Trade News

Net income nearly increased fivefold for Asbury Automotive Group Inc. in the first quarter this year thanks to favorable comparisons with the same time last year during the coronavirus pandemic. The retailer also posted record-high adjusted earnings per share.

Asbury, the sixth-largest U.S. new-vehicle retailer, on Tuesday reported net income of $92.8 million in the first quarter, up from $19.5 million a year earlier. In 2019's first quarter, Asbury posted net income of $40.9 million.

The Duluth, Ga., company also reported revenue of $2.19 billion, up 36 percent.

Asbury's core business lines improved by double-digit percentages across the board, with gross profit for finance-and-insurance surging 25 percent and parts and service profit up 21 percent.

New- and used-vehicle sales increased 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively.

Asbury CEO David Hult said in a statement that the quarter was "very active" for the company.

"In addition…

Lithia Motors Inc., fresh off its purchase of Michigan's Suburban Collection this month, has acquired a Honda dealership in New Jersey in a deal that is expected to add $230 million in annual revenue.

Lithia bought Planet Honda of Union on Sunday from Tim Ciasulli. The dealership had been in the Ciasulli family for 48 years. It has been renamed Planet Honda.

Bill Feinstein, who owned 20 percent of the dealership, is staying on as general manager and will lead the store.

"We are excited to welcome Bill Feinstein and his dedicated team to the Lithia and Driveway family," Lithia CEO Bryan DeBoer said in a statement. "Adding one of the highest performing Honda stores in the country further strengthens our ability to serve communities throughout the New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas."

Lithia rolled out Driveway, a portal that lets customers purchase or sell vehicles online and schedule at-home service, last year.

The dealership group …

FRANKFURT -- Tesla Inc. has tweaked the application for its planned Gigafactory in Europe, the German state in which the plant is being built said on Tuesday, adding it was not possible at this stage to say how long approvals would take.

Tesla on Monday had said that the construction of its planned factory, located in Gruenheide outside Berlin, was moving forward, adding production and deliveries were "on track for late 2021" without specifying further.

The EV maker had previously planned to have the factory up and running by July 1.

A spokesman for Tesla declined to comment further.

The Ministry of Agriculture in the German state of Brandenburg said the amended application would include the construction and operation of a battery cell factory, which was previously flagged by Tesla.

"Since there are no further details about the nature and scope of the planned changes, statements on the process and the time it will take to take a final decis…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. this week will open order banks for the Mustang Mach-E GT and Mach-E GT Performance Edition variants as the company continues the rollout of its first electric crossover.

The Mach-E GT will start at $61,000 while the Mach-E GT Performance Edition will start at $66,000. Both prices include $1,100 for shipping.

Ford said the Mach-E GT will deliver 480 peak hp and 600 pound-feet of torque with an estimated 0 to 60 mph time of 3.8 seconds. The GT Performance Edition will be even more powerful, boasting 480 hp and 634 pound-feet of torque and a 0 to 60 mph time of 3.5 seconds.

"We're pushing the boundaries of what an electric vehicle can offer," Dave Pericak, vehicle program director, said in a statement. "These Mustang Mach-E models not only give customers the added capability expected from the GT name, but the responsiveness of their electric powertrains will ensure they have a thrilling experience behind the…

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it's investing $185 million in a research lab for electric vehicle battery development as it moves closer to manufacturing its own cells.

Called Ford Ion Park, the 200,000-square-foot facility in southeast Michigan will have 150 employees and be capable of designing and manufacturing battery electrodes, cells and arrays at the pilot level. It's planned to open by the end of 2022.

"We're already scaling production of all-electric vehicles around the world as more customers experience and crave the fun-to-drive benefits of electric vehicles with zero emissions," Hau Thai-Tang, Ford's chief product platform and operations officer, said in a statement. "Investing in more battery R&D ultimately will help us speed the process to deliver more, even better, lower cost EVs for customers over time."

The plans for the battery lab follow CEO Jim Farley's comments last week in an Automotive News World Congress interview that…

If creases and origami are your thing, the fourth-generation Tucson crossover will have appeal.

Redesigned for 2022, Hyundai's compact crossover offers more comfort, polish, power, room and safety gear than what Consumer Reports called the mediocre model it replaces.

Car and Driver calls the exterior styling "daring" and destined to shake up the compact-SUV segment.

Under the hood, the latest Tucson is equipped with a 2.5-liter, direct-injection, four-cylinder gasoline engine or a 1.6-liter, turbocharged, direct-injection hybrid or plug-in hybrid setup. The base 2.5-liter engine cranks out 187 hp, while the hybrid powertrain generates 227 hp.

It competes in one of the toughest industry segments that is dominated by the Toyota RAV4, Honda CR-V, Nissan Rogue, Chevrolet Equinox, Mazda CX-5 and Ford Escape.

We've collected some early reviews of the 2022 Tucson.

"This engine is perfectly fine around …

Tesla's quarterly report on Monday hit targets qualifying CEO Elon Musk for two options payouts worth a combined $11 billion.

The EV maker beat Wall Street's expectations for first-quarter revenue and profit, boosted by record deliveries, robust demand from China and environmental credit sales.

It reported quarterly revenue of $10.39 billion and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) of $1.84 billion, surpassing milestones that trigger the vesting of the fifth and sixth of 12 installments of options granted to Musk in his 2018 pay package to buy discounted Tesla shares.

Musk, who is also a major shareholder and CEO of rocket maker SpaceX, receives no salary at Tesla. His pay package requires Tesla's market capitalization and financial growth to hit a series of rising targets.

Despite production that is a fraction of that of Toyota Motor Corp., Volkswagen Group or General Motors, Tesla has become by far the…

Tesla Inc. on Monday posted first-quarter net income of $438 million amid record global vehicle deliveries and favorable comparisons to 2020, when its operations were temporarily halted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The electric vehicle maker said revenue in the quarter jumped 74 percent to $10.4 billion, with automotive gross margins hitting 26.5 percent. The company was aided by $518 million in sales of regulatory credits to competitors -- a 46 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

Its net income was just $16 million in the first quarter of 2020, when the pandemic shuttered its plants in the U.S. and China.

“Q1 2021 was a record quarter on many levels,” Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on an earnings call. “We've seen a real shift in customer perception of electric vehicles, and our demand is the best we've ever seen.”

Tesla more than doubled its deliveries to 184,877 from the year-earlier period, and officials said its new…

Lyft Inc. will sell its self-driving technology unit to Toyota Motor Corp. in a $550 million deal, the companies said on Monday, allowing the ride-hail company to hit its profitability target one quarter earlier.

The sale of Level 5 to Toyota's Woven Planet division will allow Lyft to focus on partnerships with self-driving companies that want to deploy their technology on its platform, rather than develop costly technology that has yet to be put to wide-scale use.

Lyft will receive $200 million cash upfront, with the remaining $350 million paid over five years, the companies said. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Lyft did not immediately say how it plans to invest the funds. But the sale will allow Lyft to report third-quarter profit on an adjusted basis of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization as long as the company continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, it noted.

Woven Planet, which Toyot…

Global ad agency Publicis Groupe has won the global media account for Stellantis, the automaker formed by the merger earlier this year of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot maker PSA Group, according to people familiar with the matter.

The holding company was the incumbent on the FCA portion of the business, which includes Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, Chrysler and Alfa Romeo. WPP was the incumbent for PSA, whose brands include Peugeot, Citroën, DS, Opel and Vauxhall. 

A Stellantis representative did not immediately provide comment. Publicis declined to comment and referred calls to the client. WPP declined to comment, although an internal memo circulated at the holding company's Mediacom unit today confirmed that the business has been consolidated at Publicis.

The win is significant for Publicis, which will grow its automotive roster with the addition of the PSA brands, which are not in the U.S. but have a European presence. Stellantis has 14 aut…

Self-driving technology company Waymo is the leader out of 15 companies developing automated driving systems, while Tesla comes in last, according to the latest leaderboard report from Guidehouse Insights.

The report, released Monday, evaluated the companies and categorized them into leaders, contenders, challengers and followers.

Leaders scored 75 or above in strategy and execution, while contenders earned between 50 and 75. Challengers scored higher than 25 but were deemed not yet contenders, and followers scored below 25.

Waymo scored 85.6 in Guidehouse's leaderboard, while Tesla had the lowest score, 34.7. Waymo, a Google affiliate, was also ranked the top vendor of automated driving vehicles in Guidehouse's leaderboard last year.

Messages left by Automotive News seeking comment from Waymo and Tesla were not immediately returned.

Nvidia Corp., Ford-backed self-driving startup Argo AI and Chinese Internet giant and autonomous driving dev…