Trade News

<!--*/ */ /*-->*/ EV inventory reaches critical mass in U.S.

Electric vehicles have reached critical mass, outpacing average days' supply of gasoline vehicles at dealerships, according to Cox Automotive, but some dealers still need convincing.

EVs are no longer exclusive to the new-vehicle market, said Chief Economist Jonathan Smoke. EV emergence in the used and wholesale market gives them more staying power, he said.

"Up until now, this has been a Tesla, Nissan, GM story and a little bit of Volkswagen," he told Automotive News. "The critical point is that it finally means something in every part of the industry, but it also means we've got ample opportunity to find where it's successful and where it's not quite as successful."

Dealers' average EV supply climbed to 92 days in the second quarter, up from 36 days a year earlier. EV inventory soared to more than 92,000 industrywide, compared with less than 21,000 in the second quarter of 202…

Ford Motor Co. is recalling certain 2019-20 Fusion PHEV models for loss of power and fire risks.

Owners are advised not to charge their vehicles until the remedy is completed, according to a Ford filing with NHTSA. If charged, the battery energy control module might become damaged because of excessive voltage and current flow.

The number of potential vehicles affected is 14,452. There have been seven fires and 270 warranty claims, according to the filing.

A remedy for the power loss and fire risk is under development. Interim letters notifying owners of the safety risk are expected to be mailed July 10, according to the filing."

We're instructing customers with 2019 and 2020 Ford Fusion Energi [cars] that have 30Ah plug-in hybrid cell batteries to not charge their vehicles," Ford said in a statement. "Until the remedy is available, lowering the battery's state of charge will reduce the risk of power loss and fire around the vehicle's battery con…

Porsche is rethinking a plan to ditch combustion engine Macan sales in its second-largest market.

The sports carmaker will bring an all-electric version of the compact crossover in the first half of next year.

Porsche intended to sunset the combustion engine Macan in the U.S. in 2025 or 2026. But now the company will take a wait-and-see approach to go EV-only with its best-selling model, Porsche told its U.S. retailers at a two-day meeting in the Canary Islands this week.

"They are going to review it," a retailer at the meeting told Automotive News. "They will see how sales go in the next two years."

Last year, the Macan accounted for a third of Porsche's U.S. sales.

The dealer said the apprehension about going all-electric with the volume model concerns the lack of well-maintained public charging infrastructure.

"They got customer pushback," he said. "They realized there are not enough chargers out there" to support the Macan custo…

LMP Automotive Holdings Inc.'s brief and tumultuous tenure as a franchised dealership group — which began as a vehicle subscription provider and later as a small public auto retailer — appears to have come to a quiet end this month following the sale of its two final franchised stores.

The two West Virginia dealerships, sold in separate transactions, have returned to groups in the Mountain State.

LMP on June 12 sold King Coal Chevrolet in Oak Hill, W.Va., southeast of Charleston, to Stephens Automotive Group, according to Chase Barton, the Stephens group's operations manager. It was renamed Stephens Chevrolet.

"As LMP began to wind things down, we kind of got together and made something work for everybody," Barton told Automotive News. "We're very familiar with the store, and I still live in Oak Hill."

Barton said he had been a partner in the Chevrolet dealership with Ernie Davis and Lori Davis from 2016 to 2020. Barton left the Chevrolet store a…

Volkswagen is in talks with Tesla to adopt its North American Charging Standard (NACS) technology, while the German automaker's charging network unit Electrify America has already agreed to use the system.

The announcement comes as a slew of automakers and charging equipment makers choose Tesla's charging design on concerns of losing out on customers if they offer only the Combined Charging System (CCS) design, which is backed by automakers like Volkswagen and Hyundai Motor.

Ford, General Motors and ChargePoint are among the companies that have signed up for Tesla's charging design in the past few weeks.

"Volkswagen Group and its brands are currently evaluating the implementation of the Tesla North American Charging Standard for its North American customers," the German automaker said.

Electrify America, Volkswagen's EV charging network unit, has more than more than 850 charging stations with about 4,000 chargers in the U.S. and Canada. Dur…

Tesla's electric vehicle charging network is significantly more reliable than competitors, according to J.D. Power's most recent E-Vision Intelligence Report.

About 21.6 percent of EV drivers visiting non-Tesla public charging ports in the first quarter of 2023 were unable to charge their vehicle compared to just 3.9 percent of Tesla drivers using the Tesla Supercharger network.

"When it comes to reliability, no other provider is even close to Tesla," the report said.

Tesla's charging system is gaining traction as an industry standard in North America. Ford, General Motors, Rivian and Volvo have reached agreements to add Tesla's North American Charging Standard charging sockets to their EVs over the next several years. Stellantis and Hyundai are considering similar deals.

The Supercharger network benefits from being more vertically integrated than competitors, J.D. Power said.

"This enables Tesla to control and test the compatibility betwe…

Autonomous trucking company TuSimple is considering selling its U.S. business, according to documents filed Tuesday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The decision to explore strategic alternatives for the U.S. business, including a possible sale, "was guided by the company's review of multiple business factors and commercial opportunities," according to a TuSimple press release.

A company spokesperson said Thursday that the board was "regularly evaluating a range of business factors that includes macro environment, access to capital, commercial partnerships and timelines. Those factors led to the board to make the decision to explore a possible sale at this time. We are very early in the process, so we don't have any specific prospects that we are able to discuss at this time."

TuSimple, of San Diego, develops autonomous driving technology for long-haul, heavy-duty trucks. The company operates in the U.S. and Asia.

If the U.S. bu…

Electric-vehicle startup Nio Inc. has partnered with China National Offshore Oil Corp., a state-owned oil producer and distributor, to construct battery swap stations for EV customers in China.

To mark the deal signed on Tuesday, Nio said it commissioned a battery swap station as well as charging piles installed on the site of CNOOC’s gasoline station on the same day in the south China city of Huizhou. 

CNOOC is the third state-owned oil producer Nio has signed up to help expand a network of battery swap stations in China, following China National Petroleum Corp. and China Petroleum and Chemical Corp. 

Nio, established in Shanghai in 2014, has installed 1,500 battery swap stations across China as of June 25.

The EV startup aims to boost the number of its battery swap stations in China to 2,300 by the end of this year. 

Retail sales of new passenger vehicles in China will decrease 5.9 percent in June, ending a rebound that stretched three straight months, the China Automobile Dealers Association said.

The trade group predicts that 1.83 million sedans, crossovers, SUVs and multipurpose vehicles will be delivered industrywide this month.

In contrast to the decline in the overall market, retail sales of electrified vehicles including full electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids will jump 26 percent to roughly 670,000, the CADA said.

From March to May, China’s new-vehicle market staged a strong rebound due to favorable comparisons to the same pandemic-hit period in 2022. 

Toyota saw a ten percent jump in global sales for May from a year earlier. Stellantis puts some U.S. plants in “critical status” ahead of UAW talks. Plus, Mark Wakefield of Alix Partners talks about the firm’s new report, which predicts an inevitable decline on the horizon for cars powered by internal combustion engines.

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Paul Daly is the founder of the auto retail content creation company Automotive State of the Union and, along with partner Kyle Mountsier, co-leads the docuseries "More Than Cars."

First car: 1987 Honda Accord EX. Subs in the trunk of course

First concert you attended: Metal band Petra, circa 1989

Most thrilling/adventurous thing you've done: Started a family

First job: Took over my dad's paper route at 12 years old

Something on your bucket list: Have at least a dozen grandkids

One thing you learned on the job you never forgot: If you aren't smarter than the next person, you can still out-work them

First website you go to in the morning: autonews.com, really!

3 people you'd invite to dinner, living or dead: Jesus, Leonardo DaVinci, Elon Musk (but they would all have to be there at the same time)

What did you want to be when you were a kid? In a band

…

Eighteen-year-old Riley Schlick-Trask, who started her own carburetor repair business at age 13, has been named the grand prize winner of the TechForce Foundation's 2023 Techs Rock Awards. The annual awards are part of the foundation's work force development campaign to inspire and support future technicians.

Schlick-Trask, who is headed to college this fall, owns Riley's Rebuilds in Bradenton, Fla. She was previously named winner of the Barrier Buster category by a panel of judges, which made her eligible for the grand prize. That was determined by a public vote.

Schlick-Trask will receive more than $10,000 in prizes from TechForce and its industry partners. She also gets an all-expenses-paid trip to the automotive training event STX 2024 in Nashville and additional prizes valued at $6,000. At the category level, she and the other four winners each received more than $1,900 in prizes.

"I am very excited, very honored and very grate…