Trade News

Leasing took a dive in 2020 as customers opted to extend contracts or return vehicles without leasing a new model. Tight new-vehicle inventories could be enough to delay a strong leasing rebound, as savvy customers opt to purchase their off-lease vehicle rather than wait out production delays, economists at Cox Automotive and Edmunds said.

Cox estimates 4 million leases will mature in 2021. The shift in retention values means the value of those vehicles will be much higher than initially forecast, providing returning customers with an incentive to buy out their lease, says Charlie Chesbrough, Cox Automotive senior economist.

"It's too soon to declare a permanent shift in the retention values of vehicles, but more value does appear to be the normal for now," Chesbrough said this week during a virtual sales presentation. "Lease maturities are going to be a big opportunity in the market this year for both consumers, dealers and the whole industry…

The vast majority of customers want and expect to work with dealerships to buy their vehicle. But less than half plan to discuss how to finance their car at the store.

In a recent Capital One survey of about 1,000 consumers, just 6 percent of respondents indicated they plan to purchase their next vehicle without the assistance of a dealership. When finances enter the conversation, however, deals tend to fall apart.

Nearly 7 out of 10 customers said car deals break down when discussing financing. Negotiations on the car price had the most issues and was cited by 34 percent of customers. Discussions over finances came in second with 20 percent, and negotiations on the vehicle trade-in price was the third most-cited reason customers said they walked away from a car deal.

Part of the problem is transparency. Slightly more than 8 out of 10 respondents said dealerships should provide more details about financing up front in their buying j…

DETROIT-- General Motors CEO Mary Barra plans to meet with leaders of Black-owned media companies this week after the group took out a full-page ad in the Detroit Free Press on Sunday accusing Barra of ignoring multiple meeting requests, the automaker said. Even with the meeting scheduled, the group ran a nearly identical ad in The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday.

The group had a preliminary meeting with GM's chief marketing officer, Deborah Wahl, on Monday ahead of the meeting with Barra, which is scheduled for Thursday, GM said.

The group of seven media owners who signed the ads is made up of Byron Allen, founder and CEO of Allen Media Group; rapper and actor Ice Cube, who owns the pro-basketball league Big3 and production company Cubevision and is behind the Contract with Black America; Roland Martin, CEO of Nu Vision Media; Junior Bridgeman, owner of Ebony Media; Earl "Butch" Graves, Jr., president and CEO of Black Enterprise; Don Jackson, founder, chairm…

LOS ANGELES — Hyundai released the first images of the Santa Cruz compact pickup that goes on sale this year, featuring the brand's geometric styling language on a platform shared with the new-generation Tucson crossover now in production.

The world premiere of the Santa Cruz is scheduled for April 15, the automaker said Wednesday.

The four-door vehicle with a short cargo bed represents a blending of crossover and truck, with Hyundai calling the Santa Cruz a "sport adventure vehicle" rather than a pickup. Teaser sketches show the Santa Cruz name stamped on the tailgate.

The vehicle was previewed with a concept unveiled at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

"Santa Cruz boasts bold yet sophisticated design, powerful and efficient powertrain options, a flexible open bed for gear, cutting-edge connectivity and a highly maneuverable all-wheel-drive platform that is equally at home in urban and adven…

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said owners of about 10,000 new General Motors vans should park outside because of fire risks pending recall repairs.

The Detroit automaker on Wednesday recalled 10,154 2021 model year Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana vehicles with 6.6-liter gasoline engines after reports of four engine fires tied to a short circuit issue. GM said it is not aware of any crashes or injuries associated with the issue.

The top U.S. auto safety regulator said owners should park the vans away "from homes, structures, and other flammable materials such as vegetation."

Remember when Volkswagen got caught lying about the emissions of its supposedly "clean" diesel engines?

Apparently not enough people at Volkswagen do, even after the tens of billions it paid in fines and legal settlements, because the company still seems to think lying to the public is an acceptable corporate strategy.

The automaker claims its Tuesday press release announcing a name change to "Voltswagen" was just a harmless joke "in the spirit of April Fools' Day."

The problem, though, besides that April Fools' pranks are obnoxious, is that it wasn't harmless. Even after everyone correctly assumed the company was making a lame joke, Volkswagen's U.S. public relations department insisted, repeatedly and inexplicably, that it was entirely serious.

"We didn't mean to mislead anyone," a spokesman for the company that intentionally misled numerous news outlets — including Automotive News, Reuters, CNBC, the Associated Press and The Washington Post — t…

GHSP has named industry veteran Dan Dawiedczyk its next president to scale its existing automotive business and new technology market operations globally.

Dawiedczyk, who is succeeding Tom Rizzi, will take the helm April 1, the Holland, Mich., mechanical and electromechanical systems supplier said in a statement Tuesday.

GHSP, nearly 100 years old and privately held, is a portfolio company of Grand Haven, Mich.-based JSJ Corp. As such, Dawiedczyk will report to JSJ CEO Nelson Jacobson.

Dawiedczyk, 49, most recently was vice president and managing director of Connection Systems Americas at Aptiv, a supplier of autonomous-driving technologies and driver-assist systems.

He was responsible for optimizing the company's business footprint, developing strategic initiatives and launching products across several product lines.

"The technologies and innovations developed by GHSP are helping to drive both the automoti…

Xiaomi Corp. plans to invest about $10 billion over the next decade to manufacture electric cars, embarking on its biggest-ever overhaul to enter China’s booming EV market.

Billionaire co-founder and CEO Lei Jun will lead a new standalone division that will invest an initial 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) on smart vehicle manufacturing, the company said in an exchange filing.

The Chinese smartphone maker joins tech giants from Apple Inc. to Huawei Technologies Co. in targeting the vehicle industry, betting future cars will grow increasingly autonomous and connected.

Depending on progress, Xiaomi could end up investing a total 100 billion yuan in the project in as little as three years, taking external financing into account, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News before the announcement. The company will contribute about 60 percent of the envisioned sum and plans to raise the rest of the funds, said the person, who asked not be identified …

First-quarter U.S. light-vehicle sales are poised to rebound from depressed levels of a year earlier, despite persistent supply chain woes.

The supply challenges — a global microchip shortage, U.S. port congestion, a massive container ship stuck in the Suez Canal and more — plagued the industry as automakers continued to cope with tight stock levels because of the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the headwinds, analysts expect first-quarter light-vehicle sales to rise about 9 percent from a year ago.

For March, Cox Automotive estimates the seasonally adjusted, annualized light-vehicle selling rate rose to 16.5 million, while J.D. Power and LMC Automotive are projecting a SAAR of 16.4 million.

Most automakers are scheduled to report their first-quarter U.S. sales Thursday.

"First-quarter sales are starting off on a strong note," Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds' executive director of insights, said in a statement. "The fact that we're surpassing last year's…

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc., which this month purchased its first six franchised dealerships in West Virginia, Florida and Tennessee, plans to acquire a majority stake in two Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram stores in New York.

The company, which started as a used-car seller and vehicle subscription provider and went public in December 2019, said Tuesday that it has an acquisition agreement to buy 85 percent stakes in Central Avenue Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram in Yonkers and White Plains Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram from Jonathan Grant and partners.Grant will stay on and operate the stores as dealer principal, LMP CEO Samer Tawfik said.

The stores' brands are part of Stellantis, the newly formed automaker created by the merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and PSA Group.

LMP said in a news release that it expects the transaction to close in June. Tawfik said the company will spend about $17 million, plus other costs, to acquire the stake. LMP is not buying the dealership …

Dealers' increased ability — and willingness — to sell vehicles online and remotely is itself a significant change for auto retail.

But the notion of providing a seamless e-commerce experience is relevant to considerations dealers have to make about other operational changes beyond the upgraded technology and organizational processes required to make it happen.

Like the size of showrooms. Or how many employees are needed to sell cars.

Automotive News has written about these topics during the past year as we covered the ways the industry adapted to the disruption the pandemic caused to what used to be business as usual. My colleagues have interesting stories in this week's issue that explore the same themes. (Give them a read.)

Larry P. Vellequette wrote about a $279 million plan to redevelop Toyota of Walnut Creek in California as the ground-floor tenant of a mixed-use building with multifamily housing stacked on top. Proponents say the plan is on…

SES, formerly SolidEnergy Systems, has tapped Rohit Makharia, who led battery development for the Chevrolet Bolt, as president and COO, effective immediately. This month SES agreed to jointly develop lithium-metal batteries with General Motors.

Makharia, 43, has worked for GM for nearly two decades, most recently as a partner for GM Ventures. He will be based at the SES U.S. headquarters in Boston.

GM is an SES shareholder, and the automaker has invested in SES through GM Ventures.

SES specializes in the development of battery cells, modules, AI-powered algorithms for battery maintenance, recycling and battery materials. Makharia was an SES board member before his appointment as COO and president.

"What really excited me about joining SES was the fact that the company is going through an inflection point," Makharia told Automotive News. "The next step is here. And we need to get ready to commercialize."

GM is the only automaker that has pub…