Trade News

Elon Musk's disdain for lidar has been well documented. Now the Tesla CEO has cooled on another sensor most automakers deem essential for underpinning certain safety features.

Tesla said last week it stopped equipping Model 3 and Model Y vehicles with radar sensors in April. The change sparked a swift response. Three leading automotive safety organizations stripped the vehicles of their safety designations.

NHTSA, the federal regulatory agency charged with ensuring vehicle safety, revised its five-star crash safety ratings. It removed checkmarks the vehicles had earned for offering features such as forward collision warning, lane departure warning, crash avoidance braking and dynamic brake support.

Consumer Reports and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety followed by revoking the "Top Pick" and "Top Safety Pick+" designations, respectively, for the Model 3.

"If a driver thinks their vehicle has a safety feature …

Uber and Lyft have both pledged to electrify their ride-hailing services by the end of the decade as part of efforts to reduce pollution and counter climate change.

A smaller startup has accomplished that today.

Earth Rides launched its ride-hailing service in Nashville in October with an all-electric fleet that now has nine Teslas, a Polestar 2 and a Ford Mustang Mach-E that's used on the weekends.

Launching a transportation network in the depths of a pandemic that decimated ridership among larger companies came with some trepidation. But Raven Hernandez, CEO and co-founder of the company, says the novelty of the fleet has caught the attention of passengers more accustomed to nondescript ride-hailing vehicles and car enthusiasts alike.

That they're traveling in a way that's less environmentally damaging? That's a nice byproduct.

"A lot of people don't get in the car because they're electric vehicles and they'r…

At Hiester Automotive Group, philosophical discussions about purpose and doing the right thing have become the norm.

In January, the four-store North Carolina dealership group started a book club for employees to discuss best practices that they can apply to daily operations.About 90 of Hiester's 300 employees have joined the book club so far, breaking into various teams at the group's stores, centralized accounting office, wholesale parts warehouse and reconditioning center.

The book clubs have led to a cultural shift and higher employee engagement, said Brandon Wright, executive assistant to dealer principal John Hiester.

"The goal for John is to inspire them to be better. That's our core focus," Wright said. "If you're walking through the dealership long enough and consistently enough, you'll hear them bring up comments from the book or topics from the book."

Hiester and Wright are frequent listeners of audiobooks on leadership. They often cha…

Are American consumers ready to buy a car at a shopping mall?

The company that owns Mall of America in Minnesota and American Dream in New Jersey said it is in discussions with potential auto-retail tenants for its massive shopping and entertainment centers. Triple Five Group, based in Edmonton, Alberta, has already drawn a Toyota dealership to its West Edmonton Mall, a high-profile theme-park retail venue in Canada.

"We've always wanted car dealerships in our shopping centers, but what has made [this attractive] is it is taking up excess space left by traditional anchor-type retailers," said Triple Five spokesman Daniel Person.

While the explosion in online shopping has challenged shopping centers across North America — Triple Five disclosed that it lost $64.3 million on American Dream last year — partnerships between dealerships and malls could reap cross-marketing opportunities, according to retail experts.

"The COVI…

Rivian Automotive Inc., the EV startup backed by Amazon.com Inc., has selected underwriters for an initial public offering that could come later this year, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

Rivian is working with advisers including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Morgan Stanley, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the matter isn’t public.

Irvine, Calif.-based Rivian could seek a value of about $70 billion when it goes public, according to the people. Bloomberg News previously reported it could seek a valuation of about $50 billion.

No final decision has been made and the details of its potential listing could change, the people said.

Representatives for JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley declined to comment. A representative for Goldman Sachs didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rivian was worth $27.6 billion when it announced in January that it had raised $2.65 billion…

Auto data developer Wejo, backed by General Motors, will go public through a reverse merger with blank-check company Virtuoso Acquisition Corp. in a deal that values the British company at $800 million including debt, the companies said on Friday.

The deal will raise $330 million in proceeds for Wejo, the companies said. That includes $230 million from Special-Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) Virtuoso and another $100 million referred to as Private Investment in Public Equity (PIPE).

Wejo CEO and founder Richard Barlow said institutional investors make up most of the PIPE, but declined to identify the firms involved. An additional $25 million could be raised within the next month as talks continue with other potential investors, he said.

Investors in the PIPE include GM, which previously invested in Wejo, as well as data management company Palantir Technologies Inc, which billionaire Peter Thiel co-founded, Wejo and Virtuoso said. The sizes of their in…

A trio of single-dealership transactions in the South and one near Columbus, Ohio, are among recent dealership buy-sells completed in April and May.

Here's a quick look at four transactions involving domestic- and import-brand stores. One also involves a new dealer.

Stephanie Morris acquired her first dealership on May 5, buying James Hodge Chevrolet in Okmulgee, Okla., south of Tulsa. Morris bought the dealership from Jack Hodge. The store has been renamed Stephanie Morris Chevrolet. Andy Church of Dealer Solutions Mergers and Acquisitions, a buy-sell firm based in Markham, Ontario, and with an office in Jupiter, Fla., represented the seller in the transaction. Tony Thomas, a former partner at Hyundai of Silsbee in Silsbee, Texas, on May 19 bought Plaza Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram of Orangeburg in South Carolina. Orangeburg is a rural area south of the state's capital city of Columbia. Thomas acquired the store from Joseph Nolette who sold it to focus on his Fl…

MEXICO CITY -- Nissan Motor Co. said Friday it is planning temporary work stoppages at three Mexican plants for several unspecified days in June because of production adjustments needed to manage a shortage of semiconductor chips.

Nissan's Aguascalientas Plant 1 will shut down for seven days in June, while the same facility's Plant 2 will close for one day in the month. The company did not give details of which days.

Meanwhile, the company said its Cuernavaca plant in Morelos state will temporarily halt operations for seven days in June. It also did not specify the dates.

"We will continue to making adjustments to our production process in order to minimize impacts to the auto industry both locally and globally," the company said in a brief statement to Reuters, adding that it will work to recover lost production.

The Aguacalientes Plant 1 assembles Nissan's Versa, Kicks and March models, Plant 2 puts together the Sentra. The Cuernavaca facility…

Italy’s government is in talks with Stellantis, the carmaker formed by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group, about investing in electric-vehicle battery manufacturing in the country, according to people familiar with the matter.

A meeting in Rome this week between Stellantis Chairman John Elkann, CEO Carlos Tavares and Giancarlo Giorgetti, Italy's economic development minister, centered around the future of electric mobility in the country, said the people, who asked not to be named because the gathering was private.

Giorgetti sought assurances from Stellantis that Italy will remain one of the main countries where the company manufactures vehicles and inquired about plans for investment in battery making at Mirafiori, Fiat’s main industrial district in Turin, the people said.

Spokesmen for Stellantis and the minister declined to comment. The discussions are at an early stage, no final decision has been made and the company could decide t…

Carolyn Lee, executive director of the Manufacturing Institute, explains how the auto industry can tackle the growing skills shortage and create a pathway for a more diverse pool of talent to enter the sector.

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Organizers of the Geneva auto show said the event will go ahead next February, after two years of forced cancellations due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The GIMS Foundation, the organization behind the show, said it would give exhibitors until mid-July to register for the event.

The show will be open to the public Feb. 19-27, GIMS said in a statement.

Automakers were forced to switch to internet livestreaming to show off their new cars when the 2020 show was canceled at short notice during the first wave of the pandemic.

The trend is accelerating and threatening the business model of auto shows, which involve heavy investments for the companies taking part.

"We don’t know what the situation will be in February, but it looks like things will be back to normal in September and we are hoping things will stay that way," GIMS CEO Sandro Mesquita told Automotive News Europe in a telephone interview.

He said the show was moved to February f…

Tesla Inc. is facing further fallout in China, with some local governments and official institutions reviewing vehicle ownership among their staff, citing concerns the cars pose security risks, according to people familiar with the matter.

Authorities in Zhejiang and Guangxi provinces have either asked government bodies to check and report on any employees who have bought the cars, or forbidden staff from key agencies to drive Teslas into certain official areas, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private.

The China Meteorological Administration, the national weather service headquartered in Beijing, has told staff not to buy the company’s EVs and if they already have, has requested they transfer ownership of the car to another person, one person said.

The Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party, meanwhile, is checking whether any employees or their family own Teslas. The moves are motivated by potential secu…