Trade News

The auto industry's tight new-vehicle supplies and strong retail demand could extend almost another year because of ongoing inventory shortages and strong economic conditions, Toyota Motor North America executives said Wednesday.

A chronic shortage of microchips and other supply-chain disruptions that have forced automakers to idle assembly plants -- in some cases for months -- have upended the industry's steady recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

J.D. Power and LMC estimated Wednesday that dealers currently have 932,000 vehicles in stock for retail sale, compared with 3.1 million units two years ago.

"It will take a little time — maybe into the second quarter of 2022 — before we see inventories start to stabilize to match demand again," Bob Carter, TMNA's head of sales, told reporters on a quarterly video call.

Toyota is keeping a close watch on spiking COVID-19 cases, which could further threaten production. However, …

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. on Wednesday posted second-quarter net income of $561 million, crediting strong demand for helping it stay in the black despite the ongoing global semiconductor shortage and improving its forecast for the rest of the year.

Ford's overall profit fell by about half from a year earlier, but it reported adjusted earnings of $1.1 billion before interest and taxes, up from a $1.9 billion loss in the second quarter of 2020 as the pandemic began. Its adjusted margin rose to 4 percent.

“This outcome was far from certain at the beginning of the quarter,” CEO Jim Farley said on an earnings call with investors.

Ford said it had expected a net loss for the period but performed better because of strong demand for new vehicles like the Bronco and Mustang Mach-E, lower incentives and a favorable mix of more profitable vehicles. The automaker had warned that second-quarter net income would be "substantially lower" because of last year's one-time …

Editor's note: An earlier version of this story misstated the restart date for the Lansing Delta Township, Spring Hill and Ramos Arizpe assembly plants.

General Motors will resume full-size pickup production Monday, as planned, after cutting output this week due to the global microchip shortage, the automaker said Wednesday. But six other North American plants will take additional downtime, including Fairfax Assembly, which has been idled for nearly six months.

GM's pickup plants -- Flint Assembly in Michigan, Silao Assembly in Mexico and Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana -- will restart full production Monday. Flint had been operating on only one shift this week, and Fort Wayne and Silao were idled.

The chip shortage has hampered production for GM and other automakers since early this year. GM has prioritized chips for its lucrative full-size pickup and SUV segments over crossovers and sedans. AutoForecast Solutions estimates that the chip crisis has reduc…

Sonic Automotive Inc. made its first franchised dealership acquisition in nearly seven years on Monday when it bought two Colorado dealerships.

Sonic bought Grand Junction Subaru and Grand Junction Volkswagen in Colorado from Ron Bubar. Bubar is retiring, according to Kerrigan Advisors, which represented him in the transaction. Sonic did not use a broker.

The Subaru dealership marks a return to the Japanese brand for Sonic. It had owned a Subaru dealership in Columbus, Ohio, but sold it to Germain Motor Co. in 2019. With the acquisition, Sonic has three Volkswagen dealerships in its portfolio.

"These two franchises represent the first of several upcoming acquisitions for our franchised dealership business, and we are pleased to add Subaru to our brand portfolio and continue to grow our partnership with Volkswagen," Sonic President Jeff Dyke said in a statement. "Both of these brands are in high demand in the Colorado market and will allow us to continue…

Tesla Inc. plans to shutter some high-rent showrooms within shopping malls and instead emphasize remote work and cheaper locations, according to a report on the website Electrek.

The electric automaker plans to rent spaces in mall parking lots, warehouses and other locations to manage test-drive fleets and delivery centers, Electrek said, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter. Tesla also plans to make a large part of its retail work force remote, helping customers place orders online, the report said.

Tesla did not immediately return a request for comment.

The shift in strategy comes more than two years after Tesla said it would close many of its brick-and-mortar locations to focus on online sales, before reversing that decision a few weeks later.

Tesla operates more than 170 stores and galleries across the country, according to its website, including many in malls and shopping centers. This week, it reported it had 598 store and service…

WASHINGTON/DETROIT -- Electric vehicle producer Rivian plans to invest $5 billion initially in its second U.S. assembly plant, according to a company document shared with state economic development officials.

The plant, dubbed "Project Tera," requires an estimated 10,000 acres of land according to a revised economic development document seen by Reuters, but economic development officials said finding a piece of land that large would be highly unlikely. The initial proposal seen by Reuters did not identify Rivian by name and said the facility required only 2,000 acres. In comparison, BMW's South Carolina assembly plant sits on about 1,200 acres.

The target date to start production at the Rivian plant is the second quarter of 2023 with construction beginning in the fall of 2021, according to the revised proposal. However, several people familiar with the matter said the COVID-19 pandemic will likely delay that timeline by up to six months.

Rivian declined …

DETROIT — Three high-ranking Stellantis executives in the U.S. who predate the DaimlerChrysler era are retiring this week, the automaker said Tuesday.

Scott Garberding, who was head of manufacturing for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles; Mark Chernoby, FCA's chief technical compliance officer; and Michael Keegan, FCA's chief audit, sustainability and compliance officer, are leaving as Stellantis combines the operations of FCA and PSA Group. The two automakers closed their merger in January.

Mike Manley, the former FCA CEO who is now head of Americas for Stellantis, said in a statement that each executive made "countless contributions that have helped shape who we are today."

Garberding, who joined Chrysler in 1993, was the manufacturing head while FCA revamped its Detroit assembly operations to build the next generation of Jeep SUVs, including the new three-row Grand Cherokee L and the revived Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer nameplates.

Under Garberding's wat…

North Carolina dealership Lumberton Honda faced an online backlash after an employee referred to a Black customer with a derogatory term on a Facebook post about the woman's car purchase Thursday.

The post on the dealership's Facebook page included a photograph of customer Trinity Bethune, who had just purchased her first vehicle at the store, with the caption "Congratulations Bon Quisha." The post has since been deleted. The Lumberton Honda employee who made the post has been fired, a person who answered the phone at the dealership but declined to be identified told Automotive News on Monday.

"Bon Quisha" is seen as a slur used to make fun of Black names.

Bethune responded to the Facebook post with a comment saying, "I'm not sure if this is a 'joke' or something but my name is definitely Trinity Bethune. I'm very offended by this post, it's almost a racial slur. If I'm not addressed by MY name then please don't address me at all."…

Growing Hudson Automotive Group plans to acquire its first Mercedes-Benz dealerships with the purchase of three of the luxury stores in Ohio and Kentucky.

Hudson Automotive of Charleston, S.C., plans to buy Mercedes-Benz of Louisville in Kentucky and Mercedes-Benz of Cincinnati and Mercedes-Benz of West Chester, both in Ohio, from Peterson Automotive Collection. The transaction is expected to close in mid-September, Hudson Automotive CEO David Hudson said.

Peterson Automotive Collection is owned by David Peterson, who is retiring. Ed Keady, Peterson Automotive Collection's operating partner who has a minority stake in the three stores, will stay on with Hudson Automotive in his current role and will also keep his minority stake, Hudson noted.

"We're effectively buying the dealership and he's [Keady] retaining a piece of the deal," Hudson said.

Louisville Business First reported on the transaction last week.

"Mercedes is a great brand," Hu…

Lithia Motors Inc. has entered the state of Alabama, acquiring Koby Subaru in Mobile, as it continues to add dealerships in the Southeast — a key region in its expansion plans and where the retailer has the fewest number of stores.

The nation's second-largest dealership group bought the store July 12 from Roger Koby, according to Haig Partners, a buy-sell firm in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which represented the seller in the transaction.

Lithia said Tuesday that it has renamed the store Subaru of Mobile. Terms weren't disclosed, but Lithia said it paid for the dealership using existing balance sheet funding.

The retailer said the Koby Subaru acquisition and last month's purchase of Michael's Subaru of Bellevue in Washington combined would add an expected $155 million in annual revenue.

Since July 2020, when Lithia announced its five-year plan to grow to $50 billion in annual revenue, it has purchased dealerships that are expected to generate $8 bill…

Rodo Inc., a retail technology startup that lets customers buy or lease new vehicles online and get them delivered the same day, has nailed down $18 million in its latest round of financing, with support coming from some big names in auto retailing and a famous entertainer.

New Jersey-based auto sector services provider Holman Enterprises and New York-based Evolution VC Partners, which describes itself as a culture-tech investment firm, led the financing round. Holman Enterprises is the parent company of Holman Automotive, which is ranked No. 27 on Automotive News' list of the top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S.

Additional participants in the funding round included existing investor IAC and actor and comedian Kevin Hart's HartBeat Ventures.

Also involved were Mack McLarty, a longtime dealer and vice chairman of RML Automotive, which is No. 31 on the Automotive News list; his son, Franklin McLarty, CEO of McLarty Diversified Holdings; and Texas …