Trade News

Three of the largest sellers of new vehicles in the U.S. plan to focus much of their capital spending in the next few years on expanding their used-vehicle store counts.

Leaders from publicly traded dealership groups AutoNation Inc., Penske Automotive Group Inc. and Sonic Automotive Inc. say growing their own used-only platforms is cheaper and easier than adding new-vehicle stores, which require automaker approvals. And those executives expect that used-vehicle expansion will help them boost profits and grab more market share.

"As we looked at the opportunity and the return on capital investment, there's no question this is the leader in the clubhouse," Penske CEO Roger Penske told Automotive News.

Penske Automotive, the latest of the three to accelerate used-only store expansion, last month said it would spend about $200 million to grow its network of used-vehicle supercenters from 17 locations in the U.S. and United Kingdom to 40 by the end of 2023. …

Lexus will produce a limited edition and serialized 500-vehicle run of the 2022 Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance to launch the sports sedan in North America.

The Launch Edition will feature two-tone black and gray trimmed front and rear seats, door accents and center console, Lexus says. In addition, the steering wheel is trimmed in a silver ash wood treatment. Special Launch Edition badging will be used throughout, along with an exclusive startup animation on the instrument cluster, the Japanese luxury brand says.

The limited edition will ride on special 19-inch matte black wheels and will be produced in just one color: a grayish tone that Lexus calls Incognito.

The 2022 Lexus IS 500 F Sport Performance, initially revealed in February, is equipped with the same 472-hp 5.0-liter V-8 engine as the RC-F, which adds 161 hp and 115 pound-feet of torque compared with the IS 350 F Sport's engine.

Lexus says the IS 500 F Sport Performance is capable of…

Volvo's ambitious plan to sell electric vehicles online only is drawing the ire of dealers in the brand's largest U.S. market — California.

The company this month announced plans to move to a digital-only, fixed-price sales model for its expanding fleet of battery-powered models. The automaker also said it would become an EV-only brand globally by 2030.

But the California New Car Dealers Association, which represents about 20 Volvo dealers, said the proposed retail model would violate state laws meant to prohibit manufacturers from competing with franchisees.

"We are concerned that Volvo's planned program would be illegal in the state of California," the group noted in a letter sent to Volvo's legal counsel. "CNCDA's Volvo dealer members have invested millions of dollars in facilities and personnel with a justifiable understanding that they would be partnering with Volvo as a dealer, not a mere delivery agent."

The Texa…

US Auto Trust, a budding private dealership group owned by Edward Glazer of the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has acquired Jaguar-Land Rover Stevens Creek.

US Auto Trust acquired the San Jose, Calif., store from Qvale Auto Group. The deal closed Tuesday, and terms were not disclosed, though US Auto will keep the dealership's name.

"This strategic acquisition expanded our dealership footprint into the highly desirable San Jose market," Matt Kaiser, US Auto Trust president, said in a statement.

The group was founded in 2018 and is based in Los Angeles, Kaiser said. Glazer, an owner and co-chairman of the Buccaneers, is the founder and CEO of US Auto Trust, according to his biography on the team's website. The Glazer family also owns English soccer giant Manchester United of the Premier League.

This marks the second JLR dealership for US Auto Trust and is its fourth store overall. It acquired Jaguar Land Rover Newport Beach fr…

Renesas Electronics Corp., one of the biggest makers of automotive chips, said a fire halted production at one of its Japanese plants. The incident may exacerbate a shortage of semiconductors that has already curbed vehicle output across the industry.

The company said it’s still trying to ascertain the amount of damage in the clean room of its N3 building in Hitachinaka, Ibaraki Prefecture. There were no casualties. Clean rooms are designed to keep impurities from contaminating semiconductors, so fire damage has the potential to severely disable production.

“While there was no damage to the building, we confirmed damages to some of the utility equipment,” the company said in a statement. “We have been unable to confirm the safety of the clean room, which is the site of the fire. We have been unable to enter the clean room and determine the cause of the fire.”

The accident is another blow to automakers that have already had to slow production and are miss…

Amazon has added another California city, San Francisco, to its testing program for electric delivery vans made by Rivian.

Last month, Amazon began testing Rivian's van in Los Angeles, the first of 16 cities nationwide where the giant online retailer will be piling on miles and learning how the Rivian vans perform in real-world conditions.

San Francisco, with its many steep hills, will be a particularly brutal test. The vans, early hand-built preproduction vehicles, are estimated to be able to travel 150 miles on a charge. Amazon has ordered 100,000 Rivian vans and plans to begin operating fleets full time as early as 2022.

The electric vans potentially could save Amazon billions of dollars per year in maintenance and fuel costs as well as dramatically reduce the company's carbon footprint. Amazon is redesigning it delivery stations to accommodate electric vehicles.

If all goes according to schedule, Amazon could have as…

Tata Motors Ltd. said former Daimler AG manager Marc Llistosella will not be joining as its next CEO as previously announced.

Guenter Butschek will continue as the company’s CEO and managing director until June 30, the company said in a filing Friday. It did not give any reason for the change of decision.

Llistosella, who headed Daimler Trucks in Asia, was to take charge effective in July, as previously announced on Feb. 12. A former Airbus SE executive, Butschek has been CEO since 2016.

Tata Motors topped expectations during the most recent quarter after struggling with falling sales and rising debt. The turnaround followed deep cost cuts and improved vehicle demand, while the manufacturer remains largely dependent on its luxury Jaguar Land Rover unit.

From custom paint and cabinets to electric drivetrains. Twisted Automotive's Tom Maxwell explains how the UK company is reconstructing and modifying Land Rover Defenders.

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FRANKFURT -- Porsche is open to the idea of a potential stock market listing, with finance chief Lutz Meschke saying the advantages of such a move had been laid out.

"The decision has to be made by the Volkswagen management and supervisory board. We have largely discussed the advantages of such an initial public offering or listing already," Meschke said at Porsche's annual media conference.

Faced with tens of billions of costs for a radical shift towards electric mobility and software, VW is mulling a listing of Porsche, sources said last month.

Meschke, who has previously commented on how Ferrari benefited from being listed by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, already argued in favor of listing Porsche in 2018, saying the unit could be worth up to 70 billion euros ($83 billion) in such a scenario.

However, Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess earlier this week said that Porsche, which contributed 42 percent to VW's operating profit in 2020, was vital to fundin…

Tesla Inc. cars have been banned from Chinese military complexes and housing compounds because of concerns about sensitive data being collected by cameras built into the vehicles.

The order, issued by the military, advises Tesla owners to park their cars outside of military property, according to people familiar with the directive who asked not to be identified because the information is private. The ban, relayed to residents of military housing this week, was triggered by concerns that the world’s biggest maker of electric vehicles is collecting sensitive data via the cars’ built-in cameras in a way the Chinese government can’t see or control, one of the people said.

Images of what was purported to be a notice about the ban were also circulating on Chinese social media. Multi-direction cameras and ultrasonic sensors in Tesla cars may “expose locations” and the vehicles are being barred from military residences to ensure the safety of confidential military…

TAIPEI -- Vietnam's largest conglomerate Vingroup said on Friday its car unit was in early stage talks with Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group about working together and that any partnership formed would focus on developing batteries and electric car parts.

Foxconn has proposed acquiring EV production lines owned by the unit VinFast, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media.

But VinFast prefers a partnership as it is keen to brand itself as an eco-friendly automaker and wants to retain its EV business, one of the sources said.

"Vingroup has received proposals from Foxconn but nothing is concrete yet. The partnership, if any, will focus on developing the batteries and electric car parts," a spokesman for Vingroup said. "No decision on working together to produce EVs has been made yet."

Foxconn declined to comment.

The world's largest contract manufacture…

BEIJING -- Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta said Friday it has received $500 million from SAIC Motor, Toyota Motor and auto parts supplier Bosch, as the global auto industry pursues the autonomous future.

Other investors in the funding round include Daimler, Temasek, Yunfeng Capital and Tencent, Momenta said in a statement. It did not disclose the valuation.

The four-year-old firm, led by Cao Xudong, a former Microsoft executive, is testing autonomous cars in Beijing and China's eastern city of Suzhou, and has a research center in Stuttgart.

Momenta is working with automakers to develop mass-production vehicles with automated driving functions to gather real-time data for the fully autonomous driving technologies for future products. Data is a key part of the self-driving industry which enables companies to improve their technologies in different environments.

Momenta will expand its workforce and gather more data to improve future techn…