Trade News

Cruise LLC, the self-driving car startup that is majority owned by General Motors, filed an application with the State of California for a permit to charge fares for driverless rides.

Cruise needs permission from the California Public Utility Commission to ferry people around in its driverless vehicles without a test driver and charge for the service. The company has already been given permission by the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles to give rides without a safety driver.

The company’s business is a big part of GM’s push to double its revenue to $280 billion by 2030. Cruise’s autonomous ride-hailing business should grow to $50 billion in revenue in about six years, its CEO Dan Ammann said at the automaker’s investor presentation last month.

“Cruise has hit another important milestone today as the first company to apply for the final state permit required to launch an autonomous ride-hail service in California,” said Prashanthi Raman, head of glob…

Carter Myers Automotive, of Charlottesville, Va., has purchased Miller Auto Group, adding four rooftops in two states along with the Toyota brand to its lineup.

Carter Myers bought the group, owned by John Miller, on Wednesday. It included Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram and Chevrolet-Toyota dealerships in Martinsburg, W. Va., and Honda and Hyundai dealerships in Winchester, Va. Carter Myers purchased a Subaru store in Winchester last year.

The newly acquired stores were renamed CMA's Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Martinsburg, CMA's Chevrolet-Toyota of Martinsburg, CMA's Honda of Winchester and CMA's Hyundai of Winchester. Winchester is about 25 miles south of Martinsburg, just across the state line.

"We have known the Miller family for many years and are excited to welcome their team to CMA," Carter Myers CEO Liza Borches, said in a statement. "As far back as the 1970s, George and John Miller worked with my dad [H. Carter Myers III] as West Virginia and Virginia …

Volkswagen Group of America has named a South African executive who previously worked in a high-ranking position in the automaker's Mexican operations to take over its Chattanooga Assembly Complex, where he will succeed another South African executive.

Chris Glover, 57, a 30-year VW executive who most recently served as executive vice president for production and logistics with Volkswagen de México, will succeed countryman Tom du Plessis on Jan. 1 in running the German automaker's operations in Chattanooga, Tenn., as du Plessis retires after 13 years with VW.

Prior to his stint in Mexico, Glover worked in VW production operations in China and his native South Africa.

The Chattanooga Assembly Complex produces the VW Atlas and Atlas Cross Sport, as well as the Passat, production of which is ending after the 2022 model year. In 2022, it will begin producing localized versions of the VW ID4 compact EV crossover.

As U.S. auto dealerships continue to grapple with a vehicle supply-demand imbalance that is causing inventories to dwindle, some dealers are searching for any and all ways to get vehicles on their lots.

For Aschenbach Automotive Group in Frederick, Md., establishing a buying center was an alternative way for the company to fill the supply gap and add to its used-vehicle inventory.

"Most of our stores do a pretty darn good job of buying from the public, but this is additional revenue we didn't have, and it's really thinking outside of the box," Conrad Aschenbach, president of Aschenbach Automotive Group, told Automotive News.

The group, which operates five dealerships across Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia, plus the buying center in Florida, got its start in 2017 when Aschenbach acquired a Cadillac-Buick-GMC store in Carlisle, Pa., with his father, William.

As a relatively new group with stores spread out geographically, it was struggling with…

Tesla Inc. plans to open a factory to produce battery manufacturing equipment in the Canadian city of Markham, Ont., Mayor Frank Scarpitti said, as the electric carmaker ramps up the production of cheaper, higher-range 4680 battery cells.

“I’m delighted to share that Tesla Canada is joining our already robust automotive and technology ecosystem by locating a manufacturing facility in the City of Markham,” the mayor of the city near Toronto said on Twitter.

Markham is a suburb of Toronto, just north of the city.

“The facility will be the first branded Tesla Canada manufacturing facility in Canada and will produce state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment to be used at the Gigafactories located around the world in the production of batteries.”

Scarpitti did not provide many details. In 2019, the U.S. electric carmaker acquired Canada-based Hibar, which manufactures pumps used in fast-speed battery assembly that Tesla is introducing for its new 4680…

Laura Schwab's gender discrimination lawsuit against Rivian paints an unflattering picture of the electric vehicle startup's corporate culture, one that is at odds with one of company founder and CEO RJ Scaringe's stated principles: valuing diversity.

Schwab said she was fired from her role as Rivian's vice president of sales and marketing on Oct. 15, after less than a year on the job, and alleged that the company's "toxic bro culture" derailed her career.

In addition, she said problems began less than six months into the job, when she began raising concerns about the company's ability to "deliver on promises to investors."

She wants Rivian's work practices declared unlawful under California's labor code and seeks reimbursement for the suit's costs and "other further relief that the court may deem just and proper."

Rivian confirmed to Automotive News that Schwab was no longer employed there but would not comment further. The company is in a feder…

Like an Olympic high diver, the U.S. auto industry's inventory and sales appear to have touched the bottom and look to be on their way back up.

The problem, though? The pool is deep, and there's still a long way to rise back to where supply and demand reside in balance.

October's seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of sales climbed to 13.1 million, Motor Intelligence said, up from the September depths of 12.38 million, but still well below April's 18.5 million. The increase ended a five-month trend of declining SAARs driven almost entirely by the chip shortage that stymied factory output, frustrating retailers while consumer demand for new vehicles remained strong.

"If dealers had cars to sell last month, they sold them," said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for Cox Automotive. "In the early part of the month, things looked really grim; we thought it was going to end up with an 11 or 12 [million] SAAR for the month. But what we saw in the middle was …

Lithia Motors Inc. last week divested two more dealerships that were part of Carbone Auto Group, a nine-store group it acquired in 2016.Lithia on Oct. 28 sold Carbone Chevrolet in Yorkville and Carbone Buick-GMC of Utica, both in New York, to Brickl Cos., according to DCG Acquisitions, a Dave Cantin Group company, which handled the transaction. Brian Brown and Tony Karabon were brokers in the deal.Brickl Cos. is led by CEO Jason Brickl, an Automotive News 40 Under 40 honoree in 2012. It has a number of businesses, including a dealership group now under the LeadCar name and Brickl Capital, a family office, according to its website.The two New York dealerships have been renamed LeadCar Chevrolet Yorkville and LeadCar Buick-GMC Utica and mark LeadCar’s first dealerships in the state. LeadCar now has six dealerships in its portfolio, with two Toyota stores in Wisconsin, one Toyota store in Minnesota and an Audi dealership in Missouri, according to its website.The New York dealer…

Toyota Motor North America has released suggested pricing for its redesigned 2022 Toyota Tundra full-size pickup, with the base model price rising by just under $2,000 over the outgoing version, while the price of the top 1794 Edition trim will jump $7,875 over the 2021 model.

There are 28 configurations of the Tundra for 2022, not including the TRD Pro trim, which has yet to be released. Suggested pricing for the rear-wheel-drive base SR trim with a double cab and 6.5-foot bed starts at $37,645, while the top-end 1794 Edition 4x4 CrewMax with 6.5-foot bed will start at $62,715. Both prices include shipping.

The 2021 Tundra SR trim level starts at $35,720, while the 2021 Tundra 1794 Edition is $54,840, both including delivery.

Here's how the Detroit 3's full-size pickups compare (prices include shipping).

The 2022 Ram 1500 starts at $35,770; the TRX trim starts at $74,185. The 2022 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTD starts at 32,095; the 1500 LTD High Co…

Omer Keilaf, CEO of lidar startup Innoviz Technologies, says the company has found a way to get better performance out of its system while using less expensive components. He says innovation will help pave the way for wider adoption by a public still uncertain about advanced driver-assist features and autonomous vehicles.

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DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. has begun delivering preproduction models of its 2022 E-Transit vans to some businesses as part of a pilot program meant to test its new Ford Pro commercial services.

The automaker declined to say how many businesses are part of the pilot but noted Penske Truck Leasing and utility provider National Grid are among the participants. It was unclear how many E-Transits are involved, although the participating businesses received at least one van as well as access to telematics software and charging tools tailored for commercial fleets.

"Beyond supplying all-electric vehicles to customers, Ford Pro is helping businesses determine better solutions for energy management and fleet efficiency," said Ford Pro CEO Ted Cannis. "Our services link to the vehicle and into the entire operational environment of the business, which is the only way EVs will stick. Anything else is just disruptive to their business bottom line."

Ford declined t…

TOKYO -- Subaru profits plunged by nearly half in the latest quarter as the Japanese automaker felt the effects of crimped production and falling sales amid the global semiconductor shortage.

Subaru Corp.’s operating profit dropped 46 percent to 24.9 billion yen ($223.0 million) in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30, forcing the company to lower its full-year profit outlook.

In announcing the results on Friday, CEO Tomomi Nakamura said Subaru was hit by rising raw material costs in addition to slumping volume due to microchip supply chain interruptions.

Global output fell 40 percent to 158,000 vehicles in the July-September quarter, from 262,000 a year before when the world was still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Worldwide sales fell 13 percent to 200,000 in the three-month period.

Subaru now expects to sell 830,000 vehicles in the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. That represents a 3.4 percent decline from the pre…