Trade News

The coronavirus pandemic forced dealerships to get better at e-commerce last year. And it wasn't just because some states and cities declared it was the only way stores could do business.

Consumers were already embracing the convenience and speed of shopping online. And they likely will continue to shift in that direction, as industry surveys consistently show that auto buyers don't want to wait for hours to sign paperwork or reenter information they filled out digitally.

But now, more than a year into the pandemic, a second wave of innovation around digital retailing is transforming auto retail. Companies ranging from automakers to software vendors and from large public retailers to smaller family-owned groups are building on the e-commerce foundation laid in 2020.

The trend is also drawing growing interest from dealership technology companies, now scrambling to expand into spaces where they didn't compete before or possibly were just starting to comp…

General Motors CEO Mary Barra signaled the automaker would continue its relationship with South Korea's LG Energy Solution, the battery supplier at the heart of its $1.8 billion vehicle recall, Bloomberg News reported.

The automaker has "multiple pathways" to secure a leading position in the transition to EVs, Barra said in an interview with Bloomberg Television on Thursday.

GM last week expanded its recall of Bolt EVs due to fire risk from what it called battery manufacturing defects, saying it would seek reimbursement from LG.

The defects are limited to the Bolt and will not affect GM's new Ultium battery platform, which it developed with LG to power flagship electric vehicles due later this year, Barra said.

WASHINGTON — Ford Motor Co. is directing some owners of the 2021 F-150 pickup — the nation's bestselling vehicle — to not drive their vehicles if the driver-side seat belt fails a self-inspection test, U.S. vehicle safety regulators said Thursday.

The automaker is recalling 16,430 F-150s in the U.S. manufactured with the SuperCab body style. The front seat belt webbing on those vehicles may be incorrectly routed and, therefore, may not adequately restrain an occupant in a crash, according to a NHTSA document.

The affected vehicles were manufactured between Jan. 2 and May 27. Ford's Regular Cab and Crew Cab body styles use a different seat belt assembly and are not part of the recall, NHTSA said.

Ford, as of Monday, is not aware of any reports of accident or injury related to this condition. The automaker did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vehicle owners will be notified starting Sept. 27. The notification will include instructio…

DETROIT — Months ahead of a federally mandated referendum that could alter how the UAW selects its leaders, President Ray Curry said he supports the current election system over the potential one-member, one-vote model.

"We believe the current delegate system represents every local union around the country having the ability to elect their respective delegates to attend constitutional convention events and bargaining conventions and, as the need may arise under the constitution, any emergency meeting that would need to be facilitated," he said in his first media roundtable as UAW president. "We would advocate for that to continue to be in process."

The union is expected in November to hold a referendum vote on whether to adopt a different system, a condition of its six-year consent decree with the federal government following a yearslong corruption scandal that has landed two former presidents and 13 others behind bars.

Curry's predecessor, Rory Gamble,…

DETROIT — General Motors will extend downtime at its Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV plant until Sept. 13 as a result of a battery pack shortage related to last week's recall, the automaker said Thursday.

Orion Assembly, in Michigan, was idled this week but was expected to resume production Aug. 30.

GM on Friday recalled all Bolts — 2017 to 2022 model years — because of fire risk. The automaker will spend about $1 billion on the recall, on top of the $800 million it spent last quarter. Dealers are not permitted to sell the Bolts until they have applied the recall repair, which varies by model year.

Batteries manufactured by LG and supplied to GM may have two manufacturing defects, a torn anode fab and a folded separator, in the same battery cell, which increases the risk of a fire, GM said. The defects have caused at least nine GM-confirmed fires.

Friday's recall was GM's third Bolt callback in less than a year. The series of recalls has eroded trust am…

DETROIT — General Motors has required all salaried employees in the U.S. to disclose their coronavirus vaccination status to help guide its safety protocols, the automaker confirmed Thursday.

"The reporting of our employees' vaccination status is helping GM Medical assess the overall immunity of our employee population and determine when GM should relax or strengthen certain COVID-19 safety protocols as recommended by the CDC and OSHA, such as mask wearing, physical distancing and facility occupancy rates," said spokeswoman Maria Raynal.

Employees who said they were vaccinated through a confidential online tool were required to submit proof of vaccination by Aug. 23. GM has 42,000 salaried employees in the U.S. The requirement was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

GM has not yet required its 46,000 hourly workers to report their vaccination status, though they can disclose their status voluntarily, Raynal told Automotive News.

"In an ef…

DETROIT — Workers at three Ford Motor Co. assembly plants in North America will face some level of downtime next week because of semiconductor-related parts shortages, including both factories that make the bestselling F-150 pickup.

The automaker said its Oakville Assembly Plant in Canada, as well as Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri, will be down the week of Aug. 30. Ford's Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan will operate just one shift that week.

The Oakville plant produces the Ford Edge and Lincoln Nautilus crossovers. The F-150 is produced at the Kansas City and Dearborn factories.

"Our teams continue making the most of our available semiconductor allocation, finding unique solutions to provide as many high-quality vehicles as possible to our dealers and customers," a spokeswoman said in a statement.

The Kansas City plant is currently down because of parts shortages.

Ford has been hit especially hard by the chip crisis, although the…

LOS ANGELES — Honda is warning U.S. dealers that vehicle deliveries to retailers could fall by 40 percent in the coming weeks compared with previous estimates, due to parts supply problems out of Asia, according to a letter sent to retailers.

The letter, which was confirmed by a dealer who expressed disappointment over the cuts, said the resurgence of the coronavirus in Southeast Asia had converged with already-tight microchip supplies to impact Honda production more than had been expected.

The letter was published on the Honda fan website civicxi.com on Wednesday. Honda Civic fans on the forum noted that the letter also confirmed the start of production of the redesigned 2022 Civic hatchback in late September, as expected. That was seen by Civic fans as a silver lining in otherwise bad news for Honda.

"Our purchasing and production teams continue to carefully manage the available supply of parts to run production and meet the needs of our customers," Am…

Xiaomi Corp. will buy autonomous driving technology startup Deepmotion for about $77.4 million, sealing a deal to help further ambitions of getting into the fast-expanding field.

The company announced the acquisition after reporting better-than-expected results for the second quarter, when a recovery in key markets such as India helped it overtake Apple Inc. to become the world’s second-largest phone vendor by shipments. Revenue surged 64 percent to 87.79 billion yuan ($13.6 billion) in the quarter ended June, surpassing the 85.01 billion yuan average of estimates.

Co-founder and CEO Lei Jun is now spearheading a drive to take Xiaomi beyond smartphones. The 51-year-old is personally leading a project to make electric vehicles and the company has pledged an initial investment of $10 billion over the next decade in the business. Lei has said the company has deep enough pockets to fund such a project, which requires years of heavy investment in development and man…

Used-vehicle subscription service Fair has stopped signing up new subscription and lease customers as the company considers a possible bankruptcy filing and prepares to convert its business into a third-party marketplace.

The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company plans to relaunch as a digital vehicle marketplace in early 2022, with the first quarter as a goal, CEO Brad Stewart told Automotive News. The move comes after Stewart, who joined the company as its chief executive in May 2020, said he evaluated the business and determined its capital-intensive nature, which required Fair to hold vehicles on its balance sheet, made it too challenging to scale.

"We're going to exit that business and focus elsewhere," Stewart said.

Fair stopped originating vehicle subscriptions and leases about four months ago, he said. An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 vehicles remain in its inventory.

Shortly after taking the top job, Stewart told Autom…

The notion of customers buying auto insurance at the same place they buy their car has been "sorely kind of neglected," according to Elliot Schor, JM&A Group vice president for sales operations.

Dealers view auto insurance sales as an extra step, extending a lengthy car-buying process and affecting customer satisfaction, Schor said Monday. The mindset was, " 'Let me just sell the car.' "

But based on recent accounts from JM&A and Asbury Automotive Group, dealers might want to rethink that philosophy.

Salty, an insurance technology company, and Asbury announced in July they had established a partnership to add car insurance quotes to Asbury's online retail tool Clicklane. According to Asbury CEO David Hult, the dealership chain's customers spend nearly $350 million on insurance annually. Asbury ranked fourth on Automotive News' list of the top 150 U.S. dealership groups based on 2020 new-vehicle sales.

Hult said o…

Toyota Motor North America says it will begin in 2023 to manufacture large "integrated dual fuel cell modules" that will be used to power Class 8 semitractors from a new manufacturing line at its giant light-vehicle assembly plant in Georgetown, Ky. — the same plant that builds the Toyota Camry and the Lexus ES 350.

The fuel cell modules are "designed to fit in essentially the same space" as a similar heavy-duty diesel engine in Class 8 semis, a company spokesman said. The 1,400-pound modules would have the ability to tow roughly 40 tons of cargo up to 300 miles "all while demonstrating exceptional drivability, quiet operation and zero harmful emissions," David Rosier, Toyota Kentucky powertrain head, said in a statement.

Toyota did not disclose if it yet has a truck manufacturing customer to purchase the fuel cell modules, but said in a statement that the modules "bring Toyota's electrification strategy further into focus as it will allow truck manufacturers t…