Trade News

The road for startup companies has always been fraught with unpredictable bumps, but Lordstown Motors Corp. just had a week in it which it careened from one pothole to another.

The Ohio company aiming to build electric work trucks in an old General Motors plant this summer is reeling in the aftermath of executive churn, retracted statements, financial ambiguity and other issues, such as shareholder lawsuits.

Industry analysts, many of whom have long been skeptical of the company's prospects of profitably selling the Endurance, a Chevrolet Silverado-sized battery-powered four-motor pickup, are now even more doubtful. That's despite Executive Chairman Angela Strand's declaration that "it's a new day" for Lordstown.

"If they actually do have $400 million to $500 million in cash on hand, it seems like they should be able to build an initial batch of trucks and actually deliver them to customers," said Sam Abuelsamid, principal analyst for e…

Years before the pandemic caused a boom in online car-shopping, Genesis of Cherry Hill in Marlton, N.J., was already offering a dealership-free experience for selling and servicing vehicles.

A sales valet has long been available to conduct test drives at a shopper's home or office. Paperwork has been done remotely on request, followed by at-home delivery. A service valet has provided pickup and drop-off during customers' three years of complimentary maintenance.

Even after owners have to begin paying for maintenance themselves, Genesis of Cherry Hill still covers the price of pickup and drop-off. More than 90 percent of buyers use the service valet.

Part of the reason for creating a virtual dealership when the franchise began operating in 2015 was to distinguish the upstart luxury brand from its more established rivals. But it was also because Genesis of Cherry Hill did not have a physical dealership. The business operates out of a Hyundai store.

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Over two successive springs and with two successive CEOs, Volkswagen a few years ago showed its dealers and loyalists concept unibody pickups that teased a possible reentry into a segment where it has long been absent.

But as competitors begin to roll out their own small lifestyle pickups, such as the Ford Maverick and Hyundai Santa Cruz, it appears a glaring white space in VW's U.S. lineup — and perhaps its best hope of hitting its long-term market share aspirations — will remain unfilled, at least for now.

Duncan Movassaghi, executive vice president for sales and marketing for the VW brand in North America, says following others into the gasoline-powered small pickup space is no longer an option. But he did leave the door open a crack for a potential future electric vehicle with a bed.

"Our priority within the Volkswagen brand is to keep our existing [internal combustion engine-based] vehicles competitive" and to expand the batter…

The idea of the self-contained EV skateboard chassis has become so alluring that startups, suppliers and even automakers are marketing them as plug-and-play solutions on which customers can simply add a body, also called a top hat.

But like many catchy ideas on the path to electromobility, this one also is stumbling as it meets the hard reality of going from vision to vehicle development and manufacturing.

The growth of the skateboard concept in the past two to three years is partly a result of its disruptive potential. Proponents talk about the freedoms that come from replacing the internal combustion engine with a solution that neatly positions the batteries and electric drivetrain components into a comparatively thin rolling chassis.

With no engine in the way, theoretically any top hat or body can be attached.

The benefits to automakers seem obvious.

"They don't have to start from scratch, which means they can reduce costs and time to m…

Toyota Motor North America released the first full picture of the redesigned 2022 Tundra late Friday after a leaked image of the full-size pickup was reported by several media outlets.

The automaker had shown two teaser photos of portions of the truck: The front obscured by fog/smoke and the new iForce Max engine. However, photos from a dealer meeting were circulating Friday morning on social media and Internet forums, including enthusiast site Tundras.com.

Later in the day, Toyota's official Twitter account posted a photo of the TRD Pro Tundra, saying: "Some people don't know how to keep a secret. #Tundra #LetsGoPlaces"

Toyota had been keeping the project under tight wraps. During a media event at the automaker's North American headquarters this month in Plano, Texas, attendees were shown the exterior of the truck with strict instructions to not take photos.

Toyota dealers are eagerly awaiting the 2022 Tundra — the truck's first redesign i…

Four dealers expanded in the second quarter with single-store acquisitions in California, Virginia, Kansas and Indiana.

Here's a quick look at the transactions involving domestic and import brand stores. One transaction involved one of Automotive News' top 150 dealership groups.

Martin Management Group, based in Bowling Green, Ky., on June 9 bought its first Nissan dealership when it acquired Ross Nissan of El Monte in California from Ross Automotive Group.

"We were interested in working with Nissan as a manufacturer given their robust product cadence coming in over the next about 18 months," Chad Martin, the group's president, told Automotive News.

The dealership has been renamed El Monte Nissan. The Nissan store is the group's second California dealership.

Martin Management has dealerships spread across Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina and California with a brand portfolio of Subaru, Hyundai, Genesis, Kia, Honda, …

General Motors is recalling 135,400 vehicles from the 2020-22 model years because the emergency jack can break while a vehicle owner is using it.

If not positioned as recommended by the vehicle owner's manual, the jack could fracture. If the jack fractures while in use, the vehicle could collapse, injuring people near or under the vehicle, according to a safety bulletin filed with NHTSA.

The recall covers the Buick Encore GX from model years 2020-22 and the Chevrolet Trailblazer from model years 2021-22.

GM estimates it will start notifying vehicle owners July 26. The automaker says dealers will swap in a replacement jack made of metal. In the meantime, GM plans to remove the recalled plastic jack from undelivered vehicles.

The issue was discovered when a GM test driver reported a broken jack during a durability test on a 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer, according to a safety recall report filed with NHTSA. GM opened an in…

WASHINGTON -- U.S. auto safety regulators said on Thursday they have opened 30 investigations into Tesla crashes involving 10 deaths since 2016 where advanced driver assistance systems were suspected of use.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a list offering details about crashes under review by its Special Crash Investigations programs.

The agency, which has previously confirmed some specific Tesla crash investigations, had not previously released to Reuters a full accounting of all Tesla crashes investigated where Tesla's Autopilot system was suspected of being involved.

Of the 30 Tesla crashes, NHTSA has ruled out Tesla's Autopilot in three and published reports on two of the crashes.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

NHTSA has said previously it had opened 28 special crash investigations into Tesla crashes, with 24 pending. The spreadsheet shows a February 2019 crash where Autopilot use…

DETROIT — Rod Alberts, executive director of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association, said Thursday that he expects the group's Motor Bella outdoor event in September will draw as many as 150,000 attendees and will include an unspecified number of new-vehicle reveals.

Alberts, speaking to the Automotive Press Association, also defended the decision to cancel the North American International Auto Show, planned for September of this year, because of concerns about the lingering coronavirus pandemic, noting "we did not make the wrong call" despite other shows such as Los Angeles and New York planning major showcases later this year. In addition to the six-day Motor Bella, DADA is planning a four-day "car crawl" in downtown Detroit for August.

"You just don't come out of the pandemic and flip the switch," he said. "We're having to come out of it and work our way back to what has to be done. It's going to take a little time."

Alberts vowed Thursda…

Flex-N-Gate Group plans to invest $52 million and add 245 new jobs in Troy, Mich., where it is building out a 205,000-square-foot plant.

The Illinois-based auto supplier will produce sequenced plastic fascias and welded underbody rear rails in the former AxleTech plant, according to a Thursday news release from the state.

The company is hiring for the plant, and jobs are anticipated to be filled by July 31, 2022, said Otie McKinley, spokesman for the Michigan Economic Development Corp. The jobs pay an average of $881 per week plus benefits, according to an MEDC memo. 

The state is supporting the project with a $1 million Michigan Business Development Program performance-based grant. Additionally, the city of Troy is extending a previously approved tax abatement for the project, valued at $154,812.

"The expansion of Flex-N-Gate Troy means an additional 245 new jobs in Southeast Michigan and continues our leadership in advanced automotive man…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Luminar integrates lidar into roofline with Blade concept

When some people think of lidar sensors, they might think of large, bulky, rotating hardware mounted to the roof of a vehicle.

But Luminar Technologies Inc. has a different design vision.

Luminar introduced Blade, a concept for a next-generation lidar system that can be built into the structure of a vehicle, during the company's inaugural Studio Day in New York City on Tuesday.

It's less obvious, less obtrusive and plays into Luminar's idea for a more aesthetically pleasing and practical integration of autonomous technology "across robotaxis, trucking and passenger cars," the company said.

Luminar formulated the concept with design studio NewDealDesign.

"To create the best overall car design and the best user experience, autonomous technology must be engineered and designed hand-in-hand from the ground up," Jason Wojack, senior vice president of prod…

The recent drop in vehicle production accelerated in the first ten days of June amid the semiconductor crunch, according to a tally the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers released Thursday.

Output at 11 key automakers in China, which generate more than 90 percent of vehicle production industrywide, slipped 37 percent to some 434,000 vehicles during the period, the group said.

Production of light vehicles such as sedans, crossovers, SUVs, multipurpose vehicles and minibuses slumped 38 percent, while production of commercial vehicles such as buses and trucks fell 30 percent, according to CAAM

CAAM’s members include all foreign automakers that produce locally and all major domestic Chinese auto manufacturers. 

In May, increasingly tight chip supplies caused light-vehicle sales and output in China to slip after 13 consecutive monthly gains.

Vehicle output industrywide last month dropped 6.8 percent from a year earlier to around …