Trade News

A time of crisis can be a time to make changes. They can range from perfecting the basics – such as the service drive walkaround – to investing in technology that will improve performance for years to come.

Speakers:Peter Chung, General Manager and Vice President, Magic ToyotaFred Fordin, Vice President, Dealer Professional Services and Escalations, CDK GlobalScott Gregg, Service Director, Tucson SubaruRick Wegley, Institute Instructor, NCM Associates Inc.Dave Versical, Chief of Editorial Operations, Automotive News

This conversation was originally broadcast on October 22, 2020, as the third of five conversations in the Fixed Ops Journal Forum series. The series runs through November 5. Learn more and register for future broadcasts here.

Mexican supplier Nemak swung to net income of $90 million in the third quarter from a $2 million loss a year ago as cost reductions took hold and automakers reopened plants after temporary closures due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Revenue declined 7 percent to $896 million from the year-ago quarter while earnings before interest, taxes and other adjustments rose 28 percent to $178 million.

"During the third quarter, we continued to implement measures to safeguard the well-being of our people and meet our customers' supply needs amidst the pandemic, while driving additional efficiencies to strengthen the long-term sustainability of our business," CEO Armando Tamez said in a statement.

In a call with analysts and media, Tamez credited Nemak's growth to leaner operations, restructuring efforts and a focus on deleveraging.

In North America, revenue fell 11.5 percent to $491 million, while EBITDA in the region was up 15.4 percent to $105 million. Europ…

Toyota and Lexus production is nearly back to where it was a year ago, top Toyota Motor North America executives said Thursday, adding that they expect a continuing recovery for the industry to yield 14.5 million U.S. sales this year.

That result would still be down from 17.1 million U.S. light-vehicle deliveries in 2019, but significantly above the levels of this past spring during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. Sales cratered to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 8.7 million in April and have climbed every month since, according to Motor Intelligence.

Speaking via teleconference from the company's headquarters in Plano, Texas, Chris Reynolds, Toyota Motor North America's head of manufacturing, said North American production had increased to 93.7 percent of capacity by the end of September. That compares with 95.9 percent at the same point a year earlier.

"Many of our plants have been working overtime and Saturdays to help meet strong custom…

Continental is exploring a sale of its turbocharger unit as the German supplier conducts a major restructuring to stem losses, according to people familiar with the matter.

Europe’s second-largest car-parts supplier is working with Citigroup Inc. on the disposal, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing confidential information. The business is no longer seen as strategically important and lacks the scale required to compete globally, one of the people said.

Talks with potential buyers are ongoing and there’s no certainty they will result in a sale. Representatives for Continental and Citigroup declined to comment.

Turbochargers were for years a popular way for automakers to shrink their engines and make them more efficient. But stricter auto-emissions standards are now forcing companies to embrace electrification, limiting the growth potential for turbos. Garrett Motion Inc., one of the top suppliers of the components along with BorgWarne…

NHTSA said Thursday it was closely watching Tesla Inc's release of a software version intended to allow its cars to drive themselves, saying it stood ready to protect the public against safety risks.

Tesla on Tuesday night released a beta, or test version, of what it calls a "Full Self Driving" software upgrade to an undisclosed number of "expert, careful" drivers. The release prompted online posts by excited recipients who shared video snippets of their car driving supposedly autonomously on city streets at night.

During a Tesla earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Elon Musk said the latest upgrade was planned to be widely released by the end of this year, with the system becoming more robust as it collected more data.

"NHTSA has been briefed on Tesla’s new feature, which represents an expansion of its existing driver assistance system. The agency will monitor the new technology closely and will not hesitate to take action to protect (the) public against unr…

Musk's Boring Co. seeks expansion of Las Vegas tunnel project

Elon Musk is expanding his Sin City ambitions.

The Tesla CEO's Boring Co., which is months away from opening two tunnels that will transport passengers under the massive Las Vegas Convention Center at up to 155 mph, has applied for a special-use permit to spread the tunnel system across Las Vegas.

Boring's $52 million Convention Center Loop is scheduled to be finished in January. The tunnels are expected to speed convention center guests across the 200-acre campus in less than two minutes in modified, autonomous Tesla electric vehicles.

Boring marked the end of excavation in May, breaking through a concrete wall near the center's 1.4 million-square-foot West Hall expansion. This week, a video emerged on Twitter that appears to show the first vehicles entering the tunnel system.

Now Boring is proposing to extend service from the convention center to casinos along the Strip, as w…

Big achievements require big investments, and according to research firm PitchBook, autonomous vehicle (AV) startups spend $1.6M every month on average. 

The lion’s share of that cost goes into testing and the infrastructure needed to support it. A single real-world autonomous prototype vehicle, outfitted with sensors and data recording gear, can cost up to $500,000. The cost of processing and storing all the data generated isn’t too far behind.

In 2017 carmakers and tech companies alike, such as GM, Hyundai, Volkswagen, and Waymo, were predicting self-driving cars would arrive by 2020, and spending big to make it happen. From August of 2014 to June of that year, automakers and tech companies invested $80B in AV technology according to a study by the Brookings Institution.

Only a year later, accidents involving self-driving prototypes seemed to cause developers to lose momentum. At the same time, the technical challenges required for Level 5 autono…

NEW YORK -- CarLotz Inc., a U.S. consignment store for used vehicles, is nearing a deal to go public through a merger with blank-check acquisition company Acamar Partners Acquisition Corp. at a valuation of close to $830 million, including debt, people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.

The deal would make CarLotz the third major U.S. online car seller to go public this year, following in the trails of Vroom Inc. and Shift Technologies Inc., as online vehicle sales boom during the coronavirus pandemic powered by consumers seeking to practice social distancing.

An agreement could be announced as soon as Thursday, the sources said, requesting anonymity because the matter is confidential. CarLotz and Acamar declined to comment.

Richmond, Va.-based CarLotz, which was founded in 2011, operates a consignment platform that splits profits from vehicle sales with the car owners. This business model differs from those of Vroom and Shift, which buy…

Tesla Inc. on Wednesday reported third-quarter net income of $331 million, extending its record streak of profitability to a fifth quarter as it aims to deliver half a million vehicles in 2020.

The electric vehicle maker reported a 39 percent jump in revenue to $8.8 billion. It was aided by $397 million in regulatory credits sold to competitors. Automotive revenue jumped 42 percent to $7.6 billion. Its third-quarter automotive margin — 27.7 percent — topped the 25 percent mark for the third consecutive quarter.

Tesla CFO Zach Kirkhorn reiterated Wednesday on an earnings call that the company expects regulatory credit figures to more than double in 2020 compared with 2019.

"We are increasingly focused on our next phase of growth," Tesla said in a statement. "Our most recent capacity expansion investments are now stabilizing with Model 3 in Shanghai achieving its designed production rate and Model Y in Fremont expected to reach capacity-level production so…

DETROIT -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said its online retailing experience is getting an upgrade with a new name and new capabilities.

The newly named E-Shop will improve consumer capability to purchase Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Fiat and Alfa Romeo vehicles from start to finish at home.

"Customers can buy or lease, trade in, learn about service contracts, see accessories available on a unit, apply for full credit and complete full contracts online," Yalda Ghorashy, head of the dealer digital program at FCA, told Automotive News on Wednesday.

It was launched in April to assist in the shift to remote sales amid the pandemic.

"Six months ago, we pulled forward the national launch of E-Shop to help our dealers who were attempting to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic," Jeff Kommor, FCA's U.S. sales chief, said in a statement. "Little did we know what a powerful tool E-Shop would become."

New features are being added to E-Shop starting Wednesday …

DETROIT/WASHINGTON -- Self-driving car maker Cruise said on Wednesday it and majority shareholder General Motors would seek U.S. regulatory approval in coming months to deploy a limited number of Cruise Origin vehicles without steering wheels or pedals.

At the same time, it will withdraw an exemption petition filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in January 2018 seeking approval to deploy a limited number of autonomous vehicles without pedals or a steering wheel, based on the Chevrolet Bolt platform.

NHTSA did not immediately comment.

Cruise unveiled the Origin, which only has two long seats facing each other that can comfortably fit four passengers, in January. GM plans to begin building the Origin in Detroit in late 2021 or early 2022.

Robert Grant, Cruise's vice president of global government affairs, made the announcement after Cruise received a permit from California's Department of Motor Vehicles last week to be the f…

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau received more complaints about auto loans in the first five months of the pandemic than in any other five-month period since the bureau began tracking the data in its current form starting in April 2017, according to a new report by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and Frontier Group.

More than 2,800 auto loan and lease complaints were submitted between March and July 2020 across auto lenders, according to the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a record for the database. The report also examines the relationship between negative complaints and legal action taken against those lenders in recent years.

"While so many Americans have endured life-changing events in the past few months and have a lot less money, auto loan market abuses that have been growing since the 2008 financial collapse have dramatically worsened," Ed Mierzwinski, senior director for federal consumer programs at the U.S. Public…