Trade News

One of Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups continued its Texas expansion, while the owner of a rental car company made its first dealership acquisition.

Here's a look at the two deals that closed this month and involved domestic-brand stores.

Ed Morse Automotive Group expanded its growing Texas footprint with the purchase of two dealerships Monday.

The Delray Beach, Fla., group acquired Donaghe Buick-GMC and Donaghe Ford, both in Greenville, from Chance Donaghe. Greenville is about an hour's drive northeast of Dallas.

The group now has seven dealerships in North Texas and one in Durant, Okla., near the Texas border.

With the Greenville transaction, Ed Morse now has each of the Detroit 3 automakers represented in Texas, which CEO Teddy Morse described as "one of the greatest truck markets in the country."

"We have a presence currently in the area, and we are looking to increase that," Mo…

How the auto industry can avoid supply disruptions of maintenance, repair and operations materials such as janitorial products and PPE

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Editor's note: This story is part of a special section on the accelerating pace of automotive development, engineering, innovation and manufacturing to be published on Monday, Aug. 2.

When it comes to electrifying trucks, automakers want to make sure their vehicles will have the same brawny towing and hauling capabilities that drivers are used to, even with an electrified axle.

That can take a lot of development time, and these days, automakers are in no mood to let anything take a lot of time.

That's why North America's largest supplier is looking to speed up truck electrification — without sacrificing a truck's best utility traits.

Magna International says its eBeam approach will bring new electrified pickups and light-commercial vehicles to market faster by using new drop-in replacements for traditional beam axles, said Ryan Shaw, Magna's manager of advanced engineering driveline systems in North America.

"It's one of the purest North A…

Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it will reinstate a mask mandate for workers at facilities in Kentucky, two days after making a similar announcement for workers in Missouri and Florida.

The automaker informed workers the mandate will go into effect Saturday. Ford has two assembly plants in the state: Kentucky Truck Plant, where workers build the Super Duty, Expedition and Lincoln Navigator; and the Louisville Assembly Plant, where workers build the Escape and Corsair.

A Ford spokeswoman reiterated a statement issued Tuesday that Ford could make additional changes as necessary based on data. The delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 continues to spread in various areas throughout the U.S.

Also this week Ford said it will require U.S. employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 before any international business travel, based on recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WASHINGTON -- The White House is negotiating to have automakers pledge that 40 percent or more of the vehicles they sell in the U.S. will be electric by the end of the decade, something the companies say will require the government to help promote the use of the cars.

UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg said the union is in discussions with the White House and automakers about a sales target, but he said an agreement has not been reached. General Motors also said no agreement has been reached.

A second person familiar with the negotiations also confirmed the talks on an EV sales target are happening but said there’s no agreement and the talks are still at an early stage. A pledge on new car sales will be significant because while some U.S. automakers have promised to convert their model lineups to electric vehicles, they haven’t made any promises on volumes.

Automakers are looking for support from the government in meeting those goals, such as subsidies or fu…

Many drivers rely on a car's in-dash fuel economy display to show the estimated number of miles the car gets per gallon of gasoline, but those estimates aren't always accurate, according to a Tuesday report from the American Automobile Association.

And when it comes to shorter trips, "miles-to-empty" estimates varied greatly in tests conducted by AAA and the Automotive Research Center of the Automobile Club of Southern California. Variance also depends on factors affecting gas mileage, such as speed and acceleration.

AAA says drivers take an "unnecessary risk" if they overly rely on the displays. Plenty of drivers may already be doing that — about 74 percent of drivers use those miles-to-empty estimates to decide when to fill up their gas tanks, AAA found in a consumer survey.

To calculate the accuracy of a vehicle's fuel economy estimations and miles-to-empty systems, AAA and the ARC used a dynamometer, an instrument that measures an engine's power out…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Fuel economy, ‘miles-to-empty’ displays not always accurate, AAA finds

Many drivers rely on a car's in-dash fuel economy display to show the estimated number of miles the car gets per gallon of gasoline, but those estimates aren't always accurate, according to a Tuesday report from AAA.

And when it comes to shorter trips, "miles-to-empty" estimates varied greatly in tests conducted by AAA and the Automotive Research Center of the Automobile Club of Southern California. Variance also depends on factors affecting gas mileage, such as speed and acceleration.

AAA says drivers take an "unnecessary risk" if they overly rely on the displays. Plenty of drivers may already be doing that — about 74 percent use those miles-to-empty estimates to decide when to fill up their gas tanks, AAA found in a consumer survey.

To calculate the accuracy of a vehicle's fuel economy estimations and miles-to-empty systems, AAA and the Automotive R…

Sonic Automotive Inc. announced that it is "considering a full range of potential alternatives" for its rapidly growing EchoPark brand of used-vehicle-only stores as the dealership group announced record second-quarter results Thursday.

Sonic said in a release that it has hired investment bank Lazard and U.S. law firm Kirkland & Ellis LLP as financial and legal advisers for what it is calling a "review of strategic alternatives" for EchoPark. One analyst covering Sonic speculated that the move could be precursor to a spinoff of the EchoPark business.

Soaring sales and revenue at EchoPark were a key highlight of Sonic's second quarter.

Revenue for the nation's seventh-largest new-vehicle retailer jumped 59 percent to an all-time quarterly record of $3.35 billion. Net income more than tripled to a record $113.8 million, compared with $30.8 million a year earlier.

"During the second quarter, our team continued to execute at a high level, driving …

Vehicle output in China kept shrinking in the first several weeks of July amid the persistent semiconductor chip crunch, adding to declines the previous two months, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

Production at 11 key auto manufacturing groups tumbled 33 percent to around 806,000 vehicles in the first 20 days of July, the top industry body said this week.

Output of light vehicles including sedans, crossovers, SUVs, MPVs and minibuses dropped 31 percent during the period, while production of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks plunged 41 percent.

The 11 companies, which consist of nearly all foreign automakers producing locally and major domestic manufacturers, represent more than 90 percent of vehicle output in China.

CAAM didn’t disclose additional information on vehicle output during the latest period studied. 

Due to the chip shortage, vehicle production and sales in China contracted in May…

A critical product line is coming to life at Volkswagen's plant in Zwickau, Germany, and the last thing the company wants there is a manufacturing process that holds back speed.

The product: the ID4, Volkswagen's first all-electric crossover. The potential problem: offlining vehicles to install their windows.

To avoid that, VW turned to mechanical and plant engineering firm Dürr. For its part, Dürr turned to a whole new manufacturing process.

Volkswagen is transitioning the factory into a dedicated source of electric vehicles. The goal is to accelerate output to 330,000 EVs a year. To get there, the site is undergoing automation improvements to accommodate the unique needs of new EV architectures, with many of the changes being supplied by Dürr.

"Increasing international competitive pressure and changes in vehicle architecture, especially with regard to new drive concepts, are forcing manufacturers to exploit any potentia…

Tesla Inc. showed signs of divergent strategies in the world's two biggest automotive markets, raising prices to boost profit margins in the United States while keeping prices steady in China and hoping to grow sales there.

Tesla raised prices for the most affordable versions of the Model 3 and Model Y about a dozen times this year in the United States, according to data tracked by Reuters. At the same time, Tesla recently introduced an affordable Model Y version in China, where it refrained from price hikes.

Tesla posted record vehicle deliveries in the second quarter, and the price increases in North America boosted quarterly profits to a record.

But in China, the world's biggest electric vehicle market, Tesla faces competition from local rivals and problems that include product recalls, high-profile protests by consumers and pressure from regulators.

Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi said introduction of the lower-priced Model Y in China "may m…