Trade News

FRANKFURT -- Volkswagen Group named Porsche veteran Klaus Zellmer as the new head of sales and marketing at the automaker's namesake brand.

Zellmer succeeds Jürgen Stackmann, who is leaving the company, VW said in a statement on Tuesday. Zellmer, 53, moves to the new post from his role as head of Porsche North America.

Kjell Gruner, 53, will take over as CEO of Porsche Cars North America. Gruner is Porsche's chief marketing officer and global vice president of marketing.

Zellmer's appointment is the latest in a number of changes at VW in recent months.

Company veteran Ralf Brandstätter was promoted to VW brand CEO in July from chief operating officer after VW Group CEO Herbert Diess was forced to relinquish control over the core brand's day-to-day operations following a clash with the automaker's supervisory board.

Since March, VW has had a new finance chief, a new purchasing boss, and a new head of production.

Zellmer has been with…

If I were to summarize the retail technology trends of the past six months, I'd use two words: accelerate and pivot.

The coronavirus pandemic has sped up retailers' use of technology to help them sell and service cars, and companies that provide those tools quickly changed course to build products that would help dealerships operate in a sudden and unexpected shutdown.

I wrote this week about another example of that: dealership management system giant CDK Global Inc., which developed a process to remotely install its DMS products and other tools to accommodate retailers once COVID-19-related business restrictions kept the company from sending teams into some dealerships.

Before the virus, CDK employees visited dealerships as they went live with a new DMS to help them work through the conversion. There are benefits to being on-site, John Akalaonu, the company's senior vice president of customer delivery, told me. Among them: observing the dealership's set…

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.

Germain Automotive's Chief Operating Officer John Malishenko says the dealership group -- which has stores in Ohio, Michigan and Florida -- is selling more vehicles with fewer people and has increased employee productivity to levels the company has "never seen before."

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PARIS -- PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on Monday said they revised the terms of their planned merger, adding PSA would hold onto its stake in parts supplier Faurecia and FCA would cut the cash portion of a 5.5 billion euro ($6.5 billion) special dividend.

Once combined, the new company will be called Stellantis.

“With this new decisive milestone, we are moving all together towards our goal in the best possible condition with even greater prospects for Stellantis," PSA CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement. "I would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank the teams who have built reciprocal relations of trust, including during the COVID-19 confinement."

FCA will cut to 2.9 billion euros ($3.44 billion) the cash portion of a special dividend its shareholders are set to receive under the terms of the merger accord, the statement said.

France's PSA, in turn, will scrap the spin-off of its 46 percent stake in Faurecia. The supplier wil…

John Weinberger, co-founder of Chicago auto retailer Continental Motors Group and lifetime auto enthusiast, died of cancer Saturday. He was 88.

Weinberger worked in the automotive retail business with his younger brother, Herman, for 50 years, his family said in a statement. Together, they established Continental Motors in 1962 in Lyons, Ill., when the two were awarded a Triumph Motor Cars vehicle franchise.

The previous year, Continental Motors became an authorized warranty repair facility for the now-defunct Triumph brand. The group specialized early on in selling and servicing import vehicles, representing brands including Jaguar, Toyota, MG and Honda.

Weinberger was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2012, according to his son, Joel. Herman died from a different type of cancer in February 2016 at age 82.

Weinberger's lifelong love of vehicles began in the back seat of a 1932 Chevrolet — where he was born.

He enjoyed racing through the…

Subaru is facing a federal lawsuit over alleged defects that may cause "sudden unintended acceleration" in certain Legacy, Forester and Outback models, according to documents filed this month with the U.S. District Court in Southern California.

The vehicles affected by the alleged defects are the Subaru Legacy midsize car from 2015 to 2019 model years, the Forester compact crossover from 2012 to 2018 and the Outback midsize crossover from 2015 to 2019.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status.

The suit alleges the Controller Area Network — or CAN bus, which allows microcontrollers and devices to communicate with each other's applications without a host computer — contains a software protocol flaw that prevents the electronic throttle control system from operating properly.

It also claims the automaker's brake override system is "faulty and does not work as intended," according to the court document filed Sept. 4.

The two plaintiffs in the la…

DETROIT -- General Motors CEO Mary Barra said on Monday global vehicle demand was recovering from declines caused by the coronavirus pandemic, but added she would not take any short-term actions to boost GM's stock at the expense of its long-term strategy.

"We are encouraged about the recovery we are seeing in most of our markets," Barra said at an RBC conference, citing strong U.S. industry demand in August and a continued rebound in China.

Labor officials last week said that U.S. consumer prices rose solidly in August, with the cost of used vehicles accelerating by the most in 51 years as Americans likely shunned public transportation because of fears of contracting COVID-19.

GM also is not looking for "a short-term pop" as it relates to its corporate structure, Barra added, when asked about a possible spinoff of the automaker's electric vehicle assets.

"As I've said many times, we will always do what's in the best interest of our shareholders o…

Former General Motors North America chief Barry Engle is taking on the role of CEO at a Silicon Valley tech acquisition firm.

Qell Acquisition Corp., a San Francisco-based special purpose acquisition company, was founded this year by investment management firm PIMCO. Qell filed with the U.S. securities regulators on Friday to raise up to $300 million in an initial public offering.

"We intend to focus our search for a suitable initial business combination target in the next-generation mobility, transportation and sustainable industrial technology sectors, but we may pursue an initial business combination target in any stage of its corporate evolution or in any industry, sector or geographic location," the company's prospectus says.

In July, Automotive News reported that GM CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss said in a letter to dealers that Engle, 56, was leaving GM to pursue his goal of becoming a CEO. He joined GM five years ago as president of GM o…

DETROIT — General Motors plans to unveil the GMC Hummer EV on Oct. 20, exactly five months after the high-performance electric pickup originally was scheduled to make its debut.

The brand will begin taking reservations for the truck on the same date, officials said Monday, without divulging how much of a deposit would be required. Production is scheduled to begin in late 2021 at Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly, which is closed for a lengthy conversion into an EV plant.

The pickup won't be available at all of GMC's approximately 1,700 U.S. dealers, however. As of now, "just over half of dealers have elected to sell Hummer EV," Duncan Aldred, GM's vice president of global Buick and GMC, told reporters on a call Monday.

Dealers who want to sell the Hummer and other upcoming EVs that GM is developing have to invest in upgrades to their facility and go through staff training. Some dealers, especially those in rural areas and states where EVs are in low demand, hav…

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.

Dura Automotive's Kimberly Rodriguez discusses her new role as CEO of the body systems supplier as well as efforts to restructure the company after it emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership.

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Can't wait to hear the next episode of "Daily Drive"? Subscribe through a podcast app to receive episodes days in advance. If you don't have a podcast app already, here are some options. 

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“Daily Drive” is available on the Google Play store. Click here to subscribe to "Daily D…

Nikola Corp. issued a lengthier denial of a report last week that claimed the electric truck maker had deceived investors, accusing a short seller of mischaracterizations and distortions.

Hindenburg Research, a short seller whose report sent Nikola shares tumbling last week, made false and misleading statements that were designed to manipulate the market, Nikola said Monday. The Phoenix-based company’s shares pared a decline of as much as 16 percent in pre-market trading.

Nikola said Hindenburg took a comment made by an employee of Robert Bosch, a supplier and investor in the company, out of context and underestimated its capabilities to produce hydrogen for its fuel cell-powered trucks. The Phoenix-based company also said it terminated a former chief financial officer and that his departure was unrelated to the company refunding reservation deposits for its first truck prototype, as Hindenburg suggested.

Shares of Nikola closed Monday's trading up 11.4 …

McLaren North America, in the latest tweak to its retail operations, has rebranded its growing certified pre-owned program.

In an effort to provide more clarity to North American consumers, the British exotic brand said the program will now be called McLaren Certified Pre-Owned and that McLaren Qualified will be retired.

The company launched McLaren Qualified in 2013. New-vehicle sales began in the U.S. in late 2011 with the MP4-12C coupe. McLaren has seen its product lineup expand rapidly but remains a sports car- and supercar-only brand.

Through August, McLaren said it sold 580 certified pre-owned vehicles in North America this year, an 11 percent jump over the same period in 2019. U.S. certified pre-owned sales tallied 530 while 50 sales were from Canada. McLaren has 25 U.S. dealerships and three in Canada.

A vehicle has to pass a multipoint inspection from a McLaren trained technician to become certified. Certified ve…