Trade News

Adaptability and resilience during the pandemic drove dealership satisfaction with consumer lenders this year, according to J.D. Power. As constraints prompted by the coronavirus pushed more buyer financing activity online and limited lender visits to dealerships, reliable communication between lenders and dealership employees never was so important.

That is the takeaway from 3,960 dealership finance personnel who took part in J.D. Power's 2020 U.S. Dealer Financing Satisfaction Study and cited issues reaching lender representatives late in the summer. Lenders were short staffed, according to dealers, who reported exceptionally long wait times, said Patrick Roosenberg, director of automotive finance intelligence at J.D. Power.

"Dealers are looking to their lenders to be open, honest, and communicate on a regular basis," Roosenberg said. "They need to be able to reach you — especially the credit staff and the funders."

Lenders wer…

U.S. consumers sought less credit in 2020, and lenders were less likely to extend it, the New York Federal Reserve said this week to the surprise of no one. The Fed's latest credit access survey found that consumer appetite for credit cards and auto loans waned as the pandemic spread, closed down most of the country at various intervals and sent millions of Americans to the unemployment line.

The share of households confident in their ability to scrape together $2,000 in case of an emergency fell to the lowest figure ever tracked in the study — 65.6 percent. The percentage of consumers applying for auto loans also dropped, by 3.2 percentage points, between February and October to 11.6 percent, another low for the N.Y. Fed survey.

There's no shame in admitting the year was terrible. Dealerships faced the pandemic with resiliency and innovation, turning to digital tools, reorganizing staffs and changing hours and responsibilities. The industry re…

Nikola Corp. is losing an order to supply sanitation heavyweight Republic Services Inc. with 2,500 battery-electric garbage trucks, the latest setback for the electric-vehicle startup.

The Phoenix-based company said Wednesday that its order had been terminated due to a longer-than-expected development time and unexpected costs. Nikola and Republic had announced what they described as a binding contract in August, under which Republic said it would buy as many as 5,000 trucks.

“This was the right decision for both companies given the resources and investments required,” Mark Russell, Nikola’s chief executive officer, said in a a statement.

Shares of Nikola closed Wednesday's trading down nearly 11 percent to $15.03.

General Motors decided last month to downgrade its partnership with Nikola after the startup was hit by allegations of deception shortly after those two companies had announced plans to collaborate in September. Nikola has denied misl…

Join Automotive News Publisher Jason Stein for a daily podcast series about the coronavirus crisis. He’ll speak with industry experts, insiders and Automotive News reporters about how the virus is impacting and reshaping the automotive industry.

In this special edition of Daily Drive, we recap discussions with U.S. retailers, who shared how they navigated COVID-19 uncertainty, adapted to state orders and shifted business models.

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Carlos Ghosn’s former lawyers in Japan have sued the Japanese government, saying that a search of their office in January following the former auto executive’s escape to Lebanon was illegal.

Junichiro Hironaka, the lead attorney, along with other lawyers from the firm filed their lawsuit on Wednesday, seeking about 3 million yen ($29,000) in damages. A representative for Hironaka’s legal practice confirmed that the claims were filed after it was first reported by the Jiji news agency and other Japanese media.

Hironaka led the legal team representing the former chairman and chief executive of Nissan Motor Co., who was arrested in late 2018 on charges of financial misconduct. He made a dramatic escape at the end of December 2019 on a private jet, hidden in a large box, stunning Japanese authorities. After Ghosn fled, Hironaka notified the Tokyo District Court that he no longer represented the businessman.

Although Hironaka’s office was searched, he didn’t …

Canadian supplier Magna International Inc. and South Korea’s LG Electronics are forming a joint venture that the companies say will better meet increasing demand for electric vehicle components.

LG Magna e-Powertrain will focus on manufacturing e-motors, inverters and on-board chargers in South Korea, China and the U.S.

Financial terms of the deal were not released, although Reuters reported that LG on Wednesday in South Korea said it agreed to set up a $1 billion joint venture with Magna.

The new LG Magna e-Powertrain will immediately supply General Motors and Jaguar Land Rover, with an eye to land more automakers. 

Incoming Magna International CEO Swamy Kotagiri, who replaces the retiring Don Walker on Jan. 1, told Automotive News Canada in a phone interview that the supplier is always on the hunt for “deliberate, scaleable, modular building blocks” in the EV supply chain.

“Two of the most…

Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook refused to take a meeting years ago to discuss acquiring Tesla Inc., Elon Musk said on Tuesday.

Tesla CEO Musk said in a tweet that he reached out to Apple during the “darkest days” of development of his company’s Model 3 to talk about a possible deal. Musk said he planned to discuss the possibility of selling Tesla to Apple for one-tenth of its current value, indicating a valuation of about $60 billion.

In 2017, Tesla burned cash as it ramped up output of its mass-market Model 3 electric vehicle. Musk told employees then at the company’s Fremont, California, plant that it faced a period of “production hell” for six months or longer. Weeks after making that statement, he tweeted about sleeping on the roof of the factory as he tried to resolve bottlenecks.

That happened around the same time Apple decided to shift from development of a full-fledged Tesla competitor to an underlying self-driving car system. In recent years, Apple h…

DETROIT — Fiat Chrysler Automobiles is suing supplier Martinrea International Inc. in a U.S. court, accusing the Canadian supplier of breach of contract and leaving FCA with an engine block shortage and monetary damages that could reach more than $100 million.

FCA said in the lawsuit filed Monday that the engine component supplier had a contractual obligation to supply 2,604 engine blocks per day and 13,021 per week.

The lawsuit claims the supplier "improperly and unilaterally" reallocated one of its 3,500-ton aluminum die casting machines for another customer, leaving FCA 7,000 engine blocks short each week.

"The insufficient supply will inevitably require FCA US to shut down production of six top-selling vehicle platforms in at least six of its plants," FCA attorney Moheeb Murray said.

The lawsuit was first filed Dec. 13 in Oakland County Circuit Court in Michigan but was transfered to U.S. District Court in Detroit o…

MEXICO CITY -- Some Mexican automakers are asking for more time to meet stringent content rules set out in a new North American trade agreement, and Mexico is making progress on changes in labor standards under the deal, a top official said.

The United States Mexico Canada Agreement, which took effect in July, replacing the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, includes tougher content rules for autos.

For vehicles, USMCA requires 75 percent North American content compared with a 62.5 percent threshold under NAFTA, as well as 40-45 percent content from so-called "high wage" areas.

USMCA includes a provision to give flexibility to carmakers in order to be able to comply with the deal according to their production and investment plans in North America, Mexican Deputy Economy Minister Luz Maria de la Mora said in an interview with Reuters on Monday evening.

"Some companies in the automotive sector are requesting these alternative transition regim…

Hyundai Motor has completed the acquisition of a General Motors factory near Russia's St. Petersburg, Hyundai spokeswoman Yulia Tikhonravova told reporters at an online conference Tuesday.

The GM plant with a capacity of up to 100,000 vehicles per year was built in Shushary in the suburbs of St. Petersburg in 2008 but closed in 2015 as part of GM's decision to reduce its international operations.

The deal was closed in early November, Tikhonravova said, adding that it was too early to say when production would start due to the pandemic.

"If we talk about the plant in Shushary -- yes indeed, it is our second plant, now we are working on possible scenarios to use this asset," said Alexey Kalitsev, head of Russia's Hyundai unit.

Hyundai and its partner Kia already have a factory in Russia with a manufacturing capacity of more than 200,000 vehicles per year. The two automakers sold more than 400,000 vehicles in Russia last year.

The Association…