Trade News

Rivian Automotive Inc. is heading into its second-quarter earnings report amid deeper price cuts in the EV market as supply rises faster than demand and automakers turn to sales incentives, analysts say.

The Irvine, Calif.-based startup is scheduled to report earnings Tuesday after the market close, followed by an earnings call. The automaker's production forecast, vehicle pricing and cash burn are likely topics for the call.

Last month, Rivian reported improved deliveries in the second quarter compared with the first quarter, significantly boosting the automaker's stock price for July after a seven-month downward trend.

But competition is picking up in the EV pickup market, with Ford cutting prices on the F-150 Lightning last month and Tesla set to launch its Cybertruck pickup by year's end. Rising EV inventories are pushing sales incentives higher.

"As pricing becomes more and more important because of rising interest rates, because of more co…

Elon Musk will receive an MRI of his neck and upper back on Monday and may require surgery, the 52-year-old said in a post on his X platform, formerly known as Twitter.

The world’s richest person said he will know this week whether surgery will be required, ahead of his proposed cage fight with Meta Platforms co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. He previously said he “might need an operation to strengthen the titanium plate holding my C5/C6 vertebrae together.”

As CEO of Tesla and Space Exploration Technologies, as well as the owner of a closely watched social-media platform, Musk’s health is of intense interest to people around the world. Musk, a notorious workaholic, has said that he has suffered from “mega back pain” after a bout with a sumo wrestler.

The post about the sumo match was accompanied by another with a photo of what appears to be a makeshift ring for the Japanese sport. Musk mentioned the injury last year after challenging Russian President Vladi…

Daimler Truck said its Chief Financial Officer Jochen Goetz died "suddenly and unexpectedly" on Saturday.

Goetz, 52, died in a "tragic incident," the company said Sunday without providing further details. He spent more than 36 years at Daimler Group after first starting his career as an apprentice at Mercedes-Benz, according to a company statement.

"Jochen Goetz was Daimler Truck with heart and soul," Martin Daum, chairman of the board of management of Daimler Truck, said in the statement. "He has played a key role in shaping today's Daimler Truck company and, as chief financial officer, has consistently worked towards making the company more economically successful today than ever before."

The company statement didn't immediately identify a successor for Goetz.

Goetz leaves behind his wife and two children.

For the second year in a row, Automotive News rigorously documented the dealership buy-sell market. This data served as the foundation for our package of stories in this week's issue that examine 2022 and beyond.

For subscribers, it's a one-stop shop of buy-sell data that won't be found anywhere else.

One key takeaway? The dealership buy-sell market in 2022 was a different kind of busy.

As we document in our package of stories, the theme of the buy-sell market last year was that private dealers and groups — not publicly traded auto retailers — were collectively the most active buyers.

This was a significant change from 2021 in which four public groups completed four of the largest acquisitions in auto retail history on top of what was already an active year for buy-sells.

In fact, the number of transactions in 2022 was actually higher than 2021's, Automotive News found. But the number of dealerships sold in 2022 was down from 2021, largely …

The dealership buy-sell market was a different kind of busy in 2022

For the second year in a row, Automotive News rigorously documented the dealership buy-sell market. This data served as the foundation for our package of stories in this week's issue that examine 2022 and beyond.

For subscribers, it's a one-stop shop of buy-sell data that won't be found anywhere else.

One key takeaway? The dealership buy-sell market in 2022 was a different kind of busy.

As we document in our package of stories, the theme of the buy-sell market last year was that private dealers and groups — not publicly traded auto retailers — were collectively the most active buyers.

This was a significant change from 2021 in which four public groups completed four of the largest acquisitions in auto retail history on top of what was already an active year for buy-sells.

In fact, the number of transactions in 2022 was actually higher than 2021's, Automotive News f…

SAN FRANCISCO — Electric vehicle maker Lucid Motors cut prices of its Air luxury sedans by as much as $12,400 as part of an offer, it said on Saturday, amid rising competition in the U.S. EV industry and a price war sparked by Tesla Inc.

Lucid reduced the price of the Air Pure by $5,000 to $82,400 from $87,400, and cut prices of the more powerful Touring and Grand Touring versions by $12,400 to $95,000 and $125,600, adding that the offer would be valid as long as supplies last.

A spokesperson for Lucid said the company was unable to provide details on how much inventory will be part of this offer.

Tesla's Model S and its performance version Model S Plaid — direct competitors with the Air — are priced at $88,490 and $108,490 down from $104,990 and $135,990 at the beginning of the year.

Over a year ago, Lucid, which is majority owned by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, and its peers had to raise prices of its cars as rising raw material…

Join us at noon Wednesday, Aug. 9, for a LinkedIn Live chat with Stephen Dietrich, partner at Holland & Knight, as he talks about the dealership buy-sell market.

He will be joined by Executive Editor Jamie Butters and Retail Senior Editor Melissa Burden as they discuss dealership merger and acquisition activity in 2022 and what we've seen so far in 2023.

Send us questions in advance in the comment section on LinkedIn.

The executive director of the Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association discusses the anti-AV sentiment brewing in California, efforts to revive federal legislation and what self-driving tech’s rollout says about American competitiveness.

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TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. — The American Center for Mobility is working toward building out an electric vehicle charging hub at Willow Run, 44 miles west of Detroit, as it aims to further diversify from strictly autonomous vehicle testing.

The project at the vehicle test track would consist of installing up to 24 DC fast chargers of different makes and models and require an investment of between $4 million and $6 million, said Reuben Sarkar, president and CEO of the center.

Sarkar said he is pursuing federal grant money and commitments from charging manufacturers and automakers to scale the project, which could break ground as soon as the fall.

The charging hub seeks to provide automakers and charging manufacturers solutions to the issue of interoperability between different vehicles and charging systems. Michigan has relatively few varieties of chargers in operation and no single location where various types can be tested, Sarkar said.

Washington, D…

Audi will begin culling internal combustion-powered vehicles from its lineup this year with the sunsetting of its low-volume sport coupes, the TT and R8, while it continues to expand its electric vehicle offerings as the premium brand transitions to an EV-exclusive lineup by 2033.

Audi, part of Volkswagen Group, says it will end development of new gasoline engines in 2026. That means most of its popular combustion vehicles should have at least one more product cycle left before they are replaced with battery-powered alternatives.

To delineate between powertrains, Audi is temporarily altering its alphanumeric model naming system. It will keep the A prefix for sedans and Q for crossovers, but future electric models will adopt even numbers, while combustion models remain with odd numbers. The switch is expected to take place gradually as vehicles are redesigned.

The brand will expand the EVs on its PPE architecture, which will slowly merge with other platf…

Tesla appears to be trolling Ford Motor Co. by dressing up a Cybertruck prototype to look like an oddly shaped F-150.

Photos of the wrapped Cybertruck driving or being transported around the San Francisco Bay Area began spreading around the Internet in late July, just as Tesla said it would begin limited production of the electric pickup this year.

The Cybertruck's angular shape makes it all but impossible to fool anyone with the disguise, though the wrap does hide some of the truck's details in the same way more traditional camouflage regularly used by automakers does. The truck has a manufacturer license plate, making clear that Tesla itself added the costume.

Ford CEO Jim Farley recently took a dig at the Cybertruck — which Tesla CEO Elon Musk originally promised would arrive in 2021 — during an interview on CNBC, saying he doesn't consider it a rival of the top-selling F-Series line.

"If he wants to design a Cybert…

Automotive News has turned its rigorously documented dealership buy-sell reporting into a package of stories and data sets that can't be found anywhere else. And our online, interactive buy-sell database has been redesigned to give subscribers clearer, more detailed information.

We examine the 2022 U.S. dealership buy-sell market and how it compared with 2021, arguably the biggest year for dealership acquisitions in history.

We also take a look at buy-sell activity in 2023 and where the market goes from here.

Sign up for our Done Deals newsletter for a monthly look at the buy-sell market at autonews.com/donedealsemail.