Trade News

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. has closed on its latest acquisition: a majority stake in a Subaru dealership.

LMP, which started as a used-car seller and vehicle subscription provider and acquired its first franchised dealerships this year, on Wednesday purchased an 85 percent stake in Hometown Subaru in Mount Hope, W.Va. The dealership is about 50 miles south of the West Virginia state capital of Charleston and marks the first Subaru store for LMP, which went public in December 2019.

Terms were not disclosed, but LMP is keeping the store's name.

LMP acquired the stake in the Subaru dealership from Ernie Davis and Lori Davis. In March, LMP acquired 85 percent stakes in Beckley Buick-GMC Automall and King Coal Chevrolet in Oak Hill, both in West Virginia, also from the Davises, and an 85 percent stake in Hometown Kia, which is located next to the Subaru store.

"We are extremely excited to represent Subaru," LMP COO Richard Aldahan said in an email.<…

Nikola Corp. said in a filing Friday that securities regulators investigating the company issued an additional subpoena in March. 

The aspiring truckmaker said the new subpoena issued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on March 24 relates to its projected 2021 cash flow and how it plans to use funds from capital raises this year. The company, which had previously disclosed investigations by the SEC and the Department of Justice, said it’s committed to complying with all investigations.

The company also disclosed that it paid $3 million in legal fees in the first quarter for Trevor Milton, its founder and former executive chairman, who resigned in September. The payments were made under the terms of an indemnification agreement.

Quarterly earningsThe Phoenix-based company also on Friday reported a net loss of $120 million for the first three months of the year, widening from a $33 million loss a year earlier. Adjusted earnings before inte…

Editor's note: This story has been updated to more accurately reflect the size of Rocket Co.'s housing business and its relationships with vehicle retailers.

Detroit's Rocket Cos., parent company of mortgage lending giant Quicken Loans, has partnered with AutoFi, a digital car sales and finance platform, to add finance offerings to its planned consumer-facing automotive retail marketplace.

The future site, Rocket Auto, will feature vehicle inventory and connect customers directly to auto lender offerings. Rocket Cos. would not say when the e-commerce site will launch. Rocket Auto currently serves as a white label call center for online used-car retailer Vroom and other vehicle retailers.

"Rocket Companies is one of the most innovative and successful names in technology and financial services," said Kevin Singerman, CEO of AutoFi, in a statement. "AutoFi is incredibly excited to partner with a leader in the industry on their journey in growing Rocket Aut…

Stellantis has lengthened the shutdowns of its Jeep Cherokee and Chrysler minivan plants into mid-May because of the global semiconductor shortage.

The Cherokee plant in Belvidere, Ill., will remain down through the middle of the month, Stellantis said in a statement issued Thursday. The Windsor Assembly Plant in Ontario, which makes the Chrysler Pacifica and Voyager, will be down through the second week of May, the statement said.

Meanwhile, production of the Jeep Compass in Toluca, Mexico, has resumed.

"Stellantis continues to work closely with our suppliers to mitigate the manufacturing impacts caused by the various supply chain issues facing our industry," spokeswoman Jodi Tinson said in the statement.

In addition to the Cherokee and minivan plants, the Ram 1500 Classic plant in Warren, Mich., remains offline. The plant is preparing to begin building the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer SUVs in June.

Production resumed April 19 at the c…

With half the available inventory versus a year ago, Carvana was still able to grow unit sales by double digits in the first quarter.

The online used-vehicle retailer doubled its revenue for the period, while reporting another loss, albeit a narrower one.

The company narrowed its net loss to $82 million for the period, compared with a loss of $184 million in the first quarter of 2020.

Revenue doubled to $2.25 billion. Gross profit more than doubled to $338 million.

Carvana has been dealing with sale-ready inventory constraints since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The company's average available inventory for sale was down 27 percent on average in the first quarter, when compared with the fourth quarter of 2020, the company said in a letter to investors Thursday.

"Demand continues to outpace our ability to fulfill it, and we are taking many steps to ramp up production capacity in the near-term to sup…

Ed Morse Automotive Group, already one of the nation's largest dealership groups, just got a bit bigger as it entered a new state, adding four Detroit 3 stores.

The Delray Beach, Fla., group and CEO Teddy Morse this week bought three dealerships in Missouri from Larry Lindsay and Darrell Lindsay and one from Ken Rhinehart. Terms of the deals weren't disclosed.

The Morse-Lindsay transaction, which closed Monday, was for Lindsay Chevrolet and Lindsay Ford in Lebanon and Lindsay Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram in St. Robert. Both cities are southwest of St. Louis along Interstate 44.

The stores have been renamed Ed Morse Chevrolet Lebanon, Ed Morse Ford Lebanon and Ed Morse Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram Saint Robert.

Teddy Morse told Automotive News that he learned about the Lindsay stores in the fall.

"Missouri is a great car market; it's actually a great truck market," he said. "We've just been looking to grow for the last couple of years."

Morse…

Hyundai Motor America has hired Culture Brands to serve as its African American agency of record, as the automaker seeks to improve its standing with Black buyers.

The Maryland-based shop claimed the account with a multi-year contract after a competitive review that involved five agencies. The hiring represents the first time Hyundai has partnered with a marketing agency dedicated to reaching Black buyers, says Angela Zepeda, chief marketing officer for Hyundai Motor America.

During the review, the automaker only considered Black-owned agencies, she says. Zepeda also confirmed that Hyundai is currently in search of a dedicated Hispanic agency.

The agency moves by the nation’s seventh-largest automotive advertiser lend momentum to the cause of minority-owned, independent agencies as they seek to counteract holding company-owned general market agencies that have sought in recent years to bundle multicultural marketing with larger agreements with major cli…

Dealership technology company Cars.com made money in the first quarter on slightly higher revenue, an improvement from the year-earlier quarter that saw the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.

The Chicago vehicle listings company on Thursday reported net income of $5.3 million, compared with a net loss of $787.4 million in the same period a year earlier. That loss was impacted by a noncash goodwill and intangible asset impairment charge of $905.9 million related to the pandemic.

Revenue rose 3.5 percent to $153.3 million, compared with a decline of 4 percent in the year-earlier quarter. Cars.com said the increase was attributable to growth in average revenue per dealer. That metric rose 8 percent to $2,268 on sales of its technology products, including websites offered by its Dealer Inspire unit and its Fuel video marketing product, and its vehicle marketplace business.

"We maintained strong momentum in our business in the first quarter, delive…

SAIC Motor Corp.’s net profit surged 511 percent to 6.85 billion yuan ($1.06 billion) in the first quarter, reflecting a sharp rebound in sales and revenue from the same period in 2020 when the pandemic largely idled showrooms and factories.

Revenue at the state-owned automaker with major General Motors and Volkswagen Group joint ventures jumped 79 percent to top 189 billion yuan during the period, the Shanghai-listed company said.

The sharp increase in net profit and revenue stem from a robust rebound in sales compared with the first quarter of 2020 when the coronavirus outbreak ravaged China.

Total first-quarter vehicle sales at SAIC’s joint ventures and its car and truck subsidiaries rose 68 percent to exceed 1.14 million units. 

The bulk of the volume was generated by the company’s partnerships with GM and VW.

Among the joint ventures, SAIC-GM, which markets cars and light trucks for Buick, Chevrolet and Cadillac, first-quarte…

Volkswagen Group began construction on a factory at its joint venture with Jianghuai Automobile Co. in the eastern city of Hefei to ramp up electric-vehicle production in China.

The plant, due to launch output in the second half of 2023, will become its third facility to build MEB-based EVs in the country, the German auto giant said last week. 

The factory, covering 500,000 square meters, will produce up to 350,000 EVs annually after reaching full capacity.  

Two other VW Group joint ventures – one with China FAW Group Corp. and one with SAIC Motor Corp. -- each have a plant dedicated to assembling MEB-based EVs. 

The two factories, each with annual capacity of 300,000 EVs, build the MEB-based VW ID4 crossover. Output of a second MEB-based product, the ID6 crossover, will start later this year.

VW Group is the largest carmaker in China. It delivered 990,600 vehicles under various brands in the first quarter, a jump of 61 perc…

Fraser Dunn, chief engineer of special projects for Aston Martin Lagonda Ltd., is joining the Project Arrow team, which is developing the first Canadian-made, zero-emission, autonomous vehicle.

Dunn will serve as chief engineer of the project, said Flavio Volpe, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association (APMA).

While at the U.K.-based luxury sports car manufacturer, Dunn worked on such vehicles as the Vulcan and Valkyrie Hypercar.

He’s leaving his post and joining the APMA project full-time.

“We are pulling in a reverse brain drain for this project,” said Volpe. “I’m quite proud of the people who want to be involved in the Team Canada project from within and outside of [Canada].”

Dunn, who officially joins Project Arrow on Aug. 1, will steer the engineering team, said Colin Dhillon, the APMA’s chief technical officer.

Spearheaded by the APMA and with the backing of the provincial and federal governme…

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ Nuro self-driving vehicle avoids the Noid in Domino's Pizza ad

The Noid is back. And it's gotten a makeover.

Domino's Pizza has brought back its red-suited, long-eared villain from the late '80s in a campaign that hypes its new driverless pizza delivery.

The Noid returns in TV spots trying to disrupt a delivery being handled by the Nuro R2 robot, an autonomous vehicle that operates without a driver. The self-driving robot is being tested by a single Domino's location in Houston for online prepaid orders at certain hours as part of a partnership Domino's began with Nuro in 2019.

The spot was shot more than a year ago, then put on hold when COVID-19 delayed the rollout of the Nuro R2.

The Noid, for the uninitiated, was a character Domino's introduced in 1986 in spots from agency Group 243. With its floppy ears and red suit with an "N" on the belly, the Noid was determined to destroy pizza. Time after time,…