal first quarter ended June 30, compared with 222.2 billion yen ($1.54 billion) a year earlier, Honda said in its financial results on Wednesday.

Net income more than doubled to 363.0 billion yen ($2.51 billion), from 149.2 billion yen ($1.03 billion) the year before.

Revenue climbed 21 percent to 4.62 trillion ($31.96 billion) in the three-month period, while global sales increased 11 percent to 901,000 vehicles in the quarter.

Deliveries in the U.S., Honda’s biggest market, soared 45 percent to 347,000 vehicles, helping power Honda through the quarter. Sales fell 5 percent in China to 309,000 units, and deliveries in Europe declined 13 percent to 20,000 vehicles.

Honda…

The Federal Communications Commission on Aug. 3 announced it had levied a record $300 million fine against vehicle service contract telemarketers running "the largest illegal robocall operation the agency has ever investigated."

The illegal service contract marketing scheme dated to at least 2018 and included more than 5 billion automated calls to more than 500 million phone numbers in just three months in 2021, the FCC said. The group's communications with customers included a prerecorded message beginning, "'We've been trying to reach you concerning your car's extended warranty,'" the FCC said.

The group's alleged violations included breaking federal "spoofing" laws by using more than 1 million caller ID numbers to fool consumers into answering their phones, calling Do Not Call numbers, making telemarketing calls without consumer consent and failing to offer an opt-out number.

The FCC last year directed and authorized phone servic…

Auto dealerships should train employees on compliance, governance and risk every month and have personnel sign documentation they will behave properly, says Tom Kline, founder of compliance company Better Vantage Point.

"Then, when challenged by a regulator or lawyer, the dealer can argue that any incident with an employee violation of these policies would be an anomaly," Kline writes. "It's not a pattern and the dealership can prove he educates his staff to ensure compliance with all laws and regulations."

One dealership compliance form provided by Kline describes a state regulator's allegations of deceptive finance-and-insurance practices at a different retailer and has employees commit to avoid that specific behavior. The employee must sign off on the language, "The Company expressly forbids any misrepresentations, inflation of customer income, or the changing or forging of any documents signed by the consumer. Misrepresentation, falsification and/or forgery…

Despite concerns about overextension, most credit unions are willing to approve lengthy auto loans and finance 125 percent of vehicle value on used models, a new study by Credit Union Leasing of America has found.

"It was no surprise to us that over-extension on used vehicle loans is generating significant worry for credit unions, as is overall used vehicle affordability," Mark Chandler, Credit Union Leasing of America business development vice president, said in a statement. "[But] the results also uncovered a troubling disconnect: credit unions continue to offer car buyers a significant percentage of longer-term loans, with low down payments, on high mileage older vehicles and increased [loan-to-value ratio]."

Credit Union Leasing of America connects credit unions and dealerships seeking to offer consumer auto leases. Its polling ran April 4 through May 5 and involved 415 credit union professionals.

The study found that 64 percent of credit union pers…

At this year's New York International Auto Show, in-car apps and entertainment, efficient charging stations and over-the-air updates grabbed as much attention as oversize tires and third-row seats. The show sent a clear signal that the industry is committed to an electrified, software-defined future.

The software experience will become automotive's great leveling force between companies that are still new to making cars but are good at software (Tesla) and companies that have made great cars for years (BMW) but are new to building software. If established carmakers begin to make strides — whether through internal efforts or partnerships — on the software architecture side, they can quickly close the gap as they roll out an improved infrastructure to millions of vehicles.

The foundation for this next evolution will be built on edge computing, an emerging model that places computing power at or near where the data originates. In contrast to centr…

Rivian Automotive Inc. sees continued strong demand for its electric R1T pickup and R1S crossover and will not join EV rivals such as Tesla Inc. and Lucid Motors in cutting prices to stimulate sales, CEO RJ Scaringe said on the startup's second-quarter earnings call Tuesday.

"We take a very methodical and thoughtful approach to how we look at our vehicle pricing," Scaringe said, pointing to vehicle configurations that can significantly raise or lower the price, creating a broad price band for the R1 products.

"As we think about the positioning of the product, the capabilities of the product — on-road, off-road, dynamically — and the feature set that's in the vehicles, we feel quite comfortable with the positioning of what we've done," Scaringe said in response to an analyst question about price-cutting.

The base R1T starts at $74,800, with shipping, and the base R1S starts at $79,800, with shipping. Higher trims with larger battery packs, four motors a…

UAW President Shawn Fain on Tuesday criticized early bargaining proposals from Stellantis as a "slap in the face" to members before throwing a copy of the document in a trash can during a livestream on Facebook.

Fain, who last week detailed the union's "audacious and ambitious" economic demands, including more than 40 percent raises, said the response from Stellantis doesn't address the union's concerns. The two sides started bargaining last month on contracts that expire Sept. 14.

The company, Fain said, is seeking cuts to medical coverage, threatening profit-sharing payouts, refusing to reopen the idled Belvidere Assembly Plant and insisting on keeping a two-tier wage system.

Fain said Stellantis also wants to eliminate a cap on the use of temporary workers, make members work longer before receiving their full allotment of paid vacation time, increase absenteeism penalties and gain the ability to "demand further concessions during the life of the cont…

Rivian Automotive Inc. on Tuesday raised its full-year production forecast after it posted a narrower second-quarter loss and significantly improved revenue.

The company reported a net loss of $1.2 billion compared with red ink of $1.7 billion during the same quarter last year. Revenue tripled to $1.1 billion.

The company also said it expects a smaller operating loss in 2023, but shares fell about 2.5 percent in trading after the bell.

Rivian now expects to make 52,000 vehicles this year, up from its previous forecast of 50,000.

The Irvine, California-based company cited “progress we have seen to date on our production lines, the ramp of our in-house motor line and the supply-chain outlook” for its revised expectations.

The higher production forecast comes after the EV maker delivered 12,640 vehicles in the April-June period, beating analysts' estimates of 11,000, a positive sign for the company that had struggled to ram…

As America becomes a nation of older cars, technicians and the aftermarket may see boom times, according to analysis by S&P Global Mobility.

The average light-vehicle age currently stands at a record-high 12.5 years, surpassing what S&P Global Mobility considers the "repair business sweet spot" of 6 to 11 years old. Vehicles 12 and 13 years old are now becoming a bigger part of the automotive repair business.

Because of this, the aftermarket is likely to see growth in repair and maintenance work as older cars will see more miles driven than traditionally expected.

The surging new-vehicle supply, after two-plus years of diminished inventory, could further boost expansion of the used-vehicle fleet and bring more high-mileage vehicles into service bays. While new-vehicle production is expected to grow, inflation and high interest rates are keeping many car buyers away from showroom floors and toward the used-car lot instead.

The share of 7-…

Group 1 Automotive Inc., which has been active on both sides of the U.S. dealership buy-sell market in 2023, divested four dealerships in three transactions, including a pair of Maine stores it sold to New England dealer David Rosenberg and partners.

Group 1, in its most recent sale, sold Nissan of Mobile to Tameron Gulf Coast on July 31, according to Ryan Mayer, the group's owner and president. The dealership was renamed Tameron Nissan, Mayer noted.

It marks the first Nissan store for Tameron Gulf Coast, which is based in nearby Daphne. The group now has six dealerships across Alabama and Mississippi, Mayer said.

In March, Tameron Gulf Coast bought a Subaru store, also in Mobile, from Lithia Motors Inc.

"It's a market that we're in and we like the brand," Mayer said of the Nissan dealership. "We think it'll be an asset to our portfolio along the Gulf Coast here."

The acquisition marked the second dealership Tameron Gulf Coast had purchas…