Trade News

About a decade ago, Royal Automotive Group in Tucson, Ariz., reworked the sales model at its Kia store so that a customer no longer needed to work with multiple people to buy a vehicle.

Dealership group managers noticed that a number of subprime deals were taking a long time to complete, lengthening the wait for all customers to get into the finance and insurance office to finish transactions, said Kevin Cravo, Royal Automotive's executive variable director. Group leaders, Cravo said, knew from survey data that the handoff to "the box" was a major pain point for customers.

"If you have one finance manager stuck on one subprime deal for two hours trying to hang that paper, it just clogged up the whole front of the house," he said.

What emerged from that single-store shift includes a groupwide buying center that works with all six of Royal's dealerships in Tucson, using hubs of employees housed at its Kia and Buick-GMC stores. Royal employs F&I manage…

When industry R&D executives say that autonomous vehicles are going to require a lot more work, they aren't kidding.

Exactly how much research must go into testing various technologies to ensure that they can be trusted with human lives? How about 8.8 billion miles of test driving.

To surmount that research challenge, some European companies have banded together to address the research as a group, rather than relying on individual corporations and balance sheets to figure it out separately.

Their mission: proposing a guide to vehicle architecture that can handle the industry's autonomous technology goal.

"We want to reach a global safety reference, that is key," said Ricky Hudi, chairman of The Autonomous, an initiative that has brought together multiple players in the autonomous vehicle ecosystem. The group includes automakers, Tier 1 suppliers, chipmakers and software developers.

"It's not that other …

TOKYO — Subaru, a slow starter in the global electrification race, is overhauling its product development strategy and building a new R&D center to better compete in an era of electrified vehicles.

The comparatively small Japanese automaker will plow $272.2 million into a new seven-story technical center at its domestic production hub in Gunma prefecture just north of Tokyo.

The facility will open in spring 2024 and bring under one roof about 2,800 workers from engineering, product planning and design. The goal is to speed the automaker's product development process and improve flexibility as the industry shifts to electrified vehicles.

Under a new product development strategy announced in May, Subaru will adopt a matrix-style development approach focused on features — such as powertrains, driver-assist systems and connectivity — and on values, such as safety and the environment.

Subaru said the change will improve…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Friday said it's asking the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind General Motors' "Cruise" and "Super Cruise" trademarks, the latest in a spat between the two automakers over the phrasing of Ford's new driver-assist system.

GM last month sued Ford over its use of the term Ford BlueCruise, arguing it's "a brazen attempt" by Ford to take advantage of positive press about GM's hands-free Super Cruise technology and Cruise, the San Francisco company GM bought in 2016. GM claims BlueCruise is "far less advanced than Cruise's technology and thus likely to yield an inferior consumer experience, with the potential for comfort and safety issues."

Ford announced it would use the name BlueCruise for its hands-free driving technology in April this year. It has called the complaint meritless and frivolous.

"To defend itself, Ford has no choice but to ask the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to rescind both of GM's 'Cruise' and 'Supe…

Lordstown Motors Corp., the embattled electric vehicle startup, renewed a warning about its ability to continue as a going concern.

The company said in a regulatory filing Friday it doesn’t have enough money to fund large-scale production or commercially launch the battery-electric pickup it plans to manufacture. That came two days after telling investors it was on-track to start limited production in September.

“The current level of cash and cash equivalents are not sufficient to fund commercial scale production and the launch of sale of such vehicles,” it said. “These conditions raise substantial doubt regarding our ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least one year.”

The aspiring truckmaker’s shares fell 6.5 percent to close at $5.37 on Friday in New York. The stock is down more than 70 percent this year.

Lordstown is one of a number of SPAC-acquired EV startups struggling to raise cash and move into produc…

Lamborghini has resurrected a storied nameplate from decades ago for one last ride before the Italian supercar company transitions to an all-electric future.

The 2022 Lamborghini Countach LPI 800-4 pays homage to its famous predecessors built between 1974 and 1990, with their sharply angled wedge shape, sculpted rear and unusual doors. Originally designed by Bertone, posters of the previous-generation rear-engined, scissor-doored, exotic-looking Countach were as ubiquitous on bedroom walls in the late 20th century as were posters featuring equally glamorous-and-unobtainable Hollywood starlets.

The modern version, which will be displayed at The Quail as part of Monterey Car Week, is outfitted with a naturally aspirated rear-mounted 6.5-liter V-12 engine that combined with the brand's 34-hp hybrid supercapacitor technology produces a total of about 825 hp, Automobili Lamborghini says.

Equipped with standard all-wheel drive, the Countach LPI 800-4 is capa…

Electric-vehicle technology advances and growing consumer acceptance has sparked unprecedented investment in EV startups.

While the race to become the next Tesla is on, these fledgling automakers face steep challenges getting products to market.

This Automotive News Intelligence Report tracks the progress of EV startups furthest along their journey, giving you a comprehensive picture of the landscape  from product plans to financial health.

Automotive News subscribers will also get access to more Intelligence Reports in the coming weeks that focus on lidar, digital retail and vehicle inventory.

Read the report

Intelligence Reports

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Dutch startup pitches its two-seat solar EVs for car-sharing

A Dutch startup is putting car-sharing in a new light.

The company, Squad Mobility, plans to roll out small battery-electric vehicles that it believes are well suited to car-sharing fleets and mobility as a service. The vehicles are equipped with rooftop solar panels to extend their range. The company says its goal is safe and accessible urban mobility.

The Squad Solar City car is a two-seater that runs on swappable batteries. The name Squad is short for solar quadricycle.

The company plans to launch the cars in Europe, then expand to the U.S. A prototype is expected to be unveiled in September 2022. Production is slated to begin in the last quarter of 2022.

The vehicle is about 4 feet wide, 5 feet tall and 6.7 feet long. Its small size allows for easy navigation and parking in cities. The company says three of the cars can fit comfortably in one pa…

Mechanics at 56 Chicago-area car dealerships are on strike for a second week as their union and the Chicago New Car Dealer Committee, which represents the stores, spar over work contract details and who should make the next move in negotiating a new four-year contract.

The employees are members of Local 701, which is part of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers trade union. The Chicago Automobile Trade Association — which says it is not part of these specific negotiations — supports its members that are part of the car dealer committee, known as the NCDC.

Local 701 posted a negotiation update to its website, in which it said the NCDC is prolonging the strike by ignoring the union's rejection of its contract proposal.

The union is asking the NCDC to pay certain contributions set by the union's Health and Welfare Fund; to not make it easier to reduce weekly guaranteed pay if a skilled worker is not meeting work expectations be…

DETROIT — General Motors said it will restart production at its full-size pickup plants Monday, as scheduled, after downtime this week due to the global microchip shortage.

Throughout the chip crisis, GM aimed to keep production of high-demand pickups running, opting to idle crossover production instead. But in late July, the automaker began intermittently pausing production at its three pickup plants, in Flint, Mich.; Silao, Mexico; and Fort Wayne, Ind.

Flint builds the heavy-duty Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Silao builds the Cheyenne for Mexico, along with the Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500 light-duty pickups. Fort Wayne builds the Silverado 1500 and Sierra 1500.

"Although the situation remains complex and very fluid, our global purchasing and supply chain, engineering and manufacturing teams continue to find creative solutions and make strides working with the supply base to minimize the impact to our highest-demand and capacity-constr…