Trade News

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.

How do I subscribe?

Apple Podcasts: “Shift: A podcast about mobility” is available on the iTunes Store and through the ‘Podcast’ app pre-installed on all iOS devices. Click here to subscribe.

Spotify: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" can be streamed through Spotify on your desktop, tablet or mobile device. Click here to subscribe.

Google Play: "Shift: A podcast about mobility" is available on Android devices through the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe.

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.

AutoForecast Solutions added 104,792 vehicles to its year-to-date estimate of the number of vehicles automakers have removed from their production schedules because of the microchip shortage.

The jump, one of the largest in recent months, is explained in part by “historical updates” that were added to the tally, which now stands at about 1.85 million vehicles, said Sam Fiorani, AutoForecast Solutions' vice president of global vehicle forecasting.

South American assembly plants accounted for a majority of the newly reported cuts, as the forecasting firm added about 57,000 to its estimate of the number of vehicles axed in the region.

Source: AutoForecast Solutions Inc. autoforecastsolutions.com

Mercedes-Benz is reshaping its expansive U.S. product portfolio as it accelerates toward an electric future. 

The automaker aims to become an all-electric brand globally by 2030 but acknowledges that some markets will be slower to flip than others. Given lingering consumer skepticism of electric vehicles and inadequate public charging infrastructure, the U.S. is likely one of those markets. 

Mercedes expects EVs to account for 40 percent of its new-vehicle sales in the U.S. by 2026 and 70 percent by 2030. At a retailer meeting in May, Mercedes teased eight new vehicles, including electric variants of the CLA coupe and GLC crossover. 

Electrification is also coming to Mercedes’ light commercial vehicle business. 

Mercedes will bring a battery-powered Sprinter to the U.S. this year. A luxury midsize passenger van and a range of electric RVs will follow.

eSprinter: A battery-powered U.S.-made version of the Sprinter van a…

Fixing the minor damage to a Rivian pickup involved in a fender-bender last winter cost $42,000 — nearly half the price of the truck.

"I expected it to be expensive," the truck's owner, Chris Apfelstadt, told The New York Times for a story last month, "but it was still a shocking number."

The case is an extreme example of car repairs that have become exponentially costlier as automakers pack their vehicles with more electronics and parts that are more difficult to replace.

Apfelstadt's repair, which was done at one of only three Ohio businesses certified to fix Rivians, involved replacing a panel that spans much of the R1T's length and necessitated removing the windshield and headliner. The insurance carrier of the driver who rear-ended the truck initially offered only $1,600 because the damage had been deemed minor.

The report cited figures from Mitchell, which collects insurance claim data, saying the average cost of re…